How to Sell More NFTs as an Artist — Part 2 of 2
Here are even more strategies to better market and sell NFTs
In the first part of this article, I went over a number of strategies I’ve seen work in the NFT space to get more sales. Here are even more strategies, including some specifically (at the end) related to low gas fee blockchains and fx(hash).
Make it Physical
When a topic leans hard one way, addressing an opposing topic can be refreshing. Just because NFTs are inherently digital doesn’t mean that they can’t have some kind of interfacing with the built environment.
I’ve seen a handful of artists sell their art by tying it to some level of physicality.
In the generative art space, some artists are taking advantage of the fact that the art is computer generated to provide a physical component as additional utility, often for a nominal fee.
Outside of the generative space, I’ve seen artists experiencing success with dessert and pizza delivered to people in a local area. Others send some kind of merch out to holders.
There’s something novel and fun about having a physical version of something digital that you own, that is inescapable. Don’t be afraid to harness this novelty.
Activate Auctions
Auctions are one of many methods used to sell NFTs but oftentimes, they go on and finish without much fanfare.
Use social media to activate these auctions, turning up the excitement level. Here are some ways to get more people to notice auctions:
- Make sure the start and expected end time are well advertised
- If the auction rules are a little more complicated, make sure those rules are easily understood
- Provide a reminder 60 and 15–30 minutes before an auction is scheduled to end
- Announce large bids or even announce bids from notable members in the space
- Publicly, congratulate winners and make them feel valued for winning an auction
RT Praise
There are many people in the metaverse that will go out of their way to share recently collected art. Others may create fan art of something you made. These are perfect opportunities to not only comment, but retweet/reshare the content.
Think of these moments as playing bowling with bumpers on.
People who are sharing content, tagging artists often want to share their excitement for a piece or project. Retweeting/resharing not only shows that you’re watching, but it allows your broader audience to see that there are other people interested in what you have to offer.
Social proof is powerful stuff!
Be Transparent
So much of this space happens behind a screen.
Pixelated heads purchase generative art, while cats talk about cool things. Unamused apes recap the stats of the day, while beady eyed characters barf rainbows…
Due to the very nature of crypto, anonymity tends to be the norm.
We put trust in the fact that if someone says they’re going to do something, they will deliver.
Delivery doesn’t always happen though.
This is probably why doxxed and pseudo-doxxed teams command a premium in the space.
That said, lack of transparency is one of the quickest ways to for people to lose trust and excitement in a project.
- Are you a one person team and going to be gone on vacation? Let your community know. They will probably send their blessings and they will definitely appreciate knowing why you’re MIA for a few days.
- Mint not going as planned? Let your community know. Mints are the beginning of many projects, not the end. A poor minting experience can be forgiven with transparency. Without transparency, people will develop their own negative opinions on what’s going on — aka FUD.
- Planning on pivoting your efforts to a different collection? Let your community know. People have invested in some vision that you’ve outlined. To change pace without clarity is going to lead to a lot of confusion.
These are just a few examples. There are plenty more cases where you should let you community know, of course.
At the end of the day, people are operating largely in a black box. It’s up to you to shine a light so that people can clearly see the way to go.
A second note about being transparent, speed also matters. You can clearly define for a community something nefarious that happened to a Discord, but if that recap happens weeks later, you being transparent won’t matter much.
The space moves fast. People come to conclusions quickly.
Lack of transparency without speed can be a huge momentum killer.
Listen and Be Flexible
Community is such a large part of NFTs. Many projects have gone on to thrive and die simply because of how they develop their community.
One key takeaway that I’ve heard and read is to listen.
If community members are bringing up suggestions, be open to them.
You especially want to be flexible and willing to change if suggestions are brought up as a result of concern.
Wil does a great job at explaining how listening altered the trajectory of his series “the littles.” It’s a great read into understanding how one community member’s concern changed him and his project for the better.
Set a Time
It’s easy to forget that NFTs are a global thing. Too often we get sucked into our own world not realizing that there are others who may be interested in what we have to offer on the other side of the globe.
Not only is this doing a disservice to people who are not awake at the time, but it’s also not taking advantage of the fact that building up anticipation for a drop can increase sales.
One simple way of getting more sales is setting a release time and publicizing it. Depending on how big the announcement is, give at least 24 hours to let people know when they can buy the thing you’re selling.
Consider that there are around 40 timezones. 1 pm your time may be 4 am someone else’s time. Definitely state the timezone you’re referring to and possibly even list the times in a handful of key timezones.
For instance, your drop may be 7 pm CET, 1 pm EST, and 1 am GMT+7 the next day.
An additional consideration to make related to time, is staggering drops such that you can hit a wider distribution of potential collectors. If drops happen at the same time, every time, then there’s a whole side of the globe that is missing out.
Triple Check Your Release
Everything goes well until it doesn’t. Issues can happen at the time of drop but you can mitigate issues, by being prepared.
Know that just because you promise a project or piece will be available at a specific time, blockchains may be sufficiently congested that it pushes back your release time.
In terms of art, I’ve seen many pieces that aren’t optimized for various displays or that have had a few pixels misaligned. Though, you may not be able to account for issues with platforms or blockchains, you can be prepared and have your work in tip top condition.
Even if things don’t go as planned, don’t forget to be transparent with your community. People will appreciate knowing and forgive much more easily than if they were to uncover the issue on their own without follow-up.
Showcase Secondary
Many artists think that the life of a piece ends after it is shared with the world. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The nature of NFTs allows tokens to be transferred between collectors in perpetuity (or at least as long as a blockchain is operational and the visualization is still up and running).
Utilize this unique situation to showcase pieces that are available for sale to the public.
Perhaps there are some pieces on the secondary market that are notable. You’re equipped with much more knowledge about what makes pieces special. Point out what makes them noteworthy.
More often than not, collectors may be following you on social media but they may not be continuously checking the floor to see what pieces are available. Maybe there’s a huge discount on a piece, a rare piece became recently available on the market, or you have a knowledge bomb to drop about a piece or two — these are all great reasons to showcase secondary as they will help your audience.
Reward Holders
After collectors make their purchase, they become holders (at least for some fraction of time). Holders are people who not only value your work, but can act as an additional marketing channel — further bringing others into your ecosystem.
Uninspired, disengaged collectors are not the type to go out of their way to share your work with others. Highly engaged and excited ones are.
One good way to create highly engaged and excited holders is to reward them. Here are just a few rewards that I’ve come across:
- Unlockable content — this can be passive (as in attaching unlockable content to a token) or active
- Airdrop a token of appreciation — this can be another distinct piece of art or something akin to a participation trophy
- Provide access to new collections — oftentimes this comes in the form of a free mint and/or access to an allow list
- Send a gift — some artists send a physical representation to their collectors (usually the primary holder)
At the end of the day, collectors are people too — people who want to feel valued. Rewarding them can help collectors feel special and that they are a key player in whatever community/project you’re building.
For Interactive/Animated Projects
Video is Your Friend
If a picture is worth a thousand words, does that mean a video is worth a thousand times the number of frames?
You don’t have to answer that.
Point is, video is able to convey much more than a plain old photo.
If you ever have the choice between using a static image or using a moving one, consider using movement to attract more attention. Using video or a GIF is especially useful for interactive or animated projects.
Excuse the use of static images in this section. Videos aren’t allowed here:
Static images oftentimes aren’t able to showcase the various aspects of a project that would otherwise make it shine.
So much detail is lost in just using a static image. For instance, in the piece above, the tree grows, the hills fall into place, stars appear, and fireworks burst in the background in a fluid dance.
Especially for interactive and animated projects, show off what it is that really makes the pieces special. Your collectors will be better informed and much more engaged.
For Low Cost Blockchains
Don’t be Afraid to Burn
Many artists create works with multiple editions. Sometimes, it can be hard to determine just how many editions to create a piece with. With a desire to create and publish new art, this can result in multiple editions never being sold out on primary.
It doesn’t have to be this way though with help from burning.
Burning a token is simply the idea of transferring it to a wallet that is inaccessible. For all intents and purposes, these transferred tokens are “burned” as they are put out of circulation.
Here are a couple of ways that burning can be used:
- Creating Scarcity — create an announcement that X number of tokens will be burned in Y time. This not only acts as marketing for the piece, but lets collectors know that there is a finite amount of time left to collect or mint tokens.
- Adjusting Forecasts — in cases where supply is miscalculated, floors and the perceived value of a collection can drop. Burning can be used to fix the edition size and bring the value of a collection into equilibrium.
- Rewarding Collectors — A large mint size can give collectors who want a piece the ability to collect with the caveat that the rest of the supply will be burned. Oftentimes, I’ve seen this type of action paired with a 24 hour warning.
All of this is mostly applicable to Blockchains like Solana and Tezos, where gas costs are minimal, but it could be applied to Ethereum. Many platforms and wallets on Tezos have options to burn tokens built-in.
For Generative Projects
Showcase Possible Iterations
Because generative projects are normally larger than an edition size of 1, using just one screenshot of a piece is really doing the project a disservice.
I’ve personally come across many projects that are stunning and diverse from piece to piece, but you wouldn’t know it at first glance with only one screen capture advertising the piece.
Rip off that veil and showcase your work in all its glory. Most social media platforms allow you to share multiple photos within a singular post, you can give even more for possible collectors to get excited about.
Hit the Sweet Spot
So much is made of collections or pieces selling out. It’s a mark of success, so much so that artists may hear the common old adage:
“Wen marketing ser?”
Though some artists choose to have extraordinarily large mint sizes to allow collectors to collector and flippers to… go nicely elsewhere, selling out can be a great thing.
Knowing how many editions to have available is as much a science as an art.
It seems to get easier with time, as the market adjusts, but for those without a backlog of pieces or work, here are a couple of considerations to make:
- Is there low variation between pieces? Consider a fairly small mint size.
- Is the piece valuable enough to warrant the price? Mom would say your work is priceless, but what about collectors? Consider the premium attached to your name as an artist as well as how extensive the piece looks.
- What is the current market sentiment? Are florals and bright colors commanding a premium? Do people crave creepy things?
- What is going on with the broader Crypto market? X ETH/SOL/XTZ may have worked a month ago, but collectors may not have the same appetite today.
It’s worth reading Kaloh’s take on how they review generative art to better understand how pricing, and consequently size might be best landed upon.
For fx(hash) Specifically
Use Variations
This is somewhat related to my point about showcasing possible iterations.
Collectors want to know that what they are collecting will be special, or at the very least, they want to generally know what the thing they’re collecting looks like.
In the mint generative token process, there is the ability to configure variations.
Use it!
This button, which appears under the generative token allows collectors to cycle through various variations based on random hashes.
A limited number of hashes can be used, but it seems to be that having infinite variations shown allows for collectors to better understand what they’re going to get.
Some may want to use limited variations to prevent ruining the surprise, but at the very least, one should stay away from hiding variations. Hiding variations doesn’t do a whole lot to boost confidence in minting.
Will add to part 1 and 2 if I think of anything else, but hopefully these strategies help.
If you’ve enjoyed this, feel free to follow me @cryptomoogle. As always, let me know your thoughts!
