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Many startup founders, ignited by their enthusiasm of the new crypto realm, decide to create a new blockchain project and fund it with an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) or Token Generation Event (TGEs).

These founders are often required to assemble a team and begin their project with limited or no funding. Such entrepreneurs would be (in most cases) terribly wrong to approach a Marketing company under such conditions.

Why should they wait before seeking an agency?

Many successful ICOs have raised a lot of money without the help of a Marketing agency because they have their networks, valuable skills, and can turn to freelancing sites to source people with experience for small areas where they lack knowledge. Some reputable companies, like International Blockchain Consulting, have used freelancing platforms to find high-quality people for their operations.

ParagonCoin, which raised more than 170 million USD, also used freelancers at around $30 dollars per hour for most of its day-to-day support needs. Super angels such as Fabrice Grinda use freelancers for his venture capital firm and related research projects. Even Secretary Generals of international organizations such as Interpol use freelancing sites! So, it can be a cool place to get started.

It is fine NOT to use an agency if you can properly select freelancers and create a team with limited resources, at first. A team that fits the founders culturally and professionally can do the job very well. Such a strategy can also help founders save money on labor and find people that will stick with them after their ICO hits the softcap.

If you are a bootstrapping your way to an ICO, then you probably won’t be able to afford a real ICO agency (unless you’re already very wealthy). But don’t get discouraged if you don’t have the sometimes-stellar budget required by leading ICO agencies. With the right team, culture, and sweat equity in place, many have worked miracles. If you have what it takes, you might do so as well!

So, do NOT contact an ICO marketing agency if…
 

You don’t have a proper budget (20k or 100k minimum depending on the agency).

You would be better off with internal teammates you can find online rather than through third-party companies.

You want to keep all the teammates on board after your ICO

If you have the contacts and know-how needed to raise the money yourself

 
Instead of wasting your time, and some agency’s time as well, you should work towards creating a compelling pitch of your project idea and yourself. Dig into your LinkedIn and alumni networks, turn to pitch-promising wantrepreneurs at universities, and join freelancing sites to assemble a cost-effective team that is good enough to get you started.

Agencies are built from people who produce more value together in synergy than individually. They are comprised of imperfect individuals striving for a perfect whole. That is why many agencies charge premiums, as they believe they’re offering more than any individual by themselves.

Agencies are also more required to abide by local and international laws. They have databases, networks, memberships in prestigious organizations, collective know-how that surpasses that of freelancing individuals, and setup procedures to optimize productivity and results (capitalist vaulters!). The only real issue is that they cost more!

That is the reason why bigger companies and high net-worth individuals (HNWI) who are doing ICOs usually contact agencies rather than freelancers. It saves time, guarantees higher quality, and allows usage of proprietary know-how, know-who, and tech. Also, they can rely on legal responsibilities if they want to deduct the investment expenses from their taxes, for example. All these factors make the choice of an agency more convenient for them.

So, when you should hire an ICO agency?
 

When you have the budget for a turnkey solution or a specific valuable service

When you don’t want to spend time and energy creating a separate team as you won’t need it post-ICO (some ICO team roles are temporary).

When it is convenient and easy from legal and technical standpoints

When you can benefit from the network, know-how and reputation of the agency

 
There is also a third option. You can download Telegram and join any open groups where you can ask for ICO services. This will result in hundreds of offers coming your way from entities that are half agencies, half freelancers, or some percentage of the two combined. Close your eyes, give it some thought and choose the ones that you think are best. This might be a question of luck! Beware of Telegram offers, however, as half of them (especially the YouTube reviews) are probably scams!

Copy/Pasted in part from https://www.tsm.global/tsm-blog/when-should-you-hire-an-ico-marketing-agency.html?lang=en

Interesting. Well, I'm that freelancer that you mentioned who provides mass-marketing services and community management services for ICOs.
If anyone is interested in promoting their project on Reddit, please contact me on Telegram: @Azza1070
I've done campaigns spreading over hundreds of subreddits at a time. I also have a small team who help me with promotions.
Thank you.

- Aaron

ICO marketing is something fresh. There is no right formula, some projects are failing because they took the wrong approach and direction.
What you can do, is watch those project to learn, but not just the ones that fail, keep your eyes open to all of them - if it is possible...

I think this is not about budget, this is about spark of talent and hard work. If founders spent a lot of time to make good promo - they can do good campaign with small budget (viral video, good SEO etc.) but this is just my opinion, what you guys think?

I must be living in an alternate universe. The lousy reputation I have of ICOs is almost always because of the way they cover up their deficiencies with outsourced high-quality content and extreme marketing strategies. They all talk like they're going to make it, but there's hardly ever any product delivered. There's almost no results-based management with ICOs, other than for sales and marketing.

I'm not saying marketing should be ignored or that it's not important. It doesn't have to be paid or formal. Simply being an advocate for a project is a form of marketing.

What I'm saying is that ICOs have gained the reputation of scammy hype because of their overpromising marketing. They're basically no different from MLMs now.

That is true - STOs are the ICOs of the next generation. More secured. And by the way if you are the one who is planning to launch your own ICO/STO - i strongly recommend flexe.io/p96. These guys were really good and DO understand how fund raising works.

Actually there is not a good Idea a lot of ICO getting down because ICO agency

you mean those securities?

oh boy, people will quickly realise that they are constantly are being scammed, because those that issue securities get rich, those that dont and work for "securities", stay poor

You know how to cut cost in your marketing strategy? The best ICO developers out there always build up a team based on popularity and reputation so any ICO hunters out there who knows the ICO team very well will instantly know that your ICO is somehow in good hands because of the team under it also this people will automatically also create a buzz in the ICO market. ICO teams built on reputation is like a marketing strategy within itself, yes it won't be enough but it is enough to turn a few heads and concentrate their attention towards your project.

What you said is true and its the curse of icos now. Choosing an ico based on the reputation of team is a big mistake. I have seen many advisors  working in more than 4 or 5 projects. Actually what do they know about the project? Do they have experience in that field? For few dollars or tokens they agree to join the ico team to attract innocent people. Seeing their photos in the team list , these poor ico hunters invest their money in that project and finally after the ico, team wont be able to cope up with the investors expectations. This is whats happening everytime . This trend is changing now as the investors are learning from their previous mistakes.

ICO Marketing Agencies are too fresh and has a lot of reputations needed to be built of them. Their portfolios are quite low.
Take note that Marketing agencies on any types of business could kill, or make a company win. For me, all you need to do is to study the previous ICO's and analyze how did they do it. Once you have successfully identified what they did, you can try their strategy and see what will happen.

This is already a dead thread since OP got banned for plagiarism so we still need the discussion in this thread. ???

Best way to market the ICOs are by through paid bounties so if anyone want to hire someone,take running bounty also into your consideration.

I believe that marketing tools should be used only in the event that you are not sure about the level of distribution of your advertising and you need a large coverage of users, but you need to take into account the fact that it will certainly be more expensive.

I think if you have a good project in your hand, the sky is good for you. What you need is a fairly good marketing agent that is going to take it to the public, either by suggesting a bounty, campaign or doing the publicity via different channels, YouTube, Facebook tweeter etc.

Marketing companies are useful if they have a proven portfolio, but then they cost too much and new startups do not have the capital to pay for it. Bounty hunters only request tokens which at the beginning are worthless anyway so it's a cheaper option