Onboard Your Fans

You've run a contest at a show, or a shout out about that new

song they can upload. Or maybe a post on social media, telling fans about your new web app. And fans are responding, texting in. Last night, 30 new fans opted in!

Once a fan has opted in to receive your text messages, you don’t want to wear out the welcome mat – or go dark on them. Just as you would welcome your email subscribers with a series of welcome emails, your mobile messaging strategy should help your new fans get to know you, and it can take anywhere from 10 days to 2 months, depending on the journey you want to take them on.

Onboarding New Fans

Remember that fans expect communications that speak directly to their behaviors, preferences, and history with you or your band. As you welcome new fans, keep in mind your targeting criteria – to make your welcome message valuable from the start.

You can use your welcome message to help your fans learn what to expect from their relationship with you. For example, send them to your News Page with an article about what they can expect when they get texts from you. Or, send out a voting contest asking them what they want to get from you – four choices. Run the voting poll monthly, sending a text to all the fans that opted in last month.

When onboarding new fans, pay attention to the time of day. Remember, texts usually come in with a sound on their mobile device. So watch the time zones, and don’t send texts from, say 10pm to 10am.

With the Adva Mobile text service, onboarding new fans is easy. Mark in your calendar twice a month (or once a month). On the Fans – Your Fans page, run a filter of everyone who joined in the last 2 weeks (or month). Send them a welcome message in your text, and point them to a page on your web app that will help them learn more about you (not the merch/Store page, for example, on the first few texts.)

You may not be onboarding thousands of new fans each month at the start, but a “big list” is not the measure of success here. These fans that have chosen to hear from you regularly via text are a smaller, but more engaged group – your superfans. So make it your goal to show them a rewarding, relevant mobile experience from the start.