8 Ways to Increase Customer and Community Engagement in the Metaverse

As a marketing leader, it's crucial to stay ahead of the curve and leverage innovative tools to gain a competitive edge. The metaverse has already arrived, and despite its early stages, brands and creators are actively engaging with it. Even during challenging times, many have successfully built and maintained communities within this new virtual world. Gartner predicts that by 2026, 25% of people will spend an hour each day in the metaverse for various purposes, including work, education, shopping, entertainment, and socializing. Brands have realized that the metaverse provides a platform for immersive and gamified experiences that foster robust community growth and engagement. Establishing strong connections with customers can drive loyalty, emotional engagement, and ultimately, more sales. Metaverse platforms like the RFOX VALT, The Sandbox, Decentraland, and Roblox are already making this happen.

1. Host Exclusive Meet-ups

Founders, community managers, and creators are now able to engage with their audience from the comfort of their own homes (and avatars), regardless of where their community members may be located. By leveraging the metaverse, community members or fans can be rewarded with exclusive meet-and-greet opportunities. Such events enable community members to feel a stronger connection with the company by engaging with them directly. The meeting place can range from a basic branded space to a highly elaborate space with gamified elements, further enhancing the engagement experience.

2. NFT Exhibitions

Instead of browsing 2D websites or being limited to attending exhibitions due to physical location, users can now enter the metaverse to explore and purchase NFT collections and products, all while immersing themselves in a completely new and exciting experience. NFTs provide brands with a unique opportunity to build customer loyalty by offering NFTs that unlock exclusive benefits such as rewards, membership perks, or product giveaways. By using NFTs and blockchain technology, consumer brands can now incentivize user engagement by "tokenizing" the brand experience through innovative products, rewards, and benefits, ultimately leading to increased monetization of customers. By creating an NFT exhibition within the metaverse, brands can offer their communities an exciting place to meet and gather while being fully immersed in their product and branding experience.

3. Activations

Would you like a high-impact product activation but only have a modest budget? Fortunately, brands can now create impactful metaverse activations that would be impossible to achieve in the real world. Metaverses are built with gaming engines, which means that creativity can run wild and elaborate events can be created at a fraction of the cost of real-life events. Additionally, many metaverses offer easily customizable templates, eliminating the need for any development work. After launching a product or NFT, audiences can come together in the metaverse to view the products, hear from speakers, participate in giveaways, interact with a global community, and share the experience across social media. In VR metaverses, the use of avatars adds a fun and immersive element, allowing participants to express themselves with a variety of outfits and styles.

The power of immersive experiences is remarkable. When brands create experiences that evoke positive emotions, they connect those feelings with their customers and products, making it more likely that customers will engage positively with the brand.

4. Create a Game

Integrating game-like elements such as challenges, quests, rewards and leaderboards into marketing strategies is an excellent way to boost engagement. By incorporating such elements, attention and participation can be increased, leading to more users and improved retention through behavior reinforcement. This is achieved by rewarding users for specific actions or activities that promote growth. People naturally enjoy competition and having fun, and rewards for engagement could include NFT giveaways, community or Discord group leveling, or point systems. Of-course fully immersive blockchain games can now be created and integrated into virtual worlds, such as the RFOX VALT, by using gaming SDKs.

5. Metaverse Events and Parties

Metaverse events and parties offer a unique and enjoyable experience that is unlike anything else in the virtual world. Interacting globally in an immersive environment is much more memorable than using platforms like MS Teams or Google Meets. It's an excellent way to connect with your work team or fellow fans, and it offers a level of accessibility that is not possible with physical events. With incredible environments and effects, the experience is enhanced, and incorporating equipment such as DJ decks and lights can create mesmerizing and realistic experiences. Some users even report engaging in real-world party behaviors, such as having a few drinks while wearing their VR headset during metaverse parties, leading to very unique and memorable experiences.

6. Engage with other communities in the metaverse

Metaverses are home to numerous communities, providing users with the chance to connect with like-minded individuals and gain first-hand knowledge about various products and communities. Exploring and discovering new communities and experiences is an exciting activity for metaverse users, and it may present opportunities to win rewards. Some businesses also create fully immersive games and experiences that are open to the public, which is an excellent way to engage with potential customers and attract new users to the platform.

7. Run AMA’s and educational talks

Conducting your Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions in the metaverse offers a unique and refreshing approach compared to the typical video calls or on-camera interviews. Hosting a live talk in the metaverse allows for audience interaction while also promoting brand awareness and education. Additionally, the metaverse provides an effortless way for brands to record and distribute the live content across various social media platforms.

8. Use Tools for User Generated Content

By utilizing recording and sharing tools, brands are empowering their audiences and communities to generate metaverse content that can be shared across social media. Moreover, some metaverses go beyond that by allowing creators within their audiences to create NFT assets based on the brand's intellectual property. These creators can showcase their minted creations such as avatars or wearables and record metaverse content, which can then be shared on social media. The creators have the option to sell their assets on marketplaces or use them in their own virtual spaces. This ability to create branded IP and use or trade it in the metaverse while sharing it on social media increases the brand's market exposure exponentially, not to mention royalties from brand IP sales!

To sum up, the metaverse presents many innovative opportunities for brands to gain a competitive advantage. As the platforms continue to evolve, even more impressive outcomes can be achieved. By engaging with their audience and offering an immersive environment to connect, brands can foster stronger relationships and amplify their results. This should be a staple in any marketing toolkit.

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