The Power of Customized Memberships

ASMRxBABEE is a beauty and ASMR creator on YouTube and TikTok. In this article, she shares her experience making the switch from Patreon to Fourthwall, lays out her strategy for pricing and tiers, and offers advice for creators looking to launch or grow their own memberships.

What made you decide to transition your memberships to Fourthwall?

I had been doing Patreon for a few years but felt like the platform itself was getting just a bit stale and I wanted to look into re-launching and re-branding something new. I had already worked with Fourthwall on my merch and really loved the way the homepage was super customized to fit in with my brand & image. I decided to make the transition over and it's been extremely successful.

How did you promote your membership offering to your community?

I did an announcement video and gave a preview of the new members-only site with content that I had pre-loaded. I talked about the ways in which I altered the tiers I previously had on Patreon to add more value (adding monthly vlogs, livestreams, etc.) I also do a promotion where I do a bonus weekly video on YouTube (on top of my regular videos, which are published once per week) for every 50 members that sign up. This has really helped me to build an audience on my website, as it's a win/win for everyone and gets me to post more.

How many tiers do you have? What perks do you offer?

I offer four tiers:

Basic ($3/mo)

I wanted to make a very affordable tier for those that just wanted to support or "tip" me – these members have access to photos, one archived Patreon video per month (I shut down my Patreon but some people still wanted access to that content) and my monthly members-only livestream.

Babe ($6/mo)

This tier includes everything in the Basic tier, but also gives subscribers 3 additional videos per month. This and my VIP tier are my "middle" tiers and the most popular. I had previously offered this tier for $5/mo on Patreon and I did want to raise the price slightly since members were getting more value with the monthly livestream, but at the same time I lowered the price of the next tier up by $1 as well. This way things were balanced and more people also now considered the VIP tier as an option.

VIP ($9/mo)

These members get all the perks from the lower tiers, plus three bonus audio posts per month. On Patreon, I averaged 600-650 members per month. Usually about 100 of those were in my VIP tier ($10 at the time). Now I have about 375 members and 110 of them are in this tier. The ratio has jumped because of the value added and the price adjustments.

All-Access ($11/mo)

This tier gets you all the other perks plus a monthly ~20 minute vlog. This is my "super fan" tier for those that not only want my ASMR, but want to have more inside access to what I’m doing day to day. I spend a lot of time making these vlogs really fun for these members so they can feel like they're hanging out with me and really are a part of my friend group. I originally had this priced at $13, but after some time at that price point, I lowered it to $11 to be more in line with my other prices, and that really shot up the numbers. There are 101 people currently in this tier, which I'm very happy with.

What advice do you have for other creators considering launching memberships, or those who have already launched and are looking to grow their subscriber base?

Do your research – Taking the time to understand who your demographic is and what rewards they will find value in will make or break your success. It’s ok to find inspiration from other creators, but you shouldn’t simply mimic their tiers and rewards because the right strategy could be totally different for your audience.

Talk about it on your channel – I mention my site in the first 10 seconds of every video I post on YouTube. I make Instagram stories featuring recent content I've posted on my site. Leaving the link in your description box is not enough. You need to make sure that all of your subscribers (and anyone new coming in) know that you have this special offering of additional content.

Post consistently and often – This might be the most important! People are paying for this service. They should get what they pay for. And if they don't, they won't come back. Make sure you're not biting off more than you can chew and that every piece of content you promise is actually doable and sustainable for you in the long term.

Be patient – I had 650 active members on Patreon at any time but that took years to build up because I had to launch, market it, then prove the value of the content to existing users. I launched my Fourthwall on November 1, 2022 and now on March 29, 2023, I have 372 subscribers. It takes time. You have to be committed and hang in for the long haul. Once you've built up that audience of your most dedicated fans, it's so fun and rewarding to interact with them!