Are you looking for ideas on how to advertise your Discord server? Look no further! In this guide, we'll provide you with tips and tricks on how to grow your server the right way.
The key to a successful server is not just having many members - it's about creating a welcoming environment where members feel comfortable and happy. To achieve this, you must refine your server before advertising, define your target audience, prepare an onboarding plan for new members, create texts and visuals for advertising campaigns, and, most importantly, be patient.
We'll cover all of these topics in detail and provide you with pro tips to help you along the way. By the end of this guide, you'll have a better understanding of how to grow your server in a sustainable and ethical way without violating Discord's Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. So, if you're looking for ways to advertise your Discord server, read on!
Step One: Make Your Server Presentable
Imagine you see a poster about a burger shop. The poster looks great, so you decide to grab a burger. You try to walk into the place but can't; the door is broken. Someone helps you get in, and you look around. It looks bad - you can't read the menu, the staff doesn't interact with you at all, and no one has even welcomed you. That's a sad situation to be in and even worse for the place itself.
Now apply that same idea to your Discord server. What first impression does your server make? To get new members and keep them, you need to refine your server first. Set up categories for your channels, make them visually appealing, create a Code of Conduct with your staff, set up some bots, and make sure when people come in, they like the place.
Step Two: Identify Your Target Audience
A classic part of any marketing campaign is identifying your target audience. The best way to do this is to imagine an average server member. How old are they? Where do they live? What are their hobbies? Do they know how to use Discord? Answering these questions will help you define and thus set the targeting for your campaigns. You wouldn't advertise your gastronomy server in a Facebook car enthusiasts group, would you?
Step Three: Set Up An Onboarding For New Members
Preparing smooth onboarding for your members will significantly decrease the chance of day one leaving. You advertise your server to get new members, but you can't grow your server when those members leave five minutes after joining. The first part of the onboarding is what those new members see, so imagine yourself as a new member and refine the order and contents of your channels.
If you can get your members to chat as soon as they join, they will likely stay. A great way to do that, which is also a crucial part of the onboarding process, is by welcoming them.
You can welcome your new members via bots, but remember, human interaction rules! People usually hold back from chatting right in if they see a group chatting about something they don't know, so they don't join. Your staff can help by interacting with them upon joining by saying something like "Hey, New Member, welcome! We were discussing the fact that Krusty Krab is actually a crab trap!"
Step Four: Preparing Assets for Your Advertisements
As you know, there's a vast field just for ad visuals. To catch people's interest, you need a couple of icons, banners, emotes, and texts for your server. These will allow you to fill out the necessary visual and text fields when trying to advertise your server in social media, server directories, or advertisement servers.
Don't worry, you don't need to have any talent to create visuals for your server. You can use Microsoft Designer, Canva, and services like that to generate great visuals quickly. For the text part, you can look at other server's descriptions to get an idea, toy with it, and create your own!
Step Five: Advertising Your Discord Server
Once you have followed the previous four steps, it's time to advertise your Discord server! There are many different ways in which you can advertise your server, so let's take a closer look at the options.
Here are some of the ways in which you can advertise your Discord server:
Server Partners / Collaboration
When two Discord servers agree to share each other's information, they usually use an introductory marketing text called a "partner text." They can share their content in a dedicated "Partners" or a regular channel, such as "announcements." Some servers may have roles specifically for partner notifications, while others tag @everyone with each other's partner text. However, it's important to remember that paying someone to do this is against Discord's Terms of Service.
Influencers
Collaborating with influencers can be an effective marketing strategy for promoting various products, including Discord servers. However, selecting the right influencer who can effectively cater to your target audience and convey your message accurately is crucial. Choosing the correct influencer can make all the difference in the success of your marketing campaign.
Invite Rewards
Invite rewards are like trophies given to users when they invite a certain number of people to a server. They usually come in the form of decorative roles that users can show off on their profiles when they have referred people to your server. By offering these rewards, you can encourage more people to invite their friends to your server, which can help increase your member count. To make the rewards even more attractive, you can consider adding a role icon to them. While you can monitor invites through the "Invites" tab under the "User Management" section of your server settings, we recommend you use a bot that provides invite-tracking features.
Collaborative Events
Joint events are a great way to bring two member groups together via events. These events usually happen between partner servers and can be conducted in one of the two or more servers in a voice channel or in a broadcast channel created by a bot. Broadcast channels allow multiple servers to use the same channel via bots or webhooks so that members of the included servers can communicate with each other.
Directory Servers
Discord servers exist where users can promote their own servers. These servers can be organized in various ways and usually have multiple categories to help users find the servers they're looking for. These servers are similar to server directories, which will be discussed in the next point, but they are hosted within a Discord server. Users use directory servers to find and join new servers.
Discord Server Directories
In theory, server directories are similar to directory servers, but they offer much more customizable filters and promotion options. If you're looking for effective ways to advertise and grow your server, then server directories are one of your best options. You can find below a list of server directories that can help you advertise your server:
Social Media - Organic & Paid Ads
To advertise a Discord server via social media, create visually appealing graphics that showcase your server's unique features and post them on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. 39.61% of Discord traffic is from the age group 18-24 (according to Similarweb), and the three platforms that the 18-24 age group is prominent are TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also run targeted ad campaigns on these platforms to reach a wider audience. Don't forget to include a call-to-action and a link to your Discord server in your posts and ads.
Server Web Pages
A Server Web Page is a webpage for Discord server owners to attract and engage new community members. It helps people find the server, and new members can join directly from it. Eligible users can set up a web page through Server Settings and must follow Discord's Discovery Guidelines. Updates and opting out can also be done through Server Settings. The feature is currently in beta and available to all servers with access to the beta, regardless of Boost Level.
Discord 'Server Discovery'
Discord's 'Server Discovery' feature is a great way to attract new members to your server. This section of Discord can be accessed from the Compass icon at the bottom of the server list. For your server to be eligible for Server Discovery, though, you need to meet certain requirements.
Your server has to:
- Abide by Community Guidelines
- Have at least 1,000 members
- Be older than eight weeks
- Have more than 20 members talking weekly
- Have more than 40 members visiting weekly (reading a channel)
- Have new member retention above 10% -This requirement applies only if your server has more than ten members joining weekly. This means one of the ten members has to revisit the server for you to qualify.
- Avoid using bad words in the server name, description, and channels
- Have 2FA Requirement for Moderation enabled
The visuals and texts we discussed in the upper section will help with these methods. You should also pay attention to curating accurate information about your server, using proper hashtags and keywords, choosing the correct categories, and being patient! You should avoid doing some things at all costs since they violate ethics and Discord's Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. You, your members, or your staff should never:
- Send your invite link to other Discord servers unless it's allowed
- To try to recruit members from other servers via DMs
- Run misleading campaigns. It will make you lose members!
- Pay other servers to advertise your server. It's against the Terms of Service!
The Key to Advertising Your Discord Server
You've reached the end of this article and come away with some excellent tips on how to advertise your Discord server. Follow these steps, and you will have a thriving community in no time!
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