ICO Pools — what’s the best way for a startup to make contact? (and what to avoid)
You have a startup with a great idea. But you need to fill your private sale and are looking at ICO Pools to do so. So how do you get in touch?
Making contact with ICO Pools
OK, so you know what ICO Pools are, how to find them and what they are looking for. But there’s still something missing — the ICO Pools need to know you exist. There are several different ways you can approach this, each with their pros and cons.
Method 1: Direct Outreach
This is perhaps the most obvious method — just find their contact details and pitch them directly. Most of the telegram based pools have an easily identifiable admin and you can message them directly on the messaging platform. But be careful. These admins are being bombarded with messages just like yours and lots of them are quite trigger happy with the “Report Spam” button. If this happens enough you’ll find yourself locked out of your telegram account. We have found that the best approach is to send a message first to the pool chat group requesting permission to send through a Direct Message. Just something simple like:
Hey — can I send through a DM to the admin?
Normally they’ll reply that it’s OK to do so and you can send through a DM safe in the knowledge that it won’t get marked as Spam.
Pros of direct outreach
- Easy to do
- Low cost
Cons of direct outreach
- Many Pools will just ignore you
- Not the most professional way to make contact — could lower the perceived value of your ICO
Method 2: Get someone else to do the outreach for you
At Block Influence we do provide this service for our retained clients. We have built up relationships with a number of ICO Pool admins and we can reach out to them directly to let them know when we’re working with a new client and pitch the service to them.
But what if you’re not a Block Influence client?
Well, again, you have to be careful here. ICO Pools receive lots of approaches from “the CEO” of the next great revolutionary service. Their defences are up and their filters are set to max. You should very carefully select an external service if you find one that offers to perform ICO Pool outreach. So far we have not come across one that we feel confident in recommending — although we will be trialling once such service and will amend this article with our results. If you offer an ICO Pool outreach service and would like to be featured in this article, please let us know and we can consider listing you.
Pros of paid outreach
- Easy to do
- With the right service, contact is made by experienced pros
Cons of paid outreach
- Agency fees can add up
- Even paid services cannot reach every pool
Method 3: let the Pools come to you
This is the hardest of the three techniques but has the potential to garner the largest amount of potential contacts with ICO Pools. Many pools will see any type of outreach made to them (especially if done incorrectly) as a red flag. They are looking for the ICOs that have limited allocations for pools are are hard to get into. In order to make that happen you have to first cover all your bases in terms of what the pools are looking for and then get your message out there. Build interest, build community enthusiasm, announce your private sale and then wait for the pools to come to you. But don’t let all of them in.
How do you build that hype?
Some element of hype here is essential. We don’t mean empty hype built on grand promises — but a real community getting excited about an actual product (ideally with an MVP to enthuse about). This counts for both the token buying community and the community related to whatever field your startup is in. There are three clear areas to focus on to generate that hype; 1) PR and marketing, 2) social channels and community building and 3) influencer marketing and relations. At Block Influence we specialise in working with influencers to build that buzz in the token buying community — fuelled primarily by interviews, AMAs and influencer evangelism.
Pros of letting the pools come to you
- Potential to reach the largest amount of pools
- You want to build buzz around the project anyway so you might as well get started now
Cons of paid outreach
- Expensive
- Requires you to have community management in place
- Requires you to “launch” your product early
What next?
We suggest you start with Method 1 as it’s cheap, quick and easy. If you already have some budget available but don’t want to go to a full public exposure of your product yet then use Method 2. If you have the budget and you’re ready: Method 3.
Articles in this series:
- ICO Pools — what are they? (and how do they differ)
- How to find ICO Pools (even the hidden ones)
- ICO Pools — what do they look for in a token sale? (and how to pass their tests)
- ICO Pools — what’s the best way for a startup to make contact? (and what to avoid)
Related articles:
- The 10 best crypto portfolio tracker apps (nice in-depth read)
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Block Influence delivers actionable intelligence to startups, agencies, consultancies, traders and investors operating in the blockchain sphere. Our flagship products — LiveLists and KEE — harness proprietary expert and influencer analysis to deliver turbo-charged market decisions, influencer discovery and content strategy. We turn insight into action, generating affluence through intelligence.
