10 Tips For Building A Winning Patreon Campaign
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Expert Analyst & Reviewer
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It used to be that if you wanted to try crowdfunding as a means of monetizing your physical and/or creative output, you had to set up a campaign on a site like Kickstarter (see our review) or Indiegogo (see our review). That’s all fine and good — after all, these sites have raised billions in funding for creative business ventures of all kinds. But what if you want to crowdfund on a continuing basis and have your fans support you with monthly (or per creation) payments? Platforms like Kickstarter aren’t set up to facilitate that — not until Drip becomes open to all, at least.
Enter Patreon (see our review). Patreon enables you to draw an ongoing income from The Crowd by soliciting donations from patrons on either a per-month or per-creation basis. It’s an ideal crowdfunding model for podcasters, YouTubers, musicians, journalists, artists, and anyone else who creates content on a regular basis and would like to be compensated for it.
Just remember: Crowdfunding isn’t Field Of Dreams, and you’re not Kevin Costner. If you build it, they won’t necessarily come. You have to go in with the mindset that building up your Patreon is a job and your patrons are customers who will require content of value in return for their investment. Rewards crowdfunding isn’t charity — it’s business, albeit with a strong human element.
Here’s what you need to do to ensure you have the best possible chance at Patreon success.
(If you are, in fact, Kevin Costner, I apologize.)
Table of Contents
- 1. Have An Existing Fan Base
- 2. Post A Video. Be Concise!
- 3. Examine Other Patreon Campaigns
- 4. Set Goals
- 5. Create Several Reward Tiers
- 6. Promote Your Patreon On Social Media
- 7. Be Mindful Of Shipping Costs When Offering Rewards
- 8. Create Continuously
- 9. Keep Creating For Non-Patrons
- 10. Send Patrons Personalized Messages (Particularly When Starting Out)
- FAQs About Starting A Patreon
- Final Thoughts
1. Have An Existing Fan Base
Some people may see popular Patreon creators who pull in several thousand dollars a month and come away thinking that Patreon built their fan base. This line of thinking gets it backward. Patreon is just a platform for your work — it’s not going to generate interest in what you do if the interest isn’t there in the first place!
A successful Patreon campaign requires that you have a base of potential patrons — not necessarily a huge base, but one that exists — who are already inclined to support you financially in exchange for access to your content. In reality, the path to being a winning Patreon creator starts long before you sign up with Patreon. Typically, people don’t browse randomly through Patreon creator pages looking for unknown creators to support. They seek out the campaigns of creators they already know and appreciate.
Before you start with Patreon, acquire a following of people who are willing to drop at least a dollar or two per month on your content. Otherwise, you’ll just be wasting your time.
2. Post A Video. Be Concise!
Building a personal connection with your followers is key in inducing them to open their wallets for you. There’s no more direct and efficient way to bolster this connection than with a killer video.
Don’t use your video to appeal to the consciences of your fans and plead for support on moral/charitable grounds. Regardless of the merits of such a case, it just doesn’t work. Approach your introductory video as if you were making an elevator pitch to investors because essentially, that is what you’re doing.
Appear personally in your video. Be passionate and sincere. Make sure to explain how the rewards system works and what patrons will receive at different tiers of support — some of your followers likely don’t know how Patreon works. Also, don’t post a video longer than three minutes (or so). People’s attention spans aren’t getting any longer.
Nobody’s going to expect to see a video with Hollywood-level production values. Just be direct, sincere, and explain exactly what patrons will get in exchange for their support.
3. Examine Other Patreon Campaigns
If you’re trying to raise money by applying for a bank loan, you don’t get to study the loan applications of other applicants to see what works and what doesn’t. Crowdfunding platforms, however, are much more transparent. With Patreon, you can check out every active campaign on the site, along with the number of patrons each has acquired. And while creators don’t have to make their monthly (or per-creation) earnings public, about half of them do.
This is tremendously valuable information! Before you launch, do your homework and study the Patreon campaigns of other creators in your field. Take note of what characteristics successful campaigns have in common, along with the commonalities between campaigns that generate less interest.
This campaign data is too valuable to go unexamined. Take advantage of it!
4. Set Goals
With Patreon, you don’t have to set funding goals, but I highly recommend it. When you set a goal, you’re telling your patrons that you’ll be able to complete a certain project or make some campaign-related purchase once you’ve hit a certain level of funding. It’s both a way to demonstrate that you aspire to grow your operations and a way to inspire more patronage by letting people know what they stand to gain should your goals be met.
You can set as many goals as you like, but stick with a few at a time so as to not inundate people with information. Once you reach a goal, consider setting a new one so you’ll always have a few goals laid out in front of you. These goals can serve as inspiration for both you and your patrons.
5. Create Several Reward Tiers
In general, it’s a good idea to offer some kind of reward to patrons at the $1-$2 subscription level to appeal to the broadest possible swath of the populace. Many people divide their support among numerous Patreon creators at $1-$2 per month/creation, and you’ll want to appeal to this type of subscriber. However, you also want to set higher reward tiers for the bigger spenders, because a certain percentage of your supporters — and it can be a small percentage — will likely jump at the chance.
Patreon has posted data indicating that as your number of reward levels increases, so too does the chance that you’ll process at least $100 in your first month.
The key is to offer your potential patrons several options for supporting you in exchange for rewards so as to appeal to both the big spenders and the small spenders. Offer a lil’ something for everybody.
6. Promote Your Patreon On Social Media
If you have a social media presence and you’re not using it to promote your Patreon, you’re doing it wrong. People who know you and are familiar with what you do are more likely to support you. This goes back to my first point regarding tapping your existing followers for support.
You might be a bit squeamish about annoying your social media followers with requests for crowdfunding support. Do it anyway! Otherwise, you’re effectively leaving money on the table. Plus, if your campaign is unique or unusual enough, it might just go viral, thus getting you all the more attention — and more attention leads to more patron moolah!
7. Be Mindful Of Shipping Costs When Offering Rewards
It’s great to offer cool rewards, but if you’re not careful about who you’re offering physical rewards to, you could end up blowing your budget on shipping costs. This is particularly true if you have lots of overseas backers.
Make sure that the rewards you offer at lower levels of support are either digital in nature or are the sort of thing that can be sent in a simple envelope. If you’re sending packages overseas to people who support you at $5/month, you may well find yourself in deep doo-doo.
8. Create Continuously
This one may be a bit obvious, but it’s true — particularly if your Patreon campaign offers per-month subscriptions. If your content releases are few and far between, patrons are going to realize they’re not getting much bang for their buck.
If you’re focused on offering major works a few times a year, platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are probably better suited to you. Patreon’s crowdfunding model requires that you continuously release bits of content on a regular basis. If you’re building up to publishing a novel or something along those lines, you can always launch a Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaign and run it alongside your Patreon campaign.
9. Keep Creating For Non-Patrons
If you’re earning Patreon money for your work, that’s great. Just don’t make all your content exclusive to patrons. You want to continue to grow your casual audience and spread awareness of your work in order to expand the pool of people inclined to become a patron of yours in the future, and you can’t do that if you put everything behind the paywall.
Freebies make for good patron-bait. Give people just enough to leave them wanting more.
10. Send Patrons Personalized Messages (Particularly When Starting Out)
It always helps your cause to make your patrons feel loved and wanted, and while it may not be possible to send personalized thank-you messages to your every patron once you’ve hit it big, it’s definitely worth doing when you’re starting out. Patrons may feel like they’re taking a chance on you in your early days, so why not go the extra mile to thank them for having faith in you?
Show patrons some extra TLC when you’re starting out, and they’ll be more likely to stick with you. It’s just common sense.
FAQs About Starting A Patreon
Final Thoughts
It would be nice if good content sold itself. Unfortunately, with Patreon, just as in meatspace, this just isn’t how things work. You’ve got to be methodical and strategic when devising your Patreon campaign if you want to draw significant funding. Most people don’t have the disposable income to support every creator they like just out of the goodness of their hearts. You have to make your patrons feel emotionally invested in your success while simultaneously offering them tangible benefits in exchange for their patronage.
Remember, your followers don’t owe you anything. They’re struggling too! However, if you can enrich their lives with engaging content while making them feel as though they have a stake in your success, your Patreon campaign can be a winning proposition for everybody.
Jason Vissers
Expert Analyst & Reviewer at Merchant Maverick
Jason Vissers has been researching, analyzing, and writing about small business software and finance since 2015. His financial expertise has been cited in numerous publications, including The Ladders. Jason graduated with a Political Science degree from San Diego State University in 2001.
View Jason Vissers's professional experience on LinkedIn.
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Thanks for the tips!! I just started my Patreon as a comedian who makes videos, with a fanbase on TikTok and Facebook, but very little opted in to a membership. That’s ok. I know it’s a work in progress, but I have a video behind the paywall that I want more people to see. How do you decide what to put behind a paywall and what not to? Do I just make a lot of content so I can put out more for everyone and then the others for behind the paywall? Thanks in advance!
Hey Shay!
Thanks for your question! You may want to keep everything free until you’ve built up a certain number of subscribers. At this point, anything you’re particularly enthusiastic about should probably NOT go behind the paywall. Opinion varies on this — some recommend not paywalling content until you’ve reached 1,000 subscribers, some recommend waiting until you have even more– but generally, it’s good to keep paywalling to a minimum early on, particularly for things you really want exposure for. Good luck!!
Hi Jason,
Great article, thank you for the insight. I’ve not started my Patreon page yet. I’m standing at the proverbial cliff’s edge gathering the courage to jump into the waters of content + patrons’ expectations. So, I’m a little nervous to take the leap (so to speak).
I’m a singer/songwriter and have a very specific goal. I’m also creating a google doc of Patreon sessions that I would like to pre-record – up to a few month’s worth – so that I’m able to provide continual content with less stress to, well, create more content.
I love the idea of offering in-front-of-the-paywall content, along with personally connecting with fans. I also plan to livestream via Crowdcast to further connect.
If you have a sweet-as-apple-pie piece of advice for someone who is ABOUT to create a Patreon page – something you would add to this article now that it’s July 2019 – what would that be?
Thanks again, Jason!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this post and may be outdated.
Hi Skaie!
Our best advice would be to use your social media channels (and just old-fashioned friend-to-friend contact) to gather support for your Patreon before you take your campaign live, so hopefully you can have a base of support right off the bat.. This way, new potential supporters will see that you (the singer/songwriter) already has a base of support. People are more reluctant to support someone who hasn’t garnered any support yet, so going to friends/family/social network acquaintances first can help address this “who wants to take the plunge first” problem! Best of luck to you!
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Hi! Thank you so much for your tips Jason. I started my Patreon a few days ago and I love it. One thing that I have started doing to create interest is post a podcast every night at 9pm to get people excited. I started off as a YouTube creator so Patreon makes it very simple to make videos and add them to your page. I do like how you mentioned adding free content for non patrons. Right now all my content is for the public and free. I’m offering 3 giveaways once I hit a certain amount of patrons. I have already started implementing offering content at a low price point and on different tiers. My first passion was DIY and handmade items so I am offering monthly gift boxes at my highest tier and have already factored in shipping costs into my overall subscription price. I’m trying to think of some more goals I could offer. But other than that, I think I’m all set!
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I’m off to add a couple more goals and rewards (have 2 and 4, respectively, right now).
What I expected at Patreon – and did NOT find – was some landing page where new people got a push the first month. I seem to be entirely on my own for everything.
I took the time to be very specific and complete, and I’ve scheduled a daily post for the first eight days, public. Following your recommendation, I’ll put up a public/non-paid post periodically, so that not all are behind the paywall.
I already have a blog about writing and life, but I am hoping the Patreon will be a place to find the ‘true fans’ who really want good quality indie fiction. And possibly appeal to some Influencers.
I’m starting to wonder if there is a way to do that, or if it’s just going to be one more platform where extroverts with fans from other places are successful.
I didn’t see a lot of pure writing sites which were doing very well, and many of them were of the ‘support me, I write’ variety. I’d like to distance myself from those just finding their wings – I serialized the first book in my mainstream trilogy, producing a finished and polished scene every Tuesday for two years. It was a lot of work!
I started the Patreon because I’m a very slow writer, and reviewers kept saying they couldn’t wait for the next book. I figured Patreon might be a place to do the same serialization, but monetized slightly, partly to keep me enjoyably engaged with my readers, and partly for them to get the book faster and build some advance buzz.
It COULD be a perfect place for an introvert with high writing standards, writing in a niche most indies don’t touch because genre stories (Romance, SFF, thrillerrs) are lucrative, to interact only with fans of the WRITING.
I’m hoping to be a big indie success, eventually, due strictly to the quality of the writing and storytelling, and I’d love to find people who would be tickled to have been in at the beginning.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this post and may be outdated.
Hi Alicia! It’s certainly true that writers with an existing fan base and/or a large social media following have an easier time raising Patreon money than those who don’t. In a just world, the quality of your creative output would be the sole determining factor in attracting patronage, but unfortunately, a certain amount of shameless self-promotion is required to successfully crowdfund your passion. Beyond the tips outlined in the article, I’d recommend getting in touch with some other similarly-situated authors on Patreon to see just what approach they’ve taken in building an audience of patrons. Of course, being an introvert myself, I understand that’s not easy!
Best of luck on your Patreon! I hope you can find the funding you deserve!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this post and may be outdated.
I have no problem with the shameless self-promotion part; but you have to promote shamelessly – to the right people, and that’s where success has eluded me.
I have enough ego – and have put in enough hours – to actually not worry about the writing part.
It’s not a just nor a fair world, and I’m not going to complain, having a roof over my head and having successfully reared a family. Most people in the world have a much harder time than I do.
Just tell me how to reach the people who still love Jane Eyre and GWTW and The Thorn Birds, because they don’t use the search function on Amazon. I want the people who didn’t like The Goldfinch to try me. Laughing at myself as I write this, but those who try it often like Pride’s Children – and seem surprised by that – and leave fulsome literate reviews.
Indies are often accused of bad quality. I am really hoping to reverse some of that attitude. And have fun being myself as part of the process.
Good chatting with you. I AM being ‘methodical and strategic’ – I’m out looking for articles like yours. And applying what I learn. I now have 5-6 rewards and goals, somewhat whimsical, and a bunch of free posts, with the whole first chapter half published. Now that the threshold is swept, the tables are set, and the menu is printed, I’m waiting for the customers.
Alicia
This comment refers to an earlier version of this post and may be outdated.
“I’m WAITING for the customers.”
There’s your problem. You must take a proactive, strategic approach here. Also, don’t think of them as “customers”, especially not in Patreon. You’re an author. They are your readers, or better yet, your fans. Make friends first, make real connections, and remember you’re not going to MAKE anyone give you money for your art, you are asking them to. That’s the key difference between Patreon and say, a traditional retail website like Amazon. This is not the typical commercial exchange of money for goods or services, it’s more like the NPR model, where you look for people who love your work and want to contribute so that you can afford to spend more time creating it.
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Thanks for the advice Jason! I just launched my Patreon feed, and I am looking forward to dropping my first exclusive time lapse in March. I’m hoping this platform can enable me to build a space for other emerging performance painters!
https://www.patreon.com/heiligart
This comment refers to an earlier version of this post and may be outdated.
That’s awesome, Nicholas! Best of luck with your Patreon!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this post and may be outdated.