Over the past year, NFTs have exploded in popularity, with a $5B transaction volume in January of 2022 alone.
And while success stories like the Azuki and Doodles collections make headlines, what doesn’t get discussed are the thousands of NFT projects that fail to gain traction.
While there are a variety of reasons an NFT project could fail, having a clear NFT roadmap template dramatically increases the likelihood that your collection becomes a success.
So, here’s your NFT roadmap template of sorts. In particular, you’ll gain insights into in-depth instructions on creating a roadmap that acts as a blueprint for achieving success with your collection.
What Is An NFT Roadmap Template?
Best summarized by NFT guru Gary Vaynerchuck, an NFT roadmap template can be thought of as a “pitch deck” for your project.
If you’re unfamiliar with startup culture, a pitch deck is a visual representation of the high-level aspects of a business. In general, a pitch deck includes:
- Introduction that sums up the industry they plan to operate in
- The problem their product or service plans to solve
- How their solution (product/service) solves that problem in a unique way
- To what degree they’ve proven their solution does, in fact, solve the problem
- Who they plan to market and sell their solution to
- High-level timeline for what objectives will be accomplished by when
- Brief history of the company founders and their qualifications
- And so on
Sure, an NFT project is not a ‘business’ per se.
However, as the core document, you’ll use to convince the public to invest in your collection (buy your NFTs), your roadmap serves a very similar purpose.
In particular, your NFT roadmap template will contain:
- A summary of the collection you plan to launch
- Whether or not your NFT will have any real-world utility
- Whether you or your team will donate a portion of sales to any social causes (e.g. women’s rights, environmentalism, etc.)
- What plans you have for the project after launching the first collection/batch of NFTs
- High-level timeline for what objectives will be accomplished by when
- Brief history of your/your team’s qualifications and/or industry experience
- And more
With that said, just including these elements in a PDF document will not automatically make your project a success.
Instead, you must understand why to include these elements. Both relate to potential buyers and your/your team’s internal operations.
Why Create An NFT Roadmap Template?
At the end of the day, your roadmap serves two core functions.
First, your roadmap acts as the core marketing material you’ll rely on to persuade the public to buy your NFTs.
But equally as important, it serves as the internal blueprint you’ll depend on to guide the project over time.
Because of that, you must understand what to include and why the above elements are critical for your NFT roadmap template.
Persuading Potential Buyers
While having an internal roadmap to guide your decisions is essential, it won’t matter if no one buys your NFTs.
Given this, you want to put as much effort as possible into creating a document that persuades potential buyers to invest in your collection.
In particular, these are the four objectives you’ll want to consider when creating your roadmap.
Generate Excitement
In the marketing world, it’s said, “People buy on emotion first, then justify with logic.”
Meaning, in general, our buying decisions (and life choices) are initially made on an emotional, subconscious level. Then (and only then) do we look for logical reasons to justify why we should pursue what our brains have already decided they want.
Dating is an excellent example of this. In general, most people “fall in love” not because their partner met some perfect 100-point checklist but because of how that person made them feel on the first few dates.
Because of that, your NFT roadmap template, and marketing in general, should generate excitement and positive emotions about your project.
Inspire Faith and Trust
That said, relying on emotion and hype without anything backing it up is unlikely to produce positive results.
While it’s true our brains make emotional decisions first, they still turn to logic to justify those decisions after. And as we know, most emotions are short-lived.
This is why your roadmap must inspire both faith and trust amongst consumers. The question is, how?
We’ll tell you – by appealing to people’s rational sides.
In particular, you’ll want to show you:
- Have a track record of seeing large, difficult projects through to completion
- Have relevant experience as an artist, with NFT/blockchain projects, etc.
- Are committed for the long-term and prepared to handle unanticipated obstacles
- Have a “bigger picture” commitment to the project (yes, beyond solely making money)
- Have already begun making progress on the NFT collection
This last point is crucial. Reread it.
As you may have guessed by now, most anyone on the planet can throw together an NFT roadmap template. But, only a few will know how to execute correctly and have the correct guidance to succeed consistently.
And as we’ve seen over the past 18 months, many projects have done precisely that – Over time, specific projects ended up disappearing with people’s money.
Due to this, many NFT buyers have become skeptical of being scammed (aka being “rugged”).
However, a great way to address that skepticism is to prove that you’re in this for the long haul. And one of the best ways to do that is by putting serious work into the project before trying to sell your NFTs.
“Why does this make an impact,” you ask?
Because fly-by-night scammers are usually looking to make a quick buck and disappear, they typically put the bare minimum into their projects regarding time, money and effort.
On the flip side, someone who’s obviously invested serious amounts of time, money, and effort into their collection is dramatically less likely to be a scammer.
And because of that, it’s much more likely potential buyers will trust them.
That said, persuading potential buyers isn’t the only reason your roadmap exists. Instead, it also acts as the blueprint you’ll use to guide decision-making as the head of your project.
Internal Roadmap
While it’s common knowledge that a company will never follow its business plan to a T, traditional investors still require a business plan before investing in a company.
A business plan acts as a North Star, a guiding light in the face of difficult decisions.
Similarly, your roadmap is not only designed to persuade potential investors. Instead, it’s also meant to guide you or your team’s internal decision-making before, during, and after your collection launch.
In particular, your roadmap should serve four core functions internally.
#1 – Setting Priorities
Similar to a business, running an NFT collection means you’ll have to make “big picture” decisions on a frequent basis, such as:
- Should you work with a vendor to create physical merchandise?
- Should you organize an in-person event for investors?
- Will your NFT offer cryptocurrency-yield farming opportunities?
Yes, making these decisions is easy. But actually following up on them and putting your plan into action can require months of hard work.
Because of that, defining your long-term vision in the early stages helps you make strategic decisions when your workload starts to feel overwhelming.
#2 – Map Timelines
Timelines are critical for inspiring buyers’ trust and keeping your project on track internally.
Mainly because failing to meet deadlines consistently can harm your project in two ways.
First, continually missing deadlines could subconsciously communicate to your audience that:
- You’re incompetent
- You’re not taking the project seriously
- The project is being abandoned
- You’ve set overly aggressive goals and need to adjust the roadmap
On the one hand, realizing you’ve set overly aggressive goals and communicating that to your audience can be forgivable.
However, if you’re consistently missing deadlines and not explaining why to your buyers, it’s likely they’ll start to lose faith in the project.
Once people’s opinions of your project turn negative, social media chatter can quickly snowball out of control.
Further, even if you’ve missed deadlines for legitimate reasons, failing to stay in communication with your audience can make it hard to regain credibility after the fact.
Because of that, your roadmap is more than just a marketing tool. Instead, you should rely on your roadmap as a chronological goal-setting device you use to inspire trust among investors while keeping your project on track long-term.
#3 – Resource Allocation
Unless you have a large amount of capital saved up to launch your projects, odds are you’ll be starting on a shoestring budget.
You’ll have to be careful about investing your time, money and energy.
As we all know, there are only so many hours in the day. And until you launch your project, odds are you won’t have a huge budget with wiggle room.
Given this, a written roadmap can act as a guide regarding what the most efficient and effective use of your limited resources would be.
#4 – Hold Team Members Accountable
If you’re operating solo, this section won’t be relevant.
However, if you’re working with a partner or team, each of you will likely be responsible for different functions in the business.
For example, you’ll have an artist, a tech person who handles the blockchain side of the business, someone responsible for marketing, etc.
Without a list of clearly defined objectives and deadlines, it’s easy for people to take action on tasks that do not necessarily move your project forward.
On the flip side, a well-defined roadmap will make it crystal clear which team members need to complete which tasks and by when.
Do You Need An NFT Roadmap Template?
While there are situations where a business plan is mandatory, many entrepreneurs have achieved success without one, especially as it relates to bootstrap entrepreneurship.
Along the same lines, roadmaps are not a “must-have” for every NFT creator on the planet.
Instead, whether or not you need a roadmap depends on the size of your vision and what kind of investors you plan to attract.
Where Roadmaps Are Unnecessary
In particular, there are two situations where you will not need a roadmap.
Firstly, you will not need a roadmap if you’ll be selling individual NFTs.
Because there is no long-term plan with individual art pieces, collectors will buy your NFT because they like the art. There’s no expectation of real-world utility or flipping the NFT for a profit in the future, so there’s no need to persuade anyone of your long-term vision.
Secondly, if you’ll be launching your NFTs as part of an existing, curated collection, like Art Blocks, you will not need a roadmap.
Not only is this situation similar to selling individual pieces of art. In addition, the credibility of the collection/person doing the curating will automatically be transferred over to you, given your art has been chosen to be part of the curation.
Where You Will You Need a Roadmap
If you’re planning on launching an extensive collection, including the now-infamous 10,000-piece PFP collection, you will definitely need a roadmap.
Unlike selling individual art pieces, many potential buyers will likely have motivations for buying your NFT beyond just the art.
Examples include wanting to be part of a community, expecting real-world utility, wanting to flip the NFT for a profit at a later date, etc.
Further, selling a large collection requires onboarding hundreds if not thousands of buyers.
Unless you have a considerable following of highly dedicated fans, you’ll have to sell your NFTs to strangers.
Given this, a roadmap is one of the most powerful sales tools you can use to promote your NFTs to the masses.
What Makes a Good Roadmap
In addition to the six elements listed in the “What An NFT roadmap template Is” section above, there are three more considerations when drafting your roadmap.
Timelines and Phases
Most NFT roadmap templates generally contain a chronological breakdown of the goals and tasks the project owners plan to accomplish over a 6-24 month timeline. Most of which are grouped on a monthly or quarterly schedule.
Further, in addition to breaking things down chronologically, many projects group their tasks into phases – which may or may not correspond with a specific quarter of the year.
Here are the phases we recommend you incorporate into your roadmap and what to include in each one:
- Pre-Launch/Planning
- What tasks you plan to complete to lay the foundation for the project
- Examples include: Creation of social media profiles, identifying influencers for pre-launch marketing, website launch, etc.
- Launch
- What happens right before, during, and after the launch
- Examples include: Launch marketing plans, whitelist or pre-sale deadlines, what blockchain the project will be launched on, etc.
- Post-Launch Building
- What tasks you plan to complete once the project has launched
- Examples include: When real-world utility becomes available, expected dates for launching on alternative blockchains, merchandise launch, schedule of in-person events, etc.
The Importance of Visual Branding
In an ideal world, people wouldn’t judge books by their covers. In reality, however, we judge most everything by its cover, including your NFT project.
Because NFTs are based on art, one could argue that your visual branding is more important than a traditional business.
Why? A poorly designed roadmap will make potential buyers think your NFTs will be unattractive.
Some NFT projects release art that’s intentionally designed to be unattractive; they’re the exception. Additionally, they usually have powerful influencer marketing behind them to help.
How Professional Design Enhances Your Project
On the flip side, having a professionally designed roadmap enhances your project in multiple ways.
First, it conveys that the artist behind the project can produce visually stunning art. Assuming your buyers expect an NFT they can be proud of, the importance of this cannot be understated.
Second, it communicates you’re taking the project seriously and displays that you, as a creator, refuse to release your work into the world unless it’s of the absolute highest quality (as it should be).
And similar to the points above, conveying that level of commitment inspires faith in the project. It also encourages trust, which helps to overcome people’s understandably natural skepticism.
Planning Beyond the Roadmap
So, what happens after you create the NFT roadmap template? Well, your roadmap is not designed to contain every single tidbit of information related to your project.
Instead, you’ll want to take advantage of social media and a website or blog to communicate precise details or details that may change over time.
Examples include:
- How much your NFTs will cost
- Where interest parties can buy your NFTs
- Launch date and time (and in which timezone)
- What cryptocurrency wallet will be required to interact with your marketplace
- What cryptocurrency will be required to purchase your NFTs
- Whether or not your platform accepts traditional payment rails
- How pre-sales and whitelists will work (if any)
- What time the pre-sales, whitelists, air drops and mint will take place
- Scheduling for any relevant AMA / Community Calls
- And much more
Building Your NFT Roadmap Template with Excopia
As many entrepreneurs have learned the hard way, having a business plan does not “guarantee” success.
Similarly, having a roadmap does not “guarantee” your NFT project will be a success.
That said, two reasons why having a well-thought-out roadmap can dramatically increase the likelihood of hitting your goals.
- A professional roadmap conveys you’re serious about the long-term success of your project. And that professionalism goes a long way toward inspiring people to feel comfortable investing in your NFTs.
- A clearly defined roadmap provides a blueprint for your project. In particular, it can help you make strategic decisions in the face of overwhelm while clearly defining who needs to achieve what by when.
Given this, creating an NFT roadmap template is one of the best things you can do to ensure the success of your project.
If the process of launching an NFT collection has you feeling intimidated, our team of experts at Excopia is here to help.
Not only can we help you create a killer roadmap, but we also offer professional NFT marketplace development services.
From uploading your art to processing payments, we have extensive experience taking creators from A to Z.
Get started with your NFT business today with Excopia.