According to a recent survey, familiarity with Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) among internet users has skyrocketed in the last year. While most Americans aren’t currently prepared to purchase NFTs, one in every 14 non-owners express future interest in NFTs.
As such, multinationals such as Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Adidas, etc., are exploring NFTs to increase customer engagement, brand awareness, and sales. NFTs have the potential to propel brands to further heights in the growing commerce industry.
Here is a closer look at how brands should leverage the power of NFTs to supercharge their customer engagement.
A Brief History of Brands Using NFTs
Currently, NFTs appear to be inextricably intertwined with digital collectibles. Most brands are launching their own collections as their first step into the NFT world. These early efforts of brands to use NFTs include Campbell’s soup can art and White Castle’s generative art of burgers.
One of the most exciting things about NFTs is the technology they run on. This tech reveals NFTs’ wider promise as a vehicle by which brands bypass the platform-centric Web2 marketing world and regain ownership of their customer relationships.
NFTs promises to be the basis of a multifaceted digital consumer connection. One possible use of NFTs for brands is extending product lines into the digital world. NFTs could foreseeably be the central digital touchpoint between brands and their target consumers–one that the brand itself can control.
One of the primary reasons NFTs are essential to brands is that they can be utilized to represent digital files like audio, art, and video. NFTs are versatile, meaning they can also represent different forms of creative work, such as virtual worlds, virtual real estate, fashion, etc.
How does this relate to your brand and marketing strategy?
Owing to the massive global interest that NFTs have gained recently, these technologies open up new ways of brand storytelling and consumer interaction, which are the main pillars of an effective brand marketing strategy.
NFTs can help your brand to:
- Increase brand awareness
- Create interest in your brand and products
- Encourage interaction
- Create unique brand awareness.
Ultimately, NFTs can help your brand increase your conversions and revenue. Increasing conversions and revenue requires customer engagement.
In a recent Forbes article, Ethan Song, the CEO of RareCircles, a revenue and engagement platform for Web3, said that companies should explore new ways to improve customer engagement. “All current channels that companies use to engage with their audiences will slowly die and companies will adjust to future developments. This means that email and social media are losing impact when engaging with audiences.
NFTs are the latest innovative way that some brands are driving deeper engagement by focusing on their best customers, giving a voice to the brand’s direction, and much more.”
Ways Your Brand Can Leverage NFTs to Increase Customer Engagement
- Host Events and Give POAPs for Attendance
Proof-Of-Attendance Protocol is an effective way for your brand to engage with its customers. A Proof-Of-Attendance Protocol (POAP) is an NFT issued to an individual as proof of event attendance. You can use POAPs to promote ticket sales, encourage customer loyalty, and provide rewards.
- Deploy NFTs Alongside Incentivized User Behavior
You can leverage NFTs with actual usage and value attached. There is an increased interest in the latest designs using NFTs for access control and decentralized system governance. Using NFTs together with incentivized user behavior can make more brand customers engaged.
- Involve Customer Communities in NFT Creation and Trade
As a brand, you can use NFTs to elevate community engagement by sponsoring NFT giveaways, permitting customers to exchange NFTs for products and services, or hosting NFT design hackathons. You can also create your own NFT collection with some exchangeable intrinsic value.
- Increase Revenue and Value for Customers
Consumer-friendly features typical of NFTs include:
- Fostering community
- Appealing to collectors’ mindsets
- They are easily tradeable.
These features make NFTs fairly easy to embrace. They can act as tools for driving additional revenue for your brand and value to your customers who purchase NFTs. Common brands already using NFTs include FlyFishClub, Nike, Adidas, etc.
- Focus on NFTs Utility
You can create a more personal and productive customer experience by focusing on NFT utility. NFTs allow you to engage with your customers in a genuine and ongoing manner, whether the NFTs can be used as a representation of actual goods, a ticket to exclusive events, or a key to unlock exclusive content.
- Leverage Digital Memorabilia to Maximize Customer Engagement
Most NFT users are confident these technologies will stay for a long time–or as long as the blockchain exists. As a brand, you can leverage long or short-term engagement with your customers by allowing them the capability to treasure their experiences with your brand via an NFT. By giving your brand a unique value, you can engage your customers more.
- Share NFTs Across Brands As An Improvement to An Existing Points Program
As a growing brand, you can use NFT’s proof of ownership to create and elevate brand loyalty.
Do you have an existing points program?
You can also encourage your customers to collect, redeem, and transfer NFTs without needing conventional user accounts for access.
You can also encourage customers to share NFTs across different brands without much integration effort. This way, you can encourage interaction and engagement between your brand and other brands and between your brand and customers.
- Celebrate Product Milestone Completions
Customers want to feel connected with a brand’s growth and milestones. While traditional affiliate links and merchandise work, NFTs can do much better. Allow your most engaged brand customers to unlock and access personalized NFTs whenever they complete crucial product milestones.
The result is free marketing and increased product engagement. These customers will most likely share their achievements on social media, which can also increase engagement from other prospects.
Current Challenging Regarding NFTs and Brands
The primary issue affecting the adoption of NFTs and Web3 is that most people don’t own cryptocurrencies or digital wallets. These are usually a requirement for interaction with these technologies.
Additionally, public perception is still a challenge regarding the adoption of NFTs, Web3, and digital wallets. Despite the existing curiosity, most people hesitate to adopt these technologies due to the uncertainty and volatility of the market.
Individuals and brands also hesitate due to the technical expertise levels required.
Future of NFTs in Brands–What to Expect
While the concept of NFT may still appear unconventional to many people, NFT adoption is a trend that will likely stay for a while. As NFTs and Web3 evolve and cryptocurrency becomes the order of trade, more brands will embrace the concept of NFTs to remain competitive and relevant and increase customer engagement.
