10 Highly Effective Ways to Promote a Security Token Project

Sadly, there’s no guarantee that your Security Token Offering (STO) will be successful. However, there are multiple things you can do to enhance your STO’s chances, and that’s what we’re here to discuss. At SmartBlocks, our bet is Security Tokens will be the next big evolutionary step in the cryptocurrency space. Their aim is to be fully compliant with the law, thus eliminating regulatory risks and providing investor guarantees in one fell swoop.

Needless-to-say, Security Tokens present an interesting challenge when it comes to marketing and advertising. Your targets fall into two distinct buckets:  highly technical cryptocurrency enthusiasts and high-net-worth individuals and institutions who have a deep financial background. 

Two very different groups. The former are against traditional advertising, with a severe case of banner blindness. The latter group lives in an ivory tower and are difficult to reach via traditional media or the Internet.

Also, take into account that your Security Token project needs a community of people who believe in the project and want it to succeed. Traditional advertising tend to attract those pesky traders and people looking to make a quick dollar on the next big token.

How do you show your crypto audience that your Security Token solves a real-world problem and/or is backed by an asset that’s actually valuable? How do you convince institutional investors that your blockchain-based asset is easily tradable and the marketplace works as advertised 24/7? And how do you even get your Security Token project in front of all of them?

Our mission is to help you reduce the cost of acquiring investors for your STO, be it institutions or retail investors. To accomplish it, we’ve put together a ten-item checklist that also serves as a list of highly effective ways to promote your Security Token Offering. 

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

‍

Laying the Foundation for Your Security Token Offering 

The fastest and worst way to raise awareness is to blindly throw marketing dollars at your Security Token Offering. Think marketing 101, and recognize that STOs are not exempt from its foundational principles.  

Focus first on your target audience - what motivates them to make a purchase decision, whom they engage most when making those decisions, and where they do so.  Remember that cryptocurrency enthusiasts are early adopters by definition. Traditional investors, on the other hand, tend to be conservative and extremely cautious. Your goal is to reach potential investors, sure, but also to create a free-flowing community of people who believe in the project backing your Security Token Offering.

Our experience shows your best shot is developing a multi-phase marketing approach in partnership with the people who influence your prospective buyers’ decision making. And build a funnel designed to move buyers along each stage of the buyer’s journey – from awareness to consideration, and from consideration to decision-making.  

With the buyers’ journey firmly in mind, set your goals and stick with them. That makes measuring ROI easier and clearer as you execute on marketing campaigns. We’ll provide campaign examples, including some of the promotions Smartblocks is creating with trusted crypto influencers, in a future article.  For now, let’s consider where marketing fits into your overall go-to-market strategy. 

‍

10 Items That Definitely Belong on Your STO Go-to-Market Checklist

1. Sort the legal aspect first - The aim of Security Tokens is to be fully compliant from the get-go. Research your jurisdiction of choice and work with a qualified legal team to get accredited. And once you are, don’t forget to paste your legal status all over your marketing items. And have any back-up documentation at hand, so you can show them to your most diligent investors without delay.

2. PR - It’s all about credibility, and Public Relations is a tried and tested way to achieve it. Consider hiring a PR firm like Otter PR to get your perspective included by journalists in highly coveted crypto, fintech, investing and business media outlets. Remember that Security Tokens are at the bleeding edge of technology and finance, and that alone is worth the coverage. When you’re in front of a journalist,  hammer that point home and let them know how your commercially viable STO is breaking new ground.

3. Feed your community - In crypto land, community is paramount. Since they’re invested in the project, they’re the most likely group to spread your message far and wide. Where word-of-mouth is king, they will be your first and most fierce promoters. Never forget that. Additionally, since cultivating a community requires hard work, its very existence serves as social proof of your success. Knowledgeable investors tend to view a vibrant community as a clear sign of a healthy project. Open a Discord or a Telegram group (or both!) to keep in touch with them, and use community-driven sites like Reddit and Quora to establish your brand as an authority in your field of choice.

4. Shake hands and Network- There are no two ways about it: trust is hard to earn. You have to network and participate in the crypto universe. From real-life conferences and events to social media gatherings with all of the credible social media influencers you can fit into your schedule. Go out, shake hands, and network with investors. The effort will pay out in the end.

5. Work with experienced Consultants - Some people out there have the know-how and the contacts to make your STO project shine like we do at Smartblocks. They’ve been on the market, they might have even been in your shoes, and what they can offer you can’t get anywhere else. They can connect you to the right people and bring their personal trustworthy brand to the whole enterprise. Advisors might be expensive, so make sponsored participation in your STO part of the package.

6. Influencers and listings - We’re still talking about trust here. To help you build it, connect with people like CABANA, BMS and Nicholas Merten who make a living out of it. Say what you will about social media influencers, but bottom line - their community trusts them. Link up with the correct ones and you’re off to the races. PR is to traditional media as influencer marketing is to new media. Also, when the time is right, get your Security Token listed in specialized sites. The main ones are Coinmarketcap and Coingecko. Alternative ones are Coin Stats, LiveCoinWatch, CryptoCompare, and Tokenmarket.

7. Top shelf promotional material - Don’t cut corners with your promotional material. Chances are that your future investors will look at your Security Token’s whitepaper first. Dedicate time and effort to polishing it, and include details about your business plan and project tokenomics. Also, prepare a thorough FAQ. Your team will get the same questions over and over again. If you answer them clearly in a published document, it will probably save everyone from headaches.

That leads us to the project’s website. Consider it your business card and the face of the project. It will host your whitepaper and FAQ, the heart of your communications, but it’s much more. Everything matters, and your home page should convey unequivocally how your Security Token Offering is trustworthy and revolutionary. 

‍

8. Find a Broker Dealer to help raise funds for the project. The Smartblocks team knows of several broker dealers that specialize in Security Tokens, including AmerX, a member of the NYSE a and FINRA-registered broker-dealer which provides investment and execution services in over 50 countries; Black Mantra Capital Partners, which helps clients address technical, financial, and legal aspects of tokenization; and Entoro Capital, which specializes in capital raising solutions for businesses interested in reaching family offices for funding.

9. Produce content - There’s an old adage in traditional media: publish or perish. It sounds obvious, but you have to communicate if you want to be considered a leader of the industry. Invest time in thought leader content, high-quality video, and/or host webinars and engage with your audience. And of course, don’t underestimate the impact of a killer newsletter. Take into account that e-mail marketing doesn’t only sell, it’s a way to be constantly in contact with STO holders. It helps build community, and we already established how important that is.

10. Attend investor events that for alternative assets.  Smartblocks can recommend specific venues based on your STO’s asset class as well as help you prepare the right pitch deck.

‍

How to reach High-Net-Worth individuals

Believe it or not, the ultra rich surf the Internet just like us. They might go to different, exclusive sites from time to time, but they’re present in the open Internet. How could they not? It’s a low-effort, low-risk way to know what’s going on. Plus, they don’t see themselves as different from the everyday man. Still, there are ways to attract them, and Forbes here offers the first tip, “As a marketer, you want to reach HNWIs where they are and give them value for the time they spend engaging with your brand.”

Here are some others:

• Target brokerage firms, private investor offices, and family offices. You can also try direct outreach.
• Make your brand known in investor forums. Consider paying for ads there.
• Accomplish the impossible and present your brand in exclusive events, such as The Family Office Super Summit or regional events such as The Chicago Family Office & High Net Worth Conference or that only the ultra rich have access to.
• Consider partnering with the publications that the High-Net-Worth individuals read for special promotions and even straight up ads.
• Use geo-targeting to place ads in front of people in tax havens or cities and countries that the ultra rich frequent.
• Try to get referrals from your High-Net-Worth clients. If you accomplish this, it can go a long way.
  
  

Also, remember that if they’re considering investing in crypto projects, that probably means they’re crypto people too. 

‍

Other tricks of the trade

The obvious hole in this article is cryptocurrency exchanges. For all of the other crypto projects, getting listed on the major ones is paramount. For Security Tokens, however, the game is a little different. These kinds of projects don’t require everyone and their mothers to be aware of the STO in question. Security Tokens play a more specific game with qualified investors in which big exchanges are not as important.

If you have the ability or the contacts to get a listing, though, don’t hesitate. That’s an advertisable major accomplishment right there. That leads us to publishing, publicizing, and spreading every major accomplishment. Your team is working hard and deserves praise, but every piece of news is also spreading awareness about the project.

‍
On that note, a stealthy technique to spread the word about your Security Token project are bug bounties. Offer white hat hackers a sizable sum of money to find errors and bugs in your code, and the news will travel far and wide. There’s also a chance that they will find one and save everyone money and headaches. It’s a win-win situation however you look at it. 

Last but not least, bear in mind that STOs might be too cutting-edge for most marketing agencies to have cultivated a specialty. Fortunately,  ICOs were once incredibly popular, and several agencies acquired a lot of experience marketing them. Since the process is similar, there’s no shame in hiring an ICO-specific marketing agency to handle your needs. They might just be exactly what you’re looking for.