When you have something new to share, there’s only one place to make the reveal.

Music artists and labels, sports teams and global brands of all kinds are reaping the benefits of a thriving  Discord community. And one of the most valuable ways that your community drives tangible marketing and monetisation results is by building anticipation among your most passionate superfans for your next release, product launch or campaign.

A Discord community is where dedicated fans come together to celebrate the music or brand, so it’s the perfect place to plant exclusive teasers and start the buzz building.

Preparing for new campaigns and releases is already a busy time, but fortunately even minimal assets can ignite huge engagement. A relatively limited input can even be turned into a benefit by presenting it as a game or mystery to be unlocked, as superfans love dissecting and debating fresh content.

We've honed this technique in a number of communities. To promote Maisie Peters' album The Good Witch, for example, Maisie's team created a series of riddles that unlocked snippets of the record's new songs. You know your community and what resonates with them, but for some fans, the more cryptic the better!

We’ve seen huge success in the music industry with teasers before launching new singles, albums or tours. Those lessons are transferable to any brand in any sector. For example, ahead of the major undertaking of an album launch, an artist and their team only needs a single initial asset - one song - to construct an entire teaser campaign.

Superfans engage with brands in various ways, so an artist or band’s fans vibe with the music, lyrics, visuals and personalities. That means there are multiple vectors to engage fans, even with that one song. Levellr works with brand teams to create multiple opportunities for fans to discover the product being launched, whether it’s a song or something else. Crucially, this empowers any brand to maximise impact while minimising the amount of time and effort put in.

Let’s go back to our song teaser campaign. The first stage could be a lyric tease, inviting fans to interpret the words. A cryptic video could be next, followed by a distorted audio tease.

Time and again we’ve seen these small initial snippets generate high engagement and excitement within the server, in multiple waves of interaction. Fans race to watch and react to the assets, spiking engagement in the short-term. Then there’s a long tail of increased conversation as fans discuss and decipher the teasers. Each teaser builds buzz individually, and as more drop then anticipation multiplies to a fever pitch.

Seeing the results of teaser campaigns

We worked with an iconic British rock band to drop teasers for a new song. The results were amazing: a massive 70% increase in engagement compared to the previous period in the server, and while the community participation rate increased to 29.4%. That crucial metric measures the percentage of the community who are active, and that number is way above the industry standard of 10%.

These engagement numbers are more than just nice-to-have. Engagement translates into word-of-mouth marketing both within the community and outside as members talk about the band on their other social feeds. Off the back of teasers, fans pre-order new products and pre-save new songs.

Increased engagement also aids retention and growth, because when the community feels like a fun and active place to hang out then current fans stick around and newcomers are excited to join in.

When Maisie Peters teased her album with riddles and song snippets, fans loved solving the puzzles, boosting engagement and sending the album to no. 1 in the charts - all with manageable input from the community team.

When superfans are energised, engagement becomes self-perpetuating and carries the community through to the next campaign, activation, launch or release. The teaser leads to a single release which leads to an album launch which leads to a tour. The teaser starts a journey that builds to massive monetisation opportunities from Discord-exclusive merch and ticket sales.

How can a brand ignite their community?

The success of a song teaser activations shows the strategies that work for any artist, sports team or brand. A teaser campaign highlights that it doesn't take much to ignite conversation among fans.

Every community is hungry for content about the artist or brand, but maintaining and energising a community doesn't have to be a full-time job for an artist or their team.

The right content, even if relatively concise, will spark huge excitement among superfans when presented in a creative and engaging way.

Communication, consistency and collaboration are the key strategies for engaging the community. Levellr's easy-to-use tools and community management experts make campaigns and activations as efficient as possible, so artist or brand teams don't have to spend huge amounts of time and effort on the server. For example, with our custom-built bot, you can automate and schedule posts, meaning the brand team only has to set the ball rolling and the Discord community takes it from there.

Your superfans are ready to be excited about your brand. Contact Levellr today to find out how you can build a community that drives real results.