How to Retaining Paid Members with Unforgettable Events [Creator’s Discord Guide Part 6]

Part 1: Should You Monetize Your Discord Community?
Part 2: Discord Monetization Done Right (A Guide to Building Profitable Communities)
Part 3: How to Build an Energetic Community
Part 4 - Striking the Balance: The Art of Monetizing Discord Communities with Sustainable Strategies
Part 5: Iterating Strategies for Discord Communities with Paid Users

TL;DR: To build a strong and monetizable Discord community, it's important to host well-planned events that cater to the specific interests of your paid members. These events should provide intimate and interactive experiences, avoiding excessive frequency and lengthy durations. Strategic event announcements, timed with the release of your content, showcase your active management and commitment to the community. Additionally, focusing on quality content and preparation ensures valuable and engaging experiences for your audience. Repurposing event recordings into YouTube videos and other formats allows for extended reach and ongoing engagement. By following these strategies, you can create a thriving Discord community that maximizes event impact and monetization opportunities.

Welcome to Article 6 of our series, where we guide creators in building strong and monetizable Discord communities. In our previous article (Article 5), we explored strategies to increase user engagement and drive paid conversions. We discussed the importance of aiming to convert around 10% of your users and observed that there might be an initial decline in activities before subscriptions start coming in. We also emphasized the significance of marketing in tracking new users and analyzing their conversion timelines through cohort analysis. Furthermore, we highlighted the relevance of tracking activation rates and cancellation rates to refine your community's value proposition. Understanding your users' motivations for paying is crucial, as it often reveals diverse user groups seeking different benefits. This insight can lead to effective tiering and upcharging strategies. Now, let's dive deeper into the topic of hosting Discord events and explore ways to optimize them for your community's success.

In this article, we will discuss various techniques and considerations that can enhance the experience and value of hosting events on Discord, ultimately fostering stronger engagement and increasing monetization opportunities.

First, when it comes to monetizing your community, events play a crucial role as they often become the core product you offer to your members. Establishing a consistent routine for hosting events is of utmost importance in order to maximize their impact. Getting your events right means creating experiences that not only resonate with your audience but also deliver value that keeps them coming back for more. By carefully planning and executing your events, you can leverage them as a powerful tool to generate revenue, strengthen community bonds, and attract new members. Therefore, prioritizing the development and optimization of your event strategy is key to building a thriving and monetizable Discord community.

Discord events hold a special appeal for paid members due to several reasons. Firstly, these events create an intimate and private environment, often on a smaller scale, which fosters a different kind of interaction compared to larger gatherings. This exclusivity allows for a more personal and meaningful experience, where members can connect with each other and the host on a deeper level. Secondly, the interactive nature of Discord events is highly valued by paid members. They have the opportunity to actively participate, ask questions, and receive responses, creating a sense of engagement and satisfaction. This direct interaction enhances the value they receive from being a part of the community. Lastly, the fear of missing out (FOMO) adds an element of excitement and urgency for paid members. Knowing that they have exclusive access to these events creates a unique sense of anticipation and motivates them to actively participate, ensuring they don't miss out on the valuable interactions and experiences that take place. The combination of privacy, interactivity, and the allure of exclusive experiences makes Discord events highly cherished by paid members, contributing to the overall appeal and monetization potential of your community.

1. Don’t do too much.

Striking the right balance is essential when it comes to hosting events in your Discord community. While it's tempting to have a packed schedule with numerous events, it's important to remember that less can often be more. Overloading your fans with too many events can lead to fatigue and diminish their excitement. To optimize engagement, consider choosing specific days for events, with Thursdays often being a popular choice. However, it's not just about frequency but also the duration of the events. Hosting excessively long events, such as three-hour sessions, can make it challenging to hold people's attention. Remember that attention is a precious commodity, particularly for your paid members. It's crucial to avoid overwhelming them and ensure they don't feel drained or exhausted by the events. By finding the right balance between frequency and length, you can maintain your members' interest and keep them actively involved in your monetizable Discord community.

2. Unless you offer something to everyone, at different times.

Segmentation and targeting can be an exception to the general rule of avoiding an excessive number of events in your Discord community. If you can effectively categorize and cater to different audiences and topics, it can provide a valuable solution. For instance, as an educational creator, you can strategically schedule events targeting beginners on Mondays and advanced individuals on Thursdays. By doing so, you allow your members to attend events that are specifically relevant to their level of expertise and interests. This approach not only ensures that your events remain engaging and valuable but also demonstrates your commitment to meeting the diverse needs of your community. By intelligently bracketing and targeting different audience segments, you can provide focused and tailored experiences, enhancing the overall satisfaction and participation of your members.

3. Make announcement beforehand.

Effectively announcing your events is of utmost importance for their success and impact in your Discord community. Planning and strategizing the timing of your announcements can greatly influence member engagement and attendance. For instance, if you're a YouTuber with a significant influx of viewers every Friday, it's ideal to schedule your event announcements on that day. This timing capitalizes on the increased traffic to your YouTube channel, signaling to your audience that there is additional content available on your Discord server. By aligning your announcements with the release of your YouTube videos, you not only attract more attention but also demonstrate your active management and genuine care for your community. This approach reinforces your commitment to providing valuable content and fostering an engaged community experience.

4. Quality matters.

When it comes to hosting events in your Discord community, the quality of your content and preparation are paramount. Avoid simply going through the motions for the sake of having an event. Instead, treat attention as a precious resource and strive to make every moment count. The most effective events often revolve around a central agenda or idea, focusing on specific topics of interest. For instance, when ChatGPT was newly introduced, hosting special events dedicated to exploring the capabilities and intricacies of GPT proved to be immensely popular. By delivering focused and relevant content, you not only capture the attention of your audience but also provide them with valuable and engaging experiences. So, take the time to prepare thoroughly for your events, ensuring that each one offers something meaningful and impactful. Remember, quality over quantity will leave a lasting impression and keep your community eagerly anticipating future events.

5. Get the most out of your events.

To maximize the value of your Discord events, it's crucial to make the most out of your live content. Save and repurpose your event recordings, as they hold immense potential for further engagement and content generation. By converting your live sessions into YouTube videos, you allow members who may have missed the event to catch up and benefit from the valuable content. Indexing the videos, inserting timestamps, and categorizing them ensure easy navigation for viewers to jump to specific sessions of interest. Additionally, consider creating random tweets or snippets from the event to generate more content and attract attention across different platforms. Leveraging the power of recycled content not only extends the reach of your events but also enables ongoing discussions and engagement through a dedicated Discord forum where attendees can ask questions and share insights post-event.

In conclusion, hosting successful and monetizable Discord events requires careful planning, effective targeting, and strategic execution. By understanding the preferences and needs of your paid members, you can create intimate and interactive events that provide value and foster a sense of community. While striking the right balance between event frequency and duration is important, exceptions can be made through audience segmentation and targeted topics. Proper event announcements, timed to coincide with peak traffic to your content platforms, signal your active management and commitment to your community. Ensuring the quality of your event content and preparation is key to capturing and maintaining attention, while repurposing event recordings into YouTube videos and other content formats allows for extended reach and continuous engagement. By embracing these strategies, you can create a dynamic and monetizable Discord community that thrives through impactful and memorable events.

Next, read about what to do when you hit a plateau in Discord growth.