How to Launch a Successful Cosplay Patreon
by Ginny Di
© Ginny Di 2017 www.ginnydi.com
1 Index
Introduction 3
Chapter 1: Is Patreon Right For You? 4 How are cosplayers using Patreon? Do you have what it takes? Chapter 2: Creating Your Campaign 8 Studying up Save the date Preparing the campaign Chapter 3: Developing Your Marketing Plan 16 Message Platforms Tools Schedule Executing your plan Chapter 4: Preparing for the Future 20 Keep setting goals Stay on Your Toes About the Author 22
2 Introduction
Okay, let’s cut to the chase – you want to launch a successful cosplay Patreon campaign, but you don’t know how. And why should you trust me to teach you? After all, I’m not making Jessica Nigri-level riches.
Let’s be honest: Not many of us are going to be pulling in $25,000 a month on Patreon. But earning enough to reimburse the cost of your cosplay and increase your flexibility as a creator is completely doable if you’re willing to put in the time and work.
When I first started on Patreon, I had 7,300 Facebook fans; I passed $100 in pledges in my first week of using Patreon. By the end of my first year, my pledges surpassed $600 per costume, which goes well beyond covering the cost of fabric and wigs, and starts to cover things like website hosting, banners, tools and equipment, and video production. In fact, having cosplay expenses completely off my plate has been a key factor in my ability to recently leave my “real job” as the marketing manager of a small business and focus on creative work full time.
Look, I don’t want to brag, but in comparison to many Patreon cosplayers with similarly-sized audiences, I’m doing well. I often say that I’m lucky to have the generous support of my fans on Patreon, but the fact is that luck has very little to do with it. I took four very specific actions in order to succeed on Patreon and they’re actions you can take, too:
● Cultivate a supportive, personally-invested fan base. ● Take your campaign seriously; invest time and effort into it. ● Market your campaign effectively to your fans. ● Constantly monitor your campaign and perform upkeep.
By following these four steps, I am confident that you will be able to create and maintain a successful Patreon campaign. In this eBook, I will walk you through the process of creating and launching your Patreon, and help you create a system through which to continually monitor and update your campaign to keep it growing.
Don’t get me wrong — I’m not saying it’ll be easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is. But I am saying it’s possible. So if you’re ready to put some blood, sweat, and tears into this, let’s get started!
3 Chapter 1 Is Patreon Right For You? Patreon is a crowdfunding platform, like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. But while most crowdfunding platforms are for individual projects, Patreon pledges aren’t just one-time contributions — they’re recurring ones. Here’s how it works: Patrons pledge to contribute a specific dollar amount per month (or per project, depending on what the creator chooses) and, in return, creators offer exclusive or customized content.
The key thing to remember here is that Patreon pledges are not donations. These are transactions like any other: Patrons are paying for products and services. It’s imperative to remember this in order to put together a successful campaign! How are cosplayers using Patreon? In my observations of cosplayers on Patreon over the last year or so, I’ve gotten a feel for how most cosplay campaigns work, but I was interested in getting some hard numbers on the subject. I randomly selected 275 cosplayers from the approximately 1,000 who run Patreon campaigns and used their data to draw some overall conclusions. Here are some of the things I learned:
● Almost one in four cosplayers (23%) makes $0 from their Patreon campaign. ● Of the creators who are making money, nearly one in three (32%) makes less than $100. ● Of the creators who are making money, one in ten (10%) makes over $1,000.
What this data tells me is that earning significant income from Patreon is a completely achievable goal. Do you have what it takes? The question of whether or not Patreon is right for you is an important one and I want you to consider it very seriously before you move forward. Patreon isn’t for everyone. There are other ways to earn money off of cosplay, so don’t force yourself into Patreon if it doesn’t suit you.
First and foremost, Patreon requires consistency. If you set up your campaign “per creation,” then you only get paid when you complete a project — so two new costumes a year isn’t going to benefit you much. And if you set up your campaign “per month” but don’t deliver content regularly, your Patrons will feel like they’re not getting what they’re paying for. In order to succeed on Patreon, you need to commit to regularly delivering new content. This 4 doesn’t necessarily mean new cosplays every month, but if you want to keep Patrons engaged, consistency is something you need to think about.
You should know this up front: your Patreon is going to require a lot of maintenance. Don’t open one and expect it to manage itself. You will need to be constantly updating your Patrons, providing exclusive content for them on a regular timeline, and always marketing your campaign to ensure it keeps growing. This is not a set-it-and-forget-it income method.
Pro Tip Patreon won’t manage itself. It requires constant upkeep to succeed. Don’t expect to be successful if you can’t be consistent!
And of course, with rare exceptions, it is nearly impossible to build a successful Patreon without a pre-existing audience. Your fans on Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, Tumblr, or Instagram will be the primary pool in which you fish for Patrons. Although it’s not impossible to get a stranger to immediately open their wallet for you, people who are already supporting your work will be significantly more likely to pledge. Becoming a Patron is not step one for most people — it’s step ten. It’s the further continuation of already being a dedicated fan.
In general, the larger your audience the more Patreon pledges you will get. Using the data I gathered, I put together a calculator to loosely predict how much you can expect to earn on Patreon within your first 6 months to a year, based on the size of your Facebook fan base.
Before we get to it, I have some big disclaimers: First, there are dozens of factors that will influence your Patreon success. By no means should this be taken as an accurate prediction of your future Patreon performance. Instead, you should use this as a general guideline to make decisions and set goals by. And second, Facebook is not the be-all, end-all of deciding factors. Some people have massive Instagram followings and inconsequential Facebook followings, or no Facebook page at all. But since Facebook is fairly ubiquitous in the cosplay world, I figured it would be the easiest metric for audience size.
Click here to predict your Patreon performance.
Just plug your Facebook fan count into the highlighted cell. The average engagement rate for all two-hundred-some cosplayers I gathered data from is 0.24% — yes, less than 1% of the average cosplayer’s fans pledge to their Patreon campaigns. So by taking 0.24% of your audience count, you get an estimate for how many Patrons you will have. The average pledge per Patron is $14 (Again, take this with a grain of salt; the average pledge on my own
5 campaign is $9.60. This will vary based on your rewards and your specific Patrons), so if you multiply your estimated Patron count by 14, you will end up with an estimated income.
To give you an idea of the accuracy of this calculator, I applied it to my own audience. It predicted that I would have 48 Patrons, and be earning $664. In reality, I have 80 Patrons and am making $623. I lean towards having more Patrons pledging smaller numbers, while others lead the opposite direction. Of course, there are outliers in any group. There are people with below average engagement, as low as 0.01%, and people with insanely high engagement, up to 2 or 3%.
Another important thing to note is that the smaller your audience the less predictable your numbers. There are people with two Patrons making $50 a month, and people with two Patrons making $2 a month. The higher your numbers, the more likely that outliers will balance themselves out, and the more accurate your prediction will be. (Until you hit the millions; then numbers start getting weird again.)
My opinion, based on the data I’ve gathered, is that if you have under 1,000 Facebook fans, you may want to consider waiting to start a Patreon. The average income for cosplayers with under 1,000 Facebook fans is $31. If you’re expending energy and money putting together rewards for a handful of Patrons, your campaign could be more trouble than it’s worth.
Of course, a good audience for Patreon isn’t just a large audience, although the size is certainly relevant — it’s also important that your audience be engaged. Do your fans like and comment on your posts, photos, and videos? Do they send you messages or emails, purchase prints, or ask for your convention schedule? All of these things can help you gauge whether or not your audience is going to be interested in participating in a Patreon campaign.
To help you decide if you’re ready for Patreon, I’ve created a checklist. Mark any that apply.
I have over 1,000 Facebook fans I have over 5,000 Facebook fans I have over 10,000 Facebook fans When I post a cosplay photo on Facebook, it usually receives more than 50 likes When I post a cosplay photo on Facebook, it usually receives more than five comments
When I post a cosplay photo on Facebook, it usually gets at least one share I receive at least one fan mail, private message, or question per month I have successfully sold prints (or other merchandise) online 6 I have sold more than 10 prints (or other merchandise) online I have been asked to provide tutorials for things I make Fans have requested prints, a calendar, or other merchandise I have a similarly sized audience on at least one other social platform I create a new costume at least every quarter (three months) I post to my Facebook page at least once a week
Now, total your check marks to see your results.
0-4: If you start a Patreon now, it will be extremely challenging. I recommend building your audience more before you attempt it.
5-9: You are in a fair position to start a Patreon now. However, it will be very important that you don’t skip any steps or cut any corners putting your campaign together.
10-14: You are in a prime position to start a Patreon! Your audience wants more from you, and this is the perfect opportunity to provide it.
Of course, don’t let anything in this chapter deter you if you are confident that it’s time for you to start a Patreon. It’s just one of those “know the rules before you break them” situations.
If you’ve checked out the calculator and the checklist above and are feeling like it may not be the right time to start a Patreon, that’s okay! Don’t be discouraged. Use the things you’ve learned to determine where you need to improve and strengthen your audience. This can be a starting point for mapping out a plan of growth that will eventually lead you to Patreon.
There’s one more possible dealbreaker to mention before we go on — in the US, if you make more than $400 in a year off of Patreon, you’ll be paying taxes on it. Most experts suggest freelancers set aside 25-30% of their income for taxes. So whatever you make, only 70-75% of it is going into your pocket. Keep that in mind as you estimate how much money you’ll need to make in order to make a Patreon worth it. (Your country might have different rules about freelance income. Make sure to look it up first!)
If you’ve gotten through all that and are still feeling like Patreon is the right choice for you — great! It’s time to start working on your campaign.
7 Chapter 2 Creating Your Campaign Okay, I hope you’re all pumped up about your Patreon now, because there’s a lot of work to do. First, we’ll talk about doing research and setting up a timetable, and then we’ll move into the actual setup of the campaign. Studying up There are two things you should do some research into before you even start planning your campaign: the platform, and your peers.
It’s very important to be familiar with how Patreon works before you get started. You’ll want a comprehensive understanding of the system for your own use, but you’ll also want to be able to answer questions for your fans (and they’ll have many — Patreon is still new.) The more familiar you are with the features Patreon offers, the more easily you can plan how your campaign will be run. Will you use featured tags? How? Will you make public posts? Under what circumstances?
I recommend starting by at least skimming the entirety of the Creators FAQ. This will give you essential information on how to do basic things like make posts and charge your Patrons, and will also walk you through important financial and tax-related information that you don’t want to put off learning about. Then, take a look through the Patreon Blog. It’s full of great information for creators of all types and sizes. And if you have any questions, I highly recommend contacting Patreon’s support. They’re super helpful and fast!
Once you know how Patreon works, narrow your focus: Now you need to know how Patreon works for cosplayers. The easiest way to do that is to spend a few hours skimming other successful cosplay Patreons and taking notes. Look at how many reward tiers they have, what they’re offering, and which ones are the most popular. Look at how often they post, what tone they take in their introduction, and what their video and header image and profile picture look like. Gather as much information as you can, so you can make informed decisions about your own profile.
It is worthwhile to note here that there are different “types” of cosplayers, and you should make sure to look at mostly cosplayers who are the same “type” as you. If you’re focused on craftsmanship and screen-accurate detail, you will offer different rewards than cosplayers who are focused on sex appeal. If your audience is mostly cosplayers, you will offer different rewards than if your audience is mostly non-cosplayers. If you have a large international audience, or live in a place where shipping out-of-country is difficult or expensive, you may
8 not want to do as many mailed rewards as other cosplayers. Keep these things in mind as you browse.
I suggest that you make two lists while you are studying other Patreon accounts — one list of ideas for rewards (no need to try and price them out yet, just list any concept that could work for you), and one list of other ideas and notes (for example, if you liked a section someone included in their video, and want to include something similar). Save the date This isn’t just a good idea for Patreon, it’s a good idea for any big goal: Set a deadline. This will help you pace your prep work accordingly, and will motivate you to not drag your feet.
You’ll want to make sure whatever date you set gives yourself enough time to prepare for launch. To determine how long you need, consider everything you’ll want to have done before launch, and think about how much free time you have to commit to doing this work. Although I recommend setting your launch date before you begin creating your campaign, I also recommend at least skimming this entire book before setting a date. That will ensure you have a complete understanding of what you need to achieve during your prep time.
Pro Tip Set a date for your Patreon launch and stick to it! If you can’t hold yourself accountable for launch, you won’t be capable of everyday Patreon management.
Set reasonable expectations, but don’t give yourself so much time that your deadline won’t motivate you. When I launched my campaign I was working full time, and a month was enough to prepare all my materials. Depending on your own individual lifestyle, you may need more or less time to get ready. Preparing the campaign Technically speaking, you could set up your Patreon profile in an hour. You’ve probably seen Patreon pages that have been set up in an hour. You can recognize them easily, because they’re not making any money!
It’s important that you take your profile seriously, because if done correctly, it will be the biggest thing that convinces people to pledge. Lots of people will click through to view your
9 Patreon profile, but if they don’t like what they see or can’t find the information they need, they will leave and take their money with them.
Referral This is an optional step, but if someone has referred you to Patreon via email or link, you can both earn rewards if your campaign is successful quickly. (For example, if you hit 30 patrons in 30 days, both you and your referrer get $50 from Patreon.)
You are welcome to use my referral link! 30 patrons in 30 days is a tough goal to hit for most people, but there’s no harm in trying. Learn more about Patreon’s referral program here.
Name First things first: Your name! This might sound like a silly thing to call out individually, but if someone searches for you on Patreon, you want them to be able to find you. It’s good branding practice to have your brand name the same on every platform, and Patreon is no exception. Ideally, someone should be able to easily guess your Patreon URL from what they know of you from other platforms.
What You’re Making You also have to choose what you’re making. This will display next to your name in your profile as (Name) is creating (thing), and it will display in the search results on Patreon’s native search. While it may be tempting to include a lot of different skills, or write something funny or vague, I encourage you to keep this line simple and descriptive. The goal is to communicate clearly to your viewers what to expect out of your Patreon, not to show off your sense of humor or list your entire resume. I imagine that for most people reading this book, all you will need to write is “cosplay.”
Frequency You have two options for charging your patrons: Per creation, or monthly. There are benefits and disadvantages to each, so it’s important to weigh your options and pick the one that works best for you.
If you choose per creation, there are several benefits. First, if you want to take a month or a few months off, you don’t have to worry about keeping Patrons satisfied during your break, because they won’t be paying you during that time. If you are able to produce more than one cosplay in a month, you could cash in for both those cosplays. Also, doing per creation pledges mean that your rewards can be specific to that creation — for example, a print of that cosplay, or a behind-the-scenes video from that photoshoot.
However, there are downsides to per creation pledges, too. For example, those pledges are charged on the first of the month following your project completion, so if you complete a project on January 31, you will get your money on February 1; but if you complete a project on February 1, you won’t get your money until March 1. Patrons also have the option to limit how 10 many payouts they are willing to make per month, so if you produce more than one cosplay in a month, some of your Patrons may not be able to be charged.
As for monthly pledges, the most obvious benefit is that your income is reliable. Many Patrons report that they prefer monthly pledges, since they know exactly how much money is coming out of their accounts and when. When it comes to downsides of monthly pledges, some Patrons may be frustrated if they end up paying you on months when your content creation is light. Plus, your rewards will have to be deliverable regardless of whether or not you have new cosplay.
While your decision doesn’t have to be permanent, transitioning between systems can be a pain, so you should be secure in your decision before you start your campaign. If you do decide later to switch from per creation to monthly (or the other way around), the key is to be very upfront with your Patrons about it, so they know what to expect.
Patreon has also recently introduced a new feature where you can charge Patrons up front — that is, as soon as they pledge. This could be a good way to prevent Patrons from “pledging and running,” where someone pledges, views or downloads exclusive content, and then deletes their pledge before being charged. However, if you choose to charge up front, that decision is permanent. You can never go back! So choose wisely.
Introduction The main text area of your profile is available for you to input a text description of who you are, what you do, and how your Patreon works. In short, this is the section that should tell people why they want to pledge.
First: Assume they have no idea who you are or what you do. Give them the basics to avoid confusion. Who are you? Where are you based? What kind of cosplay do you do? Why are you on Patreon? Keep it succinct, but informative. And it’s good to show a little personality!
Then, be clear and honest about what you’re planning on doing, and what the money is being used for. People want to know where their money is going — not only does it help them feel like they’re making an impact, but it also helps Patrons trust you. You wouldn’t want to look like you’re hiding anything — people are already sensitive about cosplay-related crowdfunding and what is and isn’t appropriate.
Video Make a video. This is not optional if you want a successful campaign. Some people want their info in text form, and others prefer it in video form. If you have both options available, you will canvas your potential Patrons most effectively.
11 The video should essentially reiterate everything that’s in your introduction. I would caution you against making it too specific (e.g., listing your rewards), because if you change your reward tiers at some point, you’ll have to update your video to match.
There are two keys to making a good, professional-looking video: It needs to be pretty, and it needs to be concise.
By “pretty,” I mean that your video needs to be appealing to look at. It should be well-lit (I recommend natural light, from a window, unless you have lighting equipment) and there shouldn’t be anything distracting in frame. An iPhone camera is plenty high quality enough to take a nice-looking video, if you don’t have a video camera available to you.
By “concise,” I mean that you absolutely cannot ramble. People have limited attention spans, so if you stumble through sentences, repeat yourself, or use “ums” and “likes,” you will lose your viewers. Personally, I keep videos concise by scripting them, and by editing to cut out silence or mistakes. (You can use Windows Movie Maker or iMovie for this; you don’t need anything fancy.) No matter your method, your video absolutely must be under four minutes, and there cannot be dead space, or people will close the window and you’ll have lost them.
Your energy and personality in the video make a difference, too! Emotion often doesn’t translate well to video, so push yourself to be more energetic and more charming than usual, to ensure that it comes through on camera. Smile, be excited, and it will spread to your viewers and make them excited, too.
Rewards During the “studying up” section, you should have created a list with every reward idea from other cosplayers’ campaigns that appealed to you. Unearth that list again, and read through it. If you have any reward ideas that aren’t on that list, add them now.
When you have the longest list you can manage, go through and do some cutting. Remember that these are things you’ll have to do every single month, so strike things that you will hate doing, or things that will take you an inordinate amount of time. Strike things your audience would not be interested in. Trim the list down so that the remaining options are all rewards you could see yourself actually offering.
Pro Tip Don’t worry too much about your rewards being unique. Common rewards are common because people want them. Give them what they want!
12
Now, it’s time to start putting together your reward tiers, pulling from that list. Start with the lowest amount, and build your way up to higher tiers.
Most cosplayers start with a $1 or $5 tier. Some only go up to $20 or $25, but others offer $100 or even $500 tiers.
I strongly recommend having a cheap tier and making that tier appealing. Your lowest tier can be a gateway tier to get interested people engaged with your Patreon so that you can later grow them into higher level pledges. Plus, while $1 might not seem like much, if you have twenty $1 pledges, that has an impact. Many cosplayers don’t include a reward with their lowest tier (for example, they include something like “my eternal thanks!”), but I personally recommend offering something of value to try and lure people in. Again, you don’t want people to feel like they’re donating — you want them to feel like they’re getting something for their money.
As for higher tiers, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with having them available, but it is unlikely that you will get many pledges over $20 or $30 until you have a more established Patreon, unless you have a high-demand reward in those slots. I would recommend starting with 3-5 tiers and expanding as needed once you get a feel for how your Patrons are engaging.
Choose how many tiers you want and at what prices, and then start sorting your rewards list into those tiers. Try to make tiers appealing, but remember not to stretch yourself too thin. There are two questions you should ask yourself about every reward: How long will it take, and how much will it cost? Remember that every single reward will have to be created every month, over and over. And of course, keep in mind that whatever you spend on rewards is coming out of your earnings. So if you offer prints as a $10 reward, and prints cost you $2 each, and it’s $5 to ship one internationally, suddenly you’re only earning $2 towards your actual cosplay from any international $10 pledges. (Minus taxes… which we’ll address later in this section!)
Pro Tip Don’t offer a Patreon reward without first asking yourself “how long will it take?” and “how much will it cost?” Don’t pay more for rewards than you’re earning!
13 If you’re stuck on ideas or torn between options, think about what your fans ask for, and what content performs best. If fans are always going nuts for videos, or WIP’s, or tutorials, make sure to factor those things into your rewards.
Also, think rationally about how much you would pay for the items you’re offering. If you wouldn’t pay that amount for the same rewards from another cosplayer, why should anyone pay it for rewards from you? Many Patrons will swear up and down that the rewards are incidental and they’re just here to support you, but while that may be true for some, the best way to draw Patrons in and keep them around is to make them feel like they’re getting something valuable for their money.
In the end, each reward tier should:
● Be easy to fulfill monthly, ● Cost less than 20% of the pledge amount, ● Appeal to your fan base, and ● Feel “worth” the pledge amount.
Don’t be satisfied with any tier that doesn’t meet all four of these criteria!
Milestone Goals The “milestone goals” feature allows you to set total pledge goals and show your Patrons what you’ll be able to do when you meet that goal. This is a great tool to encourage fans to pledge, and to encourage current pledges to increase their commitments.
These goals, like your rewards, need to be both appealing to your fans, and achievable for you. If your goal is only achievable because of the total pledge amount, make sure you’ve calculated that amount correctly. Remember, if your milestone goal will cost you $100 to execute, $100 worth of pledges will not enable that, because you still have to pay for rewards!
Some people use milestone goals to determine when they can produce a particularly expensive or difficult costume. Others may use it to trigger a more regular event, such as weekly YouTube videos, or an addition of a new rewards. Milestone goals are flexible, so get creative and find the best way to motivate your specific audience.
A word of caution: Milestone goals do not function without an advertising campaign backing them up. While people might notice the goals and it may even motivate one or two of them to pledge or increase their pledge, you won’t see any significant traction as a result of those goals unless you tell people about them. I recommend doing a quarterly or bi-annual milestone goal marketing “push” to keep your campaign growing, along the same lines as your Patreon launch marketing campaign.
14 Pro Tip Patreon’s milestone goals work, but not on their own! You need to back those goals up with a marketing campaign for them to perform.
Financial Info You don’t want to put this off, because you can’t get paid until you input all of your financial information! Luckily, it’s very easy. You’ll have to fill out a W-9 and set up your payment method. (If you’re outside of the US, you will have to do slightly different things. Don’t worry, Patreon walks you through it.)
US cosplayers, this seems as good a place as any to warn you about taxes: If you make more than $400 in a year, you will need to pay self-employment taxes, which are just under 15%. The level where you start having to also pay income taxes varies based on your age and filing status. If you also owe income tax, the amount you owe will obviously increase. (Make sure to track your expenses! You can write them off, and that will help you pay less in taxes.)
Most sources suggest that freelancers set aside 25-30% of their income for taxes. This means that if you’re earning $100 per cosplay on Patreon, only $70-75 is actually going into your pocket. Pull the cost of your rewards out of that and you might only be able to put half (or less!) of that income towards your cosplay.
If you’re outside of the US, you will have a different system in place for taxes on your Patreon income. Do some research on self employment taxes in your country beforehand to make sure you don’t get yourself into hot water!
Graphics It’s important to have lots of information available, but you don’t want your profile to be a giant textwall! Including neatly designed, cohesive graphics on your profile will help break up the text and make your profile look more professional and appealing. I recommend including graphics in your introduction, and in your reward tiers. If you want to go the extra mile, you can always include them in your milestone goals, too!
If you don’t have a branding scheme, now would be a great time to develop one. I highly recommend The Branded Solopreneur’s free Quick and Dirty Guide to Branding for this purpose. Having a branding scheme will help tie your Patreon graphics together — both to each other, and to your other platforms, so that it can all feel like part of the same whole.
15 If you don’t have personal skills or resources for graphics, I would recommend finding a friend or freelancer you can bribe or hire to help. Professional-looking graphics can go a long way!
Once-Over Now that you’ve completed all of the above, give your campaign the once-over to make sure everything looks right! This is a great time to send the link to some friends so they can give you feedback. Everything might seem clear to you, but having a second or third set of eyes to tell you if anything is confusing is always helpful.
When you’re sure that everything is ready to go, it’s time to put together your marketing plan! Chapter 3 Developing Your Marketing Plan If you don’t have any professional experience or education in marketing, this might sound like a scary step, but don’t worry — all “marketing” really means is spreading the word about your campaign. You want to make sure that all of your fans know you’re launching a Patreon, and you want them to be excited about it!
A marketing plan can be easily constructed in four parts: message, platforms, tools, and schedule.
Message
Step one of any marketing plan is the determine what message you’re going to be marketing to people. The clearer and more concise your message, the easier it will be to market. This is commonly referred to in marketing parlance as an “elevator pitch,” meaning that it could easily be delivered in the span of a ride in an elevator with someone you’re trying to convince. If you had an elevator ride with a fan, could you convince them to become a Patron before they reached their floor?
Your message should be the answer to the question, “Why should fans pledge to your Patreon?” Ask yourself what fans will get out of their pledge. Will it be entertaining? Educational? Funny? Some cosplayers might do best by engaging fans with messaging around the idea of a “secret club” or “VIP access” to behind-the-scenes content. Others might have fans who are interested in tutorials, walkthroughs, and how-to content.
Even though you will probably be offering a wide variety of rewards that fall into many different categories, you need to be able to distill the entire rewards package into a single concept. If most of your rewards fall into the category of behind-the-scenes access, then you can pitch your Patreon as “VIP, behind-the-scenes access to my entire cosplay process!” If
16 most of your rewards are about early access, you can pitch it as “be the first to know cosplay updates, and the first to see new work!” It may help to go through your list of rewards and categorize each reward, and then see which category your rewards primarily fall into. Then, use that answer to shape your message.
Pro Tip Find a one-sentence way to pitch your Patreon to fans. The internet has a short attention span, so your pitch must be fast & effective!
Of course, your message isn’t just about what you’re saying — it’s also about how you say it. I recommend using “we” and “us” language instead of “I” language so fans feel included, like you’re working together towards a goal. For example, I would say “If we can hit $100 by tonight…” instead of “If I can hit $100 by tonight…” This might sound inconsequential, but with the controversy around crowdfunding in the cosplay community, I think it’s important to do everything you can to avoid sounding entitled to your fans’ money. Platforms
Once you’re solid on your message, determine all of the places you’ll be spreading it. Make a list of every single way you communicate with your fans. Do you have a Twitter account? A Snapchat? YouTube? Email list? Jot down every possible avenue to communicate information. These platforms will make up the ground on which your marketing plan will be executed.
Each social platform has its own benefits, and reaches its own niche group of people. Your Instagram fans may be more visually-oriented than your Twitter fans; your Facebook fans may be older on average than your Snapchat fans; etc. Think about which segments of your audience are on which platforms, and why they might be following you there. For example, if your YouTube videos are mostly tutorial content, you will want to pitch the educational angle of your Patreon more heavily on YouTube.
Not every platform will make sense as a place to market your Patreon, but before you strike a platform off the list, do your best to get creative and try to think of a way that platform can be used. You want to make sure you’re doing everything you can to reach out to your existing audience.
17 Tools
Remember how I mentioned in the last chapter that some people prefer reading information, and others prefer video? That’s true for your advertising, too. You’ll want to make your message available in as many forms as you can, to reach the most people.
Video is a great way to deliver more information than people are usually interested in consuming as text, so you can use video to deliver long-form messages. It’s also a great showcase for your energy and excitement. If you can infect fans with that same energy, they will be more likely to become Patrons.
If you aren’t already blogging, it would probably be silly to start just for this purpose. But if you do maintain a blog, this is a great avenue to offer detailed information on your Patreon for people who are interested in learning more.
People don’t like reading things online, but they hate reading slightly less if the text is on a photo. (I know, it’s weird. Maybe it’s meme culture in action.) For this reason, using a photo of yourself in cosplay and adding text digitally, or using a photo of yourself holding up a handwritten sign can get more attention and communicate your message more effectively to your fans. You can also use non-photo images to convey your message, too: Graphics are a good way to catch the eye.
Try and get creative! You can use your profile picture or cover/banner images on some platforms, or create a progress tracker of some kind to show how close you are to your goal. The more fun and exciting you can make your launch, the more your fans will get excited and want to help. Schedule
It’s important to determine how long your launch period will be, so that you can pace your marketing efforts and track your progress towards your goal. Publicizing the end date of your launch period can help make your launch exciting for fans, too.
Step one of scheduling: Set a launch period. It is my opinion that 2-4 weeks is the ideal length for a launch period. Less than two weeks might make it difficult to get the information to your fans, but more than a month could start to annoy and drive away fans.
Once you have a launch period, you can schedule what goes on during that period. You don’t want to overload your followers with posts or information, but you always want to make sure that enough information is being reiterated that even if they only see one in five posts, they’ll still know what’s going on. To hit that sweet spot, it’s a good idea to make a promotion calendar and follow it throughout your launch period. For example, you could mark that every 18 Wednesday and Saturday, you’ll make an Instagram post about your Patreon. Maybe every Monday, you’ll update Facebook fans on your progress.
Also, if you set an overall goal for your launch period (which I strongly recommend), you can break that goal down into smaller parts on your promotions calendar to see where you need to be by the end of each week in order to stay on track. For example, if you want to hit $100 of pledges in your first month, you’ll need to be at $25 by the end of your first week, $50 by the end of your second week, and so on. That way, if you reach the end of week three and aren’t at $75 yet, you know that you have to put some extra elbow grease into that final week to meet your goal.
I also encourage you to tell your fans about your goal! This can not only motivate fans to contribute, but it can also remind fans that the “Patreon spam” period will have an endpoint, which can help prevent non-contributors from getting annoyed and unfollowing.
Pro Tip Letting your fans in on your Patreon goals makes them feel like part of the team. Everyone is more eager to help reach a shared goal.
To make fans care about your goal, I recommend offering an additional reward if your goal is met. For example, if you hit $100 (or $50, or $300, or whatever best suits your audience) by the end of your launch period, you will produce a Patron-exclusive photoshoot, or offer a buy-one-get-one print sale, or release a highly-requested YouTube video, etc. You could even set mini-goals like this with mini-rewards to keep your campaign moving throughout the launch period.
Whatever you choose, make sure the goal is challenging (it would suck to hit it early and lose that motivating factor!), but still achievable. The closer you get to the goal, the more motivated fans will be to contribute, because they will feel like they can actually make a difference. If your goal is set too high, it will weaken that effect. Executing your plan Once you have all four steps of your plan complete and are armed with a promotions calendar, you will know exactly what you need to prep before your launch. All of those videos and graphics and photos we talked about should be prepared beforehand, to save time and make the launch go as smoothly as possible. The more you can get out of the way up front, the fewer hiccups you are likely to encounter during your launch period.
19 Now, all that’s left is to actually launch! If you’ve followed all the steps I’ve outlined so far, the hardest part should already be behind you. All you have to do now is make your Patreon public and start following your marketing plan! Of course, you should always be on your toes and ready to make changes or updates to your plan as you move through your launch period. If you find yourself moving way faster or gaining much more momentum than you anticipated, you might have to come up with bigger goals on the spot, to keep growth moving! Alternatively, if your campaign is under-performing, you may need to adjust your expectations to be more realistic.
Either way, the key is staying involved with and on top of your campaign throughout your entire launch period.
Of course, you need to stay on top of your campaign after launch, too. Which brings us to the final chapter of this book, but the first chapter of your ongoing Patreon experience! Chapter 4 Preparing for the Future Since this is a “how to start a Patreon” book, not a “how to run a Patreon” book, I’m going to keep this section short, but I want to offer some basic guidelines on how to keep your momentum once your Patreon is off the ground.
The coolest thing about Patreon is also the scariest: It functions continually, day to day, month to month, and at any given time you can gain new Patrons… or lose them. This means that the level of engagement and energy you spent launching your Patreon needs to continue to be applied to maintaining it. Keep setting goals Continually having measurable goals ahead of you is hands down the best and easiest way to keep yourself on track and determine whether or not you’re doing well. Once your Patreon launch period is over and you have a good idea of how much interest there is, set goals for where you want to be in three months, six months, and a year. Write these goals down, and then start working on strategies to meet them.
Take the number you wrote down for three months from now, and do the math: How many new pledges is that per month? Per week? How can you stay on track for those goals without alienating your audience or constantly spamming your fans with Patreon advertising?
Milestone goals are Patreon’s built-in feature to keep your campaign growing and moving, so take advantage of that. Schedule your milestone goals to fit with your goals for the coming
20 year, and figure out what you’re going to do to achieve them. My recommendation is to create a marketing plan for each milestone goal the same way you did for your initial launch.
Of course, setting goals doesn’t always mean meeting goals. It’s important to also have a plan in place for what to do if you’re falling behind and failing to meet your goals. That plan might include restructuring your Patreon, updating your goals, changing the way you market, or any other number of things. You don’t need to dedicate a ton of time to this, but you should have a course of action to refer to in case it happens. Stay on your toes Another thing you should schedule is regular self-evaluations and updates to the way your Patreon is run. Never assume that what’s working now will work forever. Always be prepared to update and improve, and keep an open line of communication with your Patrons for this purpose.
I recommend bi-annual or annual evaluations of how your Patreon is going. I find that it can be effective to deliver a Patron satisfaction survey to your existing Patrons to see what they’re liking, what they’d like to see changed, and where they would like to see you grow.
Patreon is built to be flexible, so don’t be afraid to overhaul if something isn’t working. As long as you’re straightforward with your Patrons about what changes you’re making, they have complete freedom to stop pledging if they are unhappy with the direction you’re moving in.
Ultimately, Patreon is whatever you want it to be. Take it seriously, communicate with your fans, and always be looking for areas of improvement, and you will run a successful cosplay Patreon campaign.
Good luck!
21 About the Author Ginny Di is a professional cosplayer with a passion for encouraging cooperation in the cosplay community. She’s a total nerd about marketing and loves spreadsheets and analytics. She manages the Cosplay Marketing group on Facebook, which is always open to new members.
If you have any questions about the contents of this book, she would love to hear from you.
Find Her Online www.patreon.com/ginnydi www.ginnydi.com [email protected]
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