What is an NFT?

NFT stands for non-fungible tokens. Non-fungible is a keyword here. NFT acts as a certificate confirming that one or another digital item belongs to you and no one else. In other words, it is a smart contract for the protection of a document, put together using pieces of open source. Once formed, it is encrypted and converted into a token. The most common NFTs are domain names, social media posts, digital games, digital art, video footage of iconic moments in world history, etc. They can be stored in the form of JPG or GIF documents, videos, posts.

Worth knowing, any digital document can be converted into NFT. Thus a digital object becomes the property of the person who owns or bought it. With it, a person can do whatever he wants – sell, distribute, license, and so on. NFT value can grow in the same way as physical items. For example, the work of a well-known graphic designer can become more expensive with time than a real painting of a top NFT artist. Historically important digital objects are also gaining in value.

NFTs are crypto-tokens, like bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. But Bitcoin is fungible: one token is worth the same as any other, much like a dollar bill or a print copy of the latest issue of Playboy. While NFTs, like plane tickets and baseball cards, are not. The tokens store a unit of data, often including the name of the NFT and a link to a digital image. The token is unique and can be held only in a single digital wallet. The image, however, can be viewed, copied, or downloaded by anyone.

How is NFT authenticated?

The idea of ​​NFT sounds a bit unusual to a wide audience, also because we are not used to thinking of things on the Internet as one-offs. Everything in the digital space seems very easy to copy and reproduce. Why pay for a .jpg document if you can just download it and download it? Still, this approach is wrong.

NFTs are special in that they are non-counterfeit and non-replicable, and their owner can be easily identified. This is because these documents are created on a blockchain basis. In the code of a particular NFT, its creator leaves its own signature, through which the digital object is identified on any server, browser, or platform. In other words, it is authenticated in a decentralized way.

Because NFT simply cannot exist on one particular computer, it is also impossible to copy it. The owner only receives the said signature, which unlocks access to the NFT itself. So, a digital item purchased in this way would be available only to you and no one else.

The rise of NFTs

The first NFT project was launched in 2015 on the Ethereum blockchain, and its interest was growing together with the rise of cryptocurrencies. In Q1 2021, total sales of NFTs exceeded $2 billion which was 20 times more than in the previous quarter.

Moreover, the popularity of NFT in Google search is already exceeding Defi and ETH in 2021:

In March 2006, Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey circulated the message. In it, he announced the sale of his first tweet. Yes, one of the first records in the history of a popular social network. Curious what it looked like? It’s a text that says “just setting up my twttr”.

How much do you think it was paid for later? Jack Dorsey held a special auction in March 2021 during which potential buyers raised the price until it reached over 2.5 million dollars. Yes, you read that correctly. Someone paid almost three million to become the owner of a post on Twitter. The field of digital assets and art, also known as NFTs, has been experiencing an unprecedented rise recently.

Why spend your money on something that doesn’t even exist in the real world?

An NFT can be a very good financial investment, a sentimental purchase, an addition to a collection, or a way to get a little closer to the creator of an NFT (such as an artist or brand).

This is not too different from the auction in the real world. After all, we all know people who collect something are big fans of any developer or company.

We are not too surprised by the person who puts on a huge amount for original AirJordan sneakers. Why then do we want to react ironically to someone’s decision to get their first tweet? After all, NFTs also has a community aspect.

For example, some artists create NFTs of their works to give fans access to exclusive catalogs, thus forming a kind of private club through NFT promotion.

NFTs are also significant in addressing the sensitive and long-standing problem of digital art. Because of the great culture of copying (and piracy) on the Internet, it has been difficult for developers to obtain fair remuneration for their work for a very long time. The painted “physical” picture is unique and the only one like this. However, graphic design work may be copied and distributed. NFTs no longer allow this. 

No wonder we have been able to watch the boom of such works in recent years. For example, this year’s famous Christie’s auction hosted an event exclusively for digital art for the first time. One of the top NFT artists Beeple presented his works there. The auction received tremendous attention, and the artist himself eventually earned a total of 60 million dollars.

The musician and visual arts artist Grimes was no less lucky. More recently, she held an auction to sell a full series of her works. She managed to earn a total of 6 million dollars.

While NFT is by far the most attractive to well-known developers who already have their own audience, it’s only a matter of time before this technology will help them make safer and more earnings even without a famous name.

Success stories

The list of the most expensive objects is constantly changing, but we collected data on the ten most expensive transactions for the sale of NFT so far. The transaction amounts reach tens of millions of dollars, and the most expensive work pulled in $ 69 million.

10. Genesis Estate – $ 1.5 million

This is an example of selling a virtual piece of land on the Axie Infinity blockchain marketplace and gaming platform. Nine of these adjoining “lots” have been sold, together costing the buyer 1.5 million dollars. This is not the only NFT available in the game. The main gaming asset is Axies, who will live on this purchased land in the virtual world – characters, each of which is unique in its own way and can be bought, sold, bred, and grown in the virtual space of the game. These characters are also NFT tokens provided by the same NFT companies.

9. Cryptopunk # 6965 – $ 1.54 million

One of 10,000 characters was created by a team of American developers Larva Labs, who laid the foundation for crypto art. Together, they cost about 440 million dollars in total. Each of the characters is unique in its own way. This character is unique due to the fedora’s hat.

8. Death Dip – $ 1.68 million

The work of one of the English top NFT artists Xcopy, and its most successful sale, which went under the hammer in March 2021. In total, the artist sold 1907 works, the value of which reached 11.9 million dollars.

7. CryptoPunk # 3011 – $ 1.72 million

Another of the 10,000 cryptopunks. This character is unique thanks to glasses, an earring, and a smoking pipe. It was sold last time in April 2021 and its price jumped more than 100 times since October 2020. Then it was “insanely cheap” – only 16,264 dollars.

6. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first tweet – $ 2.9 million

As we already mentioned before, a tweet was purchased by Sina Estavi, CEO of Bridge Oracle startup. The tweet was posted on March 21, 2006. Jack Dorsey planned to send the received money to charity.

5. Stay Free – $ 5.26 million

The only NFT to date created by Edward Snowden. This is a collage of the text of a court decision that made mass surveillance illegal by the US National Security Agency. NFT was created by using open-source software.

4. Crossroads – $ 6.6 million

Created by one of the top NFT artists who works under the pseudonym Beeple. At the time of sale in early March 2021, it was the most expensive digital art piece sold. This project was created in response to the US presidential election.

The video was supposed to change depending on the US presidential election results: either the current image would appear, or Trump will become the winner.

3. CryptoPunk # 7804 – $ 7.57 million

Another of the 10,000 cryptopunks with a cap, pipe, and goggles. The seller was Dylan Field, CEO of the graphic design service Figma. Among other things, he is famous for collecting NFT art, and he bought this cryptopunk in January 2018 for 15,000 dollars – which he considered at that time as one of the stupidest things in life.

2. CryptoPunk # 3100 – $ 7.58 million

Another one out of 10,000 crypto-banks, sold in March 2021. A headband became its distinguishing feature. It is the most expensive of all cryptopunks sold until now. Taking into account the growth of the Etherium rate, for which the cryptopunk was bought, today it would already be worth 14 million dollars.

1. Everydays: The First 5000 Days – $ 69 million

The most expensive NFT art object and one of the best NFT projects until now. It was sold at Christie’s on March 11, 2021. This JPG file is a collage from the “Daily” series of an American artist Beeple and since May 2007 he has been publishing every day by work, all of which have become part of the collage sold.

Compared to other art items, NFT is still a very luxurious field, with collections starting from several million dollars. And a successful collection is not only the work of an artist but also of a programmer and community manager, and it requires proper marketing. It’s like a start-up.

Working with a collection is not just about creating and selling, value must also be maintained or raised later through NFT promotion. This means constant work with the community, communication, and social media. Without it, the published collection will have no value.

Let’s talk about NFT marketing in the next chapters.

Free NFT marketing

The buzz which was created around NFTs during recent months is not enough to promote your own tokens. The basic marketing activities should be used to make NFT as successful as possible. The rule of thumb is to promote it to the right people, on the right platform, at the right time. Let’s start with the steps which usually do not require additional investment.

Add your drop to NFT Calendar

NFTCalendar is the first site in the NFT Universe you should go to for NFT promotion. They cover the most drops, events, and high-profile releases of the Non-Fungible Token industry. The mission of the NFTCalendar is to support the creators, that’s why any creator can add his/her drop or event for free.

There is an easy onboarding process that takes only a few minutes to submit all NFT details and once it’s done, the NFT appears in the list. It is a great way to promote your NFT for free!

Evaluate how rare is your NFT

Use HowRareIs platform for NFT promotion to get an evaluation of how unique is your NFT. It is a very helpful tool to estimate the value of the token, as rarity is one of the most important factors in determining the value of an individual NFT.

In addition, there is a library of various token collections which you can use for analysis. Each token has a detailed summary of visual metrics which show the influence on its price. With this info, NFT collectors can estimate and compare the relative value of individual NFTs against each other.

There is another RarityTools platform for listing your NFT, however, it is not for free (currently priced at 2.0 ETH).

Determine the best social media channels

Social Media Marketing is a powerful tool to present NFT to your targeted audience, including through Discord NFT channels. The most popular channels used by artists and collectors are Twitter, Telegram, Instagram, Discord, Medium, and Youtube.

Share the information on your new drops, tell more about how the art pieces were created, what is their story and why they are unique and valuable. Also, prepare a series of educational posts to explain what is NFT for those who are not yet aware (and it still can be a majority of your friends).

Create an intrigue for your next NFT

Let your social media audience know you are preparing something exciting, possibly related to current NFT trends. It will keep you in all’s minds while you are not committed to exact dates or obliged to unveil the NFT details.

Continue to create your new token without rush, but let the time work for you to advertise it. The teaser can be posted not only on your media channels but also on the marketplace websites and social media as well. Be creative to make everyone stay tuned and wait for the release. And not least, make your teaser a piece of art itself.

Use the NFT marketing service on the marketplace

The marketing service scope marketplaces can offer to depend on their types – Open, Curated, or Proprietary.

The most popular Open marketplaces are OpenSea and Rarible, where anyone can mint and sell NFTs. On these marketplaces, there is no need to apply and get accepted – creators just connect to a wallet and mint the NFTs. Existing owners of NFTs can list their NFTs for resale. 

While Curated marketplaces determine which NFTs are allowed to be minted, posted, and sold directly in its platform, NFT companies can also participate. Compared to an open marketplace, a curated marketplace is more limited and exclusive, requiring artists to apply and be accepted before being able to mint or sell NFTs. Some of the well-known Curated marketplaces include SuperRare, Foundation, KnownOrigin, Nifty Gateway, and MakersPlace.

There are also Proprietary marketplaces. These platforms only offer NFTs created by the marketplace operator and usually do not facilitate the sale or display of other NFTs. Given that third-party creators are not invited to list NFTs on their sites, the exclusivity and scarcity of their NFTs often result in very high demand and high prices. Some examples of proprietary marketplaces include Top Shot, Vee Friends, and Bored Ape Yacht Club, all operated as NFT companies.

So your choice (and ability) to be in one or another marketplace will determine what free support you can get from them. For example, Curated platforms have a separate web page with featured drops. One of them, KnownOrigin, creates such a page every week with featured drops and a countdown to the release. MakersPlace also creates a page with the information for the drop release, images or teaser, and countdown. While Nifty Gateway posts a drops schedule on their website and Twitter for NFT promotion. If your NFTs get to the featured drops, marketplaces also promote them on social media. While Proprietary marketplaces that permit minting on their platforms are facilitating the creation of the NFT, and some of them offer their own online “Showcases” where NFT creators can display their collection for further NFT promotion.

Ask for your community support

Even not an original idea, but it is very effective and costs nothing. Ask your art peers and followers to share your NFT Project on their social media, and I am sure all of them will agree. You need more buzz about your NFT spreading out exponentially and being seen by as many people as possible.

Use guerrilla marketing

Raise the thread in such platforms as Reddit, Quora, and Bitcointalk asking, for example, “What emerging NFT artists do you know and recommend to follow on?” By using another account, you can give links to your drop and tell about yourself on someone else behalf.

Forget about dishonesty, such type of guerrilla marketing is actively used in advertising. You can also get involved in other discussions if you know the topic well enough.

The more often your name appears across various channels, the sooner people will remember it.

Ask NFTCalendar and marketplaces to include in their newsletters

Several marketplaces, including NFTCalendar, also crypto media send newsletters several times per week.

They offer a free service of adding the NFT release in their upcoming newsletters for further NFT promotion. This will put your news among other best releases in the NFT space and thus support the awareness. You just need to ask them

Dedicate a separate page about the new NFT on your website

If you have a personal website, create a separate page dedicated to your NFT drop. Add all the details of NFT pieces with descriptions, and share how, when, and where they will be available for purchase.

Paid NFT marketing

While free marketing is obviously a super smart way to strive for, you have to invest in it as well. Remember, that people won’t buy your NFT unless you market it extensively.

Promote your drop-in NFT-dedicated social media channels

There are numerous NFT communities on Twitter, Instagram, Discord, Telegram that either offer promotion options for NFTs or, at least, run comprehensive discussions about particular tokens.

For example, owners of such accounts can create a post with all the details of the drop, create their engagement, and also can invite an artist to participate in a personal discussion.

Collaboration with influencers

While being definitely not the cheapest way to promote your art, NFT influencers are the first that pops up in mind. They definitely have a loyal fans army that entrusts their recommendations and listens to their take.

Be prepared to pay influencers with crypto, or a piece of NFT art. But if you have enough artists and crypto fans among your acquaintances (which probably will come with a time anyway) – you might avoid the costs for influencers then.

Use PR to promote the NFT drop

Create an article about your new token, add some flavor of scandal and craziness of digital art in it, and send it to the most popular themed media.

Nowadays the journalists are looking for outstanding topics, especially if they include crypto and possibly millions of income. You also can offer other ways of partnership with media, like exclusive interviews or exclusive rights to be the first to publish.

Alternatively, you can use Medium and write articles and stories about the development of your NFT drop.

Initiate the collaboration with the artists’ community

It’s a well-known practice when digital artists join forces with musicians, fashion designers, and animation studios to release NFT Collections. In such a way, they cooperate to enhance token arts with the support of other creative peers.

That also allows to exchange audiences and expand each other’s fan base. It’s a win-win partnership for both sides as helps to get recognition much faster. Don’t forget you can start with a turn-around approach, why not reach out to other creators and offer them your assistance? It will not go unnoticed.

Giveaways

NFT giveaways often are used as a good practice among the art community before the upcoming collection. Physical pieces of your art or whole collectibles can be given away. But using this tool effectively, shouldn’t be treated for granted.

For example, everyone who wants to participate has to share the post on their own social media, tag a friend in comments, follow the artist on his channel, etc. This will create more noise around the token collection, allow it to be discovered by more people, and strengthen social engagement.

Increase Organic Visibility via SEO

Search Engine Optimization can help to attract the audience who doesn’t know about your tokens but are browsing for NFT marketplaces or looking to buy a specific NFT. There is a big part of NFT buyers who use search engines to find the best NFTs for investment. That’s when SEO can really help. Investing in SEO agency services can go a long way.

They will help the website with your NFT to get a higher rank in the search results.  At the same time that will lead to more organic traffic for relevant search queries. More traffic will improve NFT popularity, and you will get more bids and, thus, better pricing.

Pay Per Click Campaigns

It is possible to generate qualitative inbound leads by using a combination of search platforms and social media. You can find potential NFT buyers by creating specific landing pages and running PPC ad campaigns on different social and search platforms they use.

Social channels like YouTube, LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook offer targeted ad placement opportunities. Banner and search advertising can be leveraged through Google and Bing Ads.

Apply Different CRO Strategies

If you already use SEO, PPC and Social Media marketing, you can get more sales by traffic conversion. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) marketing practice can make your sales faster if, for example, you run your NFTs on different platforms. While SEO is focused on how to get visitors to your site, the CRO task is getting visitors to buy. Apply to the digital marketing agency to make that happen.

Non-fungible tokens are the next game-changer in modern art, and, for creators like you, we can be a partner in the thrilling way of recognition and prosperity. 

Want to launch an NFT token and need marketing help? Contact us and let’s have a talk.