For my special offer, I decided on 11x17 posters with every patron’s name on it to celebrate my Patreon 3 year anniversary. I’m shipping them out for the $5 tier. I know it’s kind of a low tier to be shipping to, but I feel that it’s an appropriate choice for my audience, and if they remain a patron for 2-3 months (I will ship out in December on my anniversary and livestream the mini-LA party), the cost will even out.
HOWEVER, I’m stumped as to how to handle international patrons. At the moment, I don’t have many. But I’m worried I’ll get more. Of course, it’s possible that no international patrons sign up, but… I have to be prepared for the worst case scenario (especially if those patrons are, say, in Cambodia, where I do have a large fan base but not many patrons.
I have a few ideas:
Instead of sending rolled tubes, sending the posters folded and flat.
Shipping out to hubs in each city, so it’s only one mailing but patrons have to pick it up from that local spot (probably to one patron’s house, and they volunteer to be the hub).
Setting a limit of some sort on international patrons for the special offer reward Or limit it the physical shipping to the first 10 or something.
Still promising to send the poster, but with no time frame, so I can do it anytime in the future, or if I visit that city, etc…
find a company that does print on demand posters and has printing presses overseas. Then just take the patron’s address to have the POD company create and ship a poster to the patron.
That’s a good idea! I wouldn’t be able to sign the poster though, or do the back personalization (an add-on I’m doing if a patron refers new patrons). I wonder if I can say that there’s this exception for international patrons.
Or maybe I just remove the “signed” aspect of my special offer. Thanks for the great idea.
International shipping can be a real pain, and expensive so it’s good you’re thinking about it. Here are some more ideas:
You could email them a high res scan of the poster that includes your hand written and personalized touches for them to print out
Create a separate gift package entirely for international patrons that is maybe something smaller (like a personal card and stickers as that is cheaper to send) with a code to redeem something online
Maybe record a special video that is just for international patrons? You could say their names at the end or perform song requests for them?
Whatever you decide, I think the key thing is communicating it straight up so no one is left out Normally people are so happy to get something for free, they don’t mind so much what it is!
These are all great ideas; thanks! I just set up my special offer benefits though, and I’m not sure how I could add this alternate to the special offer without it being clunky (especially considering I already have a hack for a modified special offer for my lower tiers). Hmm! I will have to think about this in the next 2 days…
Or limit it the physical shipping to the first 10 or something.
Normally people are so happy to get something for free, they don’t mind so much what it is!
