The metaverse is a virtual environment that is dominating the internet these days. Technology is evolving rapidly and the innovation of the metaverse is just the beginning. This innovation first appeared in fictional movies like Ready Player One, but has now developed into an immersive and interactive global experience.

The growing popularity of virtual and augmented reality has contributed to the trend of the metaverse. Now, marketers are clamoring to find out more.

But, are there real advantages to incorporating the metaverse with your marketing strategies?

Business-to-business marketers (B2B) were slow in adopting digital means, and creating more focus to digital offerings to bring about more brand awareness, creating a strong online presence and taking advantage of the technology. Now, one of the biggest new platforms for marketing includes the metaverse – and the same “wait-and-see” approach may be history repeating itself for marketers – in other words, don’t wait. Instead, jump in and seize the opportunities that this new technology can provide for your company.

The gaming industry was the first to bring about the metaverse. Games provided real-time situations with other players where they could interact and play together, which opened up a new idea for businesses. As a result, the metaverse has unlocked more ways for businesses to become visible and start attracting new customers.

Brands are now realizing the potential that these virtual experiences can provide. The metaverse is new, boasts faster connections, providing more opportunity and allows companies to engage your target audience in a new way.

What is the Metaverse?

The ability to access and develop a virtual world that bridges physical experiences in the digital age is what constitutes the metaverse. All virtual and augmented reality within the internet encompasses the metaverse. Many businesses have recognized that an online presence and digital services and products are a necessity for growth.

The biggest metaverses include games such as Fortnight and Roblox, which lets their players try new things and earn points. In addition, brands can adopt this same experience for their customers, launching virtual games or opportunities to build more brand awareness among your core demographic.

Now, the metaverse provides a virtual reality aspect that experts are seeing massive growth potential in. Their research has them predicting that up to 60 million and 93 million people will be using both virtual and augmented reality just within 2022 alone.

Soon, the metaverse will become the next necessary part of a company’s marketing strategy. If you want to equip your business with marketing tactics for the metaverse, here are some helpful facts to get you started.

Metaverse Facts

Google News now shows over 24.5M search results for the keyword “metaverse news”, growing significantly from only 175k only five months ago. Likewise, LinkedIn shows thousands of people utilizing metaverse in their profile title, headline, and experience.

Likewise, other social media platforms like Instagram show over 762k posts using the hashtag #metaverse, and Twitter shows around 2k uses of the hashtag in just one hour. There is much more focus on this term in the digital realm.

Metaverses rely heavily on visuals, which also help to drive SEO rank and organic traffic. Images and video are highly effective forms of content and should also be implemented within augmented, virtual reality, and 3D experiences for your marketing plans.

Metaverse Marketing

The metaverse is a collective virtual shared space and a place where soon everyone will have an avatar, or virtual version, of themselves. The experience within the metaverse will be 3D for all things, including gaming, creation, exploration, and play.

Marketing for your business includes shifting mindset and adapting virtual reality beyond gaming and play. The goals and objectives are to explore further, collaborate, socialize, and express within the metaverse. The key characteristics in metaverses include:

• A mix of different platforms – different games allow you to bring things from one to another so that they can work together in a metaverse.
• User-generated content – you can create your own content for others to use.
• Interactive content – Games, videos, and other immersive content will give ‘engagement marketing’ a whole new meaning
• Individual agency for users – players can do different activities simultaneously.
• Real-time – the timeline syncs with the real world.
• Fully functional and self-containment – users can sell, invest, and be recognized within the metaverse.
• Continual – metaverses won’t stop when you leave them; they just go on and on.

The global pandemic of COVID-19 opened the doors for technology to lead the way in how people operate within their everyday lives. With all of the new digital opportunities, virtual reality has made its stance in the technology revolution.

Marketers need to understand the value of both Gen Z and millennials as part of their target audience since these generations will be avid users within the metaverse. Therefore, your audience is crucial for generating your content to appeal to the market.

How can Brands Prepare Their Marketing Strategy for the Metaverse?

Including augmented reality and artificial intelligence as part of your digital marketing strategy can be tricky. Marketers will need to research and learn to be ready to change and adapt to the virtual opportunities.

Brands will need to refocus their narratives to fit more dimensions. Embracing emerging technology will happen more quickly to create in the metaverse. However, the value of your customers is at the forefront still, just as it would be for any business.

To be discovered in the metaverse, your marketing strategy needs to include targeted SEO, such as utilizing the term “metaverse” in your headlines, products, or brand name. In addition, creating virtual experiences on your website and listings will go a long way to adapting your marketing tactics.

Think about the ability to try out something with a 3D experience before buying. You could try on shoes, glasses, a hat – the possibilities are limitless. You can perform various training and tutorials, apply makeup, and more. These are all examples of how your brand’s content strategy can substantially impact the metaverse.

Incorporating virtual connections for an online experience where people can interact without leaving home allows your audience to grow as well. Think about attending a place with other people in a virtual setting. Or being able to see and experience a product or service together – this is all possible within the metaverse.

Creative Ways to Start Using the Metaverse

The digital world and physical world co-exist in the metaverse, and you can start using some tactics to bring them together:

• Host or attend a VR event so that you can soak up knowledge on the inner workings. Some platforms you can use include AltSpace VR or Facebook Horizon.
• Create public relations content using augmented reality to stand out when you tell your stories or promote new launches for your products or services.
• Interact and follow other analysts or journalists who are covering these virtual reality experiences and the metaverse.
• Set up your Google Alerts to follow “metaverse” in the news. Every step to learning more about how your brand can insert itself within the metaverse is helpful.
• Start to create content using AR as soon as possible. Sometimes jumping right into using the technology can help your marketing teams to learn it more easily.

Your platforms should still include technological tools that help to monetize and track your performance so that you can see what virtual experiences are working to bring your business more traffic, purchases, and engagement. For instance, if your audience primarily utilizes YouTube, you can shorten YouTube links and automatic affiliation since these go a long way to help boost sales and revenue.

Advertisements in the Metaverse

Marketing and advertising in the metaverse are still very new, so budgeting for these campaigns is still low and affordable. Therefore, it is an excellent time to jump into learning and start to incorporate it within your marketing strategy.

Your target audience should already be using the metaverse for incorporating it to work for your business. Remember that regular advertisements won’t work, and your teams will have to think more creatively and focus on engagement. Think about developing marketing experiences that will tie in with real-world experiences and demonstrate the product or service in an innovative way.

For example, Stella Artois collaborated with Zed Run to make a Tamagotchi experience along with the Kentucky Derby. The brand is known for sponsoring sporting events focusing on horse races and developed an online platform where NFT horses could be bred, raced, and traded.

You should strive to take advantage of providing your potential customers with immersive experiences in your ads and marketing campaigns. Collaborate with other brands that can help you develop these experiences, and you will be surprised at the new income streams built!

Offerings in the Metaverse

Your marketing strategy can include showcasing consumer interests. For example, people like to collect things, so you can create an experience within the metaverse to offer collectible items they can only obtain during their experience with your brand.

An excellent example is the Gucci Garden experience on Roblox. They offer what is called “The Collector’s Room,” allowing people to collect limited edition items in the metaverse. Their initial sales of the items collected 286M from the game.

Collaborating with Existing Communities for Engagement

People don’t like the hard sell and can be opposed to straight advertising. So when your brand is working on gaining traction in the metaverse, work to establish a rapport and positive connection with the people already there.

Partnering with other members in the metaverse communities can help you develop your new experiences and items. Working with experts already on the platform will help you learn more about reaching your customers. Incorporate these influencers as part of your campaigns so that members already within the metaverse can help lead your business in the right direction.

Keep Experimenting

Your marketing teams can experiment with different tactics. The metaverse is a new platform, and the best practices to reach new heights have not been established. Work to find other untried methods and ways to develop visibility within the metaverse, much like how your teams worked to see these innovative campaigns for the internet.

Strategies can include many marketing techniques utilized across the internet, from incorporating video to virtual billboards. Think big during the process as you begin to engage within the metaverse. Don’t limit yourself, have your marketers attempt as many avenues as possible to help connect to your target market.

The Future of Metaverses

It is possible to create virtual beings as they are already a part of our lives (like Alexa). You should consider making a virtual being that looks like the CEO or someone to be the face of the brand. Leveraging this technology will be the wave of the future. There are many other reasons why marketers are moving over to the metaverse, such as being able to more precisely target your demographic and develop authentic connections for a one-of-a-kind experience.

Think about what the global pandemic created; the significant shift to staying at home and working remotely has created a boom in the workforce. Companies are now being trained to lead meetings through video conferences, webinar demonstrations, and customer service has become more automated.

Technology has skyrocketed, and the digital, online world is taking the lead. Finding ways to offer clients a way to use your products and services without having to leave the house will only be exacerbated with the use of the metaverse. The key is determining how your business can create that exceptional experience to develop growth, loyalty, and, most importantly, retention.

Metaverse technology offers a more customized experience and gives the customer the reins to control how they interact on the platform. It goes beyond the impact of a video; prospective clients can interact with and learn more about your product and service without constraint. It essentially provides a more emotionally-driven experience.

Shifting your marketing strategy to include metaverses will be beneficial for your business. Facebook, Google, and other big names are already changing to incorporate virtual technologies. These other companies making a move is a big sign that virtual reality technology is shifting towards a bigger purpose than entertainment.

About Millennium Agency    

Millennium Agency is a national, award-winning boutique branding, messaging and strategy marketing firm for the B2B technology and manufacturing sectors. A top-led, women-owned business, we take your brand and vision seriously and build a strategy that helps drive brand success. Our expert team unites creative branding, storytelling and data analytics to accelerate your business growth. With offices in Boston and New Hampshire, and a worldwide presence, the professionals at Millennium Agency would like to learn more about your business.