by If you are a subscription box owner and you want to bring in more sales and profit without any additional marketing spend then this post will help you. At BusterBox we quickly identified the need to earn more money from each subscriber that signs up to our box. Growing a subscriber base is expensive, so we do everything in our power to reduce the acquisition cost and maximize our CLTV so we earn more profit. A great way of doing this is by selling our subscribers other products.
I think this is something that all subscription box entrepreneurs should be doing in their business. Think about it logically for a second? You are building an expensive database of highly targeted people in a specific niche. This means you will be able to understand exactly what their needs and wants are and should be able to come up with a list of other products that they will buy. Now, this sounds very straight forward, but actually requires a good bit of knowledge and planning to accomplish.
The first thing you need to figure out is what other products are your customers actually buying. The best way to figure this out is actually really simple. All you have to do is ask them. Yep, send out a survey and ask your customers to fill it out and start gathering some data. I recommend getting as many surveys filled out as possible. At least 500 should do the job and allow you to build up an accurate picture of what your customers are looking for. You could run a competition each month to entice new customers to fill out the survey e.g. Give the customers a chance to win a free box by filling out the survey. If you push this for a couple of months I am sure you will get lots of survey responses and will know exactly what to sell.
Ok so, you have gathered your data and you now know what other products you are going to sell. The next step is figuring out how you’re going to sell these products effectively to ensure you get the biggest return for your effort.
Introducing the 14-day hit sequence
What is the 14-day hit sequence? The 14-day hit sequence is an automated series of emails, SMS messages and post-purchase retargeting which is designed to introduce your customers to a range of new products and boost your profits at the same time. We have done a lot of testing in BusterBox and through trial and error, we discovered one of the best times to advertise to a customer is just after they have signed up. We have looked at this in detail and we discovered this is one of the times they are most responsive. So this is exactly when the hit sequence should begin. At this point, the customer has qualified themself and a percentage of them will be happy to purchase more products from you.
When Somebody signs up to us 3 things will happen.
1. The first sales email will be sent automatically.
The customer will automatically be added to an email automation and the first sales email will be sent out to them. The first sales email will welcome them to your box and tell them that all new customers are getting an exclusive discount to this unbelievable complimentary product. For best results set a time limit on how long the discount lasts for. You should also go out of your way to make the customer feel like this is an exclusive reward for signing up for your subscription. If you can achieve that you can be sure it will increase your conversions.
2. An SMS will automatically be sent to the customer.
We have found SMS messages to be way more effective than email. This is simply down to the fact that nowadays email is highly saturated and open rates are always getting hammered. SMS is a relatively new communication channel for company’s and consumers seem to respond very well to it. We have found our SMS open rates to be over 90%. Obviously, you have to pay for SMS while email is completely free. That is why you need to ensure you have a product that actually sells and you are getting a decent ROI otherwise you could be down money pretty quickly. The SMS message will be short and snappy and will follow the same lines as the email. Basically, you will thank the customer for signing up to your box and let them know they have unlocked a discount on a very popular product. You will then have a link sending the customer over to the product page.
3. Post-Purchase Retargeting
The final thing which will happen after a customer signs up is one of the most important things. The customer will automatically be added into a post-purchase retargeting sequence on Facebook and they will start seeing ads for some of our complementary products. The messaging on these ads will be along the exact same lines as the email and the SMS. I am not getting into a step by step guide on how to set up post-purchase retargeting now as that will be a gigantic, post but if enough people think it would be helpful I have no problem writing a guide. I like to bring the customers through a post-purchase retargeting sequence and show them a variety of different products and ads over the 14 days to ensure we get the most sales. E.G the ads and products change frequently for maximum effect.
What happens now?
Now you continue emailing and retargeting the customer over the next 14 days with a variety of different creatives, offers and products. All of this can be set up automatically using email automation and retargeting. You will need to do a good bit of testing at the start to figure out what actually converts. Once you know what works you can set and forget this and watch as your profits and sales increase dramatically. Obviously, that isn’t the end of the story and after the 14 days, you should still email your customers regularly giving them value and introducing them to other offers you have.
What products should I sell?
You will notice that I didn’t mention the products we sell in this article. The reason why I didn’t mention them is because they aren’t relevant. Your business will be completely different to mine, so you need to figure that information out on your own using the approach I mentioned at the start of the article. Try to include at least one high ticket item as part of your hit sequence. You will be surprised at the number of people who go for it. It is also a good idea to include a higher-priced subscription if possible. Remember your website should be as simple as possible on the front end to ensure maximum conversions. Once you have a customer in your system, though you can really mix things up on the back end to earn more money.
I hope you found this article helpful. If you have any questions about anything I covered or subscription in general just drop a comment below and I will get back to you.
