Last month we kicked off some product improvements with two goals in mind: helping you get more patrons, and making sure the patrons you have are happy and sticking with your membership. If you haven’t seen Part 1 of this blog series, check it out.

The creator page updates

We’re back with part 2 in this series with great news! We tested some changes on the creator page that were shown to non-patrons. After gathering enough data to be certain of the effects, we saw that one of the versions netted on average a 9% increase in patron conversion! That means this version of the page works better than the current creator page at getting people to become patrons.

We want all Patreon creators to benefit from that higher conversion rate. So starting today, we will gradually roll it out to all creators over the next few months, still carefully monitoring the results. And we’ll continue to improve on the design with new tests to make it even better. This only affects the page that non patrons see; your patrons will not notice any change to your creator page unless they visit it when they’re logged out. Here is what the new page looks like:

It showcases your benefits first and foremost so people can easily see what you’re offering and compare your tiers at a glance. It only shows the first 3 tiers by default because we’ve found that is easier for potential patrons to digest visually, but they can click to see all tiers. We’re excited to get this page makeover out to all creators over time, so everyone can enjoy a higher patron conversion rate. But that’s not the end of the story. We think we can make it even better, and are working towards a better way to showcase your tiers, give you the ability to highlight a tier of your choice, and to add a short welcome message above your tiers. We will continue fine tuning and improving, so stay tuned for more design tests and news on this.

A welcome win for patron retention!

Another test we ran this past month also showed positive results: customizing the Thank You page. When new patrons pledge, they land on a Thank You page. We updated that page to include a list of the benefits they have access to in their tier, and a button that takes them back to your creator page to see the posts they’ve unlocked. This produced a measurable improvement in patron retention, with 5% fewer patrons canceling within their first week! Based on this success, we’ve rolled it out to everyone. Eventually we’d like to give every creator the option to customize the message on this page for each of your tiers. Here’s a before and after:

What we’ve learned that you can use today

Our data shows that patrons are most likely to leave in their first month. The test above tells us that we can keep more patrons around if they have a good experience right away, like finding your posts more easily, or having an interaction with you. So how do you welcome new patrons to your membership? Are there things you can do to make them feel even more special?

One key stat: creators who post patron-only content at least twice a month have higher patron retention. This cadence means that new patrons are more likely to see content in their first month that feels valuable to them. So if you’re not posting at least twice a month, try it and see what happens. It doesn’t always need to be finished content. A friendly update works, too.

Another way to make new patrons feel welcome is to send a personal thank you when they sign up. You can do this via Patreon direct messaging, or to make it really special, send a quick personalized video from your mobile phone using our Bonjoro integration. Our CEO and creator-in-chief Jack Conte swears by this method. To see him describe how it works, check out the video from September’s episode of Hang Time (skip to 18:50 in the video to get to this section).

Sharing learnings

We’re always working on your behalf to help you grow your membership, and we’re excited to keep sharing the results and learnings from this work with you through this blog series, through email, and in the Patreon Community Forum. If at any time you have questions about changes you’re seeing on your Patreon page, you can send us a note here.

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