So we all know one of Patreon’s weak points is discoverability.
What do you do to combat that? How do you promote / find new fans & supporters?
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Hi Kate,
I feel there’s no two ways about it — we need to nurture our crowd. By nurture, I mean communicate and make them feel part of what we’re doing. And if we don’t know who our crowd is, we need to find out!
Have you read Amanda Palmer’s book, ‘The Art of Asking’? It’s brilliant for learning about that kinda stuff. She’s taught me such a lot and, of course, she’s big on Patreon too (link below).
Patreon recently interviewed me about my work and posted this a day or two ago:
There are some tips in there about how to engage with your audience, which you may find useful.
The Big Three of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are my main arenas for engaging with my crowd along with the website, newsletter and a bit of Ello.
Finding a rhythm and voice with those is kinda critical. Slightly different ways of engaging on each medium and you have to remember that most people won’t even see your posts, so you must endeavour to find different ways of saying the same thing at different times!
I hope this helps,
— Jack
I think it depends entirely on what you’re offering. For Jack it’s very easy to gain an audience as its for a worthy cause - documenting volunteers and people that save lives. It has an emotional resonance that tugs on the heart strings and makes it easy for people to feel good about supporting.
So while there are successes that should be paid attention to, it’s more a matter of what you’re doing that will make it easier or more difficult to find your audience.
For me personally, I make instructional videos for a very niche hobby that has stiff competition for viewers and paying Patrons. It’s a hobby, and as far as hobbies go, those that have an interest in it are fickle and will flutter off to the newest shiny the moment is enters their peripheral. Keeping their attention is paramount, especially in an expensive hobby niche.
So, my Patron base fluctuates quite a bit as a result of this type of audience. And what I end up doing, because I need to remain in constant rotation, is not to pay wall much of anything.
Use whatever means necessary to promote yourself. I post my videos anywhere and everywhere I can and engage as much as humanly possible by answering questions, painting advice and so-on.
Even though I post weekly on YT, FB, Twitter and every forum I can find, it’s still an uphill battle to find true fans that are willing to support you, and remain doing so for more than a month or two.
The main take away though is know what you’re selling, and who you’re selling it to. Some things are an easy sell. Some things are a really hard sell. Which one are you?
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Excellent advice, Brant. Whatever we’re aiming to fund, I agree with you that engaging with who we’re selling to is key.
— Jack
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And since I mentioned it, the real key to success is emotional resonance.
People want to feel good about who and what they support, and if you can tap into that, you’re golden.
Make your Patrons want to support you because it feels good to do-so.
My page is all about helping Patrons paint better, and can ask me for advice, and give me ideas for videos directly. That helps not only myself feel good, but Patrons as well, because they now have a support network that encourages them to complete projects, and improve in the areas they wish to.
It’s all about the warm fuzzies. Create that, and you never have to worry.
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I LOVE how you set yours up. I just redid my about page and very much used your format; it was so clean and streamlined. And Amanda Palmer’s also helped. Thank you for inspiring a little! 
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Soooo just billions of photos of my cat.
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My pleasure, Kate 
I write stories and find that the best way to get an audience for me is to post the stories elsewhere. I already had a following before coming here with a lot of people who love my stories.
Basically, most stories I write get posted here in instalments one week before they are posted anywhere so they get early access. For a higher tier I also write some stories exclusively to Patreon. There are two quite popular websites that I post things publicly on and link my Patreon on each part of the story.
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Popping in to encourage all our wonderful lady creators to make ample use of the #InternationalWomensDay hashtag!
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I have a YouTube channel where I teach weekly tutorials on polymer clay & jewelry making. I recently changed my Patreon model so that my $5 supporters get one bonus tutorial every month and $10 supporters get two bonus tutorials. This has definitely upped my support, so that folks are giving at $5 & $10, rather than $1 and $3.
I promote these options by occasionally showing the project in another video and mentioning that these are bonuses for patrons only. I also tease them the day before release in a public Patron post by showing the beauty shot with a brief description. This let’s those who aren’t supporting or who are supporting at lower levels know what they’re missing out on, and it (hopefully) gets the $5 & $10 supporters excited for their rewards.
Any improvements you can suggest would be great! Art is my first love, not marketing, lol.
I’ve been doing this since August and now have nearly 8 months of bonus videos available to new $5 & $10 patrons. I was thinking about somehow leveraging the older videos in another way and only having a set amount available, like 6 months worth.
Any suggestions?
Hope some may find this helpful!
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I have tried to do giveaways and gimmicky promotions to almost no effect. My current patrons have no interest in rewards, though I do like to send them a yearly postcard with my art on it to thank them for their continued support. Those are the types of patrons I seem to attract and the kind I want.
I’ve found I do better gaining followers/patrons by posting art. The most effective has been when I do certain challenges. I’m not good with hashtags normally, but if I tag something to a challenge while it’s going on I tend to increase my following. Side effect: I’m much more productive during a challenge because I’m typically getting more likes, comments, followers, etc.
Speaking of, the 100 Day Challenge is starting up again April 3rd. That is a great, vague, creative challenge that you can define yourself. I find all kinds of creators using that hashtag.
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