Build community through gifting

The takeaway: Lean on your community to help share the gift of your creativity by running a membership gifting campaign, holding a live-streamed gifting giveaway, or offering a piece of media that can easily be gifted.

The opportunity:

For best friends and cohosts Peyton and Cam, their podcast You Should Know was never just a podcast. It was a family. With an extremely active and engaged community, they knew their existing members would be their best advocates in growing that community.

How it worked:

Peyton and Cam took to the airwaves to let members know of an easy and meaningful holiday gift for loved ones with similar tastes: access to their community, inside jokes and all.

"Watching a creator with your best friends is what turns friends into family,” they told their members. “Nobody likes being on the outside of an inside joke... Now all your friends can get in on the joke.”

They even made it personal by shouting out their favorite creators and the friends they’d be gifting memberships to.

Their members immediately responded. One chimed in: “Forcing people to like what I’m obsessed with, by passive aggressively gifting them YSK Patreon subscriptions and asking 'did you watch it?! did you watch it?! Isn’t it funny?!' in an annoyingly high pitched excited voice until they comply and become super fans like me.”

Try it for yourself:

• Let your fans know that a gift membership to your community is an easy, thoughtful way to connect with their friends and fellow fans.

• Remind them what that gift really means: more to talk about with the people they love, from inside jokes to episode recaps.

• To add another personal touch, give a shoutout to a creator you love, and who you’d gift that creator’s membership to.

Illustrator: Alison Coté | Presenter: Catherine McCafferty