A strong onboarding experience turns a new signup into a fan who feels recognized, welcomed, and ready to go deeper into your world. This article covers the three steps to getting that right: configuring your fan onboarding flow, setting up your Welcome Email, and creating a Welcome Post for fans to land on when they arrive.
Step 1: Configure fan onboarding
Navigate to Fan HQ > Settings to configure what fans go through when they join your world. The onboarding flow has five stages:
1. They join with their email - every sign-up starts here, from your Join block or from unlocking a gated Post. A verification email goes out straight away. Email and email marketing consent are always collected.
2. They fill in their profile - fans tell you who they are. Toggle on the fields you want to collect and set whether each is required. Required fields do not block sign-up - they just have to be filled in before a fan can finish this step. Available fields include full name, username, location, phone number (includes SMS marketing consent), and date of birth. Click + Add Field to add additional fields such as social handles or t-shirt size.
3. They check their inbox - fans confirm their email address. If they stop here, you keep everything they provided up to that point.
4. They come back verified - clicking the verification link signs them in and completes the flow. Any optional fields they skipped are presented again, and they land back where they started.
🟢 Top tip: The more data you collect at onboarding, the richer your fan profiles become - and the more precisely you can segment and personalize future campaigns.
5. They receive their welcome email - 15 mins after completing a join block on Fan HQ or a Landing Page 2.0, fans receive their welcome email. Its links verify and sign them in.
Step 2: Set up your Welcome Email
Your Welcome Email is sent automatically to every new fan 15 minutes after they complete a join block on Fan HQ or a Landing Page 2.0. It confirms their membership, introduces your world, and prompts their first actions as a fan.
Navigate to Fan HQ > Account Emails > Welcome and toggle the Welcome Email on.
Configure the following:
Subject - for example, “Welcome to The Zeros Club”
Preview text - the short line fans see before opening - for example, “You’re in. Your Fan Pass is ready.”
The email comes pre-populated with suggested blocks including a personalized welcome message, a link to your Fan HQ, a prompt to complete their profile, and a CTA button. If you set it up via the Fan Pass sharing options, a Fan Pass block is included too so fans can save their pass to Apple or Google Wallet directly from the email.
🟢 Top tip: Personalize your Welcome Email using First name, Last name, and Membership tier merge tags to make every fan’s first email feel like it was written for them.
⚪ Note: If a fan missed their verification email and clicks through to Fan HQ from their Welcome Email instead, that click counts as email verification.
See Welcome Email for a full walkthrough of the editor and block options.
Step 3: Create a Welcome Post
A Welcome Post gives fans somewhere to land the moment they join your world. Pin it to the top of your Posts feed and gate it to signed-in fans so it is the first thing they see when they verify their email and arrive in your Fan HQ.
Use it to set the scene - what being part of your world means, what to expect, and what perks come with membership.
Set it up:
Navigate to Engage > Posts and click + New Post.
Build your content - include a welcome message, what fans can expect as a member, any tier perks, and a call to action such as connecting their DSP, completing their profile, or exploring your Fan HQ and Posts feed.
In the Email tab, choose do not send as email.
In the Web tab, set Web access to Sign in to view.
Toggle Show in feed on and Pin to top on.
Publish.
🟢 Top tip: Write your Welcome Post to be evergreen - it should make sense whenever a fan reads it, not just at launch. Update it whenever your member perks or community offering changes.
See Create and Publish a Post and Gate Content in a Post for more detail.