So you’re working on your future NFT project right now. You have all these ideas in your mind about the kind of artworks or collectibles you’re going to create but you don’t know which platforms to use to tell the world about your latest art NFT projects.
You first need to determine where your funnel is located.
Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/xEMsS6Vqryc
Now, in digital marketing, we always talk about the “top of funnel” (TOFU), “middle of funnel” (MOFU) and “bottom of funnel” (BOFU). You first need to think about where the top of your funnel is. Here’s the main consideration. Not everyone has cryptocurrencies.
Wait, what? What do cryptocurrencies have to do with NFTs. Everything. Cryptocurrencies sit on the Level 1 of a blockchain and are created using an ERC-20 token. So, your Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum and a whole host of other cryptocurrencies are based on this ERC-20 standard. These are fungible tokens. If you had bought 1 ETH (that is, 1 Ethereum “dollar”) for USD3000, you can immediately sell that in the next second for USD3000 back (assuming the price has not fluctuated in that one fateful second). NFTs sit on Level 2 of a blockchain and are ERC-721 tokens. They are non-fungible, meaning that they cannot be exchanged for each other in the same value and quantity. You can’t sell an NFT back for the same price you bought it. That means that NFTs are pretty much digital goods that you buy and sell just like how you would sell a car or a house.
So back to the point earlier, not everyone has cryptocurrencies. What that means is that you can’t put up an ad in the classifieds of your local paper and expect to get any interest in your NFTs. Not everyone who reads that ad has cryptocurrencies. You’d just be barking up the wrong tree. You can’t create a Facebook group and expect to get interest. Many Facebook users don’t have cryptocurrencies. You’re again, barking up the wrong tree. What you want to do is to look for specific platforms where there is evidence of cryptocurrency and NFT activity. This is where you can canvas interest for your NFTs.
Right now, the four largest platforms where NFTs are garnering lots of interest (and consequently attracting people with cryptocurrencies stored in their digital wallets are:
Discord is at the moment the most important platform you can use to tell the world about your NFTs. Now, there are already many discord servers that have general discussions and news about NFTs. This is where people interested in the NFT space hang out.
These include servers like:
These NFT related channels will be the top of your funnel. You can post in these channels to inform the world about your NFT project and let them know that you too have a Discord server specifically devoted to your own NFT project. Invite them to join you there.
In your own Discord server, you should create specific channels. There should be channels for:
1) Welcoming new members
This is where you would have a welcome message for people who have just joined your Discord server. They’re in the middle of your funnel. That means that they’ve heard of you, and are considering supporting your NFT project and being a part of your NFT community.
It’s a simple welcome message that you can type on your own and pin that message to the top of the thread. Or you can use the MEE6 bot to send a welcome message for you, if you’re that way inclined. The MEE6 bot can be found here: https://mee6.xyz/
2) About your NFT project
This is where you post all the details about your NFT project. You need to be as convincing as possible. There are many methods you can use to draw people in to your project. People need to believe in your project in order to buy your NFTs.
3) Verification
This is for people at the bottom of your funnel. Now, the difference between Web 2.0 and web3 in terms of digital marketing is that in Web 2.0, you need to engage your audience so that they will buy your products. In web3, you need to engage your audience even more after they buy your NFTs. This channel is to verify those who have purchased your NFTs and allow them to participate in community activities in your channel.
You could ask your NFT owners to drop you their wallet addresses, and you verify them manually in https://www.etherscan.io. Or you could get the Collab.Land bot to do it for you. The Collab.Land bot can be found here: https://collab.land/.
4) General chat
You want your community (or in web3 language, “fam”) to interact with each other. You want them to get to know each other and be friends (or in web3 language, “frens”). This is where they can have a chat among themselves.
Remember to pin a message on the rules of the chat. There will be trolls around. The world is not always positive. People are not always nice.
5) Marketplace
Some people have “diamond hands”. Some people have “paper hands”. Whatever their style may be, they will be inclined to buy and sell your NFTs among themselves. Let them do it. Here is where they can. Any and all transactions will still go through their digital wallets (such as Metamask for Opensea and Phantom for Solanart).
6) Community activities
Remember those peeps that you verified in that channel above? You need to engage them often to keep them interested. If they get bored, they might sell away your NFTs. Engage them. Play games with them. Run contests. There are many ways you can keep them engaged as a community.
Reddit has its own set of NFT related sub-reddits, such as:
Post in these threads and let people know you have a project.
Open up your own sub-reddit to let them know of any news, sneak peeks and such. Reddit is not as advanced in functionality as compared to Discord. Use it as a secondary platform.
On Twitter, people interested in NFTs tend to get their news from influencers in the web3 space. These influencers include:
You may wish to create a Twitter account for your NFT project just to be a part of that ecosystem, but it’s not really a necessity. I would consider Twitter to be a tertiary option for now. But just remember that this might change in the future. There is increasing integration between OpenSea and Twitter, with some people being able to upload their chosen NFTs as profile pictures. Watch that space. The further a Web2.0 platform integrates with a web3 platform, the more the former platform will become an integral part of web3.
Telegram has its own set of NFT related channels, such as:
Open up your own Telegram channel to let them know of any news, sneak peeks and such. Telegram is not as advanced in functionality as compared to Discord. Use it as a secondary platform.
Now, bear in mind that whatever I say here might change in the future. The web3 space is evolving at an insanely rapid pace. NFTs are going to become mainstream very very soon. Platforms like Sandmilk now allow people to mint, buy and sell NFTs without having any cryptocurrencies in their wallets at all. They can do all that just through a regular credit card (or as web3 folks like to say it, using “fiat”). The Polygon chain is also collaborating with Meta to develop an NFT platform for Instagram. Pretty soon, your “top of funnel” may change to more mainstream platforms. Who knows, you could even create a very basic WhatsApp group using WhatsApp Business integrating the fabled WhatsApp Pay for your NFT sales in the future?
