• Niching Down Your Ideal Customer Can Improve Your Visibility
    Jul 24 2024
    “20% of your customer base generates 80% of your revenue.” - Sarah Williams Identifying your ideal customer is not something you do once. It’s something you need to tweak and get clearer about in your business on a daily basis. In this episode, I’m talking about how to figure out who the 20% of your customers are who are responsible for 80% of your revenue and why you should focus all of your efforts on them. Oh… and one other thing. Stop trying to please everyone! When you try to please everyone, you dilute your focus. Instead of spending your time and energy on what you know works for your most loyal customers - the ones who buy from you every day - you spend time, energy, and money trying to satisfy one-off requests from customers who are not your ideal person. If you’re just getting started and even if you’ve been in business for a while, you might have an idea of who your ideal customer is, but you’re probably not sure. Start by asking yourself questions about your ideal customer and get as specific as possible with your answers. Who is your ideal customer? Start with the basics. Where does your ideal customer live? What are your ideal customer’s interests? What are your ideal customer’s challenges or pain points? Nail down the basics and then get more specific. Is your ideal customer “a mom” or “a mom of preschoolers who works outside the home and wants to provide quick, easy, and healthy meals to her family?” It is much easier for me to speak to “a mom” when I know who she is and what her pain points are! Once you get a good picture of who your ideal customer is, it’s time to talk about how to get them into your world and build the know-like-trust factor that makes them want to buy from you. Get to know your ideal customer and let them get to know you by: Hanging out in common Facebook groups offering advice and engaging in conversations. Speak their language in your posts, videos, and emails. Target their interests in your social media advertising. Serve before you sell. This is SO important. Provide value without asking for money. This month inside Launch Your Box, we’re talking all about SEO and how it can help your subscription box business grow. The purpose of SEO is to help the right people find you online. The more we can niche down, the more completely we define who our ideal customer is, the better we can be at messaging, copy, and SEO. Join me for this episode as I talk about how and why niching down your ideal customer can improve your visibility and increase your revenue! Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join the waitlist today!
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    29 m
  • Building a Lead Magnet Funnel
    Jul 17 2024
    In this episode, I’m going deeper into lead magnets and showing you how to build a lead magnet funnel. Top of the funnel -this is the largest part of the funnel. Your goal is to collect as many leads as possible. Start with a free offer, giving your audience something of value. Freebie or low-dollar lead magnet. Ads to targeted interests going to cold and warm audiences. Make sure your lead magnet is niched down so you don’t waste time and money on unqualified leads. The goal is to capture leads and get them on your email list. Opt-in -the lead has given you their email and now they move to the middle of the funnel. When someone submits their email address, they are sent to a thank you page. Include an upsell offer along with the link to get their freebie. This upsell should be an inexpensive offer that gives them even more value than the freebie. The goal at this stage in the funnel is to get them to make a purchase. Once someone has reached the middle of your funnel, they’ve received value from you, they’ve made a small purchase, and now the goal shifts to getting them to purchase your main offer. For subscription box owners, this means our recurring revenue product, our subscription boxes. Now it’s time to put email marketing to work for you. Set up an email automation that is kicked off when someone opts in. Keep it simple or more detailed - the choice is yours. Simple sequence - everyone gets the same sequence with all roads leading to becoming a subscriber. Detailed sequence - create two sequences - one for those who purchased the upsell and one for those who did not. Let’s walk through a simple email sequence. Email #1 - deliver the freebie and introduce your subscription box. Email #2 - remind them to download the freebie and share the “why” behind your box with them. Email #3 - is all about the box. Share social proof and pictures of past boxes. You can extend this sequence to five emails by including an email that offers a low dollar offer and adding an email with an additional offer to join at the end. If someone subscribes at any point during this email flow, the sequence stops and they’ll continue to get nurtured in your weekly email campaigns. You need to do FIVE things to create an effective lead magnet funnel. Create the lead magnet. Create images for social media and ads. Create two landing pages - one for the opt-in and one for the thank you/upsell page. Create an embed form for the opt-in. Write your emails and set up the sequences. Join me for this episode as I talk about the importance of having lead magnets continuously bringing leads into your business and the steps you need to take to build out a lead magnet funnel. Important Links: 6 in 60 Workshop Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join Launch Your Box today!
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    27 m
  • 165: Quit Being Extreme & Start Being Consistent with Cotton Chaos
    Jul 10 2024
    Two busy moms with six kids between them became best friends, bought a Cricut machine to start making custom t-shirts, and now have more than 800 monthly subscribers to their T-Shirt Club. Of course, there’s a little more to the story than that! If you’re feeling stuck in your subscription box journey, this episode will inspire you. Andrea and Whitney became friends in 2018, decided they needed a hobby and bought that Cricut machine, and in 2019, Cotton Chaos was born. The business was a side hustle as both women were still working full-time jobs and doing all the things moms of three busy kids do. There were a LOT of late nights. Whitney and Andrea saw an opportunity to take things to the next level when a local screen printing company became available. They bought the company and started selling to local and online customers. Before long, they decided to start a subscription box, launching in January of 2021. Their goal for the launch was 30 subscribers and they actually got 50! This launch was before they found me and Launch Your Box and, in their words, they “did it all wrong.” When Andrea and Whitney joined Launch Your Box, they also joined Scale Your Box, my higher-level membership for subscription box owners who want to scale. Their goal was to get to 100 subscribers. By following what they learned inside Scale Your Box, they quickly reached 100 subscribers. Their next milestone was 300 subscribers which they reached during their next launch. The next year brought another goal and another launch - 500 subscribers. How did they do it? How did they grow so quickly? They followed the plan. They implemented what they learned as they went. They stayed consistent. This rapid growth did come with challenges. Namely cash flow. When you grow really quickly and need to buy more and more product, there can come a point where you need to slow down to let your profit catch up. Andrea and Whitney decided to take this time to focus on their current subscribers. I call it “loving on them.” They deepened connections with their subscribers, turning them into loyal, raving fans. They found that those current subscribers started buying more one-off products - every week! So even though they weren’t launching to gain more subscribers, they were seeing growth in non-subscription sales from that same group! They also implemented even more of what they learned in Scale Your Box. They focused on using lead magnets to build their email list and running ads consistently. This past spring, Andrea and Whitney were ready to launch again. And all their audience-building efforts meant they had new people to launch to! They followed the 5-day launch plan I teach inside Launch Your Box and they brought in new affiliates. So how did the launch go? It was their biggest one yet, bringing them over the 800 subscriber mark! And they know that by following the launch plan the way they did, they have everything they need to rinse and repeat for the next launch! You don’t need to know what your business will look like in 5 years. Just concentrate on what’s the next thing and what’s one step you can take to make it happen. That’s what Andrea and Whitney have done and continue to do. And it’s how you’ll make progress toward reaching - and surpassing - your subscription box goals. Join me for this episode and learn how this duo went from 50 to more than 800 subscribers by being themselves, creating a plan, and never giving up… even when things got hard. Get ready to be inspired! Find and follow Cotton Chaos: Cotton Chaos on Facebook Cotton Chaos on Instagram Cotton Chaos Website Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join today!
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    23 m
  • 164: Baking Their Way to a Subscription Box Business
    Jul 3 2024
    Last week I hosted our annual Subscription Box Week and it was so so good! Part of the week features interviews with subscription box owners who have various types and sizes of businesses. This year, I interviewed 4 subscription box owners at once - all of whom have some type of bakery box. Each serves a different niche and each followed a different journey. All are SO inspiring! Lauren is the “celebrity” of the group! You might have seen her on Food Network’s Christmas Cookie Challenge. Lauren went from being a mom and art teacher who loved to bake cookies to a full-time entrepreneur who designs and produces her own cookie cutters, an online and in-person cookie decorating instructor, and a successful subscription box owner. Lauren’s family is her why. She wanted to grow her business to help put her two sons through college. She was proud to tell us they will both be able to graduate debt-free, thanks in large part to Lauren’s subscription box business! Jonica owns a bakery and a successful subscription box business, and coaches people who want to open bakeries. In addition to serving lunch and baked goods to her local community, Jonica makes the MOST delicious treats and sends them across the country every month. Jonica has taken all the lessons she learned through her business journey - opening and closing two other bakeries - and poured them into doing things the right way. The way that serves both her customers and Jonica and her family. After leaving a successful bakery in North Carolina to move “back home” to Iowa after her husband’s military retirement, Kimberly started selling her baked goods again. She was inspired by how much her former customers missed her baked goods and got creative. Jenny is not a baker, but she is a passionate advocate for the gluten-free community and served them for many years through her blog, Good For You Gluten Free. When changes in the Google algorithm had a severely negative impact on her traffic - and her income - Jenny pivoted. She turned her love for finding new gluten-free products and vendors into a subscription box. Jenny launched earlier this year and she sold out the 125 slots she had available in hours. Jenny is growing as fast as she can manage, selling out every month, and looks forward to even more growth once she moves her business out of the basement and into a space of its own. These four amazing businesswomen shared advice with people who are thinking about starting a subscription box. Their message? Just start. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Serve your audience - give them what they need and what they want. Join me for this episode and get inspired by four women who turned their passion for food and serving others into successful subscription box businesses. Find and follow Jonica: Jonica’s Bakery on Facebook Jonica’s Baker on Instagram Jonica’s Bakery Website Episode 59 of the Launch Your Box Podcast Find and follow Lauren: The Cheerful Baker on Facebook The Cheerful Baker on Instagram The Cheerful Baker Website Episode 103 of the Launch Your Box Podcast Find and follow Kimberly: Frosted Cakery on Facebook Frosted Cakery on Instagram Get Biscotti Website Episode 122 of the Launch Your Box Podcast Find and follow Jenny: Love Me Gluten Free on Facebook Love Me Gluten Free Instagram Love Me Gluten Free Website Good for You Gluten Free Website Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. J
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    1 h
  • Creating a One-Thing of the Month Subscription
    Jun 26 2024
    Have you considered starting with a one-thing of the month subscription? You should. Why do I say that? Well, my one-thing of the month subscription is easier to manage and more profitable than my fully curated subscription box. And my one-thing of the month subscription has almost double the number of subscribers as my larger, more expensive box. When people start thinking about starting a subscription box, they think about a fully curated box. They dream about the experience they’ll provide their subscribers with all the little touches and a box filled with items that complement each other. But soon, overwhelm sets in. Creating that fully curated experience with all the little touches takes a LOT of work. And all that work and all that overwhelm can turn into not making progress. Instead of starting with a fully curated box, think about starting with one thing. There are several benefits to starting a one-thing of the month subscription. A one-thing of the month subscription: Has the lowest barrier to getting started. Fewer vendors to work with. Lower start-up funds. Packaging that is simple and the same each month! Is easier to fulfill and ship. Has the potential for higher profit margins. Brainstorm what your one item could be by asking yourself: What is your best-selling item? What do people repeatedly buy? What do people constantly ask you for more of? Your one-thing of the month could be: Something fun - a no-frills way for subscribers to treat themselves. Something consumable - subscribers never run out! So many Launch Your Box members have wildly successful one-thing of the month subscriptions. Some of the “one things” their happy subscribers receive include: T-shirts Candles Pizzelles Nail polish Earrings Door hangers Washi tape Start brainstorming what you can turn into a one-thing of the month subscription and move one step closer to launching your subscription. How does a subscription that’s easier to manage and more profitable sound? Join me for this episode to learn more about why you should consider starting a one-thing of the month subscription. Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join the waitlist today!
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    21 m
  • Building an Audience in 90 Days and Selling out on Her First Launch with The AwayDay Box
    Jun 19 2024
    When you’re just getting started on your subscription box journey, it can be hard to imagine yourself successfully managing a thriving subscription. That’s when you need to seek inspiration from someone just a few steps ahead of you. Kathy Strahs from The Awayday Box is just that person. Kathy was inspired to provide moms like her - burnt out and depleted from all the past few years have thrown at them - with a truly special, self-care experience. She had no subscription box experience and no audience. What she did have was passion, determination, and - thanks to Launch Your Box - a roadmap to follow to get her where she wanted to be. Kathy dug into the training inside Launch Your Box and implemented what she learned. And when she ran into something that threatened to stop her progress - hello, tech - she got the help she needed and kept moving forward. After 90 days of building her audience and getting all the things ready behind the scenes, Kathy was ready to launch. She sold out on day one of her launch with 46 subscribers - an amazing result considering she truly started from scratch! Kathy didn’t have subscription box experience, but like all of us, she had a lot of other work and life experience. And as she started working toward launching her subscription box, she found out just how valuable all of that experience was. Kathy had: Retail experience - high school job at a Hallmark store. Business knowledge and experience - MBA from Stanford. Marketing - work in affiliate and partnership marketing. Social media and content creation - experience as a blogger and early adopter of social media platforms. Publishing - author of four cookbooks. Kathy drew from all of her work and life experiences to bring her subscription box to her subscribers. From a part-time high school job to business school to publishing cookbooks - it all applied. And Kathy is her own ideal customer - so everything about her life applied! What experiences do you have that you can bring to your subscription box business? Past jobs, educational experiences, life experiences… look for what you’ve learned that you can bring to your subscription box business. And get ready to be surprised by how much you already know! Join me for this episode as Kathy takes us through her journey from absolute subscription box newbie to selling out on day one of her launch! Find and follow Kathy: Awayday on Instagram Awayday on Facebook Awayday Website Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join today!
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    41 m
  • 163: Why a Subscription Box is a No-Brainer for Your Product-Based Business
    Jun 12 2024
    What if you could level out your revenue, create consistency, and put an end to the feast-and-famine cycle of one-time product sales? What if you could add stability to your business that allowed you to cover payroll and overhead expenses? What if you knew the inventory you were buying was already sold? Let’s talk about the life of a product-based business owner. Before I started my subscription box, this was my life, too. Spending a LOT of money ordering and manufacturing products. Waiting for products to come in. Creating content, going LIVE, sending emails. Hoping the products sell… Every day. One day you might make 20 sales. Another day, crickets. The uncertainty affects everything… your mood, energy, finances, and stress levels. But what if things could be different? Picture this… Spending a lot of money ordering or manufacturing product for your subscription box. Waiting for the product to come in. Payments hitting your back account automatically. Packing and shipping your subscription boxes. Creating content, going LIVE, sending emails. Gaining new subscribers each month. Rinsing and repeating.  What’s missing? Uncertainty and stress! Adding a subscription box to your product-based business can reduce the stress of your business. A great way to go deeper with this and flesh out your ideas is to take my FREE 6 in 60 workshop. In it, I guide you through planning 6 months of boxes based on your ideal customer. Once you can visualize this for yourself, you’ll be ready to start taking action. What would your business look like a year from now if you had 100 subscribers, 500 subscribers, or even 1000 subscribers? Join me for this episode and learn why adding a subscription box to your product-based business could change everything! FREE 6 in 60 Workshop Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join today!
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    21 m
  • 162: What is Subscription Box Week?
    Jun 5 2024
    Once a year, thousands of people join me for a one-of-a-kind subscription box coaching experience. Subscription Box Week is coming soon… and I can’t wait! Several years ago, I had started my coaching membership Launch Your Box and it was growing. Slowly. I wanted to put some gas on it and grow more rapidly. A conversation with my mentor, Stu McLaren, led to the realization that letting people spend a week with me as a teacher and coach was the best way to show them what I offer and why it’s right for them. Subscription Box Coaching Week came out of that casual conversation. I launched it for the first time in the fall of 2020. Thousands of people signed up - which blew me away and kind of freaked me out. 🙂 The first night I went LIVE I had more than 1,000 people with me! That week was incredible. I showed up, served (overserved, actually), and engaged. At the end of that week, 43% of the people who joined me for Subscription Box Coaching Week signed up for Launch Your Box. 43%! I’ve been doing it ever since. Every year, thousands of people join me for Subscription Box Week (formerly called Coaching Week). It’s the best way to showcase who I am as a coach, the knowledge I have, and what it’s like inside my incredible Launch Your Box community. It’s happening again - in just a couple of weeks! And it’s FULL of so much great content, including: The Post-It Note Challenge - where you’ll plan six months of boxes. Brand New Training - How to Curate an Experience for Your Subscribers - because it’s not about the “stuff,” it’s about how you make your subscribers feel. Member Box Openings - where I open members’ subscription boxes for the first time and offer feedback. Special LIVE Q&A - where you can get ALL your questions answered. A chance to be part of the subscription box community: Get to know my members who are at all stages and sizes of business. Get to know my team as they work around the clock to answer questions and provide resources. Interact with me LIVE every day. Understand what’s possible when I interview my students - get ready to be inspired! My team and I have packed a month’s worth of content into one week for this special event! For only $15, get this jam-packed week that’s all about subscription boxes! Are you brand new and thinking about starting a subscription box - this week is for you. Are you already selling products and ready to build recurring revenue into your business - this week is for you. Do you already have a subscription box but feel like you don’t know what you don’t know to grow your business - this week is for you. I do this every day - manage a multi-million dollar subscription box business. And I share it all with you during Subscription Box Week. If you’ve been thinking about starting a subscription box, but you’ve been putting it off or feeling stuck, this is your special invitation to join me at SubscriptionBoxWeek.com starting June 23rd for one amazing week! What if one week could change everything? Join me for this episode and learn all about Subscription Week. It’s one week filled with endless possibilities. SubscriptionBoxWeek.com Join me in all the places: Facebook Instagram Launch Your Box with Sarah Website Are you ready for Launch Your Box? Our complete training program walks you step by step through how to start, launch, and grow your subscription box business. Join today!
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    21 m