A Complete Guide to STO Marketing Strategies

Due to the potential of blockchain to transform the world, the crypto assets can bring enhancement in the financial services. No doubt that people nowadays are aware of utility tokens, but STO is a new concept in the market.

The abbreviation, “STO” stands for Security Token Offering which allows regulated means to launch a crypto token.

The security tokens are backed by real-world assets and comply with the SEC regulations. Securities tokenization can enhance the liquidity of underlying assets to engage more investors.

It is essential to market your security token if you expect more future returns and profits on the shares by reaching investors countrywide or worldwide.

But there are some prerequisites which need to be followed before you begin with the marketing of STO.

Let us discuss the term “General Solicitation” with you before proceeding with STO Marketing Strategies.

General Solicitation

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, General Solicitation allows issuers to solicit and advertise an offering broadly on the basis of the following conditions:

• All purchasers in the offering are accredited investors.
• Token sellers should take all the acceptable steps to confirm the status of accredited investors.
• Every condition provided in Regulation D should be satisfied.

Regulation D

Under Rule 506(b) of Regulation D, a company can be assured that follows Section 4(a)(2) exemption by satisfying the following requirements:

• The company should not use general advertising or solicitation to promote the securities.
• The company can sell the securities to an unlimited number of accredited and verified investors and upto 35 other buyers.
• Companies should decide thoroughly what information should be provided to accredited investors to ensure that it is free from misleading and false statements.

A company can only solicit and advertise the security token offering and still remains compliant with the exemption’s requirements, if:

• Investors should be all accredited investors.
• The company takes all possible steps to confirm that the investors are verified which can include reviewing documents, like tax returns, credit reports, W-2s and bank and brokerage statements.

So, it is essential to understand STO marketing basics and strategies which can help you to reach accredited investors in the market.

We have classified the STO Marketing into four stages and defined steps to be performed in every phase.

In the Initial Stage of STO Marketing, we have covered the following ground:

• Whitepaper
• One Pager
• HTTPS
• Simplifying your idea
• Blog Writing and Search Engine Optimization
• Guest Blogging

Following actions can be performed during Pre-STO stage:

• PR and Media OutReach
• Getting high DA backlinks
• STO Listing Websites
• Social Media Marketing
• Create profiles on the professional websites
• Running Video Campaigns

While STOs will be in running stage, we can perform the following STO Marketing Activities:

• Deal Marketing
• Build credibility via networking
• Airdrop
• Commenting on Related Forums

There are few marketing activities which can be performed after the completion of STO as well. Here are the STO marketing strategies that can be looked after the completion of STO:

• List STOs on Exchange
• Keep community updated
• Performance Marketing

Here’s a step-by-step guide to STO Marketing strategies for every stage of Security Token Launch

Initial Stage

1. Whitepaper

A whitepaper is the most crucial marketing prerequisite for both STOs and ICOs. It is a proposal for investors that details everything about your project.

Make sure your whitepaper contains the information about the legal regulations and compliances so that the investors could make the right decisions and invest accordingly.

The whitepaper should include technological, financial and commercial details of a security token in a professional language. Consider hiring an experienced writer who understands all aspects of an STO whitepaper.

2. One Pager

One Pager is a simple document that offers a high-level overview of a service, product or business.

One page document helps startups and enterprises advertise their offerings to accredited investors.

While creating a one-pager, ensure that it should give an overall idea of the product in the headline. Also, it should contain a few great reasons why should an investor invest in the project.

3. HTTPS

Before launching a security token, ensure that the website should be HTTPS which indicates that the website is secure. It is crucial in terms of SEO as search engines prefer to rank websites with HTTPS.

Gain the confidence of your potential investors by enabling HTTPs on the website.

4. Simplifying your idea

While finalizing the idea behind your project, make sure you have discussed it with your technical and non-technical friends.

Now, find out if they have understood the idea. If no, then work on it and make it more practical.

People visiting your website or reading the whitepaper would like to understand the concepts behind the project in a matter of seconds.

Make the STO project easier and understandable so that more accredited investors show interest in it.

5. Blog Writing and Search Engine Optimization

Having a blog can help you gain organic traffic to your website, enhance the branding and offer value to your project. Start writing blogs on Medium or some other freely available publications. Try to publish a new article once or twice a week and write content which speaks how your idea can bring transformation to the world.

When you are doing STO Marketing, it is not about the quantity of the content. The focus should be on the quality of the writing. Ensure to brainstorm with your team to figure out how can you deliver the message in a better way.

There is a need to make sure that your website is search engine optimized.

SEO is a technique to improve the quality and quantity to the website through organic search engine results. With professional SEO research, you can increase the chances of ranking on the top of search engine result pages.

6. Guest Blogging

Guest Blogging is the marketing technique of contributing an article/post to another person’s blog or website to build exposure, authority, relationships and links.

SEO guest blogging gives you an opportunity to secure a link from another website. It helps you to establish a relationship with the blogger publishing your post and authority among the audience.

All you need to do is to write a blog as per the requirements of a specific blogger and you can earn a backlink in return.

The guest blogging is a win-win solution for website owners and bloggers as it gives bloggers an opportunity to publish high-quality posts on their blogs which can bring more number of readers.

Pre STO

1. PR and Media OutReach

Press Release and Media Outreach will help your STO project reach to the different corners of the world. Since it is a security token offering, you will have to research thoroughly for the PR websites that allow the publishing of STO press releases.

You can write the Press Release and other contents in the following way:

• Write an article and pay for the Press Release Website to publish it.
• Pay the website to write and publish the article.
• Publish articles on free websites.
• Pay to the crypto news platform to feature the article.

Publishing the qualitative and thoughtful content can help you raise more and more funds.

2. Getting high DA backlinks

Developed by Moz, Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score that tells how well a website can rank on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

The higher the DA is, the higher your website is likely to rank for any search query.

Getting high DA backlinks to the website would help to enhance the visibility of your brand and get increased conversion rates.

3. STO Listing Websites

STO Listing websites can help investors to find out about your project in a convenient way. While looking out for the right STO listing website, check the domain authority of the website and never forget to get recommendations from your friends and colleagues.

While posting the details about your STO project on the STO Listing Websites, make sure you have added the following information:

• Link to the whitepaper.
• Regulations applied to the Security Token.
• KYC/AML services.
• Link to the website.
• STO Launch and Sales Date.
• Roadmap.
• Brief information about the idea of the project.

Here are some of the top STO listing websites where you can list your STOs

• ListICO
• CoinIntelligence
• InitialCoinList

4. Social Media Marketing

There are specific social media marketing platforms that may allow you to promote your STO to the investors across different corners of the world.

Here are some of the social media platforms with the pros and cons of promoting an STO

1. Twitter
   Twitter is one of the best and professional social media platforms where you can keep your community updated with the latest crypto news and interact with crypto influencers and brands.
   Pros
   • An excellent platform for announcements in the crypto community.
   • Leverage Twitter by interacting with companies in your niche and retweeting their tweets.

   Cons
   Twitter bans advertisements related to cryptocurrencies and ICOs.

2. Reddit
   Reddit is one of the best platforms for STO marketing efforts. Many people are not aware of Reddit, but creating a subreddit for your company/startup can allow you to stay updated with the community and receive feedback from the followers.It is just like your Facebook page where you can post content about your project anytime.
   Pros
   • Can help you drive a massive amount of traffic.
   • Improve the branding and credibility of a project.
   • Once the post gets famous, it gets exposed to dozens of other websites.

   Cons
   Lousy content will not help you get exposure on Reddit. The upvote and downvote system do not let low-quality content get to the front page.

3. Telegram
   Telegram is one of the widely used crypto community platforms where every STO project has an active group with at least one admin. The channel allows all the members of the community to interact with each other.
   Pros
   • Building a community around STO.
   • You can reward users if they help you in spreading the information about your STO project.

   Cons
   Telegram channel for STOs cannot resist and buy thousands of fake Telegram users.

4. Steemit
   Steemit is a social media platform which can allow you to run content competitions for STO project.Ask the community to write the articles for your project and pay them the right amount. Or, you can write articles and submit to the Steemit community for publishing.Running content campaigns on Steemit can bring the massive amount of buzz and attention.

5. Create profiles on the professional websites

You need to have profiles on the professional network so that the investors and followers could recognize your professional experience. Use the following websites to gain more credibility:

• LinkedIn
• CrunchBase

6. Running Video Campaigns

Video campaigns allow you to run video ads on different video streaming channels like YouTube, Vimeo and other channels.

You can market the demo videos of your project which can attract investors and make them have a clear understanding of your idea.

Running STOs

1. Deal Marketing

From brainstorming new ideas to answering complicated questions, you need to become an expert in explaining your idea. Possessing these skills will enhance the ability to sell security tokens.

Some of the main highlights are:

• Keep the Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM) of the project updated. Other relevant documents can be Pitchbook and blogs/articles in the form of an investment proposal.
• You must gather and develop a library of potential investors and buyers.

2. Build credibility via networking

Networking and building trust are essential things-to-do in the security token marketing as buyers can look forward to seamless transactions while ignoring unwanted hassles. Potential investors also find if some of their friends or acquaintances are investing in the same project.

Promoting your products in person will help you gather social capital and generate consumer trust.

3. Airdrop

It is done to ensure that the tokens are distributed and to have as many people on board to the project as possible.

This marketing technique can help you raise a group of micro-tasks freelancers that can be paid with your security token.

4. Commenting on Related Forums

A forum is an online discussion website where people communicate with each other in the form of posted messages. Depending on the user access level, the posted comment might also require approval by a moderator before it goes live.

Discussion on forums can offer you the following benefits:

• Providing support to the community.
• Working towards a particular goal.
• Sharing of new updates.
• Bringing targeted traffic.

Post STO

1. List STOs on Exchange

Getting listed on the STO exchange is not an easy task. Many exchanges ask for high prices to list the tokens on their websites.

Friendly relations with key people in the cryptocurrency industry may help you to get listed in lower price and can get through the entire listing process faster.

Make sure to provide the following information while listing tokens on Exchange:

• Name of the token.
• Token’s symbol.
• Value of the token.
• Min cap and max cap of the token.
• Brief information about team members.

2. Keep community updated

Interact with your community members and accredited investors on a regular basis on all the channels where you have created the profiles.

Always ensure to respond to the queries of the members within 24 hours so that they never feel disappointed from the services.

3. Performance Marketing

Performance Marketing is one of the best marketing tactics to provide a cost-effective solution to market innovative ideas and enhance visibility.
In Performance Marketing, marketing companies, as well as advertisers, are rewarded for driving traffic to the website.

It is significant for both marketing service providers and project owners. Project owners get benefited from the increased traffic and lead, whereas the marketing professionals get paid for marketing efforts by bringing more leads, clicks and sales.