The metaverse is here! The digital world as we know it is drastically changing, merging physical and virtual realities together. Right at the center of this transformation is the metaverse. A collective virtual space with real-world effect. In the metaverse, our interactions are augmented by digital products in a 3D environment.
This means we’re closer than ever to achieving the virtual world only seen in sci-fi movies and novels. Besides the fast-rising augmented reality (AR) goggles and mobile applications, AI programs are also on the rise. This is the perfect time to create a purely virtual ecosystem for your business – without breaking the bank.
While the idea of a connected cyberspace is not novel, this is as close as we have gotten to realizing it. Using services such as online gaming platforms or social networks, people were already able to have an idea of what the metaverse is going to be like. However, Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) shall be boosted in the future.
But what does this mean for businesses?
Think of it as the perfect time to execute the most immersive marketing experiences ever. If done right, the lead conversion will be off the charts!
The Metaverse Bringing An Updated Era of Marketing
Like in the situation with sci-fi narratives, the new AR/VR possibilities combined with the AI solutions are making the interplay of the physical surroundings and the virtual one. They set the stage for new opportunities in immersive interactions, which businesses can adopt in their marketing campaigns. The days of cold texts and email trails are fading, now we even have targeted ads via drone shows, interactive in-app ads, and easy-to-use AI tools for storytelling which are essential for marketing.
Rather than just creating generic content or spending a fortune on market research, AI tools coupled with other amazing software on the metaverse make marketing a lot easier. But, the basics of marketing remain crucial.
Building An Immersive Brand Presence
In this digital age of interconnectivity, the sacred rule for marketing and business development is to build a brand presence online. Thanks to the ever-expanding metaverse, you aren’t limited to just a few marketing platforms. As some brands earn millions on Instagram and Facebook ads, TikTok has also emerged with engaging marketing through funny trends and dance videos.
How to Generate Engaging Marketing Experiences?
Seeing how funny, flashy, and relatable contents go viral across social media platforms and even legacy media channels, it appears the metaverse calls for multiple shots of dopamine-inducing ads. This means that for marketing experiences to be immersive, businesses must explore engagement strategies that excite and retain excitement. It’s not enough to get customers excited about content, businesses need to channel the excitement as smoothly as possible towards a purchase.
These 6 strategies will help you:
Know Your Audience:
To create immersive marketing experiences, you need to identify and understand your target audience. Internet users habitually skip past irrelevant content – no matter how flashy. Hence, it’s not just about being fancy but being relevant and relatable. Luckily, there are AI tools that can help analyze target audience behavior and recommend relatable content ideas.
Define Your Marketing Niche:
Like understanding your audience, you have to create marketing content that will be appealing to the audience but at the same time will be relevant to the brand. That is why again, do not be associated with every trend that is created, so you don’t get lost in the multitude. If you wish to exploit the publicity of any trend, ensure that your content aligns with what you want potential customers to think of your brand. Focus on doing the hard work of crafting tailored content.
Use Social Media:
Social media marketing is strong in the metaverse. You’ll be better off positioning your brand on high-exposure channels like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook.
But don’t overdo it, strategically pick 2 – 3 social media channels and grow. You don’t have to be everywhere, streamline your effort.
Note, the hack to choosing the social media channels to work with is to “cover text, video, and photos”. Some channels are better suited for text content with supporting visuals e.g. X (formerly Twitter), while other channels like TikTok are better for short-form and fast-paced video content. Instagram remains a strong front for photo-sharing. Your content should be curated to suit each individual channel.
Pro Tip: you can explore these amazing social media content types for an immersive brand experience:
360-degree short videos: these panoramic shots of events and products are exciting and often better engaging.
AR filters: this is really cool and useful for fashion brands as it allows users to sneak a peek of how a product would fit in real life.
Live stream: allows users to join an event in real-time no matter where they’re from. Reacting to live-stream comments also helps drive engagement.
Polls: pushing a brand story is incomplete without a CTA (call to action). And one of the best ways to lure users to a CTA is through an interactive poll.It is much easier to convert when users are involved in the content creation and product marketing process.
Gamification:
Crypto projects have hacked this strategy to draw more engagement. By introducing gaming elements such as accumulating points, quests, badges, leaderboards, and action-based unlockables, you’d easily immerse potential customers into a story that makes marketing seamless and interesting.
Optimize Your Website and Landing Pages:
Marketing often fails at the point of conversion due to poorly designed landing pages and erratic websites. After spending time creating an immersive presence on social media, you need to maintain the momentum on your website.
Build a responsive website with high visuals and interactive elements. If you are still wondering how to build a website, you can try using drag-and-drop website builders that offer you great templates and enable you to create a website design on your own. You could either pay for a premium website template or explore free AI website builders.
Build Trust With Reviews:
Although this requires making sales, it’s a strong point in marketing. Getting positive feedback from previous customers, and creating content around such feedback helps. Social media contents like “before and after”, “behind the screen”, and “deliveries and feedback” are great for building trust.
Connect With Your Audience
Creating an immersive marketing experience is possible. The secret lies in creating emotional connections with your target audience. Exciting and relatable stories easily build trust, and that converts to sales in the long-run.
Know your audience, and tell your brand story in a way that connects. Users are easily annoyed by ads and sale-sy content, hence you need to up your game via storytelling and other engaging tactics mentioned earlier.