There are many ways to market your brand, but none are quite as bold as the NFT craze. NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, are the latest innovation in cryptocurrency that have taken the digital world by storm and are now making their way into the physical world. Apart from hosting an NFT art gallery, NFTs represent an opportunity for brands to build new relationships with their customers and create more valuable experiences. In a recent webinar “NFTs for Brands” by NDN Group, our founder and CEO Andy Ann shared his expertise in NFT marketing and demonstrated how NFTs could be applied to brands. Considering these 6 things before you start marketing your brand with an NFT marketing agency will be crucial to the success of your game.

The Beauty of NFTs from Digital Art to Digital Transformation

With the invention of blockchain technology and the rise of cryptocurrencies, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have taken the market by storm. In just one year, the NFT market has increased 16,000% from $250 million to nearly $41 billion, and NFTs continue to grow in popularity.

Essentially a digital certificate of authenticity for unique items, such as artworks and collectibles, NFTs can be used to transfer ownership or prove an item is genuine. And because they’re created using blockchain technology, they can’t be replicated or duplicated. NFTs offer proof of ownership in a digital space that has long been plagued by piracy. They also offer an opportunity for collectors who want a unique piece of art or an exclusive song from their favorite artist.

However, the capabilities of NFT have gone beyond monetizing digital art collectibles and creating authenticity to accelerate mainstream product development, leading to digital transformation and value creation for companies. New business models such as play-to-earn and experience-to-earn have also arisen to encourage various purchasing behaviors and engagement experiences.

7 Things Brands Do to Engage Customers with NFTs?

NFTs are a unique way for your brand to offer experiences or assets that are both digital and physical, and they’re a great way to stand out from other companies as your audience discovers something new. You can use NFTs to build brand loyalty, boost customer engagement, create collectibles, or even sell products or services. Here are some of the possibilities:

1. Digital marketing – Let customers buy your brand assets to engage in blockchain-based marketing campaigns.

2. Brand loyalty – Use NFTs to reward your most loyal customers for purchasing your products or services.

3. Collectibles – You can sell collectible NFTs to the existing fan base.

4. Games – If you’re a game developer, you may want to consider building your game around NFT items that players can collect or trade.

5. NFT art galleries – Team up with local artists and conduct NFT art galleries to promote your brand and support causes.

Charity / fundraising – Non-profit organizations could use NFTs as rewards for donating to their causes.

6. Event ticketing – Festivals and conferences could sell tickets by issuing NFTs.

7. Community empowerment –  As a brand owner, you can offer your NFT holders membership, voting rights or the chance to take part in brand activities.

6 things to consider before brands market the NFT collection

If you’re thinking about jumping into this new business venture and creating your own NFTs for your brand, keep these points in mind:

1. Retail Mass Customers vs. Crypto Speculators

There are four kinds of buyers in the NFT world: crypto speculators, collectors, art fans, and mass retail customers. As brands, you will have to choose which groups you’re going to target, and tailor your offerings accordingly.

In general, in order to build brand value, you may consider avoiding crypto speculators. Their investment horizon is considerably short-term and they have no loyalty to brands beyond their willingness to pay top dollar for something they can re-sell quickly at a higher price. They will buy an NFT because they think it will appreciate in value due to demand from other speculators. They may also be buying an NFT for re-selling it to another collector at a higher price. Therefore, your NFT marketing strategy efforts should primarily focus on collectors and art enthusiasts as they’re more likely to engage with your brand long-term and spread the word.

2. Crypto Volatility

The crypto market’s wild price swings have come under increasing scrutiny. Bitcoin hit a high of $41,000 in January 2022, which was a rapid recovery after falling to less than $37,000 overnight. Such volatility has raised concerns that crypto could destabilize global banks and major corporations.

If you’re marketing your brand with an NFT marketing agency, you need to be aware that their value is also volatile, depending on the market at any given time. This makes it difficult to make long-term financial plans.

3. Crypto Exchange and Wallet Setup for your Customers

Before you start marketing your brand with NFTs, you need to consider the crypto wallet and exchange for your customers to store your NFTs. As mainstream adoption of crypto continues to grow, more people will be looking for a way to safely store their assets.

Crypto wallets are where users store their digital coins and tokens. Crypto exchanges are websites where users can buy, sell or trade cryptocurrencies. These options can be confusing for beginners because there are so many different types of wallets and exchanges to choose from.

Also, the process of buying cryptocurrency can be complicated for some users. You’ll want to make it easy for your customers with good UX and UI designs to buy crypto tokens from you, including through an easy setup process on your website. Assume that a lot of your customers will need to set up accounts and may need assistance if they run into any problems.

If you’re selling your NFTs on a marketplace like OpenSea or Rarible, there are built-in options for taking payment in cryptocurrency, so this is already taken care of. If you’re selling directly on your own website, you may want to use a service like NOIZ Beam Wallet, an all-in-one platform to trade, track and experience NFT with crypto or just their credit cards.

4. Regulatory Concerns

Currently, there is no specific legislation to restrict cryptocurrencies in Hong Kong. Given that crypto prices are volatile, institutions such as the government and banks may have regulatory concerns about exploring this new financial frontier.

Nevertheless, HSBC has become the first major bank in Hong Kong to launch an NFT project by partnering with K11 Musea for an NFT art gallery and giveaway of 1,000 NFTs to its customers using NFT service providers Articoin and NOIZ. This partnership means that as soon as other banks notice the success of this NFT project, they will begin embracing NFT technology and getting a slice of the NFT market.

Before diving into this new digital space, brands thinking of investing in such a new business venture should consider the risks involved—including the possibility of harming their brand image due to crypto volatility and speculations.

The best NFT marketing strategy for brands interested in NFTs is to follow the same basic principles as any other marketing campaign: know your target audience and what they want from you, and make sure your product or service meets those expectations.

6. ESG and Sustainability Concerns

When your brands use NFTs to create scarcity around their offerings, you should consider maintaining your sustainability initiatives as well. Bitcoin mining has a massive carbon footprint, posing serious environmental concerns for the companies involved. It is also said that the mining of 13 ETH can cost 1 ton of CO2. Listed companies or global brands that concern ESG need to take into consideration the environmental impacts into your NFT marketing strategy and look for green blockchain solutions as consumers are becoming more sensitive about ESG (Environment, Social, Governance).

One-stop Service for NFT and Metaverse marketing strategies

As the world gears towards Web3—a decentralized, secure future internet where people are their own bank and can control their online identity and data—global brands are getting big on NFTs and the Metaverse. The innovations represent exciting opportunities for engaging younger customers and revenue opportunities.

Backed by AI, blockchain, and digital marketing technologies, New Digital Noise is a one-stop Metaverse and NFT marketing agency and service provider to help you design, mint, launch and promote Metaverse and NFT projects. We’ve got you covered, from integrated Web3 marketing and branding strategies, NFT design and creation to Metaverse immersive experience and Web3 community building!

Expertise and Proprietary Technologies by NDN Group

Developing Metaverse and NFT projects can be challenging without full-stack technologies. New Digital Noise’s parent company, NDN Group brings to the table a wide range of green blockchain, AI, VR and AR technologies. Contact us and let us help you with your Metaverse or NFT projects.

  Sustainable and ESG-friendly

Never worry about your carbon footprint while creating NFTs on the blockchain. We offer a proprietary green blockchain technology that allows you to create NFTs with carbon credits for CO2 offsetting.

  Accessible through cryptos and credit cards

We make NFTs more friendly and accessible for your customers by accepting both cryptos and credit cards as payment methods, making your Metaverse and NFT projects an easy success by targeting mass retail customers.

Book a Free Strategy Session with Us 

Wondering how you can incorporate Metaverse and NFT marketing into your business plan? Just a 30-minute session with us and you’ll pick our brain for an introduction, best practices and our existing case studies of Metaverse and NFT projects.

Q1. What are the four types of NFT buyers?

A1. There are four kinds of buyers in the NFT world: crypto speculators, collectors, art fans, and mass retail customers. As brands, your NFT marketing strategy efforts should primarily focus on collectors and art enthusiasts as they’re more likely to engage with your brand long-term and spread the word.

Q2. What is the environmental impact of NFTs?

It is said that the mining of 13 ETH can cost 1 ton of CO2. Listed companies or global brands that concern ESG need to consider the environmental impacts in your NFT marketing strategy and look for NFT service providers with green blockchain solutions.

Cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and Metaverse are reshaping how people invest and interact with each other. We are now entering a new era of the World Wide Web—the realm known as Web 3.0 or Web3. What is Web 3? How does it impact crypto, NFTs, and Metaverse? Read on to take advantage of this new environment to seize new opportunities and tap into the revenue streams arising from blockchain and decentralized use.

Web3 is a term created by Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum, to describe what he thinks the next iteration of the Internet will look like. Built on a decentralized data network, blockchain, and artificial intelligence, the Web3 revolution creates a more open and democratic Internet that allows peer-to-peer interactions without centralized platforms and intermediaries.

Businesses and digital marketing agencies are increasingly getting involved in Web3 to benefit from new blockchain-based business models and new social and gaming networks, such as crypto and NFT marketplaces, and the immersive engagement of the Metaverse.

The openness of Web3 is made possible by open-source software created by a community of developers working openly and collaboratively.

Because the Web3 infrastructure is decentralized and permissionless, users can communicate freely without asking for permission from a central authority.

Web3.0 will expand the reach of the Internet to include everyone, regardless of location or device. Web3.0 makes the Internet available to you anytime and anywhere, since it connects all your devices to the Internet.

With Web2, you don’t own your information on social media or other platforms, but in Web3, you have control over all your data on social media platforms and other places because you are using decentralized blockchain technology, or we can say

In the current web, many things we do online require a third party to facilitate you, such as Uber (a third party needed to connect drivers and users), AirBnB (a third party to connect hosts and guests), and Google (third party needed to find relevant information). With Web3, these services can be provided directly to individuals who need them through smart contracts.

Getting a handle on Web3 is easier if we look at what makes Web3 different from Web2.

A term first coined in 2005 by Tim O’Reilly, Web 2.0 describes the second generation of the World Wide Web. It is characterized by social media, user-generated content, interactivity, and the ability to interact with other users via a website or application.

Amazon, Google, and Meta have built platforms for users to create and share content, and they have thrived off of user data to target them with ads. But this centralized architecture of Web2 comes with its disadvantages—data breaches and privacy issues become more prevalent.

As blockchain technology is adopted into mainstream use, data in Web3 will be connected in a decentralized manner, as opposed to the Internet 2.0 generation, where data was primarily stored in centralized repositories.

The Web 3 movement challenges the business models of centralized Web 2.0 companies such as Google and Meta by redistributing power and money to consumers and allowing them to regain control of their personal information.

In today’s Web 2.0 Internet, you create content for a small group of social networks over many technology giants. The majority of the content is text-based, even though there are other types of media that you can use on Web2 platforms like Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, etc. This is important because Web3 allows for not only text-based content but also video and audio-based content and interactive media like gaming, AR/VR experiences, and more!

In the Web 2.0 world, websites, apps, and social media platforms are the major web forms where content is shared. Under Web3, we use decentralized apps and marketplaces. A dApp is open-source software designed to run online without being controlled by any single entity, like Facebook or Twitter. An example of a dApp would be Steemit, a social network that gives out rewards in cryptocurrencies in exchange for quality content creation.

Web3 technology helps people bank, trade, and transact with cryptocurrency. People can be their own banks, but they can also act through centralized exchanges. Web3 technology has a significant impact on how we will create metaverse environments for work, play, communication, and learning.

Web3 has brought about some new opportunities for businesses, such as the monetization of NFTs. NFTs are digital assets which can be transferred between individuals or companies on the Internet. These assets are represented as unique tokens on blockchains like Ethereum or Bitcoin. Each token is built using smart contracts, which are self-executing programs that run when certain conditions are met. Community members, investors, and artists have already seen impressive gains for NFT projects.

While Web3 and the metaverse are often discussed together, a common misconception is that they’re the same thing.

While Web3 is primarily about a new type of Internet protocol, the metaverse is all about how users will use tomorrow’s Internet. The metaverse is a digital world where users work, socialize, and engage in activities. Web3 provides a set of protocols that enables people to build parts of a virtual world and create communities and economies within it. Taking full advantage of the decentralization of Web3, Metaverse allows anyone to move about freely with maximum transparency while also ensuring privacy and ownership of user data.

As we transition into the new Internet known as Web3, brands worldwide must begin thinking about incorporating crypto and NFTs into their business strategies. New Digital Noise is a full-service NFT digital marketing agency in Hong Kong with rich experience in helping global brands launch NFT projects. Contact us now if you’d like to learn more!

A1: A dApp is an abbreviation meaning decentralized application. These applications run on a peer-to-peer network, which means they are open source and not controlled by any single entity, like Facebook or Twitter. An example of a dApp is Steemit—a social network that gives you cryptocurrency rewards in exchange for creating quality content.

A2: Web3 provides a set of protocols that enables people to build a virtual world. Drawing on the decentralization of Web3, Metaverse allows anyone to interact and engage in activities, while also ensuring privacy and ownership of user data.

If you’re looking forward to the holiday season, then you know just how lucrative holiday shopping can be. When you market your products to your target market using gift guides, you give them a hassle-free way to find exactly what they’re looking for. You may be surprised to find that many consumers are actually looking for guidance exactly like this.

During Christmas, people go all-out to find the best gifts for their loved ones. Holiday shopping deals are a huge favorite among consumers, and they play a significant role in improving customer engagement and loyalty.

Most people turn to online shopping when they look for Christmas deals, New Year’s shopping deals, Valentine’s Day deals, and more. It helps people find a curated list of everything they could possibly need – all in one place.

Customers were asked how they would shop during the holidays, and nearly 59% said that they would prefer online shopping, while 36% said they intended to visit stores. Some of these shoppers also combine online shopping with retail shopping.

In 2020, online shopping is set to be the more popular option. And this means you need a strong online marketing campaign to create awareness about your products and boost sales. A gift guide is a powerful online marketing tool that can easily convert a reader into a buyer within minutes.

Shoppers typically don’t invest the same amount of thought and insight into every gift they buy. While they may pay more attention to what they get their near and dear ones, acquaintances and colleagues get more standard gifts. However, this doesn’t mean that they want to appear as if they haven’t put any thought into their gift.

This is where a gift guide can help. In the gift guide, you highlight your preferred products and include what makes them great gifts. Someone who doesn’t know what gift to purchase can find the guide through social media or a Google search. If your content marketing is convincing enough, you’re very likely to get a new customer from the process.

People look for all kinds of gift guides online – from wedding gift ideas to birthday gift ideas. Your gift guides can expand beyond seasonal marketing and become a regular part of your digital marketing strategy.

Pros:

• Increases brand and product awareness.

• Increases reach to a larger target market.
• More customers are expected to spend online, so focusing on online gift guide marketing is more profitable.

Cons:

• Need to create multiple gift guides.
• Is a constantly updating content marketing strategy where you need to create new gift guides as new products arrive.

Even if you create a great gift guide, you need to make sure that it reaches people as well. You shouldn’t expect people to visit your website, find your gift guide, and then read it. You need to actively take your gift guides to your target market. This is where a comprehensive online marketing strategy should help you. Your strategy should include:

• Social Media: Gift Guides are great shareable content, especially around any gift-giving season. It’s a good way for consumers to recommend products to friends and family, and for brands to highlight their bestselling products.
• Email Marketing: Add your holiday or seasonal gift guide to your emailers and newsletters when you send them out. If you segment your recipient list and send them customized gift guides, your conversions could increase more. This also increases customer engagement and loyalty.
• Mailing List: If you use a mailing list, then send out a physical copy of your gift guide to all your customers. Include the season’s bestsellers, and highlight any special deals or offers.
  Your gift guides should always be free. That’s why an online gift guide is an inexpensive way to increase customer awareness about your products. A few physical copies are okay, but focus your gift guide campaign on online marketing.

Pros:

• Inexpensive yet effective.

 

• Increase customer base and develop brand loyalty.

 

Cons:

• Need to be consistent on social media.
• Gift guides tend to become irrelevant when the season passes. Then you’ll need to make a new set.

There are two primary categories of shoppers you need to target with your online marketing campaign. The first of these is the early bird shopper. These shoppers start early and plan ahead.

In the week between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, people spent $28.5 billion on purchases in the United States. Most of this came from Early Bird Shoppers. They spend more money and often want to find only the best gifts.

Here is where a specialized gift guide can make all the difference. Some examples of these include ‘gift guides for bosses’, ‘gift ideas for colleagues’ or ‘best gift for him/her’.

Almost 60% of shoppers start their Christmas shopping before November ends. This means that you should constantly be rolling out gift guides during this time, ideally a few every month.

Last-minute shoppers, on the other hand, wait until the Christmas is just around the corner to purchase. They may be waiting for the best deals or trying to find the perfect gift. You can solve both these problems by gifting them a free online resource that points out the bestselling products from your brand.

Create gift guides for different price ranges, early shopping deals, late shopping deals, and more.

Pros:

• Opportunity to showcase new and old products.
• Hype up deals and discounts to increase conversions.

Cons:

• Limit customer choice by selecting curated products.
• Sales of other products may not be at par with listed products.

Mobile searches for gift guides start early. For the Christmas shopping season, the search begins right after Black Friday. It goes on till the week just before Christmas. Similar narratives exist for other seasonal events as well. Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, New Year’s shopping, these holidays all lead to an increased search for ‘gift ideas’ or ‘gift guides’ in the weeks leading up to the celebration.

Pros:

• Target market with specialized gift guides.
• Boost sales during seasonal holidays.

Cons:

• Limit target market to only those celebrating the seasonal holiday.

Roughly half the world is on social media. Almost 3.8 billion people use social media in 2020. Once you’re online, you have the power to target markets like you never could before. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and even TikTok are frequented by millions of users every day. A #Hashtag campaign is an inexpensive yet extremely useful way to market your brand to millions of users. If you plan your online marketing strategy correctly, then launching a successful hashtag campaign isn’t as hard as you may think.

You could own a small business, and maybe you’re trying to expand your market reach and influence online. Your business could also be well-established and capable of launching large advertising campaigns. Irrespective of this, social media marketing is necessary if you want to survive in the contemporary business environment.

Hashtags are simple unspaced words, always placed next to a ‘#’. Ex: #WonderfulWednesday, #TravelTips etc.

On social media channels, these are used as hyperlinks that lead to aggregates of information. The subject of the information is the same as the text on the hashtag. So, if you were to clock on a hashtag that said #HappyCaturday, you’re very likely to find thousands of content pages on cats.

Businesses have already begun to realize the massive potential that hashtag campaigns can have. In an era where every brand is especially dedicating time and space to developing social media strategies, you can’t fall behind.

Hashtags create links to easily searchable information. It’s a great way for businesses to launch new products, gain consumer insights, and develop customer engagement and loyalty.

Before you can sit down to strategize on your social media digital campaign, you need to gather data. Research your competitors to see what they’re doing online. What kind of social media strategies are they employing? Have these been effective for them? did they created any hashtag campaigns? And were they successful?

Knowing what your competition is doing helps you learn from their successes while avoiding their pitfalls. At the same time, there’s other information you should be thoroughly researching – and that’s about your brand.

Pore through influencer social media accounts, blogs, YouTube accounts and online articles to gauge what the online commentary about your brand is. If you’re still a small and upcoming business, don’t fret! This just means that you have to build a hashtag campaign around increasing your followers.

But if there is an online conversation happening about your brand, then you need to know about it. If you can isolate the keywords that are being used about your brand, then these could make for great hashtags later on. For example, if someone refers to your products as ‘so totally sustainable’, you can use that to create a hashtag called ‘#sosustainable’ for your brand.

Social media is relevant when it comes to target marketing nearly 50% of millennials and 42% of Gen Z. Online marketing is the easiest way to generate traction and increase conversions today.

Once you’ve gathered your data, the next step is to determine which social media platform should be right for you. The platforms your target market frequents will differ from brand to brand. If your business deals with other businesses, then LinkedIn is where you need to place your focus.

If you want to target the Baby Boomers, then Facebook can help you. Facebook is also great for targeting a specific audience that gets to see your ads. Instagram and Twitter are where Millennials and Gen Z frequent. These are also great places to sell direct-to-consumer products.

It’s expensive, time-consuming and largely moot to try and make a social media account on every major channel. Instead, place your focus on specific social media platforms.

Your hashtag campaign should include influencers as well as your key marketing partners.

Nearly 49% of consumers revealed that they take into consideration what their favorite social media influencers say when making purchasing decisions.

The hashtags themselves should be created keeping certain things in mind:

• Keep it small.
• Make it emotive.
• Choose something that represents your brand.
• Be original.

You don’t want to pick a hashtag that’s too generic, otherwise, it may already be popularly used for something else. Using a hashtag that’s too unique poses problems as well. Your hashtag could be hard to remember, leading to less engagement and an eventual fadeout for your campaign.

Go for a short and catchy hashtag. The more fun, the better. And finally, decide why you’re creating the hashtag campaign.

• Are you trying to launch a product?
• Are you trying to gain followers?
• Are you trying to develop customer loyalty and engagement?

Your online marketing strategy should be aimed at reaching a certain target. Without a target in mind, your hashtag campaign may not provide real results.

Hashtags can be used in various ways, from selling a particular product to creating an online contest. The more consistent you are in creating content relevant to your hashtag, the more traction and customer engagement you’ll witness.

71% of consumers who have a positive experience with a brand on social media report that they’re likely to recommend that brand to friends and family. This is exactly the kind of exposure you want if you’re looking to expand your consumer base while developing customer engagement and loyalty.

A good way to start off your hashtag campaign is to ask influencers and your content marketing partners to promote your hashtag. Look for influencers who have a large following and are also likely to use your products.

You can also create a hashtag campaign around your products. Ask your consumers to post a picture or video of them using your product and to use your hashtag on it. You can also include a giveaway where a lucky winner gets a great reward. These are some ways to launch your hashtag campaign on social media.

The final step comes after the hashtag campaign itself. Throughout the campaign, you’ve been consistent with making quality posts regularly, replying to customers as soon as you could, and even participating in conversations around your hashtag. Now it’s time to analyze the results.

Use metrics and analytics to gain insights on how successful your hashtag campaign was. Did you gain new followers? Increase conversions? And your hashtag campaign have any bearing on sales and purchases?

This information will help you develop future hashtag campaigns. Many of the tools you need are already available through these social media platforms itself. Look at the numbers and if there’s a noticeable difference after the hashtag campaign, you know your online marketing strategy worked!

With over 1 billion users play WeChat games, WeChat is one of the most actively used social messaging apps in the world. And this is just the number of registered users on WeChat. These players may game on and off, but a growing segment of the Chinese population is beginning to heavily invest both time and money in WeChat games. As a result, this increases interaction among WeChat users.

In addition, this makes WeChat a platform that lets you access millions of users instantly. Based in Chinese, WeChat is primarily used inside China and among Mandarin-speaking populations. The app, originally in Chinese, can still be used by people from other parts of the world. However, to properly market using WeChat, you’ll need someone with a working knowledge of Mandarin Chinese.

If you want to reach out and target market a global Chinese audience, then WeChat is the way to do it. It’s the single most heavily used social messaging app in China.

Your online marketing strategies, when it comes to WeChat, should be developed keeping a specific goal in mind. Are you trying to branch into the Chinese market? Do you want to promote a certain product?

Your goal will help you chart your success. In China, 800 million people regularly use WeChat and play WeChat games often. Of these, around 310 million people are active gamers.

Out of 310 million active users, nearly half regularly play mini-games.

Mini-games on WeChat are more often enjoyed by women, especially those around in their late 20s and early 30s. But despite this, mini-games are heavily played. Audiences react by competing against each other, trying to climb the leader board, trying to win rewards, and more.

Mini-games don’t have to be downloaded and can be played in-app. The games also tend to be casual, leaving room for advertisements, and paid in-game content.

To effectively increase audience interaction using WeChat games, you need to first understand the audience. If you want to reach out to women, mini-games will be your best. Men play these games as well but are greatly outnumbered by women.

Women also tend to purchase more luxury products. This has already inspired luxury brands like Dior to create WeChat mini-games to market their products.

WeChat is primarily a social messaging app. This means that the games and mini-games on it have social elements as well. These social elements can be tapped to increase audience interaction.

An example of this is the guild system that’s used in most games. This is designed to enable players to play together to advance in the game. Since working together in guilds makes progress easier and enhances customer experience, it’s a great social tool as well.

With large numbers of people turning to WeChat games for entertainment, advertisers and brands have the chance to reach larger audiences than ever before.

In July 2020, advertising exposure through mini games went up by 80%. This increase is sustained from last year. What this shows is that advertising through WeChat greatly increases brand awareness.

There are various ways you can gain from WeChat games. The easiest is to collaborate with WeChat to launch your products in the WeChat store. This would depend on what kind of products you sell, but you can rest assured that you’ll generate high traction.

Another way is to collaborate with a popular game on WeChat to release brand-specific, exclusive in-game rewards. This is a great way to increase awareness about your products while also giving people a virtual sample of what your products can do.

Your products can be placed in the game in the form of unique rewards and special bonuses that enhance customer experience and encourage customer engagement and loyalty.

Being a part of the game is another great way to increase audience interaction. You can include advertisements to your brand on WeChat. Many games, mainly mini-games, ask users to watch an add to gain energy to play the game, win a reward, and the like. Your ad here could bring you millions of views very fast.

Another way is to create a game around your brand and release it on WeChat. You can make it a limited-time release with the aim to increase audience interaction among WeChat users.

Use these marketing ideas to increase your engagement among WeChat users. In 2019 alone, nearly 69% of all revenue through games in China was generated through mobile gaming. WeChat games are a powerful and relatively new way for you to increase audience interaction through digital marketing. But it’s also one of the most effective ways of building customer engagement and loyalty when done right. Use gamification and rewards to open doors to an audience that’s receptive to quality goods and an enhanced customer experience.

The Chinese New Year is the perfect time for seasonal marketing. Chinese consumers spent around $149 billion in 2019, and the number is only on the rise with each passing year.

Online marketing and seasonal advertising ideas will help you take advantage of the season and rake in the same profits that many big businesses already do. Brands like Gucci and Apple regularly use seasonal marketing to reap the harvests of the Chinese New Year.

What is the Chinese New Year?

The Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, is roughly a two-week celebration that takes place at the beginning of spring.

The strong tradition of gift-giving and merriment makes the Chinese New Year an unmissable seasonal marketing opportunity for any business.

Create an online marketing strategy that’ll help you increase sales during the next Chinese New Year!

10 Seasonal Marketing Ideas for the Chinese New Year

Your seasonal marketing ideas for the Chinese New Year must be carefully drafted not to affect the cultural sensibilities of the Chinese citizens. To do this, you must integrate the traditional customs of the Lunar New Year with your own seasonal marketing strategy.

Here are ten good marketing ideas for the Lunar New Year:

The Lunar New Year is all about tradition and family. Your content marketing strategy should make use of these feelings of home and warmth to market to the audience. Apple does this very well. Every year, they release a digital advertisement that focuses on a story the people can resonate with.

Pros: 

• Keep customers happy.
• Showcase brand awareness about the Lunar New Year.
• Specifically target people looking to purchase products during the Lunar New Year.

 

Cons: 

• Potential to hurt sensibilities if done wrong.
• Collaterals from digital marketing campaigns can only be used once.

When people travel to their homes during the Chinese New Year, it’s known as ‘Chunyun’. It typically takes place a few days to a few weeks before the Chinese New Year begins. This is a time where you can take advantage of the increased spending in retail shopping, especially among expats.

Pros: 

• More people who celebrate Lunar Year are online, increasing the number of the target audience.
• Potential to increase brand visibility.

 

Cons: 

• People are busy and looking through multiple options.
• Less lead conversions despite heavy traffic.

Integrate the animal the year is themed after in your branding. In 2020, it was the ‘Year of the Rat’. Brands were quick to bring in the famous Mickey and Minnie Mouse to celebrate the year, a great example of seasonal marketing ideas that are relevant and enhance the customer experience.

 

Pros: 

• Potential to create viral content.
• Increases engagement with customers.

 Cons: 

• Unless you have a deep knowledge of the zodiac animal and Chinese traditions, it’s best to stick to simple concept designs.

During the Lunar New Year, families gift younger members with ‘lucky money’ in red envelopes. Red and gold are considered the symbolic colors of this festival. A simple way to include the Chinese New Year colors into your marketing campaign is by introducing a ‘limited season only packaging’ with red packaging for products. You can even add the option of a gold bow or other decoration. This will really enhance the customer experience.

Pros: 

• People will immediately associate the colors with the Chinese New Year.
• Is advertising in itself as it shows consumers that your brand is also celebrating the Lunar Year.
• Improves customer engagement and builds brand loyalty.

Cons: 

• Can be confused with Christmas if you only use red packaging. A gold accent can make all the difference.

The Chinese youth are also known as big spenders. In recent years, healthy lifestyles and sustainable living have become popular. Not only that, the youth enjoy gifting themselves as well. This is different from older generations who retain a more conservative and community-oriented approach to celebrating. Understand your target market so you can sell to them better.

 

Pros: 

• The younger demographic spends more on themselves.
• They also tend to be more loyal to brands they like.

 

 Cons: 

• Missing out on the other demographics.
• Gift buying in bulk for large groups of people absent.

According to the China Internet Report, China has over 904 million internet users. That makes the country and its citizens largely digital. Introduce international shipping, as well as free shipping above a certain checkout amount, to encourage more people to buy from you.

 

Pros: 

• Gain new customers.
• Compete against local Chinese brands.

 

Cons: 

• Low return on investment unless the order value is enough to justify free shipping.

Your social media strategy shouldn’t be restricted to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. When it comes to China, the platforms WeChat and Weibo are the most important. At the same time, Chinese nationals living in other countries often use Facebook and Twitter. The Lunar New Year is also a major celebration in places like Singapore, Hong Kong, and many others. That’s why your social media strategy should be two-pronged – one for those celebrating inside China and another for those celebrating outside the country.

 

Pros: 

• Communicate with millions of Chinese customers.
• Specifically target Chinese customers.

 

Cons: 

• Good knowledge of Mandarin as well as Cantonese Chinese required. Mainland China speaks Mandarin, and places like Taiwan and Hong Kong use more Cantonese. Your digital marketing campaign should come in two sets – one  Mandarin and one in Cantonese. Remember to hire a qualified expert if you don’t speak these languages.

Luxury brands make serious profits during the Lunar New Year. People don’t just like to spend money – they prefer to spend on quality items. Searches for ‘gift deals’ or ‘CNY deals’ are more common than discounts. Focus your online marketing strategy on showcasing deals and bundle packages. Personalized packages are also popular during this time.

 

Pros: 

• Products will sell faster.
• Good opportunity to clear out old stock.

 

Cons: 

• New and in-season products make less sales.

Introduce games and events to increase engagement and enhance customer experience. These could be in the form of tagging your brand in pictures with your products to get a prize, for shoutouts, giveaways, and more. You can also introduce products and offers specifically for the Chinese New Year. A bakery could introduce bread or cakes shaped like the zodiac animal of the year. These really increase social media engagement and help brands build a loyal customer base.

 

Pros: 

• Opportunity to present quality digital marketing content.
• Enhance customer experience through direct engagement on social media.
• Generate brand awareness through content.

 

Cons: 

• WeChat may be an unfamiliar platform.
• Communicating in a foreign language.

You should roll-out your digital advertising campaign for the Lunar New Year by late-October to early-November. Many people prefer to shop earlier, especially the younger generation.

 

Pros: 

• Sell stocks earlier and gauge what people are interested in.
• Time and opportunity to modify the online marketing calendar if advertising campaign isn’t working.

 

Cons: 

• People may get confused with other year-end celebrations like Christmas and New Year’s.

 

The Lunar New Year is one of the most abundant sales periods and is unavoidable when it comes to seasonal marketing.

Data shows that consumer spending between 2011 and 2019 during the Chinese New Year witnesses a continuous upward trend. Use these seasonal marketing strategies to take advantage of the upcoming Lunar New Year.

Augmented reality is already taking the internet by storm. The massive success of Pokémon Go, a game that generated millions of downloads, was only the beginning of what AR technology could achieve.

Marketing and sales are primarily driven by consumer demands. In a world where the online marketplace now encompasses people from all walks of life and across the world, AR technology can introduce innovation in digital marketing.

Furthermore, two countries where augmented reality has already established its roots are Japan and China. Both countries have seen brands implement AR and VR technology into their customer shopping experiences. These were met with success, especially in China, where augmented and virtual reality are seen as having tremendous future potential.

As more brands involve augmented reality in their branding strategies, content marketing will also transform. AR technology gives you unique opportunities to enhance customer experience and drive conversion rates. Here are five ways you can use AR in your content marketing to generate engagement

Augmented reality is already being used by brands to drive e-commerce sales. Using AR technology in sales and marketing can bring in serious revenue.

The mixed augmented reality and retail market will, by 2022, be worth $8 billion.

This tremendous potential comes from the fact that AR experiences provide users with the one thing they can’t otherwise find online – immersion. When you’re out purchasing clothes or buying food, you get to touch the food and experience it.

These tactile experiences help you in the decision-making process where you ultimately choose to either buy the product or put it back. E-commerce portals traditionally were held back by the limits of physical smart devices. But augmented reality is changing the game.

You can add AR content to products in e-commerce websites that enhance customer experience. This can be product information, how to use videos, or even color options.

Content marketing using AR gives you an abundance of creative options using audio-visual media. AR content is also more shareable than non-AR.

Augmented reality content makes frequent use of 3D animations. By pointing the camera of a smartphone to a certain target or QR code, your phone can start to play animations, display information and more.

This creates new opportunities for content marketing. Aside from social media and digital marketing, AR content marketing can also be used in physical spaces. Create ads and showroom brochures using augmented technology for products that aren’t available in-store. This allows retailers to integrate augmented reality into retail shopping experiences. Adding relevant information, how-to and product data, as well as digital advertising, will enhance the AR content.

71% consumers find brands that integrate AR/VR and find them progressive. AR content is fun, immersive, and good online marketing. It also allows you to introduce your brand story and narrative in a unique way.

Use augmented reality content marketing to elevate your branding collaterals as well. Add a QR code to your business card that takes the recipient straight to your company’s branding video on YouTube. You can add similar QR codes to online posts, as well as offline collaterals like brochures, newsletters, packaging, and more. Even hoardings and billboards can be used to promote brand awareness and generate interest.

64% of marketers are using or intending to implement augmented and virtual reality, and there’s a good reason behind that. Online, it’s much more difficult to make your content stand out. Adding an AR element immediately differentiates you from the competition.

Augmented reality allows users to enjoy personalized experiences in real-time. There’s a reason AR technology works better for content marketing when compared to VR. For starters, AR content marketing does not need any additional equipment such as headsets or glasses. It can be enjoyed in real-time and not in a virtual world.

In addition, Mindshare showed that AR generates almost 200% more engagement than non-AR content.Add gamification elements such as hidden promo codes in ads and online content. Users can point their phone cameras at these promo codes to activate rewards.

Augmented reality experiences have already been used to create gaming experiences for online users. The same concepts can also be applied to content marketing.

Integrate a call to action as well, as this is more likely to increase conversion rates. What you can do to drive online marketing using AR content marketing is to create interactive how-to videos and informative blogs.

Add AR elements to these videos and articles to allow the user to find relevant products on your website. A code that links the user’s phone to the relevant product straight from your content is a great way to boost sales and create content unique to your brand.

Augmented reality is becoming more and more important, as different industries realize the potential the technology holds for them. Content marketing is no different. In a world where marketing and advertising as a whole are looking to augmented reality for new ideas, content marketing plays an important role in leading the way.

The year is about to end and the holiday season is just around the corner. Every year, the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s brings in huge profits for businesses across the globe. But how do you catch the customer’s attention at a time when every other business is trying to? The answer is through digital marketing and using the right marketing strategies. New Year’s shopping is a celebration where people get ready to say goodbye to the present year, and bring in the next one. For most people, this is done in style, and that means sales for businesses.

Stay ahead of your competition by learning about consumer shopping habits. Develop exclusive New Year’s shopping deals and online marketing strategies that will bring all the customers to you!

Research on consumer shopping trends in recent years show that almost 63% of shoppers start their journeys online. This means that most of your customers are likely to prefer e-commerce portals over retail shops, at least while they’re browsing. Turning to e-commerce portals to make sales will give retail businesses a huge opportunity to make profits. The number of people using the internet to shop is roughly over 2 billion now. With access to worldwide shipping and willing consumers from across the world, now is the time for businesses to go online.

You can expect large numbers of local as well as international customers around New Year’s – especially if you’re actively digital marketing your products using social media.

There’s no turning back from the fact that social media now occupies a powerful position in dictating consumer interests. But this also provides businesses with unique digital marketing opportunities. Through various social media platforms, you can actively encourage people to buy from you. Special year-end discounts and deals that are advertised using a digital marketing campaign can be a great boon to your business.

It’s also an affordable and easy way to reach large groups of people. Consumers regularly interact with popular hashtags. Add relevant hashtags like #newyears, #newyearsdeals and #newyearshopping to your posts to be able to target the right customers. Facebook lets you customize your target audience, so your content only reaches people within a limited area. You can use this to hone in on retail clients.

Remember that consumers will search through social media for content as well. So New Year’s themed content and visuals that generate engagement will be useful online marketing for your brand. The consumers sharing your content creates brand awareness, and this increases the likelihood of more people buying your products.

Not only are people starting their New Year’s Eve shopping online more often, they also use a specific search engine more than others. 35% of all product searches start with a Google search, and this is good news for your business. Ranking high in the Google search results, meaning appearing within the first few pages where consumers are more likely to visit your website, is doable. All you need is Search Engine Optimization. An expert can do this for you if you are unable to do it. SEO is when brands utilize certain keywords like ‘new years shopping’, ‘new years shopping deals’ or ‘new years eve shopping’. This is done so that the Google search engine algorithm leads people searching for those terms to the brand’s website by ranking the brand higher in the search listings.

Before New Year’s, the number of people searching for topics like ‘new year’s shopping deals’, ‘new year’s shopping discounts’, and ‘new year’s shopping free shopping’ go up by a large amount. If these keywords are SEO integrated into your website, your web traffic is more likely to increase.

Especially after Christmas, more people look for free shipping when purchasing products online. This isn’t unusual during off-season either, as 63% of the times, high shipping costs lead to people abandoning their shopping carts. But during New Year’s, this gains new importance as people are not willing to spend on free shipping. That’s why searches for ‘new years free shipping’ also increases during this time.

A surprising New Year’s search habit you can include in your digital marketing strategies is the use of ratings and reviews. Data shows that 53% of shoppers think that ratings and reviews are important when purchasing a product. If your website doesn’t have a system to use these, include them ASAP. The more a customer sees other people liking and enjoying your products, the more likely they are to purchase from you.

Around the New Year’s, people prefer to purchase products that lead to self-improvement, help them celebrate with others, and create plans around the New Year.

Over the past two years, 49.2% of all sales were made through mobiles, and this trend is only set to increase in 2021 (Statista). Use these insights to launch your digital marketing campaign and net huge profits this New Year’s!

Instagram filters are one of the most popular features on social media. Currently, there are 500 million, and growing, active users on Instagram, most of whom are millennials. According to statistical data, one-third of these users use the online medium to buy something or the other. Here is another data – videos, on Instagram, lead engagements by at least 21.2% in comparison to stills or carousels.

Digital marketing experts such as Neil Patel suggests, businesses must leverage a new feature as soon as it launches. Instagram AR filters are currently the goose that lays the golden eggs, and this has been proven to be a successful feature. A good example was McDonald’s Christmas marketing campaign, where they created an Instagram Christmas AR filter to engage with their target audience, not only was this feature fascinating to look at, but it was also fun to interact with. Back in the day, when the competition was comparatively low, brands could still bide their time in regard to a digital campaign. Today, a business must pounce upon a new enhancement as soon as it launches before it blows up and becomes noisy. Businesses must make a mark before the noise hits!

Many brands have already created cool Instagram filters that users can find and download from the Effects Gallery. It goes without saying that this is one of the most effective marketing strategies as far as digital advertising is concerned. When a netizen uses a filter created by your brand, axiomatically, your brand name pops up on his/her story/feed, which is how you acquire visibility.

But hold on, now there is an even better way!

Imagine you have your own clothing line. Now, if you want to take full advantage of your digital presence, what would you do other than creating an appealing catalog of clothes? Write good product descriptions? Have them displayed on models?

Your customers are regular people with different body types. And we would all agree that nothing beats trying out an outfit yourself. Using these new AR Instagram filter, you can create augmented reality, which would allow a visitor on your page to try out the outfit herself/himself, enhancing customer experience dramatically.

This is just one basic example. However, any business can fit its offerings or products to unique filters that bring the customer in. You can even fit seasonal advertising ideas to exclusive and cool filters, such as a Halloween-themed make up range or accessories. See, there could be a plethora of ideas.

IKEA is one of the most favored companies in the world because it aims to enhance customer experience before anything else.

Open an account on Spark AR Studio to get started. Choose an effect. You can upload a 3D asset, after which you may customize the movements of the graphic. Test and publish. The AR filters appear right beside the ‘Series’ icon denoted as a ‘smiley’. Your followers can click on the ‘smiley’ to check out the filters and use them – that’s creating brand awareness 101! If you are not sure about creating your own filters, delegate the task to an expert Instagram filter creator. What more, this tool is free! So, you get a potential outreach for your brand without spending any money.

Instagram/KOL is a great strategy to enhance your marketing game. If you can get Instagram influencers to try out your filters and share those with their followers, the ball is in your court! You’ve won half the battle.

Make the most of the tool that allows you to create virtual realities with your products. Connect with your customers at an immediate level. Promote them on Instagram because, with these, you can build engagements in real-time as opposed to just garnering likes. Use AR filters to be visible for a reason.

More than any other issue, cybersecurity issues, and data privacy breaches are some of the most critical problems a company can face. As data privacy breaches are becoming increasingly common and severe, implementing personal data privacy ordinance and GDPR becomes the need of the hour. GDPR and the data protection law and policy in Hong Kong are some of the most famous and powerful data privacy laws currently.

Even with increasing data privacy breaches, numerous companies are reluctant to adhere to these ordinances and regulations. They believe it to be a waste of time and resources. However, such companies fail to recognize the benefits that these data privacy laws can provide, not just for their customers but also for their own business.

One company that adheres to these ordinances and regulations is Apple. Recently, Apple is planning to launch a search engine in the iOS 14 system to take on Google according to the Financial Times.

Forbes recently published an article regarding Apple building a search engine to tackle Google. One of the most unique features this search engine has is increased user privacy. Given privacy is a huge concern, the company insisted that “privacy” is a basic human right, and one of apple’s core values. Therefore, this search engine would refrain from storing personal information, nor track users across the web.

With one of the world’s most valuable company prioritizing privacy and protection, here are five reasons to consider incorporating data privacy and protection regulations into your business operations:

Non-compliance with data privacy and data protection laws, such as the GDPR, data protection law, and policy in Hong Kong, personal data privacy ordinance, can attract several heavy fines. Businesses end up losing a major chunk of their revenue in trying to pay off these fines. According to the official GDPR website, violation of the GDPR regulations can result in fines of up to 10 million euros. Undertakings can be fined 2% of their global turnover as well. Obviously, it is a smart decision to avoid these fines and utilize this capital in other domains. Apart from these fines, non-compliance can also lead to losing numerous strategic business partnerships. Reputed and established businesses do not want to associate themselves with companies that do not follow data privacy and data protection laws. This can throw a huge wrench in your business growth.

One main reason why businesses avoid implementing data privacy and protection laws is that it will hamper their products and services. They believe not having access to data might stop them from providing enhanced service to their customers. However, this is where businesses are going wrong. Implementing data privacy and protection laws in Hong Kong can help them bring forth innovative products and services.

It takes a lot of innovation to create products and services in line with data privacy and data protection laws. Thus, companies incorporating data privacy and data protection laws in their business models will be able to create new technology with data privacy at the heart of it. Since customers are demanding data privacy and cybersecurity more than ever before, providing them such products and services will enable companies to grow exponentially.

The only way to protect personal data to the fullest is by implementing top-notch security controls. However, when a company fails to do so, they stand the risk of data privacy breaches that can have a crippling effect on their business. According to a report by the Ponemon Institute, a single data breach could cost an IT company about $3.86 million in 2020. Plus, when you face a data privacy breach, you betray your customer’s trust. Since the customer’s data has now been shared with a third-party, your customer will no longer stay loyal to you. This can have a drastic effect on your business’ growth. Such data privacy breaches destroy your brand value and prevent you from building a loyal customer base.

Your customer begins to lose trust in your business and no longer finds it safe to purchase from you. However, companies that take extra efforts to provide data protection will attract positive attention from customers. When companies prioritize customer data privacy, they improve their brand value. Such solid standing in the market enables you to grow your business and gain a competitive advantage over your competitors.

Awareness about data protection and data privacy amongst customers is increasing with every passing day. When companies fulfill their customers’ wishes regarding the same, they can build a brand that endures. Your customers will begin to do long-term business with you without worrying about any repercussions (because there won’t be any). Building customer loyalty enables you to avoid acquiring more customers. Acquiring a new customer is costlier than retaining an old one. Thus, building customer loyalty by complying with data privacy and protection laws will reduce costs associated with gaining new customers.

Companies that comply with data privacy and protection laws would never want to do business with companies that don’t. These ethical companies are trying to build themselves as a thought leader, rather than a bad reputation. In other words, if you incorporate data privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity laws in your business operations, you stand the chance of building better business relationships. After all, everyone wishes to work with a trustworthy business partner who won’t jeopardize anything.

 

Sources:</>

[1] https://www.hytrust.com/blog/when-consumer-privacy-is-a-competitive-advantage-security-can-be-a-marketing-tool/

[2] https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/pdo/en/

[3] https://swiftsystems.com/guides-tips/benefits-of-data-protection/

[4] https://www.cpomagazine.com/blogs/privacy-intelligence/12-reasons-why-data-privacy-protection-brings-business-value/

[5] https://www.cherwell.com/library/blog/it-security-compliance/