How to Launch an ICO. The Definitive Guide for 2024

An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is one of the most popular methods for launching a cryptocurrency project. With an ICO, a project raises funds from investors by selling a portion of its coins. Investors then have the option to cash out on their investment after the project launches or hold onto their coins until they provide an even more significant return.

Every project wants a successful ICO, which is why it’s essential to spread the word through various channels. For example, a project serious about creating an ICO might enlist the help of an ICO marketing agency to develop a strategy designed to capture the project’s target audience.

This is just one of many steps involved with successfully getting a project off the ground. Let’s take a closer look at what it takes in our guide on how to launch an ICO.

 

Steps of Successful Launching an ICO

Many moving parts are involved with launching a successful ICO, which is why many projects enlist the help of a marketing team. Getting a project to launch is challenging, and the competition is fierce. The good news is that there are no set rules you have to follow, so pretty much anything goes.

Evaluate the real possibility and necessity of launching an ICO

Does your project really need an ICO? That’s the first question you want to ask before you take another step. To enter the market, you will need a project that’s better than what’s already out there. You want to determine if your idea meets these criteria.

That means you need to know your investors and target audience, have a solid understanding of your market, and know exactly what you plan to give in exchange for an investment.

One of the many challenges you’ll face throughout the process of launching an ICO is the coin itself. Since you’re going through an ICO, your project has a coin. However, there are literally thousands of cryptocurrencies available. That means you need to have a coin that’s in high demand if you want your project to succeed.

To drive demand for your coin, you need to ensure that it’s integrated into your project in a meaningful and useful way. Some crypto projects in the market have coins where it doesn’t make any sense to do so. Ask yourself if you really need to use tokenization.

If the answer is no, but you use coins anyway, there’s a good chance you’ll turn off potential investors. They’re not going to put their money into a project that can’t identify what the project needs. To get feedback on your idea, visit preannouncement boards and create a thread about your project.

Decide on the Main Markets and Suitable Legal Jurisdiction

ICOs are among the most heavily regulated and watched aspects of the blockchain world. This is mainly due to early projects throwing out fancy technical jargon, then running away with investor funds. Despite its challenges, most countries recognize ICOs as a legal process.

However, due to heavy regulations by government agencies like the SEC, ICOs are required to divulge any income held overseas and strictly comply with Know-Your-Customer (KYC) regulations. Because of these regulations, some ICOs are now restricting US residents from purchasing its coins.

The reality is that ICOs are now taken very seriously by investors and regulators. That means you need to pay close attention to be able to successfully make your way through the current requirements while continuing to keep an eye on future changes that may occur.

Hiring a lawyer who practices primarily in crypto and understands ICO regulations is a great way to manage this piece of your ICO. It will not be cheap, but it will be much cheaper than the fines levied against your company by the SEC or IRS.

Having a lawyer also signals to investors that you aren’t doing anything improper with their money. The last thing you want is for your project to be labeled shady. Be transparent about what you’re doing with investor money, and always provide clear and concise answers to any questions about the financial aspects of your ICO.

Choosing the right ICO Launch Platform

Now it’s time to find the right platform through which to launch your ICO. You want to consider a few factors before making a final decision. For starters, consider what services the platform offers. How involved will the company be with your ICO launch?

You’ll want to find an ICO platform that will guide you through the entire launch process and be readily available should problems arise. Additionally, you’ll want a team that’s both available and knowledgeable. Has the staff been involved with previous successful ICO launches? Do they have the necessary expertise to ensure your ICO launch goes off without a hitch?

If you’re offering your ICO internationally, accepting multiple payment options for your coins makes sense. Whether you want to accept fiat or crypto, the more you can exchange, the more comprehensive your investor base. Find an ICO launch platform that supports multiple types of currencies, so you don’t have to limit your investors.

Overall, you want an ICO launch platform that makes things easier on you and your team. An ICO launch is a complex process, so look for a company that communicates and makes the complex and challenging tasks much more straightforward.

Create a competitive token

We touched on this briefly in previous sections, but creating a competitive token is critical. However, many projects create an incredible and unique coin, then don’t realize there are more steps to take to get to the finish line. For example, you need to know how you plan to distribute your tokens when the ICO is complete.

Of course, how you distribute your coins will depend on your plan. For example, token sales can have multiple stages. Some have a pre-sale, a private sale, a general sale, and the ICO itself. After you decide how you’re going to sell your tokens, then you can determine how they’ll be distributed.

How much are you going to give to yourself and your team? How many tokens do you plan to sell throughout each state of the ICO process? Will you issue additional tokens in the future? These are all questions you need to ask before you distribute tokens.

Creating a token isn’t too difficult, especially if you decide to use Ethereum ERC-20 or Binance BEP-20 tokens. These platforms make token creation reasonably straightforward. However, before you create and distribute tokens, ask yourself if they’re necessary for the success of your project.

Take care of security

Another aspect you want to be sure to address before you launch an ICO is security. We’ve repeatedly mentioned how investors are becoming better at sniffing out scams or nefarious intentions. That means your project needs to protect not only itself but its users as well. One way you can do this is by listening to your community.

Investors and community members have a vested interest in the success of your ICO. So when they bring security concerns to your attention, it’s wise to listen to them. Plus, showing you’re listening will increase trust and show that you want to expose issues before they become more significant problems.

Technology is constantly advancing, as are ways for hackers to access your project. However, with the right team in place, you should be able to find and eliminate these reasonably quickly. Phishing scams, however, are a whole different ballgame. You need to educate your employees on the dangers of sharing any company information and teach them how to identify scams.

Anyone who participates in an ICO knows they can never be 100% risk-free. To ensure that your ICO is a success, you must take the necessary steps to implement top-tier security practices. Doing so ensures your users are protected, and your ICO is as safe as possible.

Write a detailed ICO White Paper

Most legitimate projects in the crypto space have a white paper. Many people view this paper as the technology behind the project itself, and it should include that information. However, an excellent white paper will have much more than that. It should cover infrastructure, architecture design, development, and much more.

Due to its length and technical nature, you’re not likely to have many people read your white paper. The odds are good that less than a dozen people will read it in its entirety. But those are the people who understand what you’re doing and will point out problems if there are gaps in your project.

On the other hand, if they realize the value of your project, they’ll be the ones to push it forward. They will be proponents and allies to you and your company, sharing your vision with tens of thousands of followers. That’s why having a legitimate, detailed, and thorough white paper is important.

Provide full-service ICO marketing and PR services

You’ve confirmed you need a coin for your project and ensured that you have met all legal requirements for your project. You’ve also ensured security is as good as it can be, and you’ve written your white paper. Now it’s time to start spreading the word about your project and what it has to offer.

This comes in the form of PR and marketing, which isn’t going to come cheap, so be sure to set some money aside. You can look for a reputable ICO marketing and PR team to help you with this step of the process. This step aims to present a view of your project from the perspective of a potential investor.

PR and marketing means finding your target audience and digging deep into their behaviors, expectations, and drives. Armed with this information, you can present your project simply, clearly, and concisely while strategically positioning it within the market. At this time, you can also determine the ways in which your project will be announced.

The intent is to drive interest and hype. With enough marketing and PR, you can do just that, forcing investors to participate in your ICO so they don’t miss out on the “next big thing.” Work closely with your PR and marketing team to release information about your project to the necessary parties.

Launch a Complex Social Media Marketing Campaign

Once you have chosen your PR and marketing team, you can start working together to determine how you want to approach social media. This is a complex task with many moving parts, to it’s important to lay everything out before any actual steps are taken.

There are plenty of ways through which you can communicate with the crypto community. For example, a lot of projects like to make use of Reddit, a platform that has more than 40 subreddits dedicated to Bitcoin alone. The forum has hundreds of subreddits that relate to altcoins, cryptocurrencies, ICOs, and many other blockchain-related topics.

Two other platforms that are starting to get a lot of attention in the crypto community are Telegram and Discord. Both platforms allow users to set up their own channels, which allows you to regularly update your audience. With both Discord and Telegram, you can also set up private groups so you can chat candidly with potential investors.

Of course, you can also spread the word about your ICO campaign on other platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Creating profiles on these sites may not be the most attractive way to reach your audience, but they have a global reach, which means you can promote your campaign internationally.

Build your own ICO community

Building a community for your ICO goes hand-in-hand with creating a social media marketing campaign. It’s good to provide announcements and updates on the most popular social media platforms, but you’ll need to take things a step further and engage with your ICO community.

What doe this look like? To begin with, it means interacting with your community. Spend time hosting AMAs and answering questions. Give your community as much information as you can. Many projects have found diamonds in the rough this way. Enthusiastic users step up and voluntarily answer questions so you can focus on other aspects of your ICO launch.

Of course, these users believe in your project, and what you’re doing, so you may want to compensate accordingly, whatever that looks like for your company.

You can also share your story with your ICO community. Explain to them where you started and why you decided to create your project. What’s the background, and how did it get to where it is. This allows you to build real and meaningful relationships within your community, which will allow your project to grow and thrive.

Another way you can build your ICO community is through stats. Instead of telling your audience about your project, show them. Explain to them where the gaps are in the existing market. Reveal how your business is going to solve this problem and how it plans to expand in the future. Your users want to be involved, and showing them allows them to feel like they’re a deeper part of the project.

Create Attractive Bounty Programs

Bounty programs are another excellent way to spread the word about your ICO launch. Plus, they tie into building your community and creating your social media marketing plan. Bounty programs are rewards for PR-related activities. Basically, you’re paying users for sharing information about your ICO on forums, boards, and other crypto-related channels.

It might also be rewarding users for blogs, document translation, and various other services that promote your ICO launch. However, remember now to go overboard with this type of marketing. Those who have been in the industry for a while will quickly uncover bounty programs. Furthermore, while promoting brands is expected, abusing it will draw the ire of experienced users.

In addition to providing rewards for those who promote your project, you can also create a bounty program for users who find bugs in your project. This is called crowdsourcing and it’s a great way to find problems without paying for a QA department. With bug bounty programs, you can improve your project before you go to market and launch your ICO.

There are also bounty programs you can use after your ICO. You use these bounty programs to tighten up any loose ends that came to light throughout the ICO process.

Provide Post-ICO Strategy for your project

You’ve completed the necessary steps and successfully launched your ICO. Congratulations! However, you’re just getting started. There is a lot more work in front of you. For instance, you now need to distribute the tokens to project investors. But there is much more than that you need to address.

Just because you had a successful launch doesn’t mean you get to sit back and do nothing. Sure, you can take a breather, but then it’s right back to the grind. You need to ensure that your project remains at the forefront of the market. That means continuing to market your coin through blogs, social media, forums, and more.

You will need to continue to build your community and encourage audience participation in your project. Unless your ICO made hundreds of millions of dollars, you’ll need to be frugal with your finances. Getting buy-in from the community will help keep your project pointed in the right direction.

Lastly, promote yourself. You’re the leader of the project, which means there are people in the community who want to hear from you. Schedule time to participate in events and conferences.

Discuss your thoughts on the blockchain world with other thought leaders while establishing partnerships. Doing so will give your company the momentum it needs to continue to be successful for the foreseeable future.