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What Role Should Branding Play in Your pre-token Sale

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With so many possible applications, token sales are popping up everywhere. Companies can be built on a foundation of digital tokens and blockchain, fueling growth in the digital token space. Some companies are even incorporating tokenization, cryptocurrency, and blockchain into their existing models, further validating the potential of the technology.

With so many successful token sales in the works, it can be hard to stand out. Because of the lack of regulation in the space, many token sales are fraudulent scams, making it even more difficult for legitimate startups to gain traction and differentiate themselves. If you want to set yourself apart from other token sales and show investors that your opportunity is legit, you’ll need to start building a brand even during the pre-token sale phase of your startup.

The Importance of Branding Your Pre-Token Sale

One of the best ways to draw attention to your sale and build trust within the community is through branding. Your brand encapsulates what you stand for; it’s your values, goals, and personality. Jeff Bezos has said, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Strong branding helps you connect with your audience and establish your business as an authority in the industry. To optimize your brand, it’s important to start branding before you even start selling tokens—ideally, branding strategy should commence before or during the pre-token sale phase.

John Lewis of TokenTarget articulately explains the value of branding your startup’s pre-token sale:

“There have been ICOs that have had solid technology and teams in place but have failed in establishing a brand identity. ICO launches should be as much about branding and marketing as they are about innovation and technology. Of increasing importance is establishing transparency and credibility in the market, without which it won’t matter what solution you have to offer through your token. Perception counts, and people need to perceive your token as something worth investing in.”

Steps to Building a Brand in Your pre-token Sale

  1. Get to know your target audience. The most important part of branding a business is knowing your target audience intimately. You could have the best product in the world, but if you aren’t reaching the right people in the right places, it won’t perform as well as it could. Take the time to do the research getting to know your target audience; you should know them better than you know yourself!
  2. Outline your values and goals. Howard Shultz said, “If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand.” This doesn’t mean you should conform to your audience’s every whim, but you should be addressing the problems they face and sharing at least some of their core values. By clearly defining your brand’s values and goals, you can identify the overlap between your belief systems and those of your target audience, making it easy to focus on what you have in common.
  3. Research your competitors. Although you should never copy your competition, knowing what they’re doing, what’s working, and what isn’t can give you a leg up in the race. It will also help you find ways to differentiate yourself so that you stand out in the crowd.
  4. Develop a brand identity. Your brand identity consists of your logo, color palette, packaging, and anything else that helps people recognize your brand. When developing this identity, you’ll need to consider how everything from the colors and font you choose to the icons and photography you display contributes to the overall vision of your brand. If you need help, companies like Deluxe have a variety of tools to make it fast, easy, and affordable to create an unforgettable brand identity.
  5. Stay consistent. Keeping your message, voice, colors, etc. consistent seems like it should be easy enough, but it can be pretty challenging to brand consistently across multiple platforms and mediums. But without that consistency, you could undermine your entire brand. Invest the effort into optimizing your content and materials to perform consistently across all marketing. Jim Rohn said, “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals.”

Final Thoughts

Building a brand before you launch your token sale is extremely important. It will set you apart, establish authority, and build trust within the community you’re targeting. With so many token sales popping up, many of which are frauds or scams, you need to build a strong brand presence that will play a central role in leading your token sale to success.