If you are reading this, you are most likely considering an ICO to crowdfund your project. Funding is difficult, and ICO quickly became a source of funding that companies see as a last resort.
One of the goals of ICO promotion is to target possible investors worldwide, which can make things a bit difficult considering you need to build a multi-nationality team of contractors and employees that all have amazing skill sets. How do you talk to thousands of small cryptocurrency investors willing to tip $1,000 into your product? To do that, you have to map cryptocurrency and blockchain media outlets in other languages than English — something that is no small task.
Personally, I speak English, Russian, German and French which makes my work on multinational campaigns easier, but I still have to deal with parts of the world which I have no clue about: China, Vietnam, South Korea, etc.
How do I create a list of journalists, bloggers and experts if I don’t speak any Asian languages?
I am using a simple lifehack, one that has helped assist me for years.
To make it happen you will need: Google Chrome, the SimilarWeb Plugin for Google Chrome, Google SpreadSheets, services to find emails (like Hunter.io or ClearBit), and social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn.
First, you’ll need to search brand names of both closed and ongoing ICOs, make sure to stick to those who generated high levels of hype or even those that eventually ended in the theft of cryptocurrency from their wallets. The media tends to write more about such stories — you’ll also find more outlets.
Here’s a small tip here for mapping media outlets: be creative with your keywords. Ask yourself, “How do I find people in other countries that can be interested in my story or product?”
While scrolling Google News, you’ll find a lot of snippets in languages you are not familiar with.
From there, simply open the link in a new tab and Google Chrome will ask you if you want this page to be translated from “Korean” or “Russian” and into English. Click “Translate,” and you’re all set! This awesome feature of Chrome is often overlooked, but does an amazing job of translating the whole site — including menus, article texts, and even ads.
Now it’s time for SimilarWeb. You don’t know the media landscape of the country and SimilarWeb can help you gauge your targeted site to see if it’s worth your time or not. All you have to do is click the SimilarWeb icon in your browser bar and the app will pull all sorts of site data — monthly audience, bounce rate, time spent on site, and more.
Does this data look good to you? Is it a good target? Always pay attention to the bounce rate and time spent on site, if the data is too good to be true, then there’s a good chance the site is automatically crawled, which means a lower quality audience.
Now it’s time to find the journalist you want to pitch to. Thanks to the translation services through Google, you’ll be able to quickly find the author’s names, which can lead to their email addresses, Twitter handles, and other types of contact information.
For the final tip, it is important to really understand what they are writing about. It might take a little extra time, but go through the history of their posts and articles — is your product a good match?
Don’t spam people and don’t throw the net too wide, stay focused. Stick to those who will find your information valuable. Understand that reporters and journalists are in constant search for quality stories, but many see countless pitches every day so it’s important to engage with them early.
Writing in English is ok, Gmail has a translation feature, but you can really take it to the next level by hiring an interpreter for emails and other media related inquiries.
For some extra tips on getting people to actually read your email, check out the video embedded below.
In the end, the Chinese internet is a different universe and Google indexes just a small part of Chinese media. You can really dig in by using Baidu and translating all of your keywords prior to searching in Baidu.
I am continuing to dig into this very large question and love hearing tips from others. If you know of any amazing ways to find Chinese media outlets, feel free to email me at [email protected] or follow me on Twitter @marysam.