The future success of most blockchain projects rests in the hands of one important event – the initial coin offering.
Launching the perfect ICO allows startups to raise money and increase awareness surrounding their projects, whereas a lackluster launch has the power to completely zap any momentum their startup had already built up. For this reason, developing a rock-solid ICO marketing strategy is one of the most important steps a startup can take towards ensuring their future success, and one way to do that is through bounty programs.
Bounty contests are quickly becoming one of the most popular ways for blockchain startups to generate buzz and build a network of loyal followers. But there’s more to running a bounty campaign than giving out tokens to supporters. Here are six important elements to consider when setting up a bounty contest of your own.
1. Have Your Token Metrics Planned Out
First and foremost, you want to be clear and upfront about your token metrics before announcing your bounty contests or launching the ICO. Many investors look at these metrics to help them decide on whether they’ll support a project or not, which is why a lot of companies publish token metrics in their whitepapers for all to read. Whether you decide to include token metrics in your whitepaper or not, one thing’s for certain: you must be upfront about things like the number of tokens issued and the amount of tokens set aside for the bounty program, as these are important factors that people look for when investing in a project.
It’s not uncommon for blockchain projects to change their token metrics throughout the course of their journey. If you decide to change your metrics for whatever reason, it’s important to always take your early investors into account when making these changes. You want to remain fair to the people who supported your product since the very beginning.
2. The Bounty Program Has to Be Worthwhile
Word-of-mouth recommendations are one of the most effective ways to spread awareness and grow your following. More importantly, they’re also one of the main reasons why bounty programs are so successful at increasing support. But in order for your bounty campaign to work effectively, you first need to make it worth the while for your supporters. Do this by setting aside a generous amount of tokens in your bounty pool, which will be used as financial incentives for supporters to onboard new investors.
3. Turn Your Participants into Brand Ambassadors
With all good marketing campaigns, the most effective way to implement your bounty contest is by encouraging your supporters to generate hype around your project. Word-of-mouth recommendations are one of the most successful ways to grow a company.
With a worthwhile bounty campaign, you can easily turn your supporters into some of your biggest advocates by assessing the different aspects of your marketing campaign and asking yourself, “How can our supporters enhance our marketing campaign?” Find different ways integrate your users into the marketing process, through actions like sharing or retweeting content, commenting on videos and Facebook posts, or forwarding emails to their friends and family.
As long as you’ve got a valuable pool of tokens to make your bounty contest financially attractive, you’ll find most supporters to be more than eager to help you grow your platform.
4. Keep the Lines of Communication Open
Transparency and an open-door policy are two important components of any incentivization campaign, but they’re especially necessary for bounty contests in blockchain projects. From day one, supporters should be clued in on the amount of money allocated to the bounty reserve pool, as well as how much they’ll be awarded for bringing on new users. The best way to do this is by having an open channel of communication where you’re in constant contact with members of your bounty campaigns. This can be over a group on Facebook, or through messenger platforms like Discord, WhatsApp, or Telegram.
Effective communication is key to turning your supporters into an army of bounty contestants. Platforms like SuchApp and OPEN Platform, which had a combined following of nearly 200,000 bounty participants, both benefitted from strong bounty contests by staying in constant communication with their supporters.
5. Filter out the Cheaters
Unfortunately, there’s always going to some people who try to abuse the system through by onboarding fake accounts. Not only is this practice dishonest, it takes rewards away from the loyal users who’re actually helping to grow your support base. For your bounty campaign to work, you need to make sure there are safeguards in place to detect and ban cheaters so that the only those who deserve to get tokens are rewarded.
6. Prioritize Your Top Performers
Another way to ensure your bounty campaign runs successfully is to give special rewards to your top performers. Giving special rewards to the supporters who’re the most active or effective at growing your following benefits your marketing campaign twofold. Along with encouraging your star supporters to continue working hard, it also motivates other users to devote more time and energy to onboarding new members so they too can receive bonus rewards.
Optimizing Your Blockchain Marketing Campaign
Running a strong bounty contests is one of the most effective ways to promote your blockchain platform, helping you attract some much needed investor support on the days leading up to your ICO. More than just a marketing tactic, bounty campaigns have now become an essential tool for ensuring the growth and success of emerging blockchain projects. To learn more about rolling out an ironclad bounty contest, or how to successfully promote your startup, visit the ICO Success website today.
