Five Ways to “Soft Sell” an NFT Collection Subliminally!

You can listen/watch the podcast/video of this article here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI73xKSuwCw&t=

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• Advertising whack-a-mole
• It’s almost subliminal
• Don’t become an NFT infomercial
• You can lead a horse to water
• On the other hand

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Last week we talked about how to create a USP, or Unique Selling Proposition, to guarantee NFT collection success. If you missed that, you can read it by clicking here!

Advertising whack-a-mole

This week we’re going to talk about a sales and marketing strategy that you can use to subliminally “soft-sell” your NFTs any time you are communicating with your community. (and WHY we need to be deliberate and use this method)

It’s the easiest to use when you’re writing, but can also be squeezed in when you’re speaking during a podcast, making a video, or even in conversation. It's used behind the scenes, to share an alternate thought than what you directly say. I'll explain!

When I first learned and started re-teaching this back in 1983, I used to call this strategy “the impulses”, or “subliminal selling”. It’s a way to generate a more impulsive buying nature in someone without being too direct.

Why is it needed? Because we see so many ads these days, our mind plays a type of “whack-a-mole” and helps us ignore most of them!

Here’s what I mean: in today’s world, we’re bombarded by ads. We see them online and off, on radio and TV, all over websites, on billboards, and even on the caps and tee shirts we wear.

A “Red Crow Marketing” study showed that the average person who uses the internet sees between 4,000 and 10,000 ads in a single day. Whoa.

Every 4–5 posts on Twitter and Facebook are ads. (I didn’t go count them, but you can, they say “sponsored”!) A walk down a busy street in a big city will leave you exposed to dozens, if not hundreds, of billboards. Not to mention the countless shop windows, buses, taxi-tops, and more.

It all adds up quickly… I guess “the good news”, is that for the most part, we’ve learned to ignore them. We only “notice” around 100 ads a day because we’ve effectively learned to block them out.

Back in the 1970’s it was reported that we were only subject to around 500–800 ads a day. Ahh… I long for the good old days of only seeing 500 ads a day!

It’s almost subliminal

It was more or less exposed back in the 70’s, but subliminal advertising in print ads was pretty radical. I’ll share a few images for fun, but the point was to gain subconscious attraction to your product by hiding images or words inside of other images. (there's a fun article about them here at BuzzFeed)

These are images processed in the brain, but not thought about.

It’s debatable how well it actually worked, but it was pretty widespread, especially in magazines... and Disney films, lol. Google it.

The five “soft-sell” strategies I’m going to share will help you do the same, but in a moral and open way.

We won’t be hiding images of sex organs in NFT artwork (I TOLD YOU it was radical!) but there are “ways” to say things to create FOMO, speed up a buying decision, and subconsciously give people a push to mint or buy your NFTs.

You do this, by casually “dropping” information in your communications in a way that will tend to give them a “soft nudge” toward taking action. You’re not directly asking them to buy something, but simply mentioning other facts, events, or ideas that will push them to buy, nonetheless.

In a way, these are simply sales techniques, but in this case, we’re not going to use these in a sales pitch or presentation. We just “toss them in” when it’s convenient or feels right.

You mention things, you toss in comments… but when using this technique, you don’t push them or try to convince them. However, there are plenty of times to do that as well though, when you're actually creating ads and posts.

This one below is one you'll never be able to unsee. Do you think that it was drawn this was a coincidence?

Don’t become an NFT infomercial

In a sense, we’re mentioning things that you might HEAR in an infomercial, without sounding like an infomercial, lol!

You want to toss them in so their brain understands them, without them giving it conscious thought... just like the sublims!

It’s kind of like how to “tell them to buy your NFTs without telling them to buy your NFTS”.

First, we’ll cover what they are, and then I’ll share the proper way to use them in Discord/Telegram conversations, as well as when you’re making announcements, shilling, writing emails, sending DMs, answering support tickets, and more.

• Sense of Urgency; First, is what we refer to as a “sense of urgency”. You need to give people reasons to buy/mint, join a contest, or whatever else you’re suggesting… and to encourage them to DO IT NOW!

• Fear of Loss; This is also known as “FOMO”, or the “fear of missing out”. You point out that if they don’t take advantage of the offer, they are losing something… an opportunity, an investment, a chance of a win, etc..

• Association; Most people are more followers than leaders, and are more likely to take action (buy, mint, join) if they see their friends and peers are already taking the same course of action. Point it out loud and clear.

• Greed; People are greedy by nature. We want what others have, but we want more of it, we want it faster, cheaper, & first. We hear “keeping up with the Joneses”. Give them the chance to have it first, have more, etc..

• Status; People are motivated by status, but even more, their status as perceived by others. People go to great lengths so others will see them as happy, successful, smart, etc.. (just look at social media for proof!)

When you take a look at these you’ll see they are nothing new. In fact, you have seen them used over and over again in marketing and sales.

We’re going to be using them differently, but to put them into context let’s look at some examples… I’ll let YOU figure out which of the five each one fits into!

• The special offer ends at midnight
• While supplies last
• Limited quantity available
• What will your friends think when they see you…
• Offer is valid on a first come first serve basis
• Only the best drive Mercedes
• We’re only putting 100 people on the WL
• There are only 222 NFTs in the collection

I imagine you’re starting to see how not only do they all work together in sales and marketing, but that some of them can plainly tick the boxes of more than one of the categories.

For example, “while supplies last”, not only suggests that you should fear you’ll be missing out, but that other people are also rushing down to purchase… this one shows “association”.

You can lead a horse to water

We’ve all heard the term “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink!"

By using these correctly you’ll have an advantage. You always have a better chance of the horse taking a sip if he is already at the pond, and is thirsty. Learning to use these "impulses" is like having that advantage.

To make this work, I want you to use these ideas and strategies differently than commonly found in a newspaper ad or sales page though… I want you to learn to “mention” things that give the IMPRESSION of these events, without saying them directly.

Another way to put it is to casually mention these things when it’s not normal or expected to be mentioned... so in conversation, instead of in ads.

As an example, let’s say you’re simply responding to the common “GM” post we see so often in NFT Discords. Instead of saying:

“GM to you too!”

Say something like:

“GM to you too! It’s so nice in a fast-growing community like this that we can still talk 1 to 1. I’m glad you’re a part of the community!”.

It’s certainly not much… but you’re pointing out that the community is growing… which can trigger the “association” impulse… and that others feel this is a great place to be as well.

Less obvious, is it reinforces status. That they’ve made the right decision to be here. It also shows “personal attention”, which is one of the most powerful ways to motivate people.

It also plays on their greed… to some people, a personal message like this from the founder, artist, developer, or whatever you call yourself can make them feel great. People love attention and focus. Hand it out warmly… but make sure you’re not fake and it is sincere.

There’s a saying “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. Just the fact that the founder or project team member will respond to someone personally impresses people.

How many projects are we in where the artist or founder pops in now and then and even so, doesn’t interact? It’s a recipe for failure. On the low end, it gives the impression they don’t care about the people… on the higher end, it makes people start thinking they’re going to be rugged.

I don’t want to go totally off-topic, but while I’m on the “personal attention” bandwagon, one of the best things you can do to keep morale strong and keep your people active is to DM community members on a regular basis.

Pick 20 (0r 50 or 100) people a day and DM them something as simple as “heya bigponylover123, I just wanted to let you know I’m glad you’re here, and if I can ever help or answer any questions, please reach out!”.

It’s one of the easiest things to do, but engages the community personally, shows you care, and creates true fans who in return will refer others and support you.

They will believe in you more fully, respect you more, and feel more personally connected. They’ll also be the first to DM you in return when they perceive a problem or negative sentiment floating around for one reason or another.

Don’t underestimate the power of 1 to 1 communication…

Another way to toss things in would be when you answer a question about the project. For example, someone asks how much the next NFT being added to the project will cost, or when the launch date will be.

Instead of answering something like:

"We'll be launching on the 4th of next month and the cost is going to be .2 eth."

You elaborate by saying something like:

"We'll be launching on the 4th of next month and the cost is going to be .04 eth. It's funny how much excitement there is around it, and how many other projects lately want to get their people in on it at that price!".

Did you see what I did there? I hope so! What impulses does that statement push compared to the first one?

The winning horse only has to win by a nose! Sometimes the smallest things make all the difference in the world, and with the NFT biz as competitive as it is... all you need is a bigger nose. Don't be afraid to stick it out front.

On the other hand

I know the gist of this idea we’re talking about today is to use these “impulses” or techniques casually… being subtle, and finding ways to toss them in when you can, to create impulsiveness and nudge people to take action.

However, don’t be afraid to pick and choose from the five ideas above at more “up-front” and obvious times as well. Use them in social media posts, Discord announcements, emails, and other more “in your face” and obvious selling times too.

You want people to think:

“You need to move fast (sense of urgency) and you’ll lose out big time if you don’t (fear of loss/fomo) because other people are rushing to beat you to the thing (association) that’s such an incredible offer or investment to begin with (greed) and by the way, it will also make you shine & be noticed in your community! (status)

Give them a FIRST CLASS product on top of it, and you’ll be a happy camper!

Until next time, if you need help ask for it… if you don’t, prove it!

Deacon Nick

PS- This works best with a top-rate NFT collection offering an incredible unique selling proposition. Need help creating one? You can read how here, or watch the video here!

A Rising Floor is a weekly newsletter and Discord Mastermind created for NFT and ordinal collection owners, staff, and founders, as well as NFT industry gig workers and anyone who wants to promote their NFTs.

It’s a free source of news, NFT marketing help, and a place to communicate with peers for the advancement of the industry.

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