If you’re a relatively new artist, starting out with NFTs is tough. The market is full of people trying to make a quick buck, and it’s hard to get the attention of buyers if you don’t already have a name for yourself.
To be a successful NFT creator, you will need to build your brand and audience. The following you gain and the community you build will be an essential part of your promotional strategy. These are the people who will spread the word and create hype around your art.
Define your brand
Branding involves much more than just having a good name and a consistent visual style. Your brand should tell a story, and evoke emotional responses in your audience.
When developing your brand, you want to make sure that your brand tells your story. Why? Because having good content alone isn’t enough to capture the imagination and create intrigue that lasts beyond individual works. You can add an extra dimension of meaning and relatability to your work by creating a brand that resonates strongly with your audience.
One artist who has absolutely nailed their branding is the street artist Banksy. Banksy has a distinctive style that has been consistent throughout their career. Whenever a new piece is released, it is immediately recognizable as their work. The brand feels political, rebellious, and ironic. The sarcastic, anarchist vibes of the brand are further reinforced by the fact that they started out doing illegal street graffiti, and that nobody knows who Banksy really is.
Yes, the individual works speak volumes for themselves. But just think about how much more emotion the Banksy brand as a whole evokes, and the value it adds back to each individual piece. This is what you paint through your branding – the bigger picture.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to help develop your brand:
- Who are you as an artist?
- What is your distinctive style?
- Who are you speaking to, and what are you trying to say?
- How does your art convey the messages they contain?
Once you’ve developed your brand and style, use it consistently across all your communication channels – on your artist page, social media, and everything else that you do. This will help reinforce the ideas you’re trying to convey, and solidify your brand identity in the minds of your audience.
Engage Your Audience
Continuous engagement is extremely important for growing your audience and generating brand loyalty. Being communicative with your audience shows that you care, and creating avenues for audience participation helps them feel more involved and more connected with your brand. Start conversations, and reward your audience for participating. These are the people who can help to promote and create hype around your brand, so give them incentives to do so.
Every social media platform is different. On twitter, it’s normal for brands to retweet and post new content several times a day. On Facebook and Instagram, posting that often may seem spammy and cause you to lose followers. Learn about how each platform works, how often you should post, and what kind of posts are well-received by your followers before you begin.
NFTs themselves provide avenues for continuous engagement. Because NFTs are unique and publicly viewable on the blockchain, you can track any NFT you have ever sold. You can then send bonus content to the addresses of your buyers, allow them to use their NFTs as tickets to your next show, or let them use their NFTs to redeem extra content in the future. Rewarding your supporters will strengthen their loyalty, and if you build a reputation for doing this, it will greatly increase the value and desirability of your brand’s NFTs.
Use Promotional Services
To further expand your reach, you can use external promotional services. Mintable’s Pro Services provides an easy and affordable way for you to advertise your work, and reach a wider audience than you would on your own. If you’re an NFT creator who doesn’t have a huge following already, this may be the easiest and quickest way to get more eyes on your work, as the platform already has a large number of followers it can leverage for promotions.
For more tips on marketing your NFTs, check out Sellers’ University, an educational video series that will teach you everything you need to know about creating and selling NFTs.
