Most people who invest in cryptocurrency or pay attention to the markets are familiar with non-fungible tokens (NFTs). They might not understand everything about NFTs, but they certainly know they exist. This means you don’t need to search very hard to promote NFTs to a specific group of people since the NFT crowd is basically the cryptocurrency crowd.
How exactly do you promote your NFT project?
This article looks at some fundamental elements of promoting your NFT marketing project and what to consider or avoid during this critical process. Before that, we will look at what an NFT marketplace is, why it is crucial and the different platforms that you can choose from to effectively promote your NFT project.
What is the NFT marketplace?
The NFT marketplace is a market, just like any other physical market. The only difference is that it is a digital marketplace. Anyone can buy or sell any Digital Assets or NFT tokens here using NFT crypto. This marketplace can also create NFT tokens or any other digital assets and store, display, or show trading. NFTs are virtual or digital tokens that authenticate the ownership of artwork, games, soundtracks, or any other artistic creation. The NFT marketplace allows people to sell or buy these tokens or digital assets. NFT crypto refers to cryptocurrencies that are used in the purchase and sale of digital assets.
Why is the NFT marketplace so important?
1) Limitless Expansion
The NFT market is a massive digital pool with millions of transactions taking place every day. This means it is easier to gain access to this marketplace and buy or sell whatever you desire. For this reason, it is most likely the future of the digital market.
2) Non-traceable
Since NFT markets are virtual, they are virtually untraceable. Any transaction in this market requires the use of digital money. A crypto wallet is where you receive and store digital currency. When the use case for NFTs expands in the future, the crypto market will automatically rise to new heights.
3) Easily Compatible
There are numerous digital platforms available today. You must select a crypto wallet that is compatible with the blockchain network you’re using. Various platforms support different crypto wallets. To buy or sell any digital asset on the Ethereum-based platform, you must first use a compatible crypto wallet such as MetaMask, and then use the NFT marketplace.
4) Amazing Usability
A crypto wallet is simply a storage location for cryptocurrencies. To make transactions here, you will need several coins in your wallet. Before buying, listing, or minting any NFT, you must first fund your crypto wallet. To make any transaction, you must first purchase some cryptocurrency that is supported by the NFT markets. Finally, to complete a transaction on the Ethereum-based marketplace, for example, you need to purchase some Ethereum stored in an Ethereum-based crypto wallet.
5) User Authorization
You cannot buy or sell on the NFT marketplace without first creating a user account. It is necessary to create an account, which will ensure market authenticity and authorization.
6) Easily usable
The NFT marketplace operates in a straightforward manner. Following the steps below will allow you to understand the NFT marketplace’s operational process and make your transition into the market.
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Sign in:
Although each NFT marketplace has its own registration process, the basic steps are always the same. You must first create an account, after which you must link your account to your crypto wallet by entering the correct wallet password. The button to create a new account is usually found in the right-hand corner of the NFT marketplace home page.
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Buy:
You can purchase an NFT in an auction. Alternatively, instead of just making an outright purchase, you can submit an offer to the owner of the NFT and negotiate a better price.
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Sell:
You can either sell your NFTs in the marketplace’s auction or to a buyer of your choice. It’s a little more challenging to sell an NFT than it is to buy one on the NFT marketplace. To sell a digital asset, you must first upload it to the market and set a fixed price. Following that, the NFT marketplace will thoroughly examine the digital work for authenticity. Only then can the NFT be lifted into the market for sale if it is genuine. After a seller accepts a bid, the marketplace handles the money transfer.
Examples of NFT marketplaces
There are two main types of NFT marketplaces: self-service and curated platforms. They can also be classified in the industry as open and closed markets. Self-service platforms allow anyone to create an NFT. You just need to upload your photo, audio, or video file and include what royalty you want to charge for each sale. The downside to this type of marketplace is that it often has copycats and fakes. Curated platforms, on the other hand, only allow approved creators to mint NFTs. These types of platforms usually focus on NFTs for high-quality digital art vs. simple collectibles. The downside is the higher transaction fees and less flexibility when it comes to royalty percentage.
If you are a normal user who just wants to buy and sell NFTs, there are plenty of options that are just a simple Google search away. However, different marketplaces offer different user experiences, charge different conversion and listing fees, and provide different facilities. For this reason, before you plan to promote your NFT marketing project, it is essential to consider all the different options.
Let us now look at some of the best and most well-known NFT marketplaces that you can draw inspiration from to create your platform.
Open Market
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Open Sea
OpenSea was one of the first and most popular NFT marketplaces globally and is part of the open market. It was founded in 2017 by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah, who was inspired by CryptoKitties’ inception and growth. CryptoKitties is a Blockchain game that allows users to sell, trade and give away CryptoKitties in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) similar to game cards. These crypto tokens can be sold, traded, or given away by users.
OpenSea is a multi-Blockchain NFT marketplace that allows users to sell and buy artwork, music, domain names, trading cards, and other collectibles. The platform has boasted the largest number of registered creators and is considered the first choice by NFT starters. It supports a variety of file formats, including image, video, 3D, and other types of physical or non-physical assets.
OpenSea charges a 2.5% commission fee on all sales. Although you will be charged a fee on your first contract, you will not be asked to pay any more until your second NFT minting. OpeanSea is thus relatively friendly to independent artists’ wallets when compared to other pricing systems. The only drawback is that, due to a large number of registered creators, your NFT listings will receive less engagement than those in other closed communities. Collectors can search NFTs by keyword on the platform, but it’s not easy; they’ll have to sift through millions of listings to find your work. Overall, if you can promote your work on social media on your own, OpenSea will be one of the best options for you.
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Rarible
Rarible is one of the most reliable large NFT marketplaces. This marketplace allows creators to mint NFTs on Rarible’s original token, “RARI,” as well as ERC721. This is despite the fact that Rarible has a shorter history than OpenSea, having started in 2020. Image, video, and audio formats are all supported.
The platform’s distinguishing feature is its own token, “RARI”. This can be used to sell or buy NFTs directly on the platform, propose or vote on improvements, moderate community members, curate featured artworks, and promote members through community or art grants. As a result, it acts as a virtual “stock” that allows users to participate in platform management.
You’ll be asked to pay an initial contract gas fee, as well as separate minting and listing fees each time you try to sell your works, just as with OpenSea. Rarible charges a 2.5% service fee, which is the same as the other platforms.
Despite the price, the platform is unquestionably popular, as the user interface is both collector and creator-friendly. This increases your chances of discovering your favorite artworks or being discovered by potential patrons.
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Mintable
Mintable is an up-and-coming NFT marketplace that would be the best option for you if you’re worried about paying the initial fee. Unlike the other platforms, Mintable is the only marketplace where you can mint and list your items for free.
When you create an account and go to the platform’s minting page, you can choose between the “Traditional” and “Gasless” methods. While the Traditional method provides full minting functionality with a gas fee, the Gasless method allows you to mint your works without any network fees (with this option, your NFT will not appear in your wallet until someone buys it). Although Mintable will charge a 5% service fee after the sale, you will not be charged any gas fees and will not be required to pay anything until your work is sold out.
Mintable only supports image, video, and 3D files, so it may not be the best platform for musicians and Audio NFT creators. However, attaching an image or video to the audio and formatting it in MP4 solves this problem.
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Zora
Another new platform, Zora, is a viable alternative for creators and collectors in the future. You can opt out of the ERC721 network and mint your works on ERC20 instead. This will allow you to discover that many NFTs are traded in different currencies such as USDT and WETH (Wrapped ETH).
The reason for using Zora isn’t just because of the contracting aspect. Zora currently states that they do not charge any service fees to their users. You’ll still have to pay gas, but if your NFTs are likely to sell and you don’t want to pay commission to Zora, this could be a cost-effective marketplace. A wide range of file formats, including PSD (Adobe Photoshop) and Ai (Illustrator) and text, are supported.
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Hicetnunc
Hicetnunc has exploded in popularity in recent months due to the growing demand for alternative currencies due to ETH’s high gas fee. All NFTs are traded in Tezos on Hicetnunc (XTZ). Despite the gas fee required for minting, creators are not asked to pay more than one dollar to mint an NFT, thanks to its incredibly low gas fee. While Hicetnunc charges a 2.5% commission, you will pay almost no network fees. Tezos’ gas fee is significantly lower than Ether’s due to the various types of smart contracts; Tezos can process NFT-related operations with substantially less energy consumption (and this is why Tezos and Hicetnunc are considered more eco-friendly).
On Hicetnunc, you can upload a wide variety of file formats (including ZIP!). This allows you to mint “any” file (in theory). Although Tezos is not yet a major currency, and the number of Tezos users is still growing. As you can see from the increasing number of #hicetnunc hashtags being tweeted every day, Hicetnunc will most likely become one of the major platforms in the near future.
Visit Hicetnunc
Closed Market
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Foundation
The closed marketplace Foundation is probably the most accessible and populated. Foundation’s fame has quickly grown since its official launch in February 2021. In fact, thousands of creators have already been invited and registered. Invite codes are frequently given away on Twitter to well-known and unique artists or traded for money or NFTs. In addition to the invitation chain, the Foundation has been operating a “Community Upvote” system, which allows artists to vote for one another. In this system, the top 50 artists with the most votes are invited to join the community as creators.
The benefit of participating in the Foundation is enormous in terms of “grade.” Collectors will know you are in such a grade if you are a Foundation registered creator, and your works are more likely to deserve high value. It’s true that the Foundation’s commission is 15%, which is higher than the open markets, and the gas fee is also astronomically high (in addition to the minting and listing fees, creators are also asked to pay the auction settlement fee!). Nevertheless, the value you receive as a Foundation creator would outweigh the costs.
The platform design is still basic, making it difficult for artists to be discovered unless Foundation curators feature them. The website lacks a keyword search engine, and no one can discover your art organically. Although it is still a work in progress, artists should do their best to promote themselves. This marketplace only supports JPG, PNG, and MP4 formats at the moment.
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Makersplace
Makersplace is a “premium” platform that is more difficult to use than Foundation. This is because Makersplace does not use a community invitation system. Additionally, the only way to join is to audition by submitting your profile and portfolio to Makersplace. If you pass the audition and receive an official invitation from Makersplace, you will be able to mint your works right away.
The audition process is relatively straightforward, and you will most likely have to wait more than a few months for approval. If you want to get into any exclusive platforms, submitting your portfolio to Makerspace and looking at other platforms at the same time is probably the best plan.
The pricing is more reasonable than Foundation because you only have to pay the gas fee once per minting and the commission is only 15%. Makersplace supports JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and MP4 formats.
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SuperRare
Since 2018, PIXURA Inc has operated SuperRare, an exclusive NFT platform. SuperRare was a more open and accessible platform in the early days of NFT. However, as NFT technology grew in popularity, it has become a more exclusive and closed community in recent years.
To join SuperRare today, you must apply for a creator invitation by submitting your profile and portfolios, as well as a one-minute application video to capture your self-introduction. Applications are not consistently reviewed within one or two months of submission; in fact, this frequently takes much longer. This is why SuperRare is considered “above premium.” So, if you’ve had success on SuperRare, don’t be shy about bragging about your profile to collectors.
The gas and commission fees are nearly identical to Makersplace, but SuperRare also charges buyers a 3% transaction fee and creators a 15% commission per NFT sale. SuperRare supports all the following image formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, and MP4.
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Nifty Gateway
Finally, Nifty Gateway is one of the most well-known NFT marketplaces, with big names like Beeple, Michael Kagan, Calvin Harris, and Deadmau5 pioneering the NFT culture! You must fill out an invitation request form and go through an audition, like other exclusive platforms, to get a creator invite.
While Nifty Gateway’s service fee has recently been increased to 20%, this is reasonable if it means you can stand alongside Beeple and other prominent NFT legends in the same artist list.
Now that we have looked at the most popular NFT marketplaces you can use to promote your NFT marketing project, let us look at how to do this.
How to promote your NFT project without risking the brand
You need to focus on the right platforms and interact with influential people for any marketing project, and the same is true for NFT’s. Setting up an NFT project is a long game, so forget about shortcuts or any short-term gains that might be tempting but then prove to be a mistake later on. If you look at the founders and leaders of successful crypto projects, they focus on development and try not to exaggerate or get lost in pumping up their own brand. This is because they have faith in the project. Avoiding exaggerations conveys their confidence to the audience or potential investors. That being said, it’s entirely necessary to retain the interest of investors and let the market know what’s going on. That’s why you still see people like Charles Hoskinson or Vitalik Buterin so often.
Moral of the story: Promoting an NFT project is necessary, but it’s equally important to strike a balance and be a voice of reason that brings value to the table.
Let’s take a look at where and how to promote an NFT marketing project:
Where and how to promote your NFT project
Invest in your website and social media presence
It should go without saying that a professional website is necessary and often the first port of call for curious investors. This website should be fully up-to-date and optimized for search engines. When you think about it, a lackluster website or quiet social media page is often a sign of stagnation or lack of attention to detail. On the other hand, an up-to-date website builds credibility. Likewise, active social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, and YouTube show that an NFT marketing project is taking its move into the market seriously. These are also rather obvious places to promote news or updates and inform newcomers about the exciting future of your NFT marketing project.
Promote your crypto project on Twitter
Twitter is a powerful tool for cryptocurrency investors. With such a fast-moving market, quick access to news or updates is essential, and Twitter is arguably the most effective platform in this regard. Unfortunately, Tweets are actually powerful enough to cause significant pumps or dumps for any cryptocurrency.
Promoting an NFT project is ideal for publishing accessible news or updates about the project for investors or potential investors. From new collaborations to new drops and new offers, there’s no end to what you can announce. Most importantly, you should dress up every tweet with relevant tags and start liking and re-posting any Tweets in a space that aligns with your goals.
Embrace the community to generate word-of-mouth advertising
Community support and interaction are everything for new cryptocurrency projects, and it’s the same for promoting NFTs. When you embrace the community and connect with investors, the opposite happens. This means that your pool of investors or followers is often a great source of promotion, for these are the people who will most likely talk about your NFT project and what you do. The people who listen to these investors are also likely to be investors or potential followers, which creates a domino effect when it comes to word-of-mouth. The result is a community of people who promote your NFT in a way that no other platform can!
Issue a press release for your NFT project
Publishing a press release is essential for each and every NFT project. It’s not only a way to indicate legitimacy but also a great way to promote an NFT project. A press release is not all that complex. It’s designed to send out specific information about a newsworthy event, such as your NFT project. These documents were primarily created to notify the media in the past. However, today, press releases have evolved and you can use one to promote your business or project more directly to your target audience. For instance, a good press release shouldn’t just target the media. Rather, your press release should also target bloggers or social media influencers who might pick up this story and share it with their network.
Get started on Discord or Telegram today
Let’s address a common misconception first: are Discord and Telegram the same thing? Not exactly. This article should help you decide between the two. However, both platforms give the developers of crypto projects a place to build a community and instantly communicate with this group of people. Unlike Twitter or other social media platforms, Telegram and Discord offer a place for long-form discussions instead of a place where you can post news or updates. You can stream events or request feedback from users/investors on both platforms. They’re also both great places to promote your project to the community and get them involved. It’s also worth noting that time is of the essence. You should use this avenue of discussion sooner rather than later – when you have no time!
Engage responsibly with interviews
Do you believe that your NFT project is the next big thing? There’s a constant hunger for new and exciting projects in the cryptocurrency markets, and NFTs are trending in recent times. If a competent spokesperson is on board, there is a constant demand for interviews about NFT projects that might capture the minds of cryptocurrency investors. You might notice that such interviews are common on YouTube, where influencers often host Q&A-type videos to help inform their followers about the next big thing in crypto. Interviews are a great way to get the word out. Moreover, AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit, YouTube, or any other platform is a fantastic way to engage a crowd in your NFT marketing project.
Collaborate responsibly with influencers you can trust
With the mention of influencers above, there comes another question. Is it right or wrong or even necessary for an NFT project to contribute a fee for collaborations?
Paying influencers is normal, but this needs to happen openly and morally in order to avoid disaster. In other words, you should not be looking for influencers or other mediums of communication to promote the project in an artificial way. It’s just not a good idea to take this approach. However, you can (and maybe you should) seek to reward influencers for their time because their time and effort are valid. More specifically, if you decide to go down this road, it’s imperative to remain transparent and honest. You should always seek to educate the audience rather than fill them with false hopes or unrealistic expectations in the hopes that they might invest today.
Run a giveaway before the official launch
Many cryptocurrency projects run a giveaway during the launch stage. This giveaway should require those who enter to share and tag friends, etc., which is an excellent way to build organic awareness. Ideally, this giveaway will also begin a week or two before launch, which gives the market time to learn about your project. The NFT marketplace should also be tagged in this giveaway. Those who enter should be informed as to how exactly they can acquire your NFT’s.
Conclusion
Building a community around your NFT project is half the battle and getting potential investors to the table requires a sustained push through marketing. It’s also necessary to take a multi-pronged approach on various platforms while creating awareness around the features and future of your NFT. However, with so much controversy in the cryptocurrency market, the importance of authenticity cannot be overstated. If you’re hoping for long-term success, you should avoid any temptation to focus on short-term gains and, rather, aim to create a solid foundation for your NFT project.
How Pressfarm can help
For an entrepreneur, overcoming a crisis can determine your success or failure. At Pressfarm, we help companies define the right narrative in the media for their brand – either to improve their credibility or resolve a PR crisis. If you are an entrepreneur wondering how to improve your company’s publicity, get in touch with us. We can help you to craft and distribute your press releases, develop compelling guest posts and design eye-catching media kits for your brand.
Learn why we are good at what we do from our customer success stories.