046: 3 Email Automations Every Subscription Box Owner Needs

Email marketing doesn't have to be hard. Today I'm talking about the 3 email automations every subscription box business should have. Come listen.

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 everybody, welcome back to the Launch Your Box podcast. Today I've got a good one for you and you're probably gonna wanna take some notes. So grab your notebook, or if you're like me, I make a lot of notes on my phone. I have an iPhone, so use the Notes app. Just pull up the Notes app, make some notes, print it out, and you're good to go. But today we're going to talk about subscription box email flows, and there are 3 main flows that I want to make sure everyone has set up. You can call them flows, you can call them automations, you can call them funnels, any of those different words. And then I've got a bonus one we'll talk a little bit about. To. And when I talk about flows, those of you that have Klaviyo as your email CRM, that's exactly what Klaviyo calls them. They're flows. It's how we set up automations inside Klaviyo. And so highly recommend Klaviyo. If you're not a member of the group, you probably don't know that we talk about Klaviyo. We train on Klaviyo. Klaviyo is amazing. It is an email CRM. So if you do not have an email CRM, Look into Klaviyo, K-L-A-V-I-Y-O, Klaviyo. Okay. So setting up your email flows in automation is going to just save you so much work. It's going to make the people that come into your email list feel like they're seen, and it's going to help also generate some revenue for you. So let's just start by breaking down the 3 flows that I want you to make sure everyone has set up for your subscription box business. The first one is the waitlist flow, and this is the flow that you're going to start with. So even if you don't have your box up and ready to sell yet, you're going to collect people on a waitlist. And so each one of these flows that I set up inside Klaviyo, these automations, I'm just setting up 2 emails with them. If you know me, if you are part of Launch Your Box, you know that I like to do things very simply. I'm just do them simple. Simple is easy. Simple gets it done. You don't have to make things overly complicated. If I sat here and told you I want you to set up a 5 to 8 email sequence for your waitlist flow, that feels like a daunting task and nobody has time for that right out the gate. If I told you we're going to set up a 2 email automation for each of these 3 flows, that's 6 emails, 3 flows. You'll have them set up by the end of the day. So Simple is sometimes a lot better and it helps you just get things done, take action and stop overthinking everything. So our waitlist flow, our waitlist automation, I'm going to call it a flow because that's what Klaviyo calls it. And so it's just easy for me to reference it that way. But your waitlist flow is 2 emails. You can make it more if you'd like, but let's just start with 2, get it up and going, and then you can build on it if you'd like. So the first one, and here's, here's something awesome we just did. We just loaded in a new training inside LauncherBox that has screenshots of the trigger and the flow inside Klaviyo and some swipe files for each of these emails. So you don't have to overthink it. I've, I've written them for you. You tweak it with your messaging and your ideal customer in mind, but they're preset for you. So you can go grab those over in our training library inside LauncherBox. Let's start with the waitlist flow. So there's 2 emails. So when someone joins your waitlist, so they're going to go to your landing page, you're going to say my subscription is coming, or I'm sold out, get on the list, whatever season you're in, in your business, they're going to sign up to get on a waitlist flow that's going to trigger this automation. So that first email, the subject line is you're on the list. So they need to know that what they just did put them somewhere like you're next in line, some kind of fun subject line there. And what we want to do with this email is, um, we want to let them know, yes, what you did is complete. So you're on our list. You'll be the first to know, hey, check out, you know, make sure you keep your eyes on your inbox because an invite is coming as soon as we have open spots or as soon as we're launching, depending if you're in pre-launch or you're just in between cart opens. I definitely put a picture in this email. We want to grab their attention. Just a plain text email doesn't grab their attention as much as a picture would. This could be a picture of behind the scenes. It could be a picture of your mock-up box. This could be a picture of just packing a box, um, you holding the box. Put a picture there so they are reminded what they signed up for. I love to offer a past box in this email. So someone's signing up on my waitlist, that means I currently don't have boxes available. So if I already have a subscription box, I probably have a few past boxes left over somewhere laying around. I love to sell these in this waitlist flow. And so I put a picture of the box that I have available for them to buy. I give a description of what is in the contents and I, um, let them buy right from that email. Now, if this waitlist flow, if this is brand new, you, you are starting your subscription, you don't already have a shop where you could put a box together, just put a picture of you in the box, packing a box, some kind of picture, and just let them know that, hey, you're here and you're on the list and we see you. That is your first email. It's very short and sweet. These emails do not have to be lengthy. They don't have to be long. Someone knew enough about your box and your business to go to that landing page, sign up on your waitlist. They already know what they're signing up for. So we don't have to explain a whole bunch of things here. Make it short and sweet. Now the next email, a couple days later, if you're selling a box like me, a past box, the subject line is don't miss this box. So I typically only have a handful left over if I have any leftover each month. So I'm reminding them that if they want to get in on this box, go ahead and check out now. While they wait, they'll be able to get a box from me in the mail. If they're not already a subscriber, they don't have this box anyway. And so we typically sell a lot of these boxes in this waitlist flow. So 2 emails triggered exactly when they sign up on your waitlist. Hey, you're on the list. Grab one of my past boxes. And the second one is don't miss this box. Now, if you don't have any product to sell, brand new business, your second email could be a little bit about what's coming. Tease them with some themes like we're so excited to launch our subscription in January. January is all about snowflakes. And, you know, I'm just making stuff up as I go here, but you can kind of give them like a 3-month preview of what maybe January, February, and March look like. And I'm not saying give them— give it away with telling them what's in it, but say giving your themes. This is what we're doing for January. This is what we're doing for February. This is what we're doing for March. You're not going to want to miss it. And so, or if you have a launch date in mind, save the date email would be great right here. Save the date. We're launching December 22nd. Don't miss it. Keep your eyes peeled on your inbox. So those would be some great emails in those Waitlist flows. And again, 2 emails, short and sweet. Make sure each email has an image, one picture at least, to grab their attention. And we need a catchy subject line. A lot of people put titles like the Monogram Box in their subject line. We don't want a title. We need something that's going to go, ooh, I want to open that. And so we need to give a catchy subject line. And I always use the preview line. So the preview text line, Make it a little sentence, make it a pain point, grab their attention with those two, those two opportunities that they get to see inside their inbox. All right. So that is email flow number one, email automation number one is the waitlist automation. Number two, we need a new subscriber flow or a new subscriber automation. And so this one, again, I'm using two emails here because what happens after they receive these two emails, I'm funneling them into my general list. So they're going to get a general, my weekly email from them. I don't want to make these automations too long because I just want to wrap them into what's going on in the shop, behind the scenes, on the blog, whatever that is in my weekly email. I want them to be nurtured through my weekly email as soon as possible. So I make these flows or automations really short so then I can roll them into my, my weekly email that everyone gets. So the new subscriber flow, this is when someone subscribes to your box for the first time. So they're going to make their initial purchase with you, their initial subscription. They're setting that up. You need to give some information in this first email. It's triggered by their purchase. And again, inside Launch Your Box, I've got a screenshot of what the flow looks like inside Klaviyo. So you know exactly how this how to set that up on the backend. They're triggered by the box purchase. And this, this subject line, I typically use, you're in, like with an exclamation point. Or you could do something like, your box is coming, or something exciting just happened, or something like that, something catchy and fun. And then what we want to do in this email is we want to, again, we want to have a picture in every email. So maybe this is a picture of you being excited excited, showing them a box, holding the box, something like that, something that creates excitement. We're going to give some information here. So we— they need to know like when their payment drafts, if it doesn't draft automatically. We need to know when their box is going to ship, what they can expect, how the process works for them. We know the process like the back of our hand, but we need to explain the process to them. This will eliminate a lot of customer service questions, emails, posts, DMs, all those things. If you put the information in here for them to understand— for me, they don't get charged right away, so I'm going to let them know, hey, your payment's going to draft on the 1st of each month, and then we're going to ship your— we're going to, we're going to be busy personalizing your box, and then we're going to ship it out by the 15th of every month. Um, I will explain that we do a box opening after all the shipments are received. So you can just make it fun but make it informational. Now the second email that they're going to get a few days later, um, I'm going to upsell them. I want to try to upsell them if they've purchased the subscription that's the lower level versus the higher level. So in this email, I'm going to offer an upsell and all they have to do is hit reply and we will upgrade their subscription for them and just tell them the differences. You signed up for this one. Here's what this one has. If you have different levels, sales. If you have just one box, you could then upsell a past box. So this is an opportunity to say, hey, while you're waiting for your first box to come, would you like to grab this box or this box? Give them a couple choices from the past, or you can offer one box. Again, you're going to generate sales, they're going to get a box quickly, and they probably don't have this box if they're a new subscriber. So these are different ways that you can create some additional revenue when you have a new subscriber. Now, if you're brand new to launching, you don't have a past box or you don't have upgrades, maybe you can sell them another item in your shop, or maybe you can just talk about the process of the boxes, your inspiration for the next box, something like that. 2 emails in the new subscriber Flow slash automation. So you're in, give them all the info. And then number 2, we're going to try to upsell or cross-sell them something. If you have that available, if not, we're going to nurture them. So tell a story about the inspiration. Um, tell them about you, tell them about your business, tell them about why you're doing this box. That would be a great email right here. So number 1, we talked about the waitlist flow. 2 emails there. Number 2, we talked about a new subscriber flow. That's when someone buys the box for the first time. And number 3, we're going to talk about the abandoned cart flow. This is so important. Everybody should have an abandoned cart automation or flow. And again, I'm using 2 emails here. These are so simple. You can elaborate. You can use 3, you can use 4, you can use 5 on any of these. But the goal here is for for you to get them set up and get them set up and then you can tweak them later. I've been super successful with my 2 on each of these. So don't feel like you have to have 5. Don't think you have to have a bunch, um, but having something is better than nothing. So our abandoned cart automation or our abandoned cart flow is going to have 2 emails. And the first one is, um, and you'll see the triggers and the setup. Again, inside Launch Your Box. If you're a member, you can see the backend of my Klaviyo and what parameters we're putting into these flows. But they've started to check out and then didn't check out is basically what that is. So the first email, the subject line is, we've saved your cart. And so right here, this is a dynamic email. So it pops in a picture of what was in their cart. It reminds them what they forgot to check out on. Because how many times have you go to purchase something, you get to the cart checkout, you either get distracted and you don't check out, or you got to go get your card, or you've got to, you got to do something. Maybe, maybe for me they need a size, for somebody else they need a monogram, so they've not checked out and then they forget that they haven't checked out. So this first email is We've saved your cart and we make this super easy. Just click here to complete your purchase and it takes them back into their shopping cart. And they can go ahead and complete their purchase there. I don't know how many times I think I've ordered something and I actually haven't because I got to checkout and never checked out, but in my mind I checked out. And so it's just a great reminder that, hey, you forgot to check out, come back. And take care of that. Now the second email we do another day after that, and it says, your cart is about to expire. So that's the subject line here, your cart is about to expire. So we're about to put this stuff back in inventory, like you're, you're going to lose what's in your cart if you don't come check out. And again, it's a very simple email, much like the first one. And we just put like, don't leave this behind. You can put something fun. Like, we know this wants to go home with you, or, you know, you could put something fun in here. Don't make it so sterile. Like, people get abandoned cart emails all the time. Make it fun. Make somebody laugh. Make it— talk to somebody in your ideal customer's voice. Like, I would say, you know, something like I'd probably throw y'all in there, you know, cause my audience is from the South, but make it fun. Talk in their voice. Don't make it so prim and proper that people just see it as another just regurgitated abandoned cart email. So we're going to send that one out too. That's the end of that abandoned cart. So once they go through those two emails, you can put them a day apart, you can put them two days apart. So either way that you want, you can have that triggered to go one day apart or two days apart. So we've got our waitlist flow, our new subscriber flow, and our abandoned cart flow. If you do not have these 3 flows set up, I want you to take some time and get them set up like today or tomorrow. Like, stop waiting on this. You're leaving money on the table if you don't have these 3 set up for your subscription box business. And I can tell you that Inside Klaviyo, you can see in your dashboard analytics how much your flows bring revenue in. And these 3 flows bring in almost 5% of my monthly revenue. And I don't have to do anything with them. I set them up one time. So go set them up today. And then they just work in the background for me. I don't have to follow up on it. I don't have to change things on it. The only thing I change on these flows is if I sell out of one of those boxes that I'm trying to sell, I go put a new box in, but it's a matter of changing out a picture, changing a description and changing a link when one of the boxes that I have in these flows sells out. So let these work for you. We've got to start working smarter, not harder. And these will pay for your Klaviyo price every single month. It is free up to a certain number of names that you have on your list. But once you start paying for Klaviyo, these flows are going to pay for that. Times 10. So get them set up, let them work for you. Don't feel like you have to constantly send out a campaign every single, you know, week about these 3 things. Let them be automated. There's so many things we can automate in our business. This is one of them. The other flow, the bonus flow, um, that I would love for you to set up while you're setting these up is called browse abandonment. And you can do that inside Klaviyo. And this is really awesome. And let me tell you how this works. So in Klaviyo, you have profiles. So anyone that's on your email list has a profile. So when they're on your website shopping, you can see what they're looking at without them adding it to their cart. So if I'm a customer of myself, of my shop, I'm in there looking at something, I never add it to my cart, but Klaviyo knows I was looking looking at it. So this is a browse abandonment flow. And I want you to set up 2 emails similar to the abandoned cart flow, but it's just like, hey, I saw you looking at this. You know, you can make it really funny, kind of cheesy, but really funny. And, you know, give me a second look. And hey, you were looking at this, you never even added it to your cart, but we saw you looking at it. And so we can just remind them to go ahead and buy. And so it's It's the same concept as our abandoned cart flow with those 2 emails. You can set up a dynamic tag here so it'll pop in what they were looking at. We're going to remind them what they were looking at and then give them one click to go add it to their cart and check out. But browse abandonment is an amazing function because some people, a lot of people never even get to adding it to their cart. They've been looking at it, maybe they're thinking about it. Let's remind them that they were looking at it. And so it's a great bonus. It's a great bonus flow to go ahead and set up for your subscription box business. Number 1, we're going to set up the waitlist flow. That's anyone that's joining your waitlist, telling you they're interested in your subscription box. Number 2, we're going to set up the new subscriber flow. That's a flow that's going to trigger once they purchase your box for the first time. Number 3, abandoned cart flow. That is someone that has got your box in their cart, but fails to check out. So we need to remind them that it's there and that they haven't checked out. And then the bonus flow is called browse abandonment flow. And that's where we can see that someone's been looking at our subscription box or anything else on our website, and never actually put it in our cart, but we can remind them that it's still there. So these automations set up inside Klaviyo or any other CRM that you use are going to be automated. They're going to generate sales for you every single month and hopefully help you keep, retain, and grow your subscription. Make sure you subscribe to the Launch Your Box podcast. 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