The business world has yet to see any recent technology innovation with the velocity and wide-ranging impact of the non-fungible token (NFT). Out of seemingly nowhere, the NFT market continues to grow at an exponential rate. According to DappRadar’s Q3 Industry Report, buyers spent nearly $6 billion in August 2021 on NFTs.
Notably, none of the previous seven months saw NFT sales volume exceeding $2 billion. A related technology to blockchain and cryptocurrency, the inherent uniqueness of a single NFT remains its most important differentiator. This non-fungible nature ultimately provides NFTs with the potential to transform a myriad of industries and business processes.
While NFT tokenized digital art, gaming assets, and music garner a lot of buzz and sales, the technology also offers the hope to revolutionize disparate business sectors such as healthcare, finance, and the supply chain. Needless to say, boundless opportunities exist for companies to add NFT functionality to their products and services.
Taking advantage of this emerging market requires a proactive and well-considered approach, especially considering the relative newness of the NFT technology, let alone blockchain. After all, the talent pool for developers with experience in blockchain and NFT is very shallow. In the end, making it easy for your customers to embrace the NFT concept is critical.
Additionally, partnering with companies already experienced in this space ultimately raises your chances of success. With the goal of helping your organization make a successful entry into the NFT market, check out these helpful insights.
Any company entering the NFT space wants to make a big splash. After all, a successful release brings with it a strong potential to quickly go viral. Perhaps their competition beat them to the punch by launching their own NFTs? While this is still a relatively new sector, ripe with opportunity, it’s currently a pretty competitive marketplace. Organizations, no matter their size, need to make it easy on their customers when it comes to purchasing NFTs.
It’s important not to assume your customer base already understands the concepts of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. If your market demographic tends to skew older, lowering their barrier to embracing NFTs becomes critical. In this scenario, using a custodial wallet becomes a wise choice for your development team. It provides customers with the ability to purchase an NFT with a simple credit card transaction. This approach bypasses most of the complexity surrounding NFT shopping. Understandably, since the NFT is a relatively new concept, some users might feel uneasy with buying them using a largely unfamiliar process. Credit cards feel comfortable and help engender trust. So make sure your team takes this approach, which provides the best opportunity for a successful launch.
Before adding an NFT to one of your company’s products, make it a point to first research what your customer base loves about your product and brand. Is it the scarcity of the product? Does it boast a certain hip factor within the current marketplace? Maybe it’s attractive to the collector market? Whatever the reasons, determining these core purchasing motivators before your NFT launch is important. Use that research to inform the launch strategies for your NFT release.
Importantly, this information lets you target potential buyers with similar values and demographics as your current customers. It also helps your team craft a marketing strategy to create a buzz around the NFT launch. In the end, NFTs bring your organization the potential to greatly expand the reach of your brand in the marketplace. So don’t skimp on performing the necessary market research to properly target the market for your NFTs. Additionally, ensure your marketing team fully understands the concept of the NFT and its potential for business growth.
Any company new to NFTs needs to consider partnering with expert organizations boasting experience in this space. This approach lets your company focus on its own business considerations while leaving the technical and marketing aspects of NFTs to the experts. Gigster offers significant experience in all aspects of blockchain and NFT development. This includes everything from the technology surrounding cryptocurrencies to formulating successful strategies for NFT releases.
While it may be difficult to bring a highly experienced team in-house, we leverage the best talent from around the world and support them with full-stacked managed service including workflows, frameworks, and process. Remember, the NFT space moves at close to the speed of light. In this environment, trying to launch NFTs, and their associated technical and marketing considerations, without an experienced hand guiding your company likely leads to failure.
Determining the right marketplace for your NFT is the last piece of the puzzle to figure out before your launch. This is another area where research comes into play. Analyze where your top customers are most likely to engage instead of simply releasing it on OpenSea and hoping for the best. That latter haphazard approach prevents your company from gaining the valuable metrics or valuation it needs to gauge the true impact of the NFT.
Of course, your company is able to say it released an NFT, but it might adversely affect the impact of future releases. Taking a slower, more discerning approach remains the wiser call in this scenario. Using a slower release cycle lets you identify an initial group of around 50 power users from your customer base. Provide them with exclusive information on the NFT release. Also consider offering other perks in tandem with the NFT to help drive initial sales and valuations.
An exclusive meeting with your CEO or another similar benefit makes sense as part of the release. Ultimately, an NFT serves to create those secondary markets that drive customer engagement. Forging a community that builds a market around your brand remains a worthy goal for your company’s first NFT. Don’t consider it to be a revenue stream by itself. If your company needs advice on NFTs, cryptocurrencies, or any modern software development project, connect with our team at Gigster.
As a fully-managed software development platform, we boast the technical skills, business acumen, and relevant experience to become a valuable partner for your organization. We look forward to hearing from you!
