How Patreon Solved Its Onboarding Problem and Doubled Activation Rates
Patreon, an online platform that allows creators to manage patron subscription services, faced a critical challenge: user drop-offs during the sign-up process. Potential creators were abandoning their onboarding journey, leading to missed opportunities for growth.
However, by addressing a single, critical question, Patreon was able to double their engagement and activation rates. Here’s how they turned things around.
The Key Insight: Understanding Creator Needs
Patreon asked a pivotal question to their teams across sales, community, and customer service:
“What are the most common issues we repeatedly help creators with?”
By identifying recurring pain points, they gained valuable insights into the barriers creators faced. These insights were then transformed into actionable strategies.
Top Pain Points and Solutions
- Creating a High-Quality Patreon Page
- Many creators struggled with how to make a good Patreon page that would attract patrons.
- Solution: Provide step-by-step guides and examples of successful pages to inspire and educate creators.
- Overcoming Writer’s Block
- Creators often faced writer’s block or struggled with generating content ideas.
- Solution: Share stories of how others in similar fields overcame creative challenges, offering practical tips and inspiration.
- Highlighting Patreon’s Low Fees
- With market fees ranging from 30% to 50%, creators were pleasantly surprised by Patreon’s low 5% cut.
- Solution: Emphasize this competitive advantage to build trust and excitement among new users.
- Avoiding Desperation in Appeals for Support
- Many creators feared coming across as begging or pleading for financial backing.
- Solution: Showcase examples of creators who successfully engaged their audience without appearing desperate, offering templates and scripts.
- Improving the WYSIWYG Editor
- High-earning creators found Patreon’s WYSIWYG editor limiting, as it made their campaigns look amateurish.
- Solution: Introduce a professional backend tool that allowed creators to customize their campaigns with precision, meeting their expectations for quality.
Implementing the Insights
Patreon didn’t stop at identifying these pain points. They applied the insights across their entire onboarding funnel, from educational content to platform improvements. By directly addressing the creators’ needs, they reduced friction and empowered users to succeed on the platform.
Results: Doubling Activation Rates
- By implementing these insights, Patreon doubled their activation rate.
- The onboarding process became more engaging and tailored to creators’ specific challenges, leading to increased satisfaction and retention.
Lessons for Other Platforms
- Ask the Right Questions
- Dive deep into user challenges by querying your support, sales, and community teams to uncover recurring issues.
- Provide Tailored Solutions
- Offer specific, actionable advice and tools to address your users’ pain points.
- Iterate Based on Feedback
- Continuously refine your product and onboarding process to meet the evolving needs of your users.
Final Takeaway
Patreon’s success highlights the power of user-centric design and targeted problem-solving. By understanding and addressing the real challenges faced by their creators, they not only increased activation rates but also strengthened their relationship with their user base. This approach serves as a blueprint for any platform looking to improve onboarding and grow its community.