ICO Launching: Here, find resourceful tips that can help you while preparing for your ICO launch
The emergence of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has spawned new methods of raising funds for projects. One such method that entrepreneurs can use to raise funds for their early phase projects is Initial Coin Offering (ICO). While ICO resembles Initial Public Offering (IPO) in some aspects, the major differences between the two come from the fact that the former offers tokens in the market in exchange for fiat money.
On the other hand, investors in IPO get shares in exchange for their money. As an entrepreneur, there are various perks of using ICO, including reaching out to a wider global market and minimal transaction costs in the network. Before launching your project, it’s critical to do a thorough ICO preparation for excellent results. Preparing for ICO constitutes various aspects as explored here.
Understanding the concept of ICO
ICOs have disrupted the idea of public funding and massive sales. In terms of definition, an ICO happens when a firm offers its tokens for sale in exchange for fiat money or other digital currencies, like Bitcoin or ETH. A company can use the ICO proceeds to fund its project or improve its offerings.
How to launch a successful ICO
Launching an ICO project isn’t a walk in the park, as there are massive preparatory aspects that project owners must consider. Some essential aspects of ICO background work to consider are explored here.
Prepare for maximum traffic at the start of the sale
You need massive participants to meet your fundraising objectives. Therefore, part of your initial groundwork is to attract as many people as possible to your project.
As part of ICO preparation, project owners must ensure that the project has enough hype that creates interest and engagement to the project before its launch. At this stage, the project can garner massive traffic by letting interested members pre-register ahead of the launch.
Keep your investors informed.
Now that participants have signed up to buy tokens from your project, it’s critical to keep them updated on what’s happening in connection with your launch.
Remember, staying in a virtual room without any information can be boring. Therefore, while your visitors wait to purchase the tokens, it’s critical to update them with appropriate information. For example, startups should inform visitors about the waiting duration before the sale, if the purchase has a cap for each buyer and the amount of token in the stock.
Focus on client experience:
Since investors expose themselves to high risks, an ICO project must demonstrate a higher level of credibility to restore buyer’s confidence. As part of ICO groundwork, startups can feature specific types of information on their web pages to motivate the audience. For example, an educative queue website page shown to clients at the wait enables the project to show extra branded information to delight visitors. Virtual waiting rooms can also be spaces where you give visitors critical information, like participating in the purchase.
Mind the security of your platform
ICOs have become attractive platforms for scammers, hackers, and money launderers. In the past, multiple ICOs has been hacked by malicious individuals.
Therefore, before launching your ICO, ensure that the security of your platform is hacker-proof. Remember, most incidents of scamming happen due to poorly developed smart contracts. To ensure that your system is secure, hire an experienced firm like TokenMinds to help you in developing it. Through its experienced IT staff, the company deploys your project in a secure and trustworthy environment.
Capture the objectives of your ICO
Any ICO project should have its goals, concepts, and objectives. At the ICO preparatory phase, it’s essential to precisely explain your objective of launching the project to the audiences. The best document to capture these goals is the project’s white paper and roadmap. Remember, you can attract massive audiences if you can prepare compelling documents. Specifically, the white paper explains the problems your project aims to solve, your goals, and your plans. On the other hand, the roadmap explores the important timeliness of your project, including its development and launching.
Form a strong team
Behind any ICO project is a team of experienced professionals committed to launching a successful crowdfunding program. Your ICO will expand if you create a strong team of knowledgeable professionals with various specializations, including blockchain technology, finance, content creation, etc. It’s critical to capture the resumes of each team members together with their social media accounts. This enables interested individuals to get info about your members and gain confidence in your project.
Prepare a pricing package.
Your ICO objectives will determine your pricing plan. You can use various tactics to prepare a pricing schedule; including:
Underdetermined price: At this point, the price isn’t out, but potential buyers can get some coins for contributing to the ICO.
Fixed Price: At this point, the price is fixed, but participants can only trade the tokens they buy after a freezing duration.
Dutch auction: the initial coins are highly-priced, and prices keep decreasing over time.
Price Rise ICO: participants receive the best rates for your offerings.
Activate social media advertising platforms
These days social media has become an essential marketing strategy for multiple businesses, including ICO. So, an important element of your ICO rehearsal is to ensure that you’ve activated various platforms, such as Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Additionally, you should create accounts in crypto-based accounts, such as Reddit and Bitcointalk.
Craft and publish a relevant FAQ and Support Centre
A comprehensive FAQ helps potential participants to have deep knowledge about your ICO program. You can avail it for everyone by connecting it to your project’s various accounts, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Test your program before launching it
Before you place your project in the ICO space, ensure that you test it. The procedure helps you to determine whether there are any issues that you need to iron out. Some of the areas you should test include social media channels, designs, and emails. And whitepapers.
Run a presale
The presale procedure happens before you launch your project, and it lets participants purchase your offerings. This strategy has become a popular advertising method as it lets participants access bonuses, buy tokens at cheaper rates, and get directly involved in your project. Nowadays, many participants are focusing on the presale process because of its potential benefits. So, it helps if you include it in the initial ICO preparation stages.
Determine the token technology to use
Once you’re through with the groundwork, the next step is to determine the type of technology to power your project. Arguably, Ethereum is the best platform at the moment to launch your ICO on. However, although creating the Ethereum network is pretty simple, launching a crowd sale on it is challenging. So, it’s critical to have IT/blockchain professionals know how to use the code appropriately to achieve specific aims, like creating discounts.
Terms and conditions (T&C)
Terms and conditions are a critical aspect of ICO preparation as they indicate who to buy or not to buy the tokens and the number of coins each participant should purchase. Therefore, it’s critical to hire a lawyer to create for clear T&C.
Tell your story
Since time immemorial, stories are essential in communicating ideas. So, before launching your project, it’s important to create a story, providing details about your project.
Stories can be used to communicate your objectives and goals. Through this story, you can communicate the main values of your ICO and the perks of buying the tokens on offer. The story should also cover key aspects of your project, like how you’re advancing blockchain technology and whether the code you’ve used is of high quality.
Through your story, you can also evaluate other key areas of your project, including the business model you’re using, how you’ll disrupt the main markets, and how you intend to communicate with the community.
Get out
Sensitization is an essential aspect of ICO preparation. Project owners should get out and organize conferences, PR activities, seminars, and dinners. Through these events, you can explain your project to whales and great community leaders.
Final Words. Before launching an ICO project, it’s critical to prepare thoroughly so that you can have fantastic outcomes. Your ICO preparation focuses on various aspects, such as whitepaper preparation, deciding on the technology to use, and preparing a pricing package. There are also many other elements as elaborated here.
