Initial Coin Offering is a new approach to the fundraising for small businesses and startups. Holding an ICO is a win-win situation for both the organizers and contributors. Those who organize can raise more funds without the need to give a part of the company ownership away. Considering the contributors, they have an opportunity to get a return on their investments without any intermediaries and additional charges while investing in any ICO they’d like.
In fact, making your ICO successful is not a piece of cake. To get people’s contributions, you need to convince them that your ICO is worth their attention and trust. Considering the number of ICOs launched every hour and how many of them turn out to be scams, you need to make sure that your marketing campaign is powerful enough. It should not only provide a working scheme for gaining investors but also making those believe you are trustworthy.
You probably know how to select your target group and specify it, and you’ve probably done it already. So we’d like to focus on one particular channel you can use to deliver your campaign’s message — YouTube influencers.
People to Make Your Project a Success: Who Are the Influencers?
First things first. Who are these influencers and how exactly are they going to help you make your ICO successful?
Influencers are people who have thousands of followers on various platforms — they can have a blog, a page on Facebook, Twitter or another social network, a channel on YouTube, etc. It could be signed by their name or a nickname, it doesn’t matter — what matters is that they create content themselves and you can tap into it.
The influencers, as the word itself, suggests influencing their followers’ opinions and decisions. They are trusted and popular. So, they can help you employ the most effective marketing tool that has ever existed — the word of mouth marketing. If an influencer tells his or her followers that something is good, they believe it is — and they become more likely to take actions.
Usually, the influencers cover one or several topics on their blog, pages, or channels — the ones they are passionate about. This means that it’s not a piece of cake to convince them to cooperate with you. Unlike other marketing tools, in this case, just paying the influencers for promotion is rarely enough — they want to be sure they deliver high-quality content. So you need to convince them that your project is not a scam and is worth being promoted.
There are two types of influencer marketing — earned and paid promotion. Earned promotion means that an influencer decided to include your project in the content without any deal or fee, just because he or she liked it. Paid promotion, obviously, means that you have to pay for it (the price usually depends on the audience reach).
Why YouTube influencers in particular? Well, the reason is quite simple — YouTube is visited by 1.9 billion people every month and 30+ million users every week, and the average user watches 40 minutes of content per one session. Besides, video content is the most powerful type of content as it uses both our visual and auditory perception — that’s why our brains love videos, which makes advertising campaigns more efficient.
The Efficiency of Influencers in Numbers
Let’s take a look at some stats to prove that this whole endeavor of employing influencers is worth effort and money:
- you get a return of $11.69 per every dollar you spend on influencer marketing
- 70% of marketing experts say that ongoing ambassadorship is one of the most effective marketing techniques
- 67% of marketing experts find product reviews highly efficient as well
- influencer marketing spending only in the US reached $121 billion in 2015.
Top 20 YouTube Influencers That Will Help Your Project Blow Up
Now let’s dive right into our list of 20 YouTube influencers that you should strike a deal with to promote your ICO. Note: the list is in no particular order.
1. David Pakman Show
Audience reach: 519K subscribers
The David Pakman Show is a talk show that focuses on a variety of topics. Its hoste has covered a number of ICOs over the past 12 months in the form of interviews and review videos, including Jinbi, ASQ, Vertex, etc.
2. Datadash
Audience reach: 315K subscribers
Datadash is a channel with daily updates on cryptocurrencies and overviews of global blockchain-related trends. It also focuses on everything related to data science and analytics.
3. Crypto Investor
Audience reach: 146K subscribers
Crypto Investor is a channel dedicated to cryptocurrencies analysis and tips on how to invest in cryptocurrencies and ICOs. As it is hosted by a thought leader with a vast experience in the financial industry, it has gained the trust of thousands of followers.
4. Ivan on Tech
Audience reach: 189K subscribers
Ivan on Tech is a YouTube personality that posts videos on everything related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Ivan is also a popular speaker and educator who is regularly invited to the conferences and other events.
5. Crypt0
Audience reach: 117K subscribers
Crypt0, a.k.a. Omar Bham, shares his opinion, thoughts, and latest news related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Videos from him keep coming almost every day, and he has a dedicated follower base.
6. Ian Balina
Audience reach: 121K subscribers
Ian Balina is a superstar in the cryptocurrency/blockchain community. He’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The Huffington Post (to name a few) for his expertise in entrepreneurship and cryptocurrencies.
7. Gadget Diary
Audience reach: 237K subscribers
Gadget Diary is a channel dedicated mostly to unboxing videos and devices reviews. However, there also have been videos focused on top ICOs the followers can invest in.
8. Crypto Coin News
Audience reach: 128K subscribers
Crypto Coin News, as its name suggests, provides its followers with daily news on cryptocurrencies and altcoins, as well as ICOs.
9. Mike Vestil
Audience reach: 187K subscribers
Mike Vestil is a YouTube personality who describes himself as an entrepreneur, author, and YouTuber. His channel is a mix of life hacks and tips on digital entrepreneurship, including how to get rich by investing in ICOs.
10. Cryptobud
Audience reach: 77K subscribers
Cryptobud is hosted by Dominic Leung who offers his followers in-depth analysis of the latest crypto world trends, thanks to the vast experience in finances, cryptocurrencies, and equity research and analysis.
11. Decentralized TV
Audience reach: 77K subscribers
Decentralized TV is a multi-channel creation but it is definitely worth mentioning here. It is known for videos featuring not only the latest news but also the technical analysis of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as well as ICOs.
12. Crypto Bobby
Audience reach: 143K subscribers
Crypto Bobby is a YouTube channel that provides insights into Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and other altcoins. The host has a vast expertise in the enterprise tech industry and a passion for cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology.
13. Boxmining
Audience reach: 197K subscribers
Boxmining channel is dedicated to daily cryptocurrency news. Videos created by its host are loved by followers for being entertaining and smart at the same time while the information is given in an easy-to-understand form.
14. Suppoman
Audience reach: 147K subscribers
Suppoman is presenting himself as a superhero of the crypto community. This expert delivers his knowledge and experience in cryptocurrencies, trading, and investing in ICOs in a fun yet in-depth manner.
15. Doug Polk Crypto
Audience reach: 200K subscribers
Doug Polk Crypto is focused on delivering content related to everything with the word crypto in it. The videos mostly cover crypto-related news and entertainment, as well as the YouTube sphere of influence related to the blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
16. Louis Thomas
Audience reach: 96K subscribers
Louis Thomas is a British YouTuber, who focuses on cryptocurrencies-related overviews, top lists, interviews, vlogs, etc.
17. Coin Mastery
Audience reach: 131k subscribers
Coin Mastery is one of those channels that combine daily news on cryptocurrencies (namely, on the markets and prices) and what makes those markets tick. Its host provides comprehensive guidelines on how to become a successful crypto investor as well.
18. Crypto Skach
Audience reach: 97K subscribers
Crypto Skach is a Polish YouTuber that posts videos in multiple languages, including English and Polish. The channel’s videos are usually overviews of various ICOs and altcoins.
19. Crypto Crow
Audience reach: 78K subscribers
Crypto Crow posts videos on the latest trends and news in the crypto world and live interviews with famous thought leaders and experts in the field. Besides, the host also voices his opinion on the trends, cryptocurrencies, and ICOs.
20. CryptoMaster
Audience reach: 67K subscribers
CryptoMaster is all about reviews on the best ICOs and tips on how to invest in ICOs that will result in a great return on investment. This channel’s followers watch the videos to find out about the latest ‘golden’ ICOs.
Historical Mentions
Let’s take a quick look at several YouTube influencers that didn’t just advertise projects that became successful later on — these are the people who made accurate predictions. So they have a top-notch reputation of those who can predict the project’s success. Who knows, maybe your project will be on their list.
John McAfee is well-known for his predictions outside the YouTube realm — he’s been invited to numerous conferences and TV channels, as well as featured in the news outlets. When it comes to coin price predictions, most of them turn out to be true — and this is why people listen closely to his forecasts.
Andreas Antonopoulos is an expert in everything related to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. He’s been on this ship since before it became the mainstream — for instance, he is the author of the first-ever book about Bitcoin.
Roger Ver is a controversial figure in the community, yet he is worth your attention. He made millions by buying Bitcoin when its cost was mere dollars, and now he is the CEO of Bitcoin.com. He is also known to have invested in such projects as BitInstant, Blockchain.info, and Kraken.
Summary
We hope that now it’s become obvious to you — there is no better way to scale your word-of-mouth marketing campaign to reach thousands of people than to build partnership with the influencers. Competent YouTube influencers can make your project more popular and create hype around it. So waste no more time — start cooperating with YouTube influencers today to make sure your ICO succeeds and exceeds your expectations.
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