# **Go-to-Market Strategy for Interchain Accounts**

## Summary:
Interchain Accounts (ICA) is a new feature on IBC Protocol, enabling cross-chain account management and secure cross-chain interactions for blockchain applications.
The goal of this doc is to provide a marketing strategy for ICA.
> [Note]: All names and suggestions are just ideas for the sake of this exercise.

### 1. Target Audience Segmentation:

Developers and development teams building blockchain applications
- Cosmos native teams
- Multichain (primarily ETH, also substrate)

### 2. Branding + Messaging
- **Website Build**:
- IBC Protocol and its website is permissionless and not owned by anyone. So, we need to build a team website (IE ibcgo.ibcprotocol.org) similar to https://geth.ethereum.org/
- ibcgo.ibcprotocol.org states our purpose (maintain IBC, build features, advocate IBC), describes IBC, and lists our products (similar to https://www.polymerlabs.org/). Much more promotional and easy to read content. Make logo, name and branding.
- Build a page dedicated to ICA, which will become the CTA for most ICA marketing campaigns (drive traffic to this landing page and use for conversion).
- **Taglines**: use these to help the concept stick for the audience. IE:
- ICA: **Cross Chain Management** or **Cross Chain Account Management**
- **ICA Product rebrand**
- Might be worth having a conversation as the brand is still small and malleable. "Interchain" feels very Cosmos branded and may confuse outside chains. Something more clear and understandable, such as:
- Interblockchain Communication (IBC)
- ICA> **InterBlockchain Accounts (IBA)** or **IBC Accounts**
- Security> **InterBlockchain Shared Security (IBSS)** or **IBC Security**

### 3. Content

- **Call to action**: Create a solid CTA that goes in all content (should be something that converts and we can measure).
- If there is already a UX/UI built to capture ICA users, that's what we would want to use. Otherwise, we get a more manual process with things like email + name capture on a **webpage** or **newsletter signup**.
- **Blog posts**: Continue to produce long-form, tech-focused blog content, and big releases/press statements. Consider switching to https://mirror.xyz/
- **Twitter threads**: Mix in light, easy to understand Twitter threads, focused on educational content about ICA (retweeted by Cosmos).
- **Video animation**: budget and produce a 2 minute animated video that gives a rundown of IBC/ICA
- **Infographics**: simple graphics to better understand how ICA works (will need to hire P/T graphic designer). These are reusable in many content pieces to quickly understand our product (also to use in the website).
- **Newsletter**: a monthly drop of updates, use for conversion when
- possible IBC ecosystem collab, see "IBC Working Group"
- **Keywording**: Creating keywords allows the audience to grasp the concept easier (Acronyms are complicated and hard to remember). It also makes the idea more welcoming to chains outside of Cosmos ("**Interchain**" is very Cosmos branded). For example:
- IBC is a **chainshake**. A chainshake is a blockchain-to-blockchain connection that requires no third party. Whereas a bridge requires trust in the smart contract mediating a transfer between the two blockchains, the security of a chainshake is dependent only on the security of each blockchain. Chainshakes also offer operations beyond just token transfer, such as shared security, cross-chain account management, oracle data, NFT transfer and IBC queries.
- ICA is a **chainshake application** that allows cross chain account management.
- This helps people realize that IBC is not a specific Cosmos product. It's a common idea that can connect blockchains.

### 4. Engagement
- **Events**: Create an events list of major ETH and Cosmos events we feel are important to attend.
- Set up a reusable, fun concept for a booth we can use at each conference. At ETH conferences, I thought we could have a vague, unbranded sign like "THERE'S MORE TO THIS UNIVERSE," with IBCgo-branded pills. Some sort of Matrix-reminiscent signage for you to choose the IBC pill or some placebo gummy pill. Opening the IBC pill is a usb-c drive with everything you need to get started on IBC/ICA, with a few extra fun goodies inside (IE music mix)
- 
- https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/OEM-customised-Silicon-2D-3D-PVC_62325891012.html
- 
- 

- **Grants + Hackathons**
- Work with Cosmos marketing to promote grants that build consumer-facing UIs using ICA. Having an easy to use, playable UI will make leaps in understanding of how ICA works (can also be very useful for Cosmos)
- Work with Cosmos marketing on hackathons that build applications using ICA. ICA is a core feature of Cosmos' interoperability and it will benefit not only IBC to do this, but the Cosmos ecosystem as well.
- **IBC Working Group**
- Build or revitalize this working group to capture a larger audience for ICA updates and beyond.
- Channels: https://twitter.com/cosmosibc, ibcprotocol.org, and IBC newsletter
- Pull resources together for rebrands, website additions (mapping the ecosystem), and grant resources.
- IBC House: collaborate to organize space at major Cosmos events dedicated to IBC talks
- **Social media/community engagement**
- This would require a community person hired- but having someone moderate channels, engage with community members, and engage with the broader community through forums, discussion boards, and online groups (e.g., Reddit, Stack Overflow, Discord).
- **Partnerships**
- Worth mentioning because very important, but would require a BD person to be hired. Basically, doing specific market research on projects that can benefit from ICA, and reaching out to them for partnership/integration.

### 5. PR + Brand Awareness
- Influencers
- Create a list of YouTubers and influencers that would be interested in talking about ICA. Execute an outreach plan and log responses in an Excel sheet.
- PR
- I believe PR outreach is useful in a different way now: SEO. Now that most people get news from twitter, getting PR from high domain news sites can boost IBC's search authority.
- We should leverage Twitter threads for exposure over PR exposure
- We should aim to do educational pieces with outlets in order to boost our domain: IE Binance Education.
- (Of course, when there is big news, we should pitch)

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## Marketing Measuring + tracking success: KRs and "Sprints"
There are so many channels that marketing needs to push through- I like to create a general dashboard of metrics followed by "goal" progress. These are checked monthly or quarterly, with weekly progress commented on in the sheet. Will also help prioritize tasks. Here's an example:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BEAbULoa9RnPrRqWBr4fskBWfAZSCnAXrZcRDs9GL-g/edit#gid=940807594

#### KR Examples:
- Build and Rebrand (KR)
- Finish Website Wireframe (Goal)
- Decide on Naming + Implement (Goal)
- Research and map the entire IBC ecosystem (Goal)
- ICA Exposure (KR)
- Build an influencer list and outreach
- Engage with 5 (stretch goal)
- Build an event list and make a budget proposal (Goal)
- Design a unique swag item and get delivered to Berlin office (Goal)
- Cross-Pollination Marketing (KR)
- Build one campaign coordinated with the Cosmos marketing team (Goal)

#### Quarterly metric measurements (examples)
- CTA hits
- Twitter posts, follower count
- Newsletter signups and reads
- Website visits
- Blog metrics