Metaverse marketing is just starting out, but it has a tremendous amount of potential. This article discusses the steps you can take to start using metaverse marketing to promote your brand.
The term “metaverse” has been brought up in conversations rather frequently after Facebook changed its name to Meta. The metaverse is a trend that is quickly spreading and will influence every aspect of culture, entertainment, and marketing.
It is even bigger than Facebook. Because of this, any person who owns a business or works in marketing and promotes products or services online should be interested in the latest developments in this dynamic industry. Before we move on to the steps to market in the metaverse, let us understand what metaverse marketing is.
What is metaverse marketing?
The term “metaverse marketing” refers to a specific sort of marketing that establishes connections with clients through the medium of the metaverse. It creates a setting that is engaging and immersive, which enables businesses to connect with their clients on a whole new level.
Users are able to communicate and collaborate with one another in a number of different ways within the metaverse, which is a type of online virtual environment. It is possible to use it for marketing objectives, in order to establish connections with customers and promote different brands or products.
Traditional methods of marketing can be distinguished from metaverse marketing by the fact that the latter provides clients with an immersive and participatory experience.
Customers are given the opportunity to investigate and engage with a company’s brand in a manner that is not available to them in the physical world. This enables companies to forge real ties with their clientele and cultivate a sense of loyalty among those clients.
The introduction of the metaverse has completely changed the landscape of marketing as we know it. It is never too early to begin utilizing the metaverse as a marketing tool for your company if you have not previously done so.
Steps to market in the metaverse
Now that you understand what Metaverse Marketing is, it is time to educate yourself on how marketing in the Metaverse works. The steps to market in the metaverse include
- Define your metaverse marketing objectives
- Determine which platforms offer the highest opportunity and brand match
- Create experiences that will appeal to your audience.
- Experiment with models that generate profit.
- Natively integrate your brand into the metaverse
- Prepare ahead of time for potential brand dangers.
Define your metaverse marketing objectives
Before you get started with going all out to market in the metaverse, the first step to market in the metaverse would require you to be able to identify what your metaverse marketing goals are. To do this, you need to ask yourself the following questions;
What about the metaverse makes you want to be a part of it? Do you want to enhance awareness among new audiences, position your brand and generate good feelings, or encourage brand loyalty if the customers of your brand are there? Is it your intention to encourage creative thinking amongst your marketing team?
Since the sales of virtual things are still far lower than sales of real ones, the key objective of brands shouldn’t be to directly drive sales for the foreseeable future, this should not be their primary focus.
In addition to this, the demographic makeup of today’s metaverse audiences tends to be predominantly younger, which presents both potential and risks, particularly on online entertainment platforms such as Roblox.
Determine which platforms offer the highest opportunity and brand match
Next up on the steps to market in the metaverse, you should consider various platforms with high opportunities. There are currently a number of games and platforms that are part of the metaverse, some of which are Roblox, Fortnite, Decentraland, Minecraft, and Meta’s Horizon Worlds. For certain applications, particular ones will be superior to others.
There is a large amount of room for experimenting with different platforms in order to determine which ones are successful. For instance, the premium brand Gucci has carried out a variety of brand activations in order to determine where and how to interact with the millennial generation, Gen Z.
When it introduced a metaverse counterpart of its real-world Gucci Garden on Roblox the previous year, it quickly attracted 19.9 million visitors in just two weeks. Gucci has also formed a partnership with the fashion-focused metaverse known as Zepeto, announced intentions to construct a virtual world on the blockchain-based platform known as The Sandbox, and developed assets for video games such as The Sims, Pokémon GO, and Animal Crossing.
Create experiences that will appeal to your audience.
Brands in the metaverse have to live up to consumers’ expectations of innovation or risk being overlooked. The success of a company’s metaverse strategy will depend on how well it integrates native advertising, immersive experiences (such as games, virtual stores, events, and sponsorships), and real-world activations.
As an illustration, consider what Vans, a skateboard company, did last fall by releasing the virtual skatepark “Vans World” on the online gaming platform Roblox. Vans provided a way for customers to virtually visit skate parks with their pals in an effort to promote the company’s name and attract the target audience.
Visitors can create their own unique skateboards in a virtual skate store using points they earn while playing games. More than 48 million users have visited this so far, proving its ability to attract new followers as well as old ones.
Experiment with models that generate profit.
While direct sales may not be a top priority in the metaverse at the moment, that doesn’t mean brands shouldn’t be making plans to take advantage of the opportunity in the future. There is currently a $54 billion industry for direct-to-avatar sales of virtual products, and several innovative companies are experimenting with new ways to make money in this space.
A beanie, for instance, may be purchased from Forever 21 in Roblox for less than a dollar. However, Gucci’s digital Dionysus bag sold for $4,115 last year, which is more than the retail price of the actual bag. Nike is experimenting with novel NFTs with the release of Nike Cryptokicks, a digital replica of the company’s popular Nike Dunk sneakers developed by the studio RTFKT, which Nike purchased in December.
Today, it’s common for sales to go from online to offline. In the future, we can expect to see more opportunities for sales to go from the metaverse to the real world. In April, Chipotle said it was the first brand to let Roblox players exchange digital currency for real-world rewards when it gave burrito vouchers to the first 30,000 people who came to its metaverse restaurant.
Natively integrate your brand into the metaverse
People hate it when ads get in the way of what they’re doing. So that you don’t mess up the user’s experience, it’s important to build your brand into the metaverse in a natural way.
Make sure your brand is visible in the metaverse and easy for users to find. You should also make sure that the way your brand is shown online matches how it is shown in the real world.
You can naturally put yourself in the metaverse in a number of ways. Here are some suggestions:
In-game ads: At the moment, games are the most popular thing in the metaverse. You can reach a lot of people if you put ads in games that a lot of people play. Native in-game advertising is a great way to show users your brand without getting in the way of their experience.
Virtual events: To get the word out about your brand, you can host virtual events in the metaverse. These events can be anything from parties to the start of a new product line. You can also use virtual events to connect with other businesses and people who have a lot of influence. Think about brands like Gucci and Coca-Cola. They’ve both done very well with virtual events in the metaverse.
Virtual stores: To sell your goods, you can open a virtual store in the metaverse. This is a great way to reach people who might not be able to come to your store. You can also use your online store to sell limited-edition items or offer deals that aren’t available anywhere else.
Prepare ahead of time for potential brand dangers.
Many firms exposed themselves to risk by engaging directly with consumers online without preparing for the internet’s quick feedback loops or social media’s virality. In the metaverse, risks are increased since events are live and immersive. Brands should set basic rules of engagement for customer experience, IP control, user safety, data privacy, and disinformation. Things haven’t always gone as planned. Take, for instance, one worldwide electronics business that debuted a new line of products on its metaverse arena, but dissatisfied fans “queued” outside the venue.
Conclusion
As more business moves online, make sure the landing page on your digital business card is set up well. If you keep these steps in mind as you make your metaverse marketing plan, you’ll be well on your way to success.
