Crypto Basics Series: The Beginner’s Guide to Promoting NFTs - BanklessDAO

7 Simple Tactics to Promote Your Digital Art Collectibles Like a Pro

Article by Monique Danao | Edited by Trewkat and Rianz | Cover by Ornella

Welcome to Bankless Publishing’s Crypto Basics Series. We’ll be shipping all of our introductory web3 content on Mirror each Monday, enabling users to curate a web3 reference library by minting NFTs on Optimism.

NFTs have taken the art world by storm, with popular pieces recently fetching astounding prices. For example, a collage of digital images by NFT artist Beeple sold for $69 million at Christie’s in March 2021. PAK’s NFT artwork ‘The Merge’ fetched $91.8 million in December of that same year.

While these success stories are far above the norm, numerous NFT artists have managed to find success and earn thousands of dollars from their artwork. But even if you have the talent to make captivating digital art, creating the art is only half the job. You then need to pique the interest of art enthusiasts and investors willing to shell out money for your work.

This is certainly something of a challenge. But if you can build your own brand and market your NFTs effectively, you’ll be able to build a like-minded community of fans, make money from your passion, and perhaps even attract some splashy (positive) headlines. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the ways you can promote your NFTs.

Promote Your NFTs on Instagram

Instagram is one of the best platforms for promoting NFTs. The visual nature of the platform lends itself well to promoting artwork, and with 1 billion active users every month, there are plenty of prospective eyeballs for your content, along with opportunities to bolster excitement for upcoming releases.

If you already have an Instagram account, there’s little-to-no learning curve when it comes to advertising NFTs. Just upload images, create captions, and add appropriate hashtags — and you’re good to go. Plus, there are also options to “boost” your posts to target specific audiences such as art enthusiasts.

Here are some popular hashtags that could help improve the visibility of your posts:

#nftartist
#nftart
#nft
#digitalart
#nftcollector
#cryptoart

NFT artists such as bosslogic, shavonne.wong, pulkit and redhongyi have each built an audience by consistently sharing their NFTs online. They also host giveaways, Q&A sessions, workshops, and events that help promote their brand and their artwork.

Some NFT creators launch contests, giveaways, and workshops to engage with their community. Source: Instagram

Connect With Crypto or Web3 Influencers

Much like a typical marketing campaign, connecting with influencers can help you promote your NFT offerings. Many influencers on social media platforms are willing to provide promotional services in exchange for the right compensation, and there are plenty of influencers working in the crypto or Web3 space.

Before reaching out, make sure the influencer’s crypto brand and target audience align with your own. Start by looking for crypto influencers within crypto communities you follow. Evaluate their engagement with followers, the authenticity of their content, and how they may have promoted NFT artists in the past. From there, curate a list of influencers and reach out to ask about their rates.

An influencer’s rates usually vary based on their number of followers, their reach and engagement, and which channels they use. The cost of the campaign will also depend on the number of posts you want them to make, the amount of effort the campaign requires, and whether or not the ad will be cross-posted or promoted. As a general rule, the greater the reach of an influencer, the higher the cost of the campaign.

Art enthusiasts like @neishanft have gained a reputation for effectively promoting NFT projects and artists. Finding similar crypto or Web3 influencers who are actively interested in the NFT/digital art scene can help you build hype for upcoming releases.

A word of warning is relevant here: be aware of the reputational risk associated with aligning your project with an influencer who does not disclose the business relationship to their followers. This issue was recently covered in BanklessDAO’s Decentralized Law newsletter and is a key concern for promoters.

Art enthusiasts create social media accounts dedicated to promoting promising NFT projects and artists . Source: Instagram

Place Your NFT on Popular Marketplaces

NFT marketplaces are like the Walmart or Amazon of the digital realm. If your NFTs aren’t listed in these marketplaces, then people are less likely to find and buy them.

Let’s take a look at which popular NFT marketplaces should be on your radar:

OpenSea: This is the world’s first and largest NFT marketplace. Artists can easily set up their collections, add a title and description for each piece, then list them for sale. Their core currencies include DAI, ETH/WETH, SOL, and USDC — and they also support a few other payment tokens. However, it’s not possible to use fiat currencies such as the Euro and USD.
Rarible: This marketplace offers a variety of NFTs such as illustrations, music, videos, and domain names. Rarible uses the RARI token, and also supports the Ethereum, Flow, and Tezos blockchains. The team is planning to integrate more blockchains in the near future. Rarible makes it fast and easy for creators to sell their NFTs. With their lazy minting feature, artists can list NFTs for free without paying for gas fees.
Foundation: Foundation is a marketplace for digital art, photography, and music. Users can buy and sell NFTs using ETH. You’ll need to set up a wallet with ETH to use the platform and mint NFTs. Creators get 95% of the total sale price during the initial sale, and receive 10% in royalties for each resale.

Keep in mind each marketplace supports different cryptocurrencies. Once you’ve linked your account to your wallet, you’re ready to sell your NFTs.

Raise Awareness in Online Forums

NFTs have become a recent topic of interest in mainstream media — but they’re still considered a new technology. If you’re new to the space, join crypto communities on Reddit, Telegram, Twitter, and Discord to learn more about building and promoting your brand within the industry.

It’s also worth attending virtual events to network with investors, influencers, and creators, and to gain word-of-mouth promotion. You may even find mentors and creators who are willing to teach you about promotional techniques that have worked for them, or offer opportunities to build brand awareness.

Although there are many different platforms that host NFT forums, many of the thriving NFT communities are on Discord. Popular Discord communities such as NFT, OpenSea, and Rarible are great places to discover and connect with investors who are looking to support NFT collections that appeal to them. You could also create your own Discord server to engage with followers who are specifically interested in the NFTs you are creating, and use this space to host events and make announcements for upcoming releases.

Target Paid Crypto Advertising Platforms

It’s also possible to raise awareness beyond the online forum communities. Thanks to Bitcoin ad networks, you can display ads on websites you have chosen to target using banner or pop-up ads. Similar to other online advertising, Bitcoin ad networks operate on a ‘cost per click’ or ‘cost per thousand impressions’ model.

Some of the most popular crypto ad networks are:

Add Drops to the NFT Calendar

An NFT ‘drop’ refers to the date and time that a particular NFT will be released. As NFTs gain popularity, more investors will be looking for the exact date and time that a particular collection will be launched in the marketplace.

Platforms such as NFT Calendar allow builders to create events for their NFT drops. Events can be filtered based on which blockchain they are on; the most popular options include Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Cardano, and Solana.

To create your own listing, just fill out the form with the following information:

Event Title / Title of NFT artwork
Event Description
Cover Image
Event Date
Event Details (i.e. blockchain and marketplace)
Event links (i.e. event website, source, marketplace URL, and Discord server)

Host a Giveaway Campaign

Hosting giveaways is one of the most effective strategies for promoting your NFTs. Many crypto enthusiasts are willing to participate in giveaways for a chance to win free artwork.

Most giveaway campaigns have a set of rules that participants must follow in order to join. Criteria may include: following the artist on Instagram or Twitter, sharing a post on social media accounts, and/or tagging a friend in the comments section. It’s a fast and easy way to boost your following and to bolster interest in your NFT artwork.

For example, Coachella festival goers can claim a free NFT that allows them to unlock exclusive on-site perks. Stored in a digital wallet, these tokens can help the NFT holders to access entry lanes, claim limited edition merchandise, or get food and beverages.

Coachella festival goers can claim free NFTs to redeem benefits like merchandise or food and beverage vouchers. Source: Coachella

Check Out NFT Newsletters

Many NFT enthusiasts subscribe to popular newsletters to stay up to date with the latest NFT trends and projects. Instead of building your own email list or promoting in private Discord channels, list your NFT drops in popular newsletters to increase potential interest and traffic.

Top newsletters to consider include:

NFT Lately: good for news about top NFT drops, NFT news, and exclusive NFTs.
NFT Drops: includes weekly profiles and breakdowns of upcoming drops across the NFT universe.
Rarible: delivers news on top projects, development updates, curated artwork, and market analysis.

Most of these newsletters have listings of upcoming NFT drops — which make them an ideal platform for promoting your content. In all likelihood, you’ll be asked to pay a fee to have your NFT drops featured. Nonetheless, the price may be worth it if you manage to gain followers and supporters.

Now that you are across some of the best tactics for promoting your NFTs, you’ll be well on your way to attracting an audience who are interested in your creations. This should help you to achieve your ultimate goal: making money from your art!

A version of this article was originally published by Bankless Publishing on May 11, 2022.

Author Bio

Monique Danao is a content writer and journalist who loves working with startups and tech companies. Her work has been published on Forbes, Sitepoint, and Fast Capital 360.

Editor Bio

Trewkat is a writer and editor at BanklessDAO. She’s interested in learning about crypto and NFTs, with a particular focus on how best to communicate this newfound knowledge to others.

Rianz

Designer Bio

Ornella

BanklessDAO is an education and media engine dedicated to helping individuals achieve financial independence.

Disclaimer: this isn’t investment advice. This article has been written for informational and educational purposes only and it reflects my personal experience and current views, which are subject to change.

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