As a startup founder or small business owner, you likely wear many hats and have a lot on your plate. Between managing finances, operations, and marketing, it can be hard to find time for everything. But one of the best things you can do for your business, especially early on, is work on your digital marketing by creating content.
But how do you reach the growing part of your potential audience that is moving from the real world and Web 2.0 into the immersive experiences offered by the metaverse? Content marketing in this new realm can seem daunting, but luckily, there are plenty of effective strategies that promise to work well. In this blog post, we’ll outline five of the most important tips and actionable advice to get your content marketing game on in the metaverse. So if you’re looking to generate more leads and conversions through content marketing, read on.
What is the metaverse?
The metaverse is a virtual world that exists outside the constraints of the Internet as we know it today. It’s a place where individuals may live, interact with each other, work, and play in new and exciting ways. The term means, literally, beyond the universe, and it was coined by science fiction writer Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash”.
These worlds are only made possible thanks to technologies such as virtual reality headsets that are transforming our relationship with gaming, television, film, events, education, business meetings and so on. Even though we talk about “the” metaverse, there is more than one. Online gaming platforms like Fortnite, Second Life and World of Warcraft are all examples of metaverses that focus on gaming and entertainment, but other platforms like Decentraland have emerged that focus on user-generated content.
Metaverses are also virtual economies that transcend into and impact the real economy. This economy is powered by cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin, which are stored and transacted via major crypto wallets like Ledger and Trezor, and then used to purchase items within the metaverse.
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Key perks of the metaverse for content marketing
If you’ve been doing digital marketing for any amount of time, you probably know that content is king when it comes to drawing in potential leads and converting them into customers. Metaverses can be natural places to market your products for several reasons. You’ll be able to reach potential leads more easily than on the open web. There is far less competition for attention at the moment since most content posted in these worlds is user-generated rather than commercial.
Whether you’re selling goods or services, you can find an audience on the metaverse eager to engage with your brand in new ways. People come to the metaverse to talk and interact with each other in more powerful ways than even social media can manage. It’s not for nothing that Facebook rebranded to Meta and is focusing so much effort on the deployment of the metaverse. This makes the metaverse an ideal playground to promote your content and spread the word much faster than before.
Finally, since the metaverse is an immersive, virtual 3D world, posting content there will connect your brand with your audience on a deeper level than by publishing a boring 2D blog post. This makes your content marketing more effective and drives conversions through the roof.
If you want to take advantage of these perks but don’t know how to get started, keep reading to learn five key tips on content marketing in the metaverse.
Tip #1: Learn about cryptos and NFTs.
Much of the power of the metaverse will come from blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens or NFTs, so being savvy in all of those fields is a must. This isn’t just because those topics are and will continue to be popular, but also because they are the foundation upon which the metaverse economy is being built.
Although you can use your normal fiat money to purchase skins and outfits for your avatars in most online games today, some metaverses are putting a stronger focus on crypto. This means that knowing where and how to buy Ethereum, Bitcoin and other cryptos and how to use them intelligently will be essential to establishing successful partnerships with other brands, sponsoring content, and implementing other content marketing strategies in the metaverse.
On the other hand, non-fungible tokens or NFTs are also key when it comes to the metaverse. These are unique digital tokens based on smart contracts that can’t be copied or reproduced and that are recorded and verified on an Ethereum blockchain. NFTs can be used to assign and track ownership of digital assets, and they’re what makes it possible for you to buy and own a custom avatar skin, for example.
NFTs also enable users to create their own content and be rewarded as its rightful owners, which opens up the possibility of new business models for sponsored content and influencer marketing.
Tip #2: Experiment with new types of content.
The metaverse will open up new methods for individuals to learn how to produce content in various ways. Blog postings, videos, and photographs will continue to be useful, but there will also be a plethora of new formats previously limited to experts. 3D virtual tours and dynamic 3D settings will become the type of content and experiences that people will be searching for and that you should be creating.
There are many different ways to leverage VR and AR to produce new types of content. This could be something as simple as transforming a flat, 2D chart into an interactive 3D plot that users can move, tilt, scale, recolor, etc., to something as complex as an entire interactive 3D virtual world where your content is in the 3D assets themselves or is somehow integrated into the experience.
Let’s say you’re running a travel and tourism business and want to promote trips to Malaga, Spain, through content marketing. In traditional Web 2.0, you would probably write a blog post with beautiful photos and relevant information about the city or shoot a video depicting some of the key spots to visit, landmarks, etc. In the metaverse, you can take things further by actually walking your audience through a virtual guided tour of the city, taking them to the different available hotels so they can choose the one they like best, and more.
Tip #3: Experiment with new content creation tools.
While building immersive VR experiences for your audience sounds great on paper, one key question comes up: How do you create this type of content? Writing blog posts and shooting videos is one thing, but building a 3D world is another entirely.
The good news is that new tools are being created all the time for just these purposes. A few examples of 3D creation software that you could use include SketchUp, Revit, Unreal Engine, Unity, Maya and Blender, to name a few.
In the past, creating this type of content and using these tools was reserved for expert 3D modelers, renderers and animators who worked tirelessly on a high budget for hours on end. This probably sounds like more than you can chew. However, luckily, AI-powered 3D design software is now easier than ever to use, and some tools are even free.
The best example is Unreal Engine 5, which makes creating entire virtual 3D worlds that render photorealistic environments in real-time a breeze thanks to a huge library of free 3D scans of real objects that you can simply drag and drop.
Mastering tools like these will take your content marketing in the metaverse to another level.
Tip #4: Embrace live streams.
We’ve already witnessed the emergence of a new form of entertainment content in the metaverse called massive interactive live events (MILEs). This term refers to sporting events, big concerts, comedy shows, or any other type of spectator show streamed live within the metaverse.
One example of this was an Ariana Grande concert that streamed on Fortnite last August 2021 as a part of her Rift Tour. The event brought in millions of spectators before, during, and after the show. The success of this concert and other live-streamed events suggests that entertainment content will likely be an important part of the future of content marketing in the metaverse.
Tip #5: Create virtual and immersive sponsorships.
Sponsoring content is another example of a textbook content marketing strategy that can be adapted and optimized for the metaverse, offering unique opportunities. Brands are already taking full advantage of sponsorships in gaming metaverses, creating branded digital assets like sneakers and jackets influencers wear on their avatars, showing them off as they walk around in the metaverse.
Content sponsorships are also possible in the metaverse, although they’ll likely be somewhat different than in the current Web 2.0 because there are more ways to publish content and to create unique, immersive experiences for different audiences. Successful NFT artists are some of the most influential people in the metaverse today, so reaching out to and partnering with them early on is sure to bring you benefits down the road, especially as new business models for influencers, virtual goods and e-commerce emerge and scale.
The bottom line
The metaverse offers new ways to engage your audience and provide a richer, fuller and more immersive content experience. If you want to stay ahead of the curve in this fast-changing landscape, start creating content for the metaverse today. We’ve outlined five tips and content marketing strategies that will help you do just that—become a crypto and NFT expert, stream live events, work on your sponsorships and experiment with new types of content and tools for a fresh take on storytelling in VR/AR environments. Each strategy has its benefits but all boil down to one basic principle: Creating compelling stories worth sharing through any medium possible, including the metaverse.
