Know how to raise a successful STO

Once a simple and promising fundraising mechanism, Initial coin offerings have lately turned into a controversial tool which most of the people are trying to get away from. Controlled by no regulations, as well as with little security of the raised funds, the crypto enthusiasts and investors have been looking for an alternative fundraising model.

Security Token Offerings

Brought to light in the year 2016, STOs have gained the attention of the investors globally, given the regulatory framework they fall and operate into.

In simplest terms, a security token is a blockchained representation of an asset class governed by security rules, for example, a share in a company.

Due to their regulatory nature, a marketing campaign of an STO differs widely from that of an ICO. Keeping this in mind, we have prepared a guide which will help you market your STO right.

The difference between STO and ICO marketing

As far as an ICO marketing is concerned, the primary goal of a business owner is to convince a large pool of retail investors to invest. This can be achieved by running community-driven campaigns and activities like bounty, social media management etc.

However, when it comes to STOs, there are generally accredited investors involved, and the regulations surrounding security tokens generally prohibits retail investors from participating.

Therefore, while you can get retail investors to participate in your campaign, showing them attractive websites and whitepapers, accredited investors do their careful due diligence and just wouldn’t get on board because you have a fancy website.

Marketing Your STO Right

In order to impress and convince an accredited investor, you need to mold your strategies according to their needs. The same can be achieved by carefully designing and working on the following factors:

1. An impressive website

While an investor participating in your STO campaign wouldn’t be concerned with the appearance of your website, however, it still is the first point of interaction he will have with your project.

Try developing a sophisticated website, one which is free of useless elements like a fancy countdown timer or a spinning logo and instead has essential information with regards to your project.

Elements like a press section, reviews & rating of your project, testimonials, the whitepaper should be easily accessible and visible on your website. These help boost investor confidence and offer you a greater chance of securing funds.

2. Use Compliance as a Marketing Tool

Institutional investors, unlike retail investors, aren’t going to invest in your project, if they are not 100% sure that your project meets and follows all the compliances and regulations.

Therefore, while marketing your campaign, make sure all the legal documentation and authorization are handy and easily available to the investors. While a majority of this can be drafted and made available through a separate tab on your website, we recommend having things like disclaimers, legal terms etc. on your homepage for the investors to read and understand.

3. Define and Write Down Your PR Goals

We have seen numerous startups shelling out thousands of dollars on their PR campaign with little to no sense of what is it they wish to achieve. A PR campaign with no end goal is a futile exercise and a waste of money.

Before you began your PR campaign try to pin down a few goals which you wish to achieve towards the end. Be it attracting new investors or getting new users on board, you have to start with an aim in mind.

While it generally is good to hire a PR agency to handle this work given their expertise and connections, you will need to give them a solid starting point, to begin with.

4. Design an Effective Content Strategy

Content, as we say, is the voice of your brand. You ought to start and maintain a blog that you regularly update. Content pieces which go out on a regular basis tend to capture user attention while at the same time educating them about the benefits of your project and the milestones you have achieved.

With regular content, we don’t mean you to overwhelm your audience with 10 blog posts each week. Instead, three to five posts a month are sufficient to keep your audiences hinged to the project.

Companies often start not paying attention to their blogs as they don’t find any substantial traffic coming towards them. However, you need to understand that blogs grow slowly and the attention and traffic you seek will be achieved if you keep on producing high-quality content.

Try publishing your posts on third-party websites like the medium. Focus on generating video content and publishing it on youtube with the link to the same on your website, as they have been seen to deliver great conversions.

Lastly, familiarise yourself with SEO given the Blockchain and STO sector is still in its nascent stage and you can easily achieve great rankings on major search engines by targeting a few powerful keywords.

5. Set Up Social Media Channels

Proven to be of great help for the ICO campaign owners, social media channels do not have a direct impact on your fundings given most of the institutional investors would prefer talking to you via phone or mail.

However, maintaining a social media presence comes out as an obligation to most online businesses, given this defines their presence and acts as a portal to where queries can be posted and resolved.

While conducting an STO campaign, make sure you have set up accounts on channels like Telegram, Reddit, LinkedIn and Twitter, as these are platforms where most of the institutional investors are active.

A large community backing up the project tends to help create a brand reputation. While these people may not invest, a unified brand voice may amplify your marketing efforts multiple time.

6. Send Regular Newsletters

One of the key mistakes which most marketers make is preparing a plan for capturing new leads, but not having retaining tactics in place. This often leads to an average to low conversion rates.

E-mail marketing has grown to become one of the most successful methods of marketing and if done right can increase your chances of conversion by up to 100 percent. Most of the institutional investors you seek aren’t going to be available on social channels waiting for updates or progress.

A clever way hence is to have a biweekly newsletter being delivered straight to their inbox. You can approach the newsletter tactic from 3 different angles and hence can have letters which focus on :

Updates: These are generally focussed towards letting your target audience understand and know about the progress you are making and your plans for future.

Education: Through these, you can let your target audience know more about the industry you are targetting and the potential it holds.

Thought Leadership: This for once is focussed on letting your target audience know your potential and how you are using your knowledge to shape the future for better.

7. Get Hold of Industry Veterans

There are a number of regulations and legal hurdles surrounding the STO space, hence it is always wise to have industry veterans to guide you in deep waters. While finding an advisor for your STO campaign, keep in mind the following three things:

First, the industry influencers. People who know and are operating in the STO space. You can find such people in conferences of meetups and can ask them to be a part of your project given your interests align.

Second is to use LinkedIn as a tool for finding new connections and possible acquaintances, who can help you steer clear of legal hurdles and problems.

Last but not least, is to look in your personal circle and see if there are any experts you know or have done business with.

8. Be part of conferences

With technology making it extremely easier for us to connect with people across globe, the power of personal interaction is more than ever. There are a few places and spots where Blockchain supporters and enthusiast can meet and Blockchain conference generally tops that list.

Here you may secure a speaking spot and can meet other people who have come to attend the event and in a short description (usually 2–3 lines) can explain what you have achieved and are planning to achieve in future.

9. Podcasts Go a Long Way

The last but not the least thing to include in your marketing plan is a podcast ( or any other kind of explainer video) which according to WordStream is one of the major online activities people indulge in. VC’s generally don’t have the time to go through complete articles or blogs and hence prefer podcasts to understand the projects under a minute.

Similarly, the generation nowadays prefers youtube videos over written content and blogs, which further shows demand for video content.

Have 2–3 podcasts, where you share your vision, explain the product, the advantages, the disadvantages etc and upload it on youtube aside form embedding the same on your website.

How can TokenAsia Help?

TokenAsia is a Blockchain development, consultant and marketing firm based out of Singapore. We have worked with a number of clients to serve them with sustainable solutions and deliver success projects.

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Originally published at blog.tokenasia.com on January 30, 2019.