Following on from our recent ‘What is Fan Engagement?‘ article, let’s take a deeper dive into fan rewards including what, and how you can reward them for their continual activity and participation.
Fan Rewards are crucial in building and maintaining ongoing brand activation, Life Time Value (LTV) and providing that ‘two-way street’ in loyalty and engagement.
What are Fan Rewards
Fan rewards are incentives, benefits, or perks offered to fans as a way to reward their engagement, loyalty, and support. These rewards can take various forms and are typically designed to enhance the fan experience, foster a deeper connection with the object of their admiration, and incentivise continued engagement and loyalty over time.
Common examples of fan rewards
-
Exclusive Content:
Providing access to exclusive content, such as behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, sneak peeks, or unreleased material, that is not available to the general public.
-
Discounts and Promotions:
Offering discounts, special promotions, or early access to tickets, merchandise, or events as a reward for being a loyal fan or member of a fan club.
-
VIP Experiences:
Granting fans VIP treatment, such as meet-and-greets, backstage passes, or invitations to exclusive events, as a way to make them feel valued and appreciated.
-
Personalised Interaction:
Providing personalised interactions, shoutouts, or messages will create a more intimate and meaningful connection.
-
Fan Recognition:
Recognising and celebrating fans for their contributions, support, or achievements, such as featuring them on social media, naming fan of the month/year, or highlighting their fan-created content.
-
Gamification:
Incorporating gamification elements, such as loyalty points, badges, or rewards levels, to incentivise continued engagement and participation among fans.
-
Community Engagement:
Facilitating opportunities for fans to engage with each other, share their passion, and participate in community-driven initiatives, fostering a sense of belonging and camaraderie.
Ways you can create rewards for your fans
So now you understand exactly what fan rewards are, here are some ways you can implement them:
Exclusive Content:
If you're in music, how about dropping an unreleased edit or track? Or create a personal message to a select community? Instagram Communities are a great way to start with exclusive content.
Discounts and Promotions:
Why not reach out to your community with a unique website discount code or access to a hidden page? Or give them early-access to a merchandise drop hours before the general public.
VIP Experiences:
When scheduling your next event, why not create an exclusive pre/post meet where you can personally greet your fans? Or organise an exclusive face-to-face appearance? Or grab a couple of extra tickets for a giveaway?
Personalised Interaction:
Personalised interactions could be step further into exclusive content. So how about setting up your Discord server or social media platform to send personalised birthday or anniversary messages?
Fan Recognition:
Fans love nothing more than to be 'recognised', whether that's through a comment on one of their social posts, or a share of their user-generated content (UGC) or simply a 'follow-back' goes a long way!
Gamification:
Gamification will be HUGE in 2024! Take a look for platforms such as our own GoVIP platform where you can 'gamify' the community with Tiered Memberships and Badges, Loyalty Points and Rewards, Leaderboards and more.
Community Engagement:
Your own dedicated Discord server is a great place to bring your community together to share experiences, on-topic conversations and more. And if you and your team pop-in regularly, it really does work!
In summary
Overall, fan rewards are a way for you to express gratitude, strengthen relationships, and cultivate loyalty among your fan base.
Consider offering meaningful incentives and experiences that go beyond the standard offerings available to the general public. By prioritising fan rewards, you can create and grow a mutually beneficial relationship with your fans, drive their engagement, advocacy, and long-term support.
Create bespoke rewards and deliver them automatically with GoVIP
The GoVIP Fan Engagement & Loyalty platform by Ammedia provides the tools and automation you need to not only build a tailored community and experiences, but manage it simply and easily.
Using a Tiered Member structure, you can create Quests and Activations that can be automatically rewarded. Give your fans the power to earn points for their User-Generated Content (UGC), give them exclusive discounts or host exclusive events. With fully-featured Leaderboards, Rewards, email and SMS marketing campaigns and more, GoVIP gives you everything you need to integrate your existing communities into a centralised, managed hub.