Take a look at, be taught, repeat: upcoming experiments that can assist you get extra patrons

From a design improve to our final spherical of product updates, we’ve been working laborious this 12 months to make Patreon the perfect dwelling in your membership. With that purpose in thoughts, we’ve additionally been exploring methods that can assist you achieve extra patrons and hold them round longer.

However first, with a view to make certain these concepts profit the total spectrum of creators on Patreon, we’re planning to look at and be taught by means of a collection of managed exams. Learn on for a preview of our focus areas and the way we method experiments at Patreon.

A give attention to gaining — and preserving — patrons

We all know that membership progress continues to be a high precedence for a lot of of you. 93% of creators who took the Creator Census this 12 months stated you’d wish to get extra patrons and develop your Patreon earnings. 45% additionally ranked advertising and promotion as further assist you need most from Patreon.

Based mostly on these alerts, in addition to different knowledge and creator analysis, we began asking two key questions:

1. How can we assist potential patrons clearly see the worth of your membership, in order that they’re extra possible to enroll?
2. How can we make it simple for potential patrons to enroll and get began, in order that they’re extra prone to keep for a second month (and past)?

Within the subsequent few months, you and potential patrons may even see among the updates we’re testing to reply these questions. Right here’s a preview of what we’re pondering:

Methods to assist potential patrons clearly see the worth of your membership:

• Video previews and different sharing options – so that you can provide followers on and off Patreon a style of the content material they will unlock as patrons.
  
  
• How tiers are displayed and highlighted – so potential patrons can extra simply perceive the worth of every tier as they select one.
  

Methods to enhance patrons’ preliminary expertise, in order that they keep round longer:

• Onboarding moments that spotlight the perfect of your advantages – together with submit web page design and onboarding emails, so new patrons can rapidly and simply interact along with your greatest content material.
• Easier signup and checkout experiences – so patrons can begin having fun with your membership quicker.
  
  

In case you discover adjustments in any of those areas, let our group know what you suppose. When you have concepts for enhancements to check, share them right here!

How we check

Very similar to creativity itself, testing new concepts takes time and repeated drafts till we attain a last product. (And even then, we’re nonetheless tweaking and bettering!) In case you’re curious, right here’s how we method experimentation at Patreon.

• Begin with targets. On this case, we wish to assist flip extra web page guests into patrons, and hold extra patrons subscribing previous their first month. Based mostly on previous analysis and knowledge (together with the function request kind, neighborhood conversations, assist tickets, surveys, and extra), we kind concepts for a way we might obtain simply that.
• Kind and check hypotheses. A speculation is an assumption that we will check. For instance:
  • If we visually spotlight a tier to potential patrons, then they’ll be extra possible to enroll in that tier.
  • If we provide potential patrons the flexibility to see richer previews of patron-only content material, then they’ll be extra prone to subscribe to entry that content material.
• We then check the speculation “within the wild” for a portion of potential patrons. All through the check, we monitor each metrics we wish to change (for instance, whether or not there’s a rise within the share of holiday makers to your web page who join) and associated metrics to verify the check isn’t having unintended uncomfortable side effects.
• Evaluate outcomes and observations. As soon as we’ve collected sufficient knowledge, we analyze whether or not we will confidently attribute the outcomes to the particular adjustments we examined, relatively than pure probability. Typically the info confirms what we have been pondering. Different occasions, it surprises us with an sudden perception.
• Iterate primarily based on what we’ve discovered. If a check is inconclusive or unsuccessful, we’ll refine what we’re testing. We might use a special format, wording, or shade, or return to the drafting board. If the outcomes look promising, we might increase the check to a wider viewers. As soon as we now have confidence that what we’re testing will profit nearly all of creators, we’ll roll it out.

Share your concepts

We’re excited to share our learnings with you as we check, so keep tuned for periodic updates within the subsequent few months! And if in case you have methods you’ve examined (or are curious to check) which have helped you entice and hold new patrons, tell us right here.