How to Realize Your Brand's Digital Potential With NFT Marketing Although NFTs are a unique asset, using digital marketing to promote your NFT follows the same guidelines as all other digital-marketing processes.
By Jessica Wong Edited by Amanda Breen
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Do you remember the days when collecting and trading baseball cards seemed like the coolest thing to do? Today, those coveted baseball cards and other collectibles have been widely replaced by NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. These tokens are digital pieces of property — assets — that can be bought and sold. In that respect, they do resemble other collectible pieces of property.
What distinguishes NFTs from other collectibles, however, is that each one is unique and non-interchangeable. The token the name refers to is a digital certificate of ownership. To keep track of tokens, they are stored in a digital ledger known as the blockchain.This technology makes it possible for creators of NFTs to receive royalties every time a token is re-sold, depending on contract details.
According to Statista, Beeple's Everyday: the First 5000 Days remains the world's most expensive NFT to date, having sold for $69 million. This piece is also credited with starting the NFT craze and pushing sales. By November 2021, NFT sales had topped $10 billion.
Related: Here's Why NFTs Are Selling for Millions
Now, the question is, will NFTs revolutionize digital marketing?
How to market NFTs
NFTs might be a unique asset, but using digital marketing to promote your NFT product follows similar guidelines as any other digital-marketing process.
To be successful, you need to start with a solid digital-marketing strategy in place, defining your marketing goals and creating a path towards them. Without a well-defined strategy, it is hard, if not impossible, to stand out from the NFT crowd on NFT trading platforms. While the platforms are extremely accessible, they are becoming more crowded as NFTs continue to grow in popularity.
Most creators aim to generate short-term sales while building medium- to long-term customer relationships. Diversifying your approach helps you achieve both.
Building relationships is key
Even if you are only considering NFTs at the moment, do not underestimate the potential of the underlying blockchain technology. The blockchain allows you to establish a closer, more direct relationship with your fanbase and build your brand from a community base.
When you choose your marketing channels, remember to prioritize relationship building and the channel's fit with your product and your target audience. In our experience, these channels work best with most NFTs:
- Social-media advertising.
- Public relations.
- Display advertising.
- Email marketing.
Social-media advertising
Social-media advertising is a highly targeted way of connecting with potential customers and generating instant NFT sales.
As a creator, you remain in control of the associated costs. You also benefit from sophisticated analytics to measure how well this part of your campaign is working for you. Combined with organic social-media activity, this tactic can help skyrocket your reach and build a strong brand.
Public relations
Public relations (PR) not only help promote your NFT, but also builds credibility for your brand and your NFT product. Posting or sending our press releases may seem almost old-fashioned. However, it is an excellent way to connect to journalists and bloggers who are looking for the next NFT hit.
PR allows you to reach your target audience and build long-term relationships while also encouraging short-term sales. It is a highly cost-effective marketing channel.
Related: How PR Can Attract Investors and Add Value to Your Startup
Display advertising
Display advertising through channels like Google Ads is another excellent way of generating sales for your NFTs in a highly targeted and measurable way.
By monitoring your cost per every 1,000 impressions or cost per click, you control your marketing budget. In addition, you can see at a glance how much each sale is costing you.
Combining display advertising with other marketing activities like search-engine optimization creates synergies and helps deliver even better results.
Email marketing
Like press releases, email marketing has been around for a while. Leading marketers keep coming back to this channel because it delivers results — and can do so for your NFTs too.
Email allows artists and other creators to put their work directly in front of an investor. You cannot get much closer than someone's personal email inbox. Apart from driving direct sales, email marketing is also an excellent tool for relationship building when it is done consistently.
Related: 5 Tips for Better Email Marketing Performance
NFTs offer your business an opportunity to sell more than tangible items. They can add an entirely new strand to your brand. In addition, non-fungible tokens are an excellent way of opening up your brand to new audiences who you may not have reached otherwise.
Almost anything can be an NFT. As long as the asset is presented as a GIF, Jpeg, digital music file, etc., it can be traded on NFT platforms. This is a perfect opportunity to explore the digital potential of your brand as you have never done before.
