Hi fellow creators! Patreon has recently rolled out their new Annual Membership feature, which I think is exciting and potentially revolutionary, but of course, also has risk.
I get the reasons why Patreon thinks it’s a great idea (more money right away; discounts might entice more patrons; people aren’t reminded of the charge every month), but being fairly risk-averse, I am hesitant with the following questions:
Credit card declines mean up to 12x the lost revenue (which, in my experience of reaching out to patrons with declined cards, is hard to reverse)
Giving people too many options (monthly vs. annual) can lead people to make no decision at all
I worry that it may seem gimmicky to potential patrons, especially given that the majority of my supporters are more of the altruistic type rather than the sign up to receive benefits type.
Does the increase in annual membership patrons + decrease in canceled patrons (since they aren’t noticing the monthly charges) outweigh the 10-16% drop in revenue from these annual membership patrons who otherwise could’ve signed up monthly?
I’m trying to decide whether or not it’s worth doing and would love your insight.
Do any fellow creators here have thoughts on this subject? Have any of you tried annual membership and had success (or problems)? Please share!
Great questions, I’d love to hear peoples’ thoughts here. I’m pretty on the fence about it as, right now, most of my patrons are pretty much 100% altruistic!
In my account I still cannot set up the annual membership, but as far as I know you decide the level of discount you give for annual members. So you can set it to 0.
I think, but that’s just my gut feeling, that people with relatively low support sums (1-5 USD/month) might prefer to pay 12 times the amount in one payment than to see a low charge every month.
Yeah, having mostly altruistic patrons is great, but complicates things a bit when it comes to determining the value of things like annual memberships, special offers, etc.
Good point though about low-amount patrons (who make up the majority of our patron bases) potentially being less bothered by $60/year than $5/month. [In my case, the lowest tier is $5/month.]
Hi @johnoberg! So glad you’ve reached out to gather creator feedback about annual memberships. Your concerns are valid and I’ll try my best to share what I can and get back to you on the things I miss.
If a patron chooses to pledge you annually, I think it’s safe to say that they’re a true supporter and more willing to fix a declined card quickly. Though declined payments are bound to happen, so I hear your concern. I’ll see if we have anything set in place for this issue!
Monthly VS. annual membership is a common choice nowadays that (I think) consumers/patrons are used to and our data actually shows that 32% of patrons would like the option to pay upfront annually!
I’ll ask my colleges if they have any other insights we can share with you! Until then, you can join our Discord server to connect with other creators and get more opinions on annual memberships.
Personally for me, I wouldn’t offer annual since I have some higher tiers which are at their absolute minimum price for what they offer (original art from me). I can’t choose which tier has annual membership so I won’t be doing it. I also like knowing I’m getting an average X amount each month.
If I could have my wishes, I would probably like to offer different discounts for the annuals at the different tiers.
e.g.
For the $2/month patrons allow annual but no discount.
For the $5-10/month I’d offer 8.5-17% (one or two months off)
For the $50/month I’d NOT offer annual at all.
Each creator and their preferences.
But I am just dreaming as I am not yet eligible to offer annual payment anyway.
Wait, annual memberships have to be all or nothing? I was hoping we could do it by a per-tier basis? I have lower-cost tiers that grant access, and higher tiers for bespoke art commissions. I only want annual tiers on the access-based ones, not the commission ones.
Is the only way to get our feedback heard to join the discord? I find discord hard to keep up with, unless everyone there is okay with someone joining and changing the subject of discussion regardless of what’s going on?
Yup, all or nothing! It is frustrating the lack of personalised tweaks we are able to make with certain things (one of the main peeves for me is the search feature for patrons, but also the landing page looks terrible now!). I’d love to have a choice of 3 templates or something for landing pages for us.
It’d be more worth it for a wider range of people if we had more control over the options. I’m hoping this initial roll out is just that, an initial roll out, with features to be added on to later. Things like unique discounts per tier, which tiers offer yearly, etc.
My page is pretty plain, so offering yearly discounts works just fine with me. It’s preferred honestly, since I know paying month to month can not only be a pain to some, but for those with uncertain financial stability, it offers them that one time payment that they can forget about for a year. (Plus with charge up front, paying at the end of the month doesn’t matter with annual.)
I’m hoping I get it soon. Already prepped to advertise about it.
Hey @zelaphas, at the moment, we don’t have options to customize annual plans (i.e. only for specific tiers, limited number, ect.). This is being discussed over on this thread as well. But I want to assure you that we’re taking the feedback into consideration for possible updates to the feature.
We actually prefer product feedback here in the forum! The Discord is where we encourage creators to chat with each other, but the forum is the best place to ensure Patreon staff see’s your comments. Feel free to leave feedback and suggestions over in this section of the forum.
The annual membership is worth offering. I did it on my page, and I thought that might be cool for the low tiers, but in fact that highest tier used this option first. Paying $1.000 at once instead $1.200 per year in monthly pledges saved $200, right?
It doesn’t matter whether patrons pledge monthly or annual when it comes to provide content. They’ll get it anyway, and monthly vs annual is not really “too many options”.
And don’t fear declines. They would be declined anyway no matter the choice they made. So you wouldn’t lose 12 times the pledge.
The change to annual pledges definitely outweighs the drop in revenue. Think of this example - a monthly pledging patron can leave any time. So you may have made 3 times or 6 times or maybe even 10 times the pledge. But there is always the risk that the patron leaves for different reasons like “financial situation has changed”. If pledged for a whole year this patron doesn’t have to leave because of that because he has already paid for a year, and you have that money in your bag. Besides, you can adjust the rate of discount, you can even set it to “0”. But this won’t really tempt people to join you.
It is more likely that you will attract more patrons because of a discount. In the end you might have made more money because of discounts than in the case of not offering annual memberships at all.
