Why are annual discounts capped at 16%?

Patreon Feedback Feature Request
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#1

Love the annual membership feature. Sad it wasn’t released until I’ve had to close most of my Patreon activity due to needing to get a job due to Covid impacting my art sales, but I digress.

Why is the discount capped to 16%? It’s awesome to be able to promote the idea that annual memberships can get 2 months off, however I often take 2 months off anyway for summer and winter breaks.

It would be better if I could offer 4 months off for annual memberships, 2 of which are consumed when I pause my patreon for my regular breaks anyhow.

As it stands, offering 2 months free for me doesn’t allow me to offer any financial benefit with an annual membership; I’m offering them what I offer my monthly subscribers, who also don’t pay during the 2 months I pause my patreon.

As a side note, WE the creators see on our end that 16% off is 2 months free. However when viewing my public page, potential subscribers only see “16% off.” This is a weird discount number and it’s not immediately apparent that 16% = 2 months. Can the Patreon design team add in some copy about how many free months/weeks you get based on the discount?

Thank you,

3 Likes
#2

I think it’d be a nice feature to add on those paused months to the annual membership patrons. If you take a month off, tack on an extra month to their membership. Seems fair :slight_smile:

I imagine it’d be WAY more powerful to prospective patrons to see the months off rather than the percentage.

2 Likes
#3

This idea is even smarter. Just let the membership continue for however many months I paused. Makes it more flexible for the creator and gives the member more access and a greater incentive to stay.

#4

Annual Memberships should have three options:

1.) Percentage off (up to 50%, with decimal percentages)

2.) Months Off (each one takes 1/12th or 8.333…% off of the cost of a year)

2.) Months Added: Pay for one year, get X number of bonus months tacked on to the end

2 Likes
#5

@reyna with the recent promise to listen to feedback, can we please get a public-facing UI update that shows potential patrons that 16% off is “2 months free”?

Right now 16% off is just a weird number, when instead if we communicate 2 free months it’d have a more tangible benefit. I’m also pushing my $2 tip jar tear, which is a clean $20 flat for a full year if you buy annually. Right now my copy explaining that you get 2 free months annually is hidden by one of those annoying “learn more” content clips all over the page (plus I don’t enjoy wasting tier description space to explain discounts). It’ll help all points involved if 16% off is replaced with “2 months free” or similar.

Thanks!

2 Likes
#6

An ETA on when annual subscriptions in general will be rolled out too would be fantastic.

#7

Hey all - going to address questions in order.

  • We rolled out annual memberships with a 16% cap based on market research and the research we found surveying creators. We’re starting here but want to make it more flexible in the future after we’re worked out kinks and a larger roll out.

  • Creators who use annual billing are still able pause their page and push out the length of the annual membership by that period, just like monthly creators.

  • For now, we are going to continue displaying discounts by percentage. Not all creators choose to offer the max 16% discount, so we are not able to display “1 month off” or “2 months off” when the discount does not round off to a full month.

  • We do not have an updated ETA on when annual subscriptions will be rolled out to all creators, but I will continue to check back with the team on this and share more when I know more.

I’m doing my best to get updates as often as I can. Thanks for your patience while we work on this feature.

2 Likes
#8

Seriously? How difficult is it to have three choices - 1 month, 2 months, custom, with the first two showing ‘1 month’ or ‘2 month’ and the third showing ‘% discount’?

I would LOVE to see the survey done for creators, including questions and raw results.

1 Like
#9

I would love to see the option added. Perhaps in the future. There’s already bugs and issues with this feature that should take priority in fixing first.