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All About Subscriptions in PatronManager: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1199216
Offering subscriptions to your season's events is a great way to garner and retain loyal, engaged patrons.
In PatronManager, a subscription is a package of multiple individual events in a season. PatronManager provides the tools you need to create, sell and track your subscription packages.
In this article, we'll introduce you to the wonderful world of subscriptions and answer the following:
- How are subscriptions structured in PatronManager?
- What types of subscriptions can I build in PatronManager?
- How does selling subscriptions work?
- How do subscription renewals work?
- How do I report on subscriptions?
- How do I build subscription packages?
- What happens next year when I want to renew subscribers?
Ready? Let's find out more.
If you're not familiar with how Event Instances or Allocations work in PatronManager, read "All About Events" first.
How are subscriptions structured in PatronManager?
Subscriptions are structured very similarly to your other Ticketable Events. The biggest difference is how your Subscriptions are connected to all of the Ticketable Events that make up that subscription package.
The diagram below shows a Fixed subscription with two subscription packages - one for Friday evening, and one for the Sunday matinee.
This example shows the pricing and linked Event Instance price levels for the Orchestra Allocation on Friday and the Balcony Allocation on Sunday. The subscription price is the sum of the linked Event Instance price levels.
Let's take a peek at how it all works behind the scenes.
Build your upcoming season's events and instances
Before you can build a subscription, you need to first build your Ticketable Events and Event Instances for the individual shows in your season.
While you do, you’ll include Subscription Price Levels - these make up your subscription package later.
Notice that the Subscription Price Levels have a Visibility of "Subscription," which is important to fulfill your subscriptions properly later!
Build your subscription packages
Once you're done building the Ticketable Events and Instances, you'll set up your subscription packages.
In this example, we've built a Subscription Ticketable Event, 2020-21 Subscription, with two Fixed Subscription packages, or Subscription Event Instances, - one for Friday performances, and one for Sunday performances.
Link Event Instance Price Levels
As we can see, the Subscription Price Level in the Premium Orchestra Allocation on our Friday 5 Show package is currently $0.
We’ve built price levels in our Subscription Event and corresponding price levels in our retail Ticketable Events, so now we just need to connect the two.
The retail Price Levels of the performances we want to include in the package will add up to the subscription total.
Looking for some suggestions on subscription pricing? We've got you covered with some best practices.
Wahoo - your package has goodies (performances!) in it
Our Premium Orchestra Subscription Price Level now shows the sum of the Event Instance Price Levels we linked to it.
What types of subscriptions can I build in PatronManager?
PatronManager offers three types of subscriptions that function differently to suit your subscription needs:
- Fixed: These subscriptions have a fixed set of events associated with them. For example, the Saturday Classics Series subscription includes all the Saturday performances in the season and is a different package from the Sunday Classics Series.
- Choose Your Own (CYO): With this subscription type, you'll create a list of eligible performances and decide the number of performances required to purchase the package. Patrons will then build their own package by making selections from that list. The price points can be as flexible as you want, and the package cost can differ depending on a patron's performance choices.
- Pick Later/Flex Pass: This type allows patrons to pay for a subscription and pick their events later. They contain vouchers the patron can redeem over the phone when they're ready.
To find out more about subscription types, check out our descriptions and flowchart here.
How does selling subscriptions work?
You can sell subscriptions both online and through the box office, but subscribers can't choose their seats immediately online. All of our subscription types must be fulfilled.
Fulfillment determines how you choose seats for your subscribers, and, depending on the type of subscription, how you choose the individual performances they'll attend.
Learn more about how to sell and fulfill a subscription here.
You also have the option to turn on Pick Your Own Seat (PYOS) Subscriptions to allow your patrons to choose their seats online when they purchase Fixed or Choose Your Own subscriptions.
Learn more about PYOS Subscriptions here.
How do I report on Subscriptions?
Good question! We always recommend starting with Report Finder in the Client Community Community Forum for all your reporting needs. PatronManager also comes with some useful reports right out of the box, and we also have resources on how to build your own reports. To learn more, check out these help articles:
How do I build subscription packages?
A Subscription package comprises the events that are part of it. In the image below, this 2020 Choose Your Own Subscription 3-show package contains tickets to three performances, and the subscription price is the sum of each individual ticket price.
We've got some great resources to help you start building your subscriptions! First, find out which subscription types you want to build.
Once you've established which subscription types you'll build, you can learn how to build those subscription packages here:
What happens next year when I want to renew subscribers?
Once the time rolls around to renew your subscribers for next season, you'll begin the subscription renewal process!
The first step will always be to build your upcoming season's events, and then how you renew your patrons will depend on a few factors.
If you're selling Fixed Subscriptions, you'll be able to use the Subscription Renewal Tool to create Pending Renewal orders for your subscribers. To get started with the Subscription Renewal Tool, check out this article, which is the first step to using the Subscription Renewal Tool.
If you're selling Choose Your Own (CYO) or Pick Later (Flex Pass) Subscriptions, you won't be able to use the Subscription Renewal Tool to renew your subscribers. We have best practices on renewing these types of subscriptions available for you here.