Implementing a Public Relations Strategy to Ensure the Viability of Your Initial Coin Offering (ICO)

When you’re setting out to fund your blockchain venture by pursuing an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), there are several key considerations that must be addressed to ensure the viability and compliance of your proposed offering. Even if your innovative solution has undisputed value, you’ll need to ensure that your firm is operating in a transparent and compliant manner that will inspire the trust of investors, and keep regulatory and governmental agencies from scrutinizing your ICO investment and block chain marketing operations.

This article will guide you through several critical considerations in developing and promoting your blockchain solutions and ICO. This market, and business model, are highly dynamic, profitable, and wrought with public relations and transparency challenges.

Unique Value Proposition of Your Blockchain Solution

The first step in a workable public relations strategy for your ICO is the determination and clear expression of what business or consumer problem your block chain solution provides.

What is the distinguishing and differentiating value of the service or software your firm will provide? The best way to approach this is by carefully identifying a target market, or group of prospects that will benefit from the service, and refining your offering through diligent research and development to further suit the target market’s needs and appeal to its motivational factors.

The failure to address, and articulately express, how an ICO’s solution uniquely solves problems, and meets overwhelming needs, is what leads to the collapse of fledging block chain ventures. Is your solution unique? Is there a sufficiently large market to support the venture?

To capture the interest of investors, outline clear mission and vision statements that identify how you’ll serve the target market, meet their needs, and provide a vision for the future of the firm. A great deal of innovation and competition is occurring in the blockchain marketplace; take the time to survey the market to see how established firms are solving existing needs and to identify opportunities to differentiate your venture. You may have a brilliant concept, but if it is substantially similar to existing blockchain solutions, you’ll need to demonstrate to investors how it will provide value that is unique, timely, and profitable.

A Trustworthy Team and Proposal

An essential aspect of your successful blockchain venture and ICO is a team of qualified, experienced, and ethical professionals that have the technical, operational, and administrative capacity to ensure viability and credibility with investors. Regardless of the appeal and potential of your concept, venture capitalist will not take the risk on a team that is unproven and lacks the necessary skills and experience to execute the plan. If you have a great idea, but need more support to persuade investors and supplement skill sets, hire expert consultants and advisors to bridge the gap.

Where your team does possess the requisite skills, your proposals and white papers must effectively present your team and its potential in a way that inspires confidence, demonstrates transparency, and stimulates excitement; these factors are crucial to gain the interest of the press and the potential marketing, credibility, and social capital that broad geographic media exposure will provide.

Legal and Regulatory Compliance for Blockchain ICOs

Many ICOs attempt to move forward with fundraising without seeking appropriate legal and regulatory advisement. If your solution involves tokens that represent an underlying asset that could be considered a regulated commodity, take the proper measures to obtain licensing and registration to avoid criminal and civil penalties. Another activity that must be regulated is the use of blockchain technologies to transfer funds; this activity, as well as other specific financial functions are regulated by FinCen as part of the Bank Secrecy Act.

Retain legal counsel from the outset of your venture and through each phase of your implementation. Attorneys and accountants can also be considered part of your executive team and can provide guidance in the formation of a legal entity that will help protect management from some degree of legal risk, and provide transparency and tax advisement. Legal and finance professionals have tremendous insight and can also advise on compliant marketing practices the will minimize attention from the SEC and FinCen.

Getting the Message to the Public

If you’ve properly vetted your plan by conducting the requisite market research and team building, you’ll need a PR strategy that can deliver your message and unique value proposition to the most likely group of investors and prospective clients for your blockchain product or service. Marketing professionals can help you in the formulation of a public relations marketing strategy that will support credibility and deliver your message in a format that caters to the needs and expectations of investors and clients.

Excellent services and offerings that are poorly marketed will gain little traction and be exceeded by firms that are PR marketing savvy, despite offering inferior solutions. The success of your initial coin offering will be highly dependent on your firm’s ability to develop a message that resonates with the target market. The capacity to do this relies on a keen understanding of the motives of prospects and what marketing channels will yield the greatest response.

When you combine the power of a uniquely differentiated offering, and an expertly executed PR strategy, your venture will have the greatest probability of success in raising the funding needed to push your blockchain innovation to the marketplace.