4 Steps to Get Your First 100 Subscription Box Subscribers

Want 100 subscribers? It's not about luck or timing. It's about doing the right things the right way and doing them consistently. In this Friday Fuel episode, I'm walking you through the 4 things that helped me and so many of my members hit their first 100 subscribers. So if you're stuck in that 20 to 30 subscriber vortex, this one's for you.

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.

Let's talk about 100 subscribers, not 1,000, not 500, just 100, because I've seen this number unlock a whole new level of confidence and momentum for our subscription box owners again and again. And I want to ask you something. What would 100 subscribers mean for you? What would that number do for your business and your personal life? When I started my subscription box, I launched with 44 subscribers. And for me, I knew that if I could just hit 100, that would pay my rent, my utilities, and the one employee, employee that I had at the time. What it meant for me was stability. It meant breathing room and it meant growth. So I worked really hard to get there. And today I'm going to walk you through the 4 things that I focused on that helped me and what I see helping so many of the students get there faster. If you're ready, let's go. All right. Number 1, we've got to be consistent. I know I say it all the time, but let's be real for a minute here. Are you actually being consistent? I want to— I want you to really ask yourself that. Are you actually being consistent? Because I talk to so many subscription box owners who say, I'm doing everything, Sarah, it's just not working. But when we really dig into it, they're not being consistent. Are you showing up on social media regularly? Are you posting? Are you engaging? Are you answering comments? Are you sending a weekly email to your list? Are you sending your boxes on time and delivering a consistent experience? Experience month after month? And the answer is really sometimes. And if that's your answer, that's not consistency. And, you know, here's the thing. We have to be consistent with social media. We have to be consistent in the experience that we're delivering. And I've got my own inconsistency that I can share with you. I had been— it was a year. It was a year in of my subscription boxes. This was my first year anniversary. And I decided I was going to change things up a little bit. I put up a more of a bathroom-themed box. It had cute towels that were monogrammed, a lotion pump, a little bit of bathroom decor. And what I thought was I was giving my subscribers something fresh and new, but I wasn't being consistent. I went off the consistency of the accessories and the t-shirts and the other cute things that I deliver. That's what they were wanting. They didn't want me to be different. They didn't want me to give them something different. I had over 100 cancellations that month and it almost crushed me because my subscribers signed up for one type of experience. And when I changed that experience for them, it changed the way they viewed my box. Consistency matters. Consistency matters when you're showing up, how often you're showing up, and that experience that you keep delivering over and over again. So I want you to really be honest with yourself. Are you being as consistent as you think you are? Number 2, you've got to nail your messaging. And if you can't quite clearly explain who your box is for and why they need it, your audience is not going to get it. There's 3 little action steps I want you to take with this one. This is going to really help you tighten up your messaging. Number 1, I want you to write a clear sentence Who your box is for and be specific. It's not for busy women. Okay, try, it's for moms who love decorating every holiday but don't have time to shop for it. It's not just busy women that don't have time to decorate. Let's really think about who that box is for. So I want you to write a really clear sentence. Number 2, I want you to focus on the benefits. List 3 reasons why someone needs your box. Not just about what's inside. So we tend to say you're going to get this, you're going to get this, you're going to get this. But what does your box actually do for them? I want you to think about how it saves them time, how it delivers joy, how it solves a problem. That's what we need to be talking about, not the fact that you get this, this, and this, right? And then number 3, I want you to go check your homepage and your bio. Okay, so go check your homepage on your website and check the bio on your social medias. And I want you to ask yourself, Is it clear who my box is for? Would my ideal subscriber say, oh, that's for me? And if you don't get that feeling from what you see there, you've got to rewrite it. You've got to redo your copy. Clear messaging connects with people. We want to evoke emotion. We can buy products anywhere. We can jump on Amazon right now and buy anything that any of you are going to put in your box. But it's the connection, it's the why, it's the benefits that drives that conversion. What are you doing for your subscriber? What experience are you creating? I want you to put that in your messaging, okay? And number 3, we've got to create a great offer, okay? So we talk about all the things that we can be doing to get to 100 subscribers. We've got to have a great offer. And here's what I see happen a lot, that people spend more time picking out products and packaging and all the things instead of crafting an actual great offer. It's not just a list of items. It's the promise of value from those items and from this experience. Okay. So I want you to ask yourself, what problem am I solving? What kind of transformation or experience am I giving in this box each month? Why would someone stay beyond that first box? I want you to look at that offer. It's not about the stuff. You also need to look at your pricing. If your box is too cheap, people will assume that it has low value. I use this example a lot, but when I talk about going to get a haircut, am I going to go to, to Great Clips for, get a $19 haircut, or am I going to go to a salon and pay $100 for a haircut? It might be the exact same haircut. It might. But my perception is the $19 haircut is not going to be what I want it to be. And so I want you to think about that when you're pricing. If it's too cheap, people are going to assume that has low value. If it's too expensive, they really expect luxury and you better deliver on that promise. So make sure your pricing matches the experience. And keep your offer focused. One of the fastest ways to confuse your audience and stall your sales is by offering too many choices, too many variations, too many options. So when they get to the checkout page, they don't need to have, you know, paralyzed thoughts on which offer they're going to take. They already got there because they want to take your offer. Don't give them too many options. You need to simplify your offer, make it crystal clear what your box is, who it's for, and why it's worth it. People buy on clarity and confidence, not confusion. And lastly, I want you to show up. You knew this one was coming. You have to show up even when it's hard, even when you're nervous, and even when nobody's watching. I saw a comment inside our group yesterday that they went live to launch their subscription box and nobody was there. You have to do it even if no one's there. You got to go live. You got to send the emails. You got to make the posts. You've got to record the short videos. If you need a role model on this, I want you to think about Christy from Christy's Craft Room. I've interviewed her here before on the podcast, but she showed up consistently even before she had anything to sell. She would show up and craft with people in the online space, and she built a community that has grown her over 1,000 subscribers when she never had any intention of selling them anything. But that's what showing up can do. And I know going live can be scary. It took me a year to go live the very first time, but now I do it all the time, and it's one of the best ways to connect and build trust. So when you show up, your audience starts showing up too. So let's make things simple. If you're stuck in that 20, 30, 40 subscriber range, go back to this checklist and let's make sure that we are doing the work. Number 1, we're being consistent. Number 2, we've really refined and nailed our messaging. Number 3, we've got a great offer. It's not just about the stuff. The offer, the offer has to evoke emotion from me, has to be priced right. And then I've got to show up. I gotta show up in a lot of different ways. And I need you to look at these 4 things and make one of them your focus this week. Maybe you need to do more than one of these things. Maybe you're great at some of these things. And if you're inside Launch Your Box, let's start a conversation about it in the group because we've got to keep each other accountable. Because your first 100 subscribers, it's not that far off. You've got to do the work to get there. You've got to be consistent. You've gotta show up, you've gotta nail your messaging, and you've gotta have a great offer.