I am going to give you a piece of advice that will drastically improve your chances of making your Subscription Box A Success…
This is the advice.
“Marketing Your Subscription Box Is More Important Than The Subscription Box Itself”
This is a mindset shift that usually separates the Subscription Boxes that blow up and the ones that really struggle.
No, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about product quality. (or building community or customer service or a million other things)
Product quality is extremely important, and this goes without saying.
You need to have a high-quality box that is priced right for your target demographic.
If you are sending out boxes of junk and offer a poor customer experience, you won’t last in this industry very long (As your churn rate will be through the roof, and you will get a lot of bad reviews)
The point I am trying to make, though, is this.
It does not make a difference how good your box is if nobody knows about it and nobody signs up.
Let me give you an example.
We have generated over $10 million dollars of sales in BusterBox and have acquired thousands of customers at this stage (This is in a very small market compared to the US)
If you do your research, you will see there are hundreds of Dog Subscription Box companies out there.
There are some big exceptions that have done very well, but the majority of them never get past a few hundred subs max.
Why is this the case?
Well, it’s pretty simple.
The founders of those companies never figured out how to acquire customers on a big enough scale to ever grow their business.
A lot of these dog boxes will have similar quality toys and treats.
A lot of them will also offer world-class customer service.
All of those things are very important, but if you don’t know how to get customers, you will never get anywhere.
This isn’t only the case with dog subscription boxes, though. If you look into the majority of subscription box niches, you will see the same things happening over and over again.
There may be three similar boxes in the beauty niche.
One of them has 65 subs and can’t grow any further.
Another one has 142 subs after six years and can’t pay themselves from their business.
And the final one has thousands of subs, and the founders have a very nice life.
The difference is that the founders of the beauty box that blew up took their marketing very seriously and made it a priority.
The money and success in this business model are in the execution.
You will become successful when you figure out how to acquire customers in a profitable, repeatedly and scalable manner. (Up until that point, not much else will move the needle in your business)
It really doesn’t matter how many hours you are working or what products you are putting in your box, or what content you are posting on social media.
If you can’t acquire customers, you will not get the success you deserve.
I don’t mean to offend anybody with this post, but it is simply the truth.
I see so many different boxes struggling to get traction, and its nothing to do with the box.
The box is normally great.
It’s just that the founder hasn’t figured out marketing yet.
To put it in the simplest way possible, success is found when you can acquire enough customers for a cost that makes financial sense for your business.
We are in the marketing and fulfilment business.
Everything else doesn’t achieve much if these things aren’t working correctly.
My advice to you, if you’re struggling, is that you need to take your marketing very seriously.
Do not stop until you have found a way to get customers signed up for a cost that makes sense.
Then when you have this figured out, do more of it.
And more of it
And more of it
And don’t stop until you have increased it to such a level that your business and your life change for the better.
You should certainly be open to testing new channels, but only when the time is right.
Don’t get distracted by shiny objects and jump between things too early.
Growing a subscription box business is boring. It’s just a case of repeating what’s working over and over again.
If you haven’t found what works for you yet, then you need to take this seriously and find it.
It may be Facebook ads. It could be TT. It could be Google; It could be influencers on a big scale.
Whatever that thing is, find it and do a lot of it.
Don’t get yourself stuck in the trap. where you think working in your business and doing all the admin and daily tasks is going to bring you success because it won’t.
In the early days of BusterBox, Myself and my business partner worked 60 days in a row without taking a single day off. (These were long days as well)
At the time, it felt like we were really busy, and we were doing all this great work to push the business forward.
By the end of the 60 days, we took a look at our subscriber numbers, and we were in the exact same position.
All the work we did was busybody work that never moved the needle forward in the business, and most of it was probably a waste of time.
The point I am making is.
It does not matter how many hours you are working or how busy you are if the work you are doing does not move the needle.
The majority of the time, it’s the marketing that moves the needle, and that is what your primary focus should be.
Remember
“Marketing Your Subscription Box Is More Important Than The Subscription Box Itself”
Change your mindset and start thinking like this and watch what happens to your business. (It will blow up)
I hope you found this article helpful. If you have any questions about marketing or running a subscription box business, just let me know. Have a wonderful day.