17 Ways to Build a Loyal Fanbase & Audience

You need people to come to your event and to bring friends and family with them.

The first year of your event is the hardest: you’re building awareness and getting attendees for the first time.

The trick to making subsequent years easier? Retention. 

According to the Harvard Business Review, it costs 5-25 times more to get new customers than keeping current ones.

Develop a retention strategy and use retention tactics to keep attendees coming back to your event year after year.

Lay the groundwork for your retention strategy during your first year. Then, build on it each year. We’ll cover 17 of the best tactics for building a loyal fan base and audience.

1. Start gathering emails now.

Even if you’re not ready for registration or ticket sales yet, you should still have a ticketing or registration page set-up.

Rather than having people find your event and then not be able to buy tickets or registration, you can have people share their email address to get a notification with sales open.

You’ll start creating an email list, so it’ll be easy to get the word out when sales open. And, you’ll create a positive experience for people who hear about your event.

2. Identify your target audiences.

As you’re planning your event, be intentional about who you’re trying to reach. Is your event geared for families? Athletes? Artists? Music fans?

Even within these audiences, there are subgroups. For example, families have multiple age groups: young kids, teens, and adults. You’ll want to consider all of these groups when planning your event to make sure you’ve got something to attract everyone. 

You’ll also need to consider your target audiences when you advertise your event.

3. Create attendee and participant personas.

Once you’ve identified your target audiences, create personas. Personas are a concentrated version of who your target audience is. Answer the following questions to understand your target audiences better:

• How old are they?
• What is their gender?
• What is their income?
• What kind of job do they have?
• Where do they live?
• What are their hobbies?
• Where do they shop? Or, what are their favorite stores?
• What is their family like?

Add your own questions to this list to create detailed personas. You’ll likely find that you have a primary persona and a few others. Understanding each one will make it easier to deliver what your audience wants in an event, increase your marketing’s effectiveness, and sell more tickets or registrations.

4. Hone in on what makes your event unique, fun, and exciting.

Part of your messaging is understanding your audience to tailor a message for them. The second part of your messaging is communicating your event’s value proposition.

Perhaps your event has a different value proposition for each audience. For example, a festival might advertise its food vendors to reach a foodie audience. It might also advertise its bands to attract music aficionados, lawn games for families, and artist vendors for people who like to shop.

Within each of your event’s value propositions, identify the main attraction. What’s the most exciting food that’s going to be at the festival? What artists are coming? Whatever your primary value proposition, center it in your communication and marketing.

5. Develop your event’s voice.

Voice is the foundation of branding and marketing. It distinguishes your event, which makes it easy for your target audience to identify it.

Voices vary – they can be serious, sassy, humorous, curious… etc. You need to find the voice that fits best with your event. So, it’s time for some personification.

It may sound weird to think of your event as a person with a voice, but it helps you create better marketing and stand out.

Figure out the vibe you’re looking for in your event. Start by making a list of adjectives to describe your event.

Next, consolidate your list to three to five adjectives that are the most important or most descriptive of your event.

Think of celebrities that embody the vibe or characteristics you’re going for with your event. Consider how they engage with their audiences.

Identify other events or brands that you admire. What can you learn from their brand personalities and voice?

6. Prioritize trust-building.

Ultimately, you’re building a relationship with your attendees. It’s all about trust. 

Use every avenue to build trust. Be consistent in your marketing and messaging. Ensure you’re sharing accurate information. Deliver on what you promise.

When problems arise, be professional and take responsibility as appropriate.

7. Create a website.

Most people use the internet to get information about anything and everything, so your event needs to have an online presence, too.

Start with a website or a webpage. It should have details about your event – location, date, time, etc. It should have a description that includes main attractions. 

If you have photos or videos from past events, include them on your website. If you don’t have photos, try using some stock photos or even photos of the event’s location.

Most importantly, your website should include links to your ticketing and registration pages. Once people are excited about going to your event, it should be easy to buy tickets.

8. Create high-quality, engaging content.

Once you have a website, consider adding a blog. A blog can help you rank higher in online search results.

It’s also a great way to publish announcements or updates for your event.

Even if you don’t do a blog, you’ll want to ensure that posters, print media, social media posts, etc. are well-written and engaging. A well-written ad helps establish credibility. An engaging ad, gets and keeps people’s attention.

9. Be active on social media.

Start building an audience on social media. Share important updates about your event – maybe you have an upcoming sale, a sign-up deadline is approaching, or you are just announcing your new season of events. Post behind-the-scenes photos as you’re getting ready for your event. 

Beyond making posts on social media, you engage with your audience. Respond to comments, shares, and messages you get from social media.

10. Engage with your local community in person.

Find ways to get involved and make connections throughout your community. The more people know you and learn about your event, the easier it will be to grow attendance, find sponsors, and fill your volunteer needs.

Find networking opportunities – attend functions with local chambers of commerce and other professional organizations that meet regularly. Connect with other event organizers in your region. You can learn from their experience and even create partnerships. Consider being a vendor at another event – sell tickets or get people registered.

Showing up and participating in your community is a valuable way to connect and build a loyal fanbase.

11. Develop a good public relations strategy. 

Your marketing and in-person strategy have a lot of crossover with your public relations strategy. Your public relations strategy will focus on legacy media – write press releases, connect with local reporters and TV stations that focus on culture. Consider incorporating podcasts to your public relations strategy to reach even more people.

12. Showcase what’s going on behind the scenes.

Find ways to highlight what happens behind the scenes. Showcasing event set-up, organization, and planning helps people feel like they’re getting the inside scoop and it highlights all the work you put in to ensure a successful event.

Post a time lapse video on social media, take a local TV anchor or culture journalist through your event, you can even add a behind the scenes tour to a VIP ticket or registration.

Find other ways to offer a sneak peak to your audience to build excitement and enthusiasm.

13. Deliver fun, memorable experiences at your event.

All of your work hinges on your event. Bring bands, performers, and vendors to your event. Have great activities and food. Coordinate with local officials to ensure safety at your event.

Doing everything you can to ensure that your event is a positive experience makes it easier to get people to come to your next event and even invite more of their friends to come. You’ll also have photos, videos, and stories about your event to use for marketing and sponsor negotiations for next year. These marketing assets and people talking about your event are the two most valuable results of your event because they make it even easier to sell tickets or registrations for next year.

14. Gather and respond to customer feedback and reviews.

Once your event is over, actively listen to what your attendees have to say about their experience. Some people will leave reviews or reach out directly via email. However, you also want to get a good cross-section of what your attendees experienced.

Send out a survey to make it easy for attendees to share their thoughts. Focus on what matters most to your attendees, and build on that for next year.

15. Add retention to your email marketing strategy.

As soon as your event is over, it’s time to start planning for next year and keep your attendees engaged. Consider creating an email newsletter – include information about when sales open, any other similar events you organize, and any other information your audience might be interested in.

Keeping your events top of mind for your attendees, makes it easier to get attendees coming back again and again.

16. Develop a loyalty program.

Reward your attendees and participants for making your event a tradition. It’s easier to keep your audience than to find new people to join it. Of course, you have to do both. But, you want to keep as many people you’ve gathered as possible.

Consider offering discounts based on the number of years people have come. Maybe you offer a 5 percent discount to second-year attendees, a 10 percent discount to third and fourth year attendees. Look at your budget and determine the numbers that make sense from there. 

You can even add small perks – maybe with special t-shirts or pins. These other perks help make them stand out and feel special.

17. Keep building event after event, year after year.

Each time you put together a successful event, you add more people to your audience. The more people you have in your audience, the more powerful your email marketing will be. It’ll also be easier to build a following on social media because more people will want to be in the know on your event.

You’ll also refine your event each year so it delivers its signature experiences and gives your audience what they are looking for in an event.