9 Ways to Promote Your Shopify Store for NFTs

Do you sell NFTs on Shopify, or are you looking to get into this market? Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are poised to become more popular (and relevant) as the online world morphs from the web of the past twenty years to Web 3.0. According to CNBC, trading of NFTs in 2020 was $17.6 billion in 2021, a 21,000% increase from the previous year. 

What's more, NFTs are much more than ownership, they can help you build loyalty, engage customers and generate excitement about your brand and product launches.

Shopify is a reliable and efficient place to set up your NFT store. The platform is affordable, easy to use and already has good brand recognition. Apps like the Verisart Shopify App allow you to easily create and offer NFTs through your store. The only thing you have to do is set up an NFT product and promote it to potential buyers. That's where many would-be entrepreneurs get scared. However, promotion isn't that difficult. Below are nine easy ways to promote your Shopify store.

1. Be active on social media (especially Twitter and Discord)

Social media marketing can be very effective in directing people who are interested in NFTs to your Shopify store. Twitter and Instagram are especially good platforms for this. Discord, though lesser known, can also be useful because of its large number of crypto-related "communities". Facebook, with its nearly three billion registered users, is difficult to ignore as a promotion vehicle, but there are so many marketing messages there that it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd.

What's crucial when promoting your store on social media is being prompt about replying to comments and questions, even negative ones. Answering user comments within a few hours gives the impression that you care about your customers.  

2. Use tokengating to reward your community with exclusive access

Similar to gated content, tokengating limits access to certain products on your website, reserving them for your NFT collectors. It's the "velvet rope" of the virtual world. This can be used to give your customers "exclusive" content once they’ve purchased or own an NFT. Examples of this exclusive content include invitations to special VIP virtual events, early or exclusive access to VIP virtual events, merch, free products, new launches and gifts with purchase or special discounts on their next purchase. Having tokengated content is a great way to set yourself apart from other NFT merchants.

3. Consider airdrops

Using Airdrops, in the NFT world, involves sending NFTs to random virtual wallets with the aim of creating awareness of your product. This may also be used as a reward for actions like joining a community, re-tweeting or sharing a social media post or writing a review of a product. NFT Airdrops are best used within a controlled community, where you already have permission to interact with the person.

4. Use content marketing to answer common NFT questions

Content marketing may be an older tool, but done right, it's still very effective. One of the best ways to use this type of marketing is to write articles for your own website, your blog or as a guest author on someone else's blog that address the questions Google lists when you search for your desired keywords. 

For example, a recent Web search unearthed the following user questions concerning NFTs...

• What are NFTs in simple terms?

• Why do people buy NFTs?

• How do I pay for an NFT?

These questions are usually found at the middle of the search page. Content marketing works best if you follow SEO best practices and post new content on a regular basis. Of course, at the end of the article, you'll direct your readers to your Shopify store.

5. Leverage content gating

Gated content refers to content that is only visible to readers once they have completed an action, such as registering with your website or providing their name and email address. That helps you do two things--weed out people who are just browsing and not really interested in purchasing your product and also gives you a contact to follow up with them to get them further along the sales funnel. Good ways to use gated content are to unlock things like ebooks or special discounts for those who register with your website.

6. Paid search and paid social advertising help reach target demographics

Paid Google, Facebook and other targeted ads are helpful in reaching the groups of people who are most likely to purchase from you. These types of ads allow you to direct your ad to the people you want to see it rather than showing it to the whole world, hoping the right people see it. Plus, unlike traditional advertising, with PPC ads, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

7. Answer questions with a chatbot

Adding a chatbot to your storefront is a great way to be there for your customers 24/7 without having to pay someone to monitor your website at all hours. A chatbot, powered by AI technology, can answer most common questions and give your customers a feeling that you care about their business (which, of course, you do).

8. Add customer reviews/testimonies to build trust

Reviews are becoming an integral part of shopping on the web. Consumers rely on other buyers or users' opinions to help make their own purchasing decision. If your customers leave you a nice comment on social media or write you an email, ask if you can use it on your Shopify site. You can also encourage your customers to share their experiences by offering an incentive for posting a review, such as their name going into a drawing for a product discount. However, make sure that your reviews are honest and real. There's nothing worse than fake reviews. Don't think that consumers can't see through them.

9. Create excitement with allowlists

Allowlists are a great tool for drumming up excitement before you even start minting NFTs. An allowlist is a list of wallet addresses that give certain community members a guaranteed spot to purchase a new NFT from your collection. You can set certain eligibility requirements for allowlists. For example, you could ask your community to link, share, tag others on your social posts or bring increase your reach before your launch day.

The future is already here

To be the industry leader you aim to be, your business needs to be on the cutting edge. Right now, that includes getting Web3 and other next-generation technology developments incorporated in your e-commerce business. If you need help marketing your NFTs and other new offerings, but you aren’t sure where to start, Hawke Media can help. Hawke offers every different digital marketing service, including paid media ads, email and SMS marketing, and SEO. Hawke can audit your site and make recommendations to help you find the lowest-hanging fruit to enter the future of e-commerce today. 

Promoting your NFT Shopify store doesn't have to be difficult or confusing. Start by picking two or three of the suggestions above and watch the sales come pouring in.