Howdy,
We have plateaued once again and we’d like to run a special offer. We are just a little confused about what to do with it.
If you have run a successful special offer can you please share what you did and what the response from your audience was?
Thank you so much <3
Hey @escalation1985, thanks for the post! Hoping other creators will chime in with their learnings, but in the meantime we have three blogs that offer case studies on Special offers (one, two, three) and you can ask @laurab, who works on the Creator Success team at Patreon, if you have any specific questions.
Thanks, Mindy. That’s really helpful <3
Hi @escalation1985! I also wanted to chime in a little. We’ve hosted a few Special Offer livestreams that walk you through the handbook. If you’re still looking for ideas and inspiration, it might be helpful to watch a recording. The intro to Special Offers is currently live and we’re adding a post-launch recorded session as well.
https://specialoffers.splashthat.com/
I’m a little late to the game here, but I just wanted to respond with my own special offer story in case it’s helpful! I’m 9 days into my 12-day special offer and I’ve already hit my goal ($200 in new pledges/increased pledges).
Some quick backstory: I’m a cosplayer, so I make costumes from movies, TV, games, etc. and then shoot photos and video “in character.” For my offer, I chose a beloved character I’d already cosplayed before, who had gotten a very strong response. I created a holiday-themed version of her costume and offered a physical postcard featuring a photo of that new, unreleased holiday costume. It will go out to $5+ Patrons with a handwritten message. I also made sure to advertise that Patrons get access to behind-the-scenes and work-in-progress updates on the costume and related videos, so even if people didn’t want to pledge at the $5 level, they could still get something special/relevant to the theme at the $1 level.
I saw a really strong response in the first few days, with a few $1 Patrons increasing pledges and a dozen or so new Patrons coming in. New pledges peak when I post a big public update. I’ll do a big ol’ “LAST CHANCE FOR POSTCARDS” thing on the last day, and I imagine that will bring in a few more.
Overall, I think it’s been successful not because of the postcards per se, but because I chose a subject that I knew really excited my audience. A postcard is a sweet keepsake and I don’t normally mail anything until the $20 tier, so I’m sure it’s a little exciting to be able to get a real, physical reward at a low tier, but in general I think people are just super pumped about the costume.
Here’s my whole thread about my experience, if you want to read more! And here’s my Patreon if you want to check out what I’m doing in terms of posts/design.
Hope that helps!
Wow, that’s really cool. Thanks for sharing, got me reading and thinking.
Also, your stuff is why Patreon is so fantastic. You can literally make a living doing this, which was probably not a thing before Patreon. I cannot contain fully just how incredible that is. Keep at it, stay awesome!