005: How to Find Your Perfect Subscriber | Subscription Box Strategies with Damon Oates & Sarah W...

Creating a subscription box sounds fun, right? Spending time curating the perfect box, making some fun packaging, and then launching it out in the world, hoping someone is out there to buy it. So where do we find our perfect subscriber? Let's talk about it in today's episode.

Welcome to the Launch Your Box podcast with weekly tips, tricks, and strategies to start, launch, and grow your subscription box. Now here's your host, Sarah Williams.

Hey, we are back and I am here with Damon Oates, is the owner of Deco Exchange and the Maker's University. And I love having Damon here with me today because not only is he one of my mentors, he is a subscription box owner, he is a Launch Your Box member, and he is known for creating a community full of his perfect person. And that's really what we're going to talk about today. So Damon, Hello, welcome to the podcast. Why don't you tell everybody a little bit about your business and what you do every day?

Hey y'all, I am Damon with Deco Exchange and my business is kind of all over the place. We do a little bit of coaching, we do a little bit of physical products, we do subscription groups and the subscription boxes, and none of it makes sense. So we in the background, we're chemical engineers. It's where we started out in the oil and gas industry. And we started doing wreath making as a passion project to pay for animal rescue.

I can totally remember the first time I ever saw you on Facebook Live, and it's funny to me now because I know you in a completely different way, but you were standing there at your house making a wreath live. I've never made a wreath, and I don't even know why I was watching it. There was a fish tank in the background. You had on a t-shirt and some shorts and some flip-flops, and you were just loving on all the people that were there watching you live, and I was fascinated by it. I started following you. I would lay in bed at night watching you make wreaths all the time, and it's just funny because I still never made a wreath.

That's so funny, and we've been sending you stuff to make a wreath with, like you've ordered the kits.

I have.

I mean, I haven't made one yet.

I haven't, but it's okay because now I just buy them already made from you.

Yeah, so y'all, we went from engineer in the oil and gas industry to having a multi-seven-figure business based all around wreaths. And it's just been a crazy journey that hasn't taken that long to build, really.

It's been fast.

You know, we did it for a little while between 2015 and 2017. It was an okay business. And then from 2017 to now, we've done a lot of sales.

A lot, a lot of sales. I think we need to break it down a little bit more clearly for them because, um, you and I have similar businesses, um, not as far as wreath making, but we have a product-based business, um, and then we a subscription box that is tailored to that product-based business. And then we also have this educational coaching side to our business. So we have these parts of our business, but we are drawn to this subscription box for a lot of reasons. And I just love, I love that about you. And I think that you're the expert when it comes to finding and attracting your perfect person. You have built an amazing following, amazing community. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. One of the biggest objections that we get when someone is looking to start a subscription box. One, they, they can do the packaging, they can find the products, they can create the best box, but they don't have anyone to sell it to because they have not built an audience. And so I want to talk to you about that a little bit today.

Yeah, for sure. So a little bit background there. So we started out with a page of about 500 people before we ever started really trying to push. And then we were just selling wreaths at that time. Then we went from wreaths to selling a little physical product and the page grew a little bit more and then subscription boxes. And then we realized, wait a minute, this is something that we can show people how to do over and over again from zero to your perfect people who want to buy everything that you tell them to buy. So we basically put together a little program that shows them step by step how to do that. And that's what we're going to share with y'all today.

I'm so excited about it because I know that it's really hard. It's really hard to start a new business. Number one, it's hard to create a brand new audience. Like I always say, it's like watching grass grow when you start a Facebook page or an Instagram account, and then you're like, okay, my open sign is up, everybody come, but nobody's coming. And so I want to break that down a little bit. Because what if people listening are starting from scratch with audience building?

So I think the confusion with audience building is that people always feel like they're selling to someone just like themselves. And you either think, well, I would never buy that because I can just do this, or you don't really know, or you have a picture of someone who's gonna buy it and that person isn't the real person. For me, my target customer is not just like me. He's definitely not a guy. He's not an engineer. He wasn't in his late twenties. He wasn't doing all those things when I started my business. So I had to think about, okay, who's the real person that wants to hang a wreath on their front door? And then I had to figure out how to talk to people like that. So I knew that I didn't know anything about those people, but there were businesses out there who had spent a lot of money already doing that research. So when the very first thing that we like to do is number one, figure out the general idea of who would want your product.

Okay. So you've got you in your— and if you're listening and you haven't started your subscription box, you have probably been laying awake at night thinking about what you want to do. So you have an idea of what could be possible for your box. Now, who is that for?

So let's say it's a basic home decor box where they're going to get a candle and a few little goodies to kind of decorate their home with.

Okay.

And it's a theme that is very Louisiana since I'm from Louisiana. Right.

Okay.

So I would think, okay, what magazines company already like focuses on that perfect person who would wanna decorate their home potentially lives in the South and is heavy in Louisiana themed stuff? Nope. Southern Living.

Okay.

Right off the top of my head.

Yeah. Southern Living magazine.

So I would go to a grocery store, grab a Southern Living magazine off the shelf and flip through it. And then would my product visually be in that magazine? Like, could I open up to a random page on a tablescape and see my napkins that I sent them on that table? Would that candle be on the bookshelf? Is it visually something that would be there?

Okay, so you're looking for a piece of media that's already been researched, that's already developed, that your subscription box would fit into, and therefore your person would be reading this magazine?

Absolutely.

Okay.

You know, I mean, if I'm going for that traditional Southern grandmother and my candle is hot pink with unicorns on the front of it, you probably— like, if you're looking in that magazine, you're never gonna picture that candle in that magazine. So your perfect customer is probably not reading that magazine, right?

Okay, so we're taking the research that's already out there, and then what do we do with that research?

So all of those magazines have online usually something called a media kit or a buyer's demographic, and it basically summarizes everything that they know about their readers. It summarizes their age, where they live, how often they shop, are they married, are they single. It has basically a buyer persona that you can borrow to then picture who your perfect person is.

Okay, I got it. So then how do I find those people that fit that demographic? How do I find the person that's reading that Southern Living magazine? And I know that I want that person now, But how do I go get them to like my page?

So there are two ways to do that a little bit. One is a little bit more nerdy, and I like it. So you can go to facebook.com/ads/audience-insights, and whenever you click on that, you can click show everyone on Facebook. And then in the search bar on that, you can type in the name of the magazine that you want to pull up. If that magazine has any presence on Facebook, that will literally show you all of the people, their combined likes, all the stuff that they do on Facebook in one little piece.

Okay.

So now that you know the age group of your person, you know what they like to do, you can look at the data that Facebook gives you and see, hey, you know what, these people really like recipes. These people really like religious t-shirts, and that gives you ideas on content that you can create that will pull your perfect people into your world.

Okay.

So if you know your perfect person is a grandmother who loves recipes and she's religious, you could probably make posts like, hey, what are you guys doing after church on Sunday? Here's my favorite potluck to have the whole family over.

Okay. So you're creating this engagement on your Facebook page by by catering these posts, talking to exactly that potential subscriber that you want, your perfect person that you have built in your research here.

Right.

Okay. So how does that grow for you? What are some ways I can post that? But if nobody sees that, how am I getting myself out there in those ways? What are different ways that I can do that?

So the not so fun news is that it's going to take you a little while to grow at first, right?

Yeah.

It's going to be, quiet. It's going to be crickets. I mean, Facebook is going to show your content to just a small percentage of your followers, even starting out. So it's going to take you a while to grow. But if you stick to your content plan and you only create content for those perfect people, Facebook eventually learns who you are and what you like to do and who you serve.

Okay.

So then whenever you start creating those posts, it knows, hey, I'm going to go show this to that group of people on Facebook. That need you and you're serving so that they start to follow your page.

Okay.

You're going to do that through just regular content posts with just words like, hey, share your favorite Sunday dinner recipe.

That's easy, right?

Then you may do a picture of your— hey, I'm in the kitchen working today, cooking for my family. Y'all just keep in mind, like, I'm always thinking about that person that's going to eventually want my home decor box. That is all featured around that perfect family life home.

Okay.

So all the content that I'm creating is for that person. So you're going to see a picture of me in the kitchen, like I'm cooking for my family and I can't wait for them to show up. You're going to see quick little videos of family gatherings, of me decorating the house with candles if there's a candle in that box.

Okay.

Look, slowly implementing all the things that I eventually want to sell them. Into the content that I'm creating.

Okay. I love that you say that because I see this a lot with our new members. They think they need to curate the box first and they need to have the candle and all the things first. And then they're really disappointed and they really feel defeated when they launch it out there in the world and they haven't spent time really building an audience first. So I, I feel like if you're listening right now and you haven't started a subscription box like today, you need to start a social media account. You need to start figuring out who your perfect person is, just like Damon told you, and you've gotta start creating content. Content, that's your post. That's the information you're gonna give on your page. You've gotta create that content because it's a slow process to get something going from scratch. And you can be doing that right now today while then you're figuring out the packaging, then you're figuring out the products, then you're figuring out the shipping later. But that's something that's immediate action that you can do today to start growing your audience because you and I both know The people that are most successful in the subscription box industry and in, in my group have spent a lot of time building an audience before they ever launched a box. And you can see them come right out of the gate with hundreds, if not thousands of subscribers versus the people that kind of do it backwards. They pick the pretty packaging, they pick the fun things, and then they're like, oh, anybody want to buy this? And they're disappointed when they have 5 subscribers. And so that's why this is an important discussion. We talk about it a lot. I know you talk about it with your business coaching group. I talk about it with my business group, but people underestimate the power of building an audience first before you start the thing, right?

And building an audience in mind with your end goal.

Yes, because not all audiences are created equal. You and I both know that, but a lot of people don't. You think, I'm going to invite all my family and friends over to like my new Facebook page, my new business page. But what if they're not your ideal customer? What if they're never going to decorate their home? What if they're never going to light a candle and they're just sitting there taking up space on your Facebook page?

Yeah, so when you go back and think about like how Facebook works and Facebook's only going to show your content to, if you're lucky, 10% of your audience, if you invite 1,000 friends there and 900 of those friends are never going to be your perfect people, you just wasted a large portion of that 10% audience that's going to see it. So a Facebook page with 100 people who are your ideal customer is way more important or more impactful for your business and your revenue really than having 1,000 people that don't know if they want your product or not.

Yeah, and they may not engage with you at all, which hurts your reach and all of those things that you can figure out later. But just getting that perfect subscriber, whether you have a box yet or not, finding that perfect subscriber, getting them to like your page, getting them to engage with your content and really having regular content. That's what you need to focus on. You can't post on Monday and then maybe Thursday afternoon and then, oh, let me throw something on there Sunday. You're not doing yourself a favor. It's gotta be consistent. It's gotta be regular. It's gotta be fresh and it's gotta be targeted to that perfect person.

Yeah. So it's super important to remember that, you know, and Facebook, the place that I love to play, it's a computer. So everything that happens is not someone over there going like, nope, don't like this one, like this one, don't like that person's content. It's just a computer. And that computer has to learn you and your business and how you react to things. So if you're not being consistent and showing up regularly, like, just like you said, Facebook has to say, is this person even relevant to us? Right. If they're not producing good quality, relevant content consistently, why do they matter?

Right.

Because Facebook is a content platform and Facebook makes their money by you keeping people on their platform. So if you can do that really well, Facebook will play really nice with you.

Yeah. It loves that about you, right? It wants to share you with, with their friends. I know that we've talked a lot of just about Facebook and I think another really thing, a thing that really trips up new people to this kind of online space is that there are so many platforms. I mean, there's Facebook, there's Instagram, there's TikTok, there's YouTube, like there's all the things and it just shuts people down. Like they're just, well, that's too much. I can't keep up with that. So I'm not going to do that. What's your recommendation on what platform should people should be on?

So I always tell people to start with a platform that they love playing on. So if you don't love Facebook and you try to grow a business on Facebook, you're going to hate it from day one. It's going to be work and it's going hard and you're going to spend a lot of time trying to convince yourself to log in every day versus just logging in and playing. So for me with Facebook, it's nothing for me to hop on a Facebook Live, tell my people hi, walk around the house, whatever I want to do, and my people show up and enjoy that.

Yes.

Whereas Instagram, I don't love it.

Yeah.

And I don't show up there. And if someone sends me a message, I'm like, oh my God, I have to log into Instagram. What do they want? Right?

Yes. And some people are the opposite. They love Instagram versus Facebook. And I think that's what you're trying to say. We know our friend Tamara loves TikTok. Whatever you love and whatever you can use, first of all, because we know technology is always kind of a hiccup for us, whatever you're currently using for your own social media, that's where you need to start because that's what you're most comfortable with. And then you can layer in additional pieces like Instagram, like TikTok if you like that, Pinterest, YouTube, all the other platforms. But don't try to do all of that at once because you will be frustrated. You will think that it's too much work to do and you'll just stop being consistent because it's too much of a chore, right?

So for me, I look at everything and, okay, how many subscription boxes do I have to sell to pay someone else to run that other platform, right? So even growing up, as beginning, I didn't like Instagram. So I got a quote from an Instagram manager and I said, okay, well, how much do I have to sell now to pay this person $500 a month to grow my Instagram account so I can just play on Facebook where I belong?

Yes. Yes. All right. So we talked about starting a new page, finding that perfect person. What if we're in this situation where we have a subscription box, you and I could be an example, and we're wanting to grow because in order for our subscriber base to grow, we have to constantly be looking and growing our audiences as well, even though we have an established audience. I know that you and I talked earlier today about stories. So I would love for you to share with— once you're doing your content on your page, what else can you do to really grow that and reach more people?

Yeah, so we actually recently learned that Facebook really loves Facebook Stories. So you can create those contents on your page and then in your stories say, hey guys, go check out this new video we did talking about the new product for our box. Go check out the review that so-and-so did about the box. And just constantly creating that content that reaches new people in different ways.

So yeah, if you don't know what stories are, they're the little small— they could be still pictures or video clips that are kind of at the top of your Facebook feed.

So everything else on Facebook kind of like scrolls down.

Okay.

The stories are the piece at the very top that scroll sideways. That's the easiest way to think about it.

Yes. And you, once you start watching them, you're kind of addicted and then they just keep coming and all the different people you follow just keep coming and some people consume that better than going through their feed. So if you can hit some of those popular things right now and anytime something is new, you want to jump on that because you're going to get more reach from anytime that any platform rolls out a new feature, you want to jump in quick so you can get more reach on your page.

Absolutely. I mean, Facebook told us this week, hey, we love stories and all of us are going to go make stories this week. Like we're going to go test it out, see how it's working. And remember that Facebook is one of your first customers, right? So if you're not keeping Facebook happy, no one else is going to see your content. So in my list, Facebook is customer number 1, and then my audience is customer number 2. I have to make both of those people happy all the time, or they're going to start a love-hate relationship with us.

I love that analogy. So let's just give them a couple quick social media tips. I would say live video. You're, you're huge with live video. Give them a quick tip about doing a live.

Live video is our favorite. It is probably our biggest revenue generator. And the most important part about live video is just showing up for your people and realizing that the live video is not about you. So you are there to create that relationship with whoever shows up to that Facebook Live, whether it be 1 person or 1,000 people. Have a conversation, chat with them, make sure they know that you see them and just give it all that you can.

Yes.

It doesn't have to be a million dollars worth of equipment either. Like grab your phone, press start, go live and show those people that you're a real person and that you have some way to serve them and help them.

Yes. I love that you said it's conversational because the live is conversational. But another quick tip I want to give you is to keep your post conversational. So even if you're not showing up live and having a conversation, whatever's in the copy of your post, it needs to be as if you were talking or as if your perfect person was talking to your perfect person. So conversational posts, they don't have to be professional. They don't have to be worded exactly right. They just need to be fun, upbeat, and conversational. And then really the other tip that I want to give you today for social media is make sure that you are in the comments and you're having conversations with anyone that's engaging on any of your posts, whether that's a live, whether that's just a still picture, or that's some prerecorded video. Have those those conversations because Facebook likes that, right, Damon?

Absolutely. And that actually ties back to one thing that I was thinking that we missed in our whole conversation.

Okay.

And that is listening to your audience.

Yes.

If you listen to them, they will tell you exactly what they'll buy from you. And by having those conversations in the comments, on the post, in Messenger, all the places that Facebook gives you, your customers will tell you exactly how they'll give you money.

Yeah. Yes, they will. And don't, don't close that off because you think it needs to be something different. Give them what they want. It's so much easier to give your audience what they want than to try to find a new audience for what you want to give them. Right?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So we have a good example of that, right?

Okay.

So when our, our box first started, people were like, a few people were asking us for a wreath kit versus just a wreath supply box that we send out now. Well, what we realized was that was just a handful of our audience. Thousands of people did not want to try to make and sell the same wreath out of that box.

They want to have something unique and special.

They wanted something unique and special, and then they could tie that unique ribbon however they wanted into their project and not have 1,000 identical projects.

Yeah.

So I thought, oh, I just want to make this an easy box. I can quickly throw in what you need and you can just duplicate my work.

Just get it done.

They just wanted, they wanted to be creative.

Creative. They wanted to be creative. They wanted to make something that was theirs and not just yours. Now, some people want to make exactly what you're making, but there's a lot of people that want to make their own thing.

And I think that's because our audience was also business owners.

Yeah.

So they didn't want to try to compete with 1,000 other people selling that exact same wreath, but they didn't care about selling 1,000 wreaths that all had the same ribbon in it.

Yeah.

So it was literally listening to what they were saying about the box. And then that's exploded the box, and me not being stubborn and saying, no, this is the box I'm gonna sell.

I can totally see that about you.

No, no, this is what you're getting, friend.

Yes.

No, we had to listen. And then, I mean, when we did that, we switched from having 300 boxes to 1,600 boxes in less than 4 months, yeah, with a waitlist of about 3,000 people. And we have a goal to scale to $3,200 by the end of the year.

Yeah, it's so incredible. I love it. Well, Damon, do you have any, um, last-minute advice for anyone listening that has a subscription box idea in their head, but they just haven't started yet? What advice would you give them?

I would tell them to grab a sheet of paper, sit down, and number one, write down why do they want to do this? What is the purpose of it? What is the true problem that problem they want to serve and then figure out who they can serve it to, who needs it, who's asking for it. And then look at the platforms they play on and pick which one they love the most, not which one just has like shiny object syndrome, because you can convince yourself that you want to be a TikTok star and then hate TikTok and realize I'm really comfortable on Facebook.

Yeah.

And just come up with a simple plan that isn't going to make them overwhelmed and want to curl up and cry.

Yes. You've gotta start.

You have to just start.

You gotta start and just feel a little bit confident of what that end goal is, because you wanna make sure that 6 months from now when you've built your audience, when you start selling your boxes, that you don't hate what you're doing.

Right.

Yeah. So Damon, where can we find more info? I know that you teach, um, a little mini course called Who Is My Perfect Person? Where can we find some more information about that?

I think you're going to drop a link in the show notes.

We will, we'll drop a link. Where can they find you? Where can they watch you make a wreath at 9 o'clock at night while they're just hanging out?

Yeah, definitely Deco Exchange on every social media handle that's out there, but we play the most on Facebook.

Okay, you can find Damon over at Deco Exchange over on Facebook. Damon, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast, and thank you guys for listening.

Of course, glad to be here.

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