In part 2 of our metaverse series we looked at sentiment among both consumers and business leaders. We also looked at the strategic priorities business leaders have when considering their metaverse strategy.
In part 3 we will consider how businesses can start implementing a metaverse strategy. We know that C-level executives see the appeal of the metaverse. But how can they begin to develop a realistic strategic stance towards it? How will they both define, and find, value in the metaverse?
Let’s dive back into the metaverse to look more at metaverse strategy.
Metaverse Strategy – Defining What Your Business Wants From The Metaverse
There are a few big questions businesses need to ask themselves before diving into creating a metaverse strategy.
The most important of these questions is asking what, exactly, do you want your company to do in the metaverse? Most other big questions and issues flow from your answer to this main question.
So, what do you want to do in the metaverse? A simple question, with not so simple answers!
So, what does your business want to do in the metaverse?
Depending on your business and the niche you operate in, things can get quite complicated from there. A business can have different options and paths to take. Some massive companies will want to be world builders. They will want to build proprietary worlds that metaverse users will join. Other businesses will want to be “experience builders”. They will want to build experiences in the different metaverses to engage with their customers. Another tier of companies will want to provide products and services to metaverse users.
Defining the right path for your business to take is the very first step to outlining a metaverse strategy. World building is, at this point, out of reach for most businesses. That is the domain of the likes of Meta, Google, Microsoft and Apple. Though innovations in tools and platforms will make it possible for more companies to build their own metaverse worlds in the future.
It is more probable that most companies fall in the last two categories. Experience builders and product/service providers.
But there is yet another path to take. You can choose not to engage in the metaverse if it does not fit your target audience or brand. This will leave you at a disadvantage in the future once mainstream adoption arrives. A “wait and see” approach brings its own problems.
So let’s assume you have defined your ambitions in the metaverse. You know you are not a world builder (yet). But you have an idea of what you want to achieve.
So…how do you start?
Preparing Your Metaverse Strategy
The good news is that there are already proven methods you can use to begin to build your metaverse strategy. A bit of design thinking and product led growth will help you get to where you need to go. You will need to do a lot of user research. You will also need to task your marketing teams to look at new demographics you could reach with a metaverse offering.
Defining your ambitions, as outlined in the last section, is already the first step. Everything else after that, while very complex, is only an obstacle to overcome. Complexity aside, it is not that different to exploring a new social media channel or launching a new product.
Here are some rough steps you can follow to begin to prepare your metaverse strategy.
Define your metaverse goals and ambitions
This is your answer to the “what do you want to do in the metaverse” question. Do you want to generate more demand across existing customer segments while exploring new segments? Do you want to build a community? Is creating new revenue streams your focus? Are you building experiences or providing products/services?
Answering these questions will help you set a path.
User research
This is a very important step. You will find out what metaverse solutions your customers want.
Launch an initial offering
It may feel like this should be the very last step. But launching an initial metaverse offering will help you gather data and explore opportunities. If you want to build metaverse experiences, starting small will help you test and learn. If you want to offer products/services, an initial offering will help you better understand the different metaverse spaces you can operate in.
Testing, testing & more testing
After an initial, MVP style launch you will need a process of continuous testing to refine your metaverse strategy. This will help you define the right metrics to measure success and explore more opportunities for monetization.
Learning about users
All this testing will give more data on what users like, and do not like. You will see how users behave in different ways in different metaverses.
Adoption
This step is where you will adopt the learnings from users. As well as the implementing results from the tests and experiments you are conducting. Testing and adoption should work in a constant loop. You will always be testing, then adopting the results from those tests. This helps you improve your metaverse strategy.
Scaling
Scaling adds new layers of complexity. But if you hit this point you have nothing to worry about. You can start scaling capabilities through hiring more talent. Scaling also involves establishing your tech stack and infrastructure.
At this stage you will be able to add the metaverse to your business strategy. You will also know who will be responsible for implementing the metaverse strategy across the different areas of your business.
These rough steps should help you to start conceptualizing your metaverse strategy. Come back soon for part 4 where we will look at the impact of the metaverse. We will also look at possible regulatory input you may have to consider when embedding the metaverse into your business.
Talk to MAQE
Do you need to conduct user research? Do you need help building metaverse experiences? Maybe you want to prepare your commerce operations for the metaverse? Talk to MAQE. We have years of omnichannel commerce experience. Get in touch via [email protected].