4 tips for conversion from musician Megan Slankard

My name is Megan Slankard, my pronouns are she/her. I’m a full time touring and recording musician based here in San Francisco. Because I also struggle with (and enjoy) rampant ADHD, I joined Patreon in 2014 as a way to keep myself accountable by making sure creativity continued to be a priority in my job.

Before 2020, I was primarily a full-time touring indie musician. Pre-pandemic, the way I introduced my audience to Patreon was at my live shows. It was easy for me to chat with people in the flesh, share my enthusiasm, and even show, in real-time with my music, why Patreon was so cool. 

However, just like many creators, the way I do my job now has changed a lot in the last four years. I’ve been doing many fewer in-person events, and have since pivoted my focus to connecting with my listeners online. This also means I’ve had to start thinking about new ways to convert my audience into Patrons. 

Here are four things that have been working for me since:

Reaching my audience where they are

Finding the places I can engage with my audience as directly as possible outside of Patreon. 

Unlike social media, these are the places that I am more likely to already have someone’s full attention. For me these are: my email list and newsletters, my monthly livestreams, blog posts, Discord channel, and Facebook group. 

Here's a callout in my newsletter for subscribers to join me on Patreon. 

Growing my free membership

Asking my focused audience to consider becoming a free member (and giving them a reason to sign up.)

I’ve been hearing from fellow creators about how they have a better conversion/upgrade rate when their audience is already familiar with the Patreon platform. And since people are busy, and I’m asking them to sign up for yet another online profile, I want my listeners to feel excited about it. What am I offering? Behind the scenes looks? Sneak peeks? Or do I just make it a fun community hang space? I find the more I engage - even if it’s just prompts in the chat (“Hey all, here’s a picture of my cat. What are you up to today?”), the more I get out of it. I’ve also opened up my Patreon “Tea Time” livestream to my free members (per the suggestion of my paying members!) so they get a real sense of the fun we have on the platform.

I want the free members to get a taste of what they can expect if they upgrade, but not give everything away. 

Special offers

I love special offer campaigns, because they give me a chance to get really creative, think outside the box, and experiment with ways to engage with my audience during a specific period of time. 

In my experience, special offers work really well because people are busy, and if you give them a deadline, it can help people go from “I’ve been meaning to do that!” to “let me do that now!”

I try to do one or two offers a year, and I’ve offered things like exclusive patron badges, postcard poems, personal thank-yous in three-part-harmony, and I even did an interpretive-dance “thank you” video campaign that was simultaneously my most successful and most embarrassing to date.

Brainstorming with fellow artists

Never underestimate the power of collaboration! Every time I chat with fellow creators, over zoom, over coffee, or at a creator event, I always walk away feeling inspired. Not only do I get new ideas to try, but I feel motivated to try them. 

I will often find myself trying to make something “perfect” before I put it out there for others to see. I can use, “It’s not ready yet” as an excuse for dragging my feet, or because I’m afraid it will “fail”, or even just because I’m afraid of what my audience will think.

However, I also personally see the most growth and engagement overall when I just TRY things. Sometimes things work better than other times, but they always work more than doing nothing at all. 

So with that in mind, I challenge us all to do that thing we’ve been sitting on, putting off, and wanting to try. We got this.