5 Ways to Build Community in Your Subscription Box Business

Good morning, happy Monday. It is time for our weekly pep talk called Monday Momentum. Today we're going to talk about building a community versus building a brand and why building a community is greater than building a brand. So let me know that you're here. I would love to say hi to you on this Monday morning. I've got my coffee in hand. My hair is done. I'm ready to rock out this Monday and I've got a lot on my plate this week, like every single week. Um, but I want to talk a little bit about building your community today because I think it's so very important. And there's a lot of things that we can do to build a community. And just the same way that I've built this community around Launch Your Box, all of you are part of my community in one way or another. You could be a paid member of one of my coaching programs. That could be Launch Your Box or Scale Your Box, or you could be part of my mastermind. You could be someone that shows up live with me every Monday because I go live publicly. You could be someone that listens to my podcast regularly. All of those people that I just described are part of my community, and that's what makes my business so strong, is that I've worked really hard to build a strong community of like-minded people. And so we're going to translate that into your e-commerce business, into your subscription box business, today. And I've got some things I want you to think about and I want you to consider as you are building your business and building a community. So let me come over to the chat and say good morning to everybody. Tell me what you like to drink on a morning, in the morning. Like, I gotta have something to drink in the morning. So this is a skinny vanilla latte, um, from Starbucks. I drink it a couple times a week. Um, so it's my go-to drink. So tell me what you drink in the mornings. I'm gonna come say hi in the chat. Um, I see that Diana's here. Diana's over on YouTube. Our YouTube channel is growing. We have been working on YouTube Shorts. We've got live videos. We have, um, we have uploaded other videos. So we're getting content over on YouTube. I'm really excited about it. Thank you all for everyone that has subscribed to my YouTube channel. It is growing and I'm excited about it. Good morning, Jessica. Jessica, I was laying in bed last night watching TikToks and your TikTok came up and you look gorgeous in that jumpsuit that you had on last night. And I just want to tell you that you're rocking it and you look fabulous. Good morning, LaDonna. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Sarah. Good morning, Mona. Hi, Jennifer. Good morning, Antoinette. Good morning, everybody. Diana, thank you. Every morning, every Monday, y'all know I go get my hair done. It makes me feel fabulous. Anything that can start your Monday off on the right track, I highly recommend that. Good morning, Tracy. Hi, Sarah. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Stephanie. Hi, Beth. Good morning, Charlene. Good morning, Vontina. Good morning, Mary. I just want to say hi to everybody. Good morning, everybody. Lots of you are drinking coffee. I love this. Mindy, early morning cocktail. I did just tell the team that I feel like we need to have mimosas or whiskey later. I'm not sure what the day is going to bring, but we need one of those because it's going to be a day. So I got— you have to tell me what you're drinking this morning. Hot chocolate. Give me all the coffee. Yes. Dunkin' in the morning, Starbucks in the evening. I like it. I like that you have a plan mapped out already. And pop. Brandy drinks pop. So, Brandy, I'm going to say you're probably not from the South because we say Coke And it doesn't matter if it's actually Coke or not. We just say, I'm going to have a Coke. So pop, Brandy, tell me where you're from, because that's an indication that you're not from the South. We say, we say Coke. I'm going to go get a Coke. It could be any beverage, but we call pop or sodas Cokes in the South, just so you know that. Good morning, everybody. Okay, let's, yeah, let's get going this morning. Um, all right, Mimosa, maybe we should just— we should rename MM, um, is Monday Momentum, to Mimosa Monday. And what that— I mean, that sounds like a great— that sounds like a great, um, a great new acronym that we have. All right, so let's get down to business because we can have fun all day, but that's not productive. It's fun, it starts our morning off right, but let's get down to business today. So let's talk a little bit about Um, let's talk a little bit about building a community versus building a brand. So last night I did, uh, the July Monogram Box opening on my retail page last night, and I know some of you joined me over there last night, so I appreciate that. Um, and, and you can go back if you want to watch how I promote my subscriptions and how I do an unboxing. You can go check that out. Um, if team, will you go grab a link to my Facebook page so if they want to, um, check that out? But every month I do a live unboxing, and we are just matter-of-factly in the middle of promoting our teacher subscription right now. So I did a little promo at the beginning of that live talking about our teacher subscription. It was a great live, but it got me thinking last night when I was prepping for Monday Momentum today about building a community and how important it is for your community to connect with not only you but with each other. And sometimes we get in our head that we have to be these big brands, that we have to create some big brand, um, when in reality we have this superpower of being able to create a community small and medium businesses have this superpower that we get to be us and we get to be us unapologetically and we get to attract people like us or the people that we want to sell to. And we have the ability to create a very cohesive community. I have always said, and in my book, you guys know my book's coming out in a few months, but I'm talking about this cult-like community that I have created around my retail business. And I don't say cult in a negative way. I say it because there's such a strong connection between me and my customers. And because of that connection, I have been able to build a multimillion-dollar business with a very little following. And it's because I've built such a strong community. And the other, on the other side of that is you have businesses that build a brand. And so you can build a community or you can build a brand, and sometimes you can build both cohesively. That takes a long time to build a community and a brand together. But I want to talk about the differences and some ways that you can really focus on building a community for your own business because that That's what we have the ability to do, and we have the ability to do it very, very well. Okay, so let's, let's start off by thinking about building a brand. When I say building a brand, what brand do you think of? What comes to mind when you think of a brand? Tell me what comes to mind when you think about a company that's centered around their brand. Tell me in the chat. Lori says Nike. Nike's like the first one that comes to mind. Target. I just said the word Coke. We call all, all pops and sodas Cokes in Texas. Yeah, these big ginormous companies we think of as brands. And when we think about our business as being a brand, it feels unattainable, right? Does that feel unattainable? A brand— creating a brand identity for ourselves where our brand is recognizable worldwide feels unattainable for us because it can be so expensive to build a brand. So expensive. The amount of marketing and research and influencers, and the amount of capital that you're going to need to build a brand is so ridiculously expensive. And that's why you don't see a ton of that from small businesses. So when you think about what you can do, I want you to think about building a community. Okay, so we're going to build a community together, and I've got 5 ways that I want you to think about that this week. And I want you to really start to think about it when you're working on your business. We're not here to build a brand. We're here to build a community. And that is so powerful. And you have the ability, you sitting there watching me on the screen, whether you're live or on the replay, you have the ability to create a community the same way that I did. I've built two communities now. I have a community of subscribers. Around my e-commerce business. And I have a community of students, entrepreneurs right here watching me right now. And I've built each one of them from scratch. And I've built that in a few different ways. And we're going to talk about those different ways because I want you to understand how powerful building a community is for your business. Don't think about being a brand think about being a community. Okay. So if you're a note taker, grab your notes. Let me give you some actionable things that you can think about and do as you go through this. So number 1, I want you to think about customer-focused marketing. Okay. Customer-focused marketing. Now, when you start working on your marketing plan, it's about them. And it's not about you. Okay, now you're gonna be like, Sarah, but you say post pictures about yourself, go live. That seems to be about me, right? And it is. But I want you to think about how you can relate to your customer. It's about them, not you. It's about what makes you relatable to them. How can you show up in a way that makes yourself relatable. If you can see yourself in me as a coach, as a subscription box owner, if you can see yourself in me, you're gonna be like, yes, if Sarah can do it, I can do it. And then I'm all in. If you like the same things that I like, you're going to like my subscription box. So yes, I am forward facing as my brand. But it's about you, not me. I don't come on here and talk about me all the time. I come on here to serve you. Every Monday at 9 a.m. Central, I put together an actionable training to serve you because this is about you and not me. Okay. Community-driven actions. What does that mean? Actively participating in this chat right here. I'm asking you questions. I'm asking you to participate. I'm asking for your feedback. I'm engaging with you. I want you to engage with me. I am focused on you. I say hi to you every time I go live. I don't want that to take up a lot of our time because, you know, time is money and you guys are busy. But I want you to understand that I'm here for you, and I need you to portray that to your audience. How do you show up for them? How is your marketing focused on them instead of you? We serve before we sell. So I want you to make sure that your, your marketing is customer-focused. It's about them, not about you. Okay, that's number 1. Number 2, you've probably heard this term used a lot in marketing, um, and it's, it's UGC. What does UGC mean? Um, UGC is user-generated content. Okay, gone are the days of your pretty perfect Instagram grid. We don't care about that. Who buys from a company, um, because they have the perfect Instagram grid? Raise your hand, let me know. Who buys from a company because of their flawless Instagram grid or their on-point marketing campaigns? No, nobody cares about that anymore. That's the difference between a brand and a community— user-generated content. That is, people that use your product generate content for you. How many times on my social media do you see pictures of members with their boxes, with their wins, with their story? You hear it on my podcast every single month. It's user-generated content. I'm interviewing a student. You see it on my Instagram and Facebook every single week. We're sharing our community user-generated content. They have something to share and I'm going to put it on my platform. Same way goes with our subscription boxes. When someone sends you a picture wearing their cute t-shirt, when someone sends you a picture holding their boxes, when someone's so excited about the subscription box that you have sent them and they share a photo with you, and then you say, hey, can I share that on my page? And they say, absolutely. That is user-generated content. Gone are the days that we have to have perfect branding on everything. It's okay if they don't have the perfect lighting. It's okay if they don't have the most beautiful flat lay set up. It's okay if their selfie is a little off. It's user-generated content. And that's how we build a community. Because just like I said a minute ago with number 1, I need you to see yourself in me. But not all of you can see yourself in me because I'm not like all of you. But if you can see yourself in someone else that's part of my community, you probably want to be part of my community. And that can be for my coaching business or my subscription business. If you don't see yourself the same as me, maybe you see yourself the same as one of my subscribers. And you're like, oh, I would love that too, I'm just like her. User-generated content. And that can be in the form of images, videos, reviews. We should be using that so much. Every week you should have user-generated content on your social medias and on your website. You build a community that way. Number 2, user-generated content. Number 3, exclusive perks and rewards. And this is perfect for our subscription box businesses because they're already part of something. They are making a commitment to you saying that I am a subscriber, I'm giving you my money every single month I'm committing myself to you. I'm committing my credit card to you. How can we make them feel like the VIP of our businesses? And we can do that through exclusive perks and rewards. And I know that so many of you do this in a lot of different ways. It could be first dibs on new product lines that come out. We do surprise and delights all the time. If you want to text me the word surprise, I have a PDF that has 10 different ways to surprise and delight your subscribers. You can text me too much. Let me pull up my text number really quickly for you. This is the number, but this is— text me Monday to get the reminder for Monday Momentum, but text me the word surprise. And you'll get the, you'll get the where you can download that if you want to. But how can we reward them for being subscribers? We add a coupon to their box. We give them special perks, first dibs, first access. How do we make them feel like them being a subscriber gives them the VIP treatment in our businesses? That's what I want you to think about. When I showed up and did that box opening last night, the first thing that I did, the first thing that I did was ask where my subscribers were and talk to my subscribers before anybody else. I need my subscribers to know that they are first. In my world. They are the VIPs. I want to say hi. I want to know what subscription they have. I'm talking directly to my subscribers on that box opening, but that box opening is not for my subscribers. That box opening is to show everyone else who's not a subscriber what they're missing. But I'm intentionally talking to my subscribers throughout that entire box opening because I want the people that are not subscribers to see this community I built, to see the special connection I have with my subscribers. Okay, so think about exclusive perks and rewards. Okay, something saying page not found. I will check on it, Beth, after this. Let me see, let me see if I can just pull it up real quick myself. Hold please. Make sure you have this. Probably should have checked this before I told y'all to text me. Here we go, right? Um, keyword responders. Set up keywords. Surprise. Let me make sure this page works. Well, it does say page not found. Hold please. Oh, Debbie says it's opening for her. I think what I did here is it's got a period that maybe it shouldn't have. Let me see if I can fix that. Or let me just get y'all the link too. That might be easier. I'm going to get you the link real quick so you can go download this no matter where you live. or if you can't get the, get the thing working for you. I don't want to squirrel you too much. Um, let me see, team. I am going to— I popped it in the chat. I don't know if it's going to pop up everywhere, but I'm also going to send it to you in our group chat, team, where you can grab it. Give me one more second and then we'll keep going. We're on number 3. When things don't work, you just fix them. It's not that— not a big deal. We just fix them so they can pop it. I am streaming in, um, I'm streaming in like 4 different places right now, so it looks like the link that I posted, um, is on my public page, How to Start a Subscription Box with Sarah Williams. So you can grab it there on the public page if you're watching in one of the groups. Or it looks like it also posted on YouTube. So if you're watching on YouTube, you should be able to grab that link as well. And I think that my team is going to grab the link and they will post it in the two groups in Launch Your Box and Scale Your Box on the thread that I am. But it looks like it did post it to post to the public page and to YouTube. So you can grab that. You don't have to worry about texting, but I think it's because I have a period right after that. That's what's happening anyway. Number 1, post customer-focused marketing. Number 2, user-generated content. Number 3, exclusive perks and rewards for subscribers only. Number 4, this one's huge, host events, challenges, workshops, contests. We need to bring our community together for an activity. You guys see this when I do coaching week. That's a workshop. I'm bringing the community and people that are not part of the community together during coaching week. Many of you that have DIY subscriptions, you can host workshops, challenges, events. I have held subscriber pickup parties at my warehouse. I've had people come from other states to come to my pickup parties. You can host virtual events. I know some of you say like have a book subscription, you host book club once a month virtually. There's lots of different ways that you can host an event or even do a contest. If your subscription is more product-based, you could do a contest. You could have your community design your next shirt or sticker or whatever it is, post the content. Contest. There's lots of different ways you can bring the community together for an event. Number 5, community feedback. I want you constantly seeking feedback from your audience on various aspects of your business. This could be new product ideas, this could be updating your website, this could be products that you're deciding on for the curation process, this could be packaging updates, This could be logos. Like, if you're brand new and you're building your logo and your packaging, let them get involved. Let them buy into what you're doing. The colors, the themes. Let them have a participation by giving, asking for community feedback constantly. That's number 5. And I wrote a number 6 on here because it's not in my top 5, but I think that it's very, very important for not only building your business but for retention of your community. Okay, and that's customer service. Your community needs personal connection with customer service. Y'all, we're sick of the automation. Do you know how many times I have to do representative? Represent it like— I'm so over that. People want a personal connection through email, through text, a phone call. We need to build that. It's part of our community. And when your community knows that they can reach out and talk to a person, they're— you're going to have a stronger connection with them, and you're going to build your community a lot faster. And so I want you to take these 6 things today, and I want you to evaluate how you're doing them in your business. Number 1, customer-focused marketing. It's about them and not you. Number 2, user-generated content, which is also about them and not you. Don't focus so much on the perfect picture, the perfect brand, the perfect graphic, and focus on your customer using their user-generated content. When they start to see user-generated content on your site on your socials, you're going to get more people providing the user-generated content. They want to see themselves in your business. They want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Number 3, exclusive perks and rewards for your subscribers. How do you make them the VIP of your business? How do you make sure they feel like they're sitting in first class in your business. Number 4, host events, challenges, workshops, contests. Get them involved. Create events where they can feel like a community. Number 5, community feedback. You have to involve them in your decision-making for your business. You want them to understand that they are a part of your business as much as you are. Ask them questions, get ideas, ask for feedback. And then number 6, which is the extra one, is make sure your customer service has a personal connection. A community is greater than a brand. It's less expensive than building a brand and something that small and medium businesses have the superpower to do. So I want you to think about this as you go through this week, how you can be customer-focused, how you can be community-focused, even though we're selling products and not services. We can tie this into our everyday business, build that community, because that community will stay with you longer than trying to build a brand. All right, have a great rest of your Monday. Thanks for hanging out with me today, and I want to see your content shift. All right, have a great day. I'll see you soon.