How To Use NFT Marketing for Branding

how to market your brand with NFT

Ever since the first NFT was minted by Anil Dash and Kevin McCoy in 2014, the NFT market has been in a state of near-perpetual bloom. Although cryptocurrencies were only gaining acceptance at the time, the idea of digital media embedded in the blockchain was enough to start a revolution of its own. Artsy digital collections became the order of the day, and pieces from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and CryptoPunks soon took over the industry.

Today, NFTs are more than mere tokens on the blockchain. They’re art symbols that celebrities, businesses and brands use to build their identity, increase their visibility, and propagate their services to the blockchain community.

If you’re a business owner thinking about how to leverage NFTs to market your brand, you’re in the right place. In this article, you’ll learn about NFT marketing strategies and how to make them work for your brand. Keep reading to learn more!

What are NFTs, and How Do They Work?

NFTs stand for non-fungible tokens. Like cryptocurrencies, they’re based and exist solely on the blockchain. However, they cannot be exchanged like regular cryptocurrencies. NFTs are unique. As such, no two NFTs are ever the same, as they possess multiple attributes that make them differ from each other, no matter how identical they seem.

They are digital representations of art pieces on the blockchain. Although the first NFT made was a video clip, many popular NFT collections today feature digital art, music, and even documents. They are mostly minted on the Ethereum blockchain and sold on Web 3.0 marketplaces like OpenSea and Rarible. Today, NFTs are all the rave in the digital art sector, as they provide a way for artists to create their art and reap profits without fear of plagiarism and piracy.

Given that the global NFT market is expected to generate well over $3 billion in revenue in 2023 and see a CAGR of 22.82% from 2023 to 2027, it’s no surprise that many business owners are keenly seeking ways to grow their brands and reap profits with NFTs.

One of the most efficient strategies involves NFT collaboration. Let’s look at some reputable brands and how they successfully boosted their visibility and generated sales via NFT marketing.

The Adidas Strategy

In late 2021, the global sports brand Adidas partnered with the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club by purchasing NFT avatar number 8,774 in the collection. Subsequently, Adidas turned it into a metaverse character called Indigo Herz. The NFT was worth 46 ETH (almost $200,000) at the time of the purchase. Similarly, Adidas announced a partnership with the crypto exchange platform Coinbase in 2021. 

As a business owner, this type of collaboration indicates your business’ willingness to embrace Web 3.0, a new, evolving, innovative and profitable market. Such a partnership is bound to bring new brand awareness for your products and services and introduce it to a whole new category of potential clientele—the Web3 community. 

Snoop Dogg’s NFT Collections

Another interesting example of how NFT collaborations can help to grow your brand involves American rapper Snoop Dogg’s innovative strategy. At his 20th studio album launch, Snoop Dogg released 10,000 limited edition NFTs. The results were almost instantaneous, as the rapper sold over $44 million worth of “stash box” NFTs in just five days.

These NFTs offer three exclusive bonus tracks and other extras as incentive. Thus, he promoted his music to the NFT market and provided a way for his fans to pay him directly without relying solely on royalties from music streaming and distribution companies. Indeed, Snoop Dogg’s success reveals how businesses and other artists can maximize profits from their artistic offerings.

How to Do NFT Marketing…and How Can Web2 Companies Produce NFTs?

Several NFT strategies help you in your business marketing and advertising campaigns. However, it’s important to get the basics right.

The first step in NFT marketing is to mint the art on the blockchain and then put the token (whether a video clip or image) on a marketplace for sale. Here are the steps involved:

  • Register on a marketplace such as Rarible or OpenSea and link your account to an Ethereum wallet to hold the NFT and future proceed from the sale.
  • Upload the file to an IPFS (InterPlanetary File System)
  • Mint the token mapped to the file to generate a unique blockchain-based crypto signature
  • List the NFT for sale and set a minimum acceptable price. 

Non-blockchain (or Web2) companies can produce NFTs by creating new Web3 segments in their organizations or leveraging creators like Yuga Labs and other Web3 companies.

Top NFT Marketing Strategies to Build Your Brand

Here are some top marketing strategies to help you grow your brand:

1. Join Discussions

Now that you’ve successfully minted NFTs, you should join relevant discussions on Discord, Twitter, Telegram, and Clubhouse to learn and engage prospective clients. You can also ask the community to provide feedback on your NFT project, as it will help you to assess its profitability.

2. Develop an NFT Roadmap

With an NFT roadmap, you can outline crucial project milestones. This way, your audience can examine your project, see it as authentic and be more inclined to join the bandwagon. 

3. Sell Your NFTs on The Best Marketplaces

Several digital marketplaces allow you to list your NFTs. Note that the option you choose should be the best for your piece’s attributes. Also, listing your NFTs on multiple platforms increases your chances of selling them for high prices.

You can sell your NFTs on the following platforms:

4. Hype The Project

One essential NFT marketing strategy is to hype the project as much as possible. You can start with an attention-catching teaser that prepares the audience to anticipate the project release. Social media promotions are a great help, and marketing ads campaigns are equally important.

5. Build a Community

As the hype increases, you must keep it going, and there’s no better way to do this than to build on your following of initial enthusiasts. You can create Discord or Telegram groups and share more content to promote your project. Building a community will also help you easily assess your project’s long-term potential, gather feedback, and tweak your strategy when required. 

How Does NFT Affect Branding for Big Brands?

Big brands like Adidas, Coca-Cola and Nike have used NFT marketing strategies to promote their products and services in the past. The secret is the use of exclusive content. Unique, special content appeals to NFT collectors, and any marketing strategy aimed at brand visibility must include a unique collection. 

For instance, the Adidas strategy we discussed earlier, where the brand created an exclusive metaverse-based character, Indigo Herz, was highly successful, as the virtual character was truly unique. Given its affiliation with the popular Adidas brand, the project was guaranteed to be a success. 

Similarly, Nike partnered with RTFKT to create an exclusive, highly successful digital wearable collection called Cryptokicks. Each pair of Crypokicks came with a feature that allowed owners to alter the looks with additional collectibles called “skin vials.” Like it was with Adidas, this partnership was also a huge success.

After creating exclusive content, all that’s left is to focus on community building and let the brand collaboration speak for itself. It’s Web3, after all, and the community is massive. 

Conclusion

NFTs have increased in popularity today, with many individuals and brands busy creating projects to take advantage of the growing wave. The market is flooded with artworks and digital collectibles, and it can be hard to stand out and make gains if you don’t understand the best strategies to grow your brand with NFTs.

However, by focusing on community building and developing exclusive content tailored to your audience’s needs, you can increase brand visibility and scale your business like never before.