6 Habits of Highly Successful Subscription Boxes

Do you ever wonder what makes some subscription boxes take off while others are barely getting out of the gate? Well, after coaching thousands of subscription box owners and reviewing more websites than I can count, I've spotted the patterns. And today I'm pulling back the curtain and giving you the 6 habits that I see over and over again in the most subscription— successful subscription box businesses. Now, these habits aren't about fancy tech or big budgets or going viral. They're practical, they're proven, and they're totally doable no matter where you're at on your journey. So if you're ready to stop guessing and start growing, let's dive into the 6 habits of highly successful subscription boxes.

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.

Welcome back to the Launch Your Box podcast. After coaching thousands and thousands of subscription box owners and personally reviewing hundreds of different websites, I've really seen it all, the boxes that thrive and the boxes that really fizzle. So in this episode today, I wanted to break down the common traits of successful ones, you know, the ones that grow steadily, the ones that retain their subscribers so that way you can understand what separates a thriving subscription box from one that really struggles to gain traction? So if you've wondered that question, you're definitely in the right place today. So let's talk about these, these 6 key things that every successful subscription box owner that I work with have in common. The first one is that they know exactly who their box is for. So here, what we need to understand is that the clarity on who your ideal customer is is the foundation of everything. And we talk about it a lot over in Launch Your Box, but it's one of those things that it's not sexy, you know, it's not like the fun thing that we do. It's not packaging or curating or any of the fun parts of owning a subscription box. It's the unsexy thing though that we have to deal with, but it's so important and that's why I put it as number 1. Because the most successful people in our world are the ones that have full clarity on who their ideal customer is. And so I want you to think about this. It's not for everyone is a great thing. We don't want to be for everyone. You know, I saw a question in one of my Q&As over the last few weeks. I want to do a box for her. I want to do a box for them, him. I want to do a box for the couple. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. I know we want to do those things, but we have to dial in so deep on that one person. We can't be talking to 3 different people on our page. We can't be talking to 3 different people on our websites. So the most successful subscription box owners, they have really defined who it's for and why it matters to her. Why she feels like this box is for her and what she feels when she opens it. And we do that in a lot of different ways. And that includes our brand voice. Like, how do we come across? Are we snarky and sassy and fun? Are we warm and intentional and inviting? Like, what is your brand voice like? We do this with our brand voice. We do it with our brand colors. We do this with our product selection. All of that is tailored towards one person. And then everything you do is based off that one person. Your website copy and creative, one person. Your social media content speaks to that one person. Your lead magnet, your curation, it, it all creates cohesiveness that speaks directly to that one person. And we have to have that continuity. And when you know who that is, like deeply know who she is, That's how we're successful, because everything's aligned. Everything that we do is for that one person. So let me help you understand that by asking you, who is your box not for? That might really help you clarify who it is for. So when you think about, who is my box not for? I think about my own subscription box, right? So it's not for men. Big clarity moment. It's not for teens. It's not for women that don't want to be trendy and they want to wear the same sweatshirt from 1980. Like, that's who it's not for. So does that help me clarify who it is for? Yeah, it's for women ages 30 to 60, want to feel trendy, want to feel put together, but don't know where to start. That is who I'm for. And so everything I do has to speak to that. So number 1, they know exactly who their box is for. That is the most important. And that's why it's number 1, because it drives the action to every single thing that you do in your subscription box business. Got it? Okay. Now, number 2. They built an audience before they launched your box. When I think about the members of my mastermind or the members that I have in Scale Your Box, um, and I think about the most successful ones that are in there, and the commonality between every one of them is that they spent time building an audience before they launched. A launch without a solid audience is really just a dart on the dartboard. You don't even know what's going to happen. And if you're not a good aim, it's not going to turn out well. They didn't wait till launch month to start showing up and building. They built an audience through social media, through lives and showing up in reels and posts. About them and their life and their daily behind the scenes. They built an email list. They set up freebies that went directly to their ideal customer. They built a waitlist. They got visible. They used behind the scenes, they used storytelling, they used sneak peeks, all of this to attract their perfect person. Audience building then didn't stop once they launched. The most successful subscription box owners that I know audience build every single day of every single month, 365. They kind of treat it like brushing your teeth. You got to do it daily. It's part of our business hygiene. It's part of our business routine. We get up, brush our teeth, get our clothes on, we get up, we talk about our products, we share on social media, we go live. I've seen brand new boxes get 100 subscribers or more, not because of a fancy ad, not because they had 1,000 people on their email list, because they kept showing up and they kept building an audience. I think back, I know I have a podcast episode on it, but I don't recall what number that is. But I think about Amanda with Mandelin Plans, and she has a planner subscription, and, um, her social media platform was YouTube, and she had no intentions of selling, right? She just was showing up on YouTube and sharing her cool— she has a Hobonichi planner, it's a thing. If you have no idea what I just said, it's a thing. And, um, she would just show up on YouTube and do videos of her planning in her planner, and then she would use like her her Cricut or Silhouette or whatever it was that she was using to make stickers and things for her planner. And, and people were showing up and watching her and planning their planners with her. And they started to say, hey, will you sell us the stickers that you're making? Hey, will you sell us that sheet you just put in your planner? And what happened is she had about 300. Now let— help me understand. I want to help you understand. We have to have thousands of people to launch. She had 300 YouTube followers, launched her planner subscription, and sold out of her first launch with 100 subscribers. Do you know why? Number 1, she knew exactly who her box was for and wasn't trying to sell to everyone. And number 2, she spent a lot, she spent a lot of time building that audience before she ever launched a product. So I want you to ask yourself, what am I going to do this week to grow my audience? How can I show up this week and really dial into who my ideal customer is? Okay, number 3, they retain their subscribers with purpose. Getting someone to subscribe is just like acquisition win number 1. It's your first win. But keeping them is really how you keep your business strong. A lot of times what I see are members that are super hyper-focused on acquisition, acquiring those new customers, but there's not a lot of thought or intention put behind retaining our subscribers. So my most successful subscription box owners They know their customer journey. They know how long they stay. They know why they stay. They create the reasons to stay. And so if you don't have retention on the forefront of your mind on a regular basis, this is where things start to fall flat. So I want you to think about their journey. How long do they stay? What's their LTV? What is this? What is a new subscriber mean to me? And then how long can I keep them around? Because the longer you keep them, the less you have to acquire. The longer you keep them, the more profitable you are. We need to create consistency to keep our subscribers. So consistency in packaging, consistency with our products, consistency with the unboxing experience. And then how are we showing up online? In their inbox. Like, we got to do the unboxings, we got to tease the next one, we got to keep them interested so they don't cancel. And the best subscription box owners build a community. You can do that publicly. You can do that in private groups. You can have subscriber shoutouts and testimonials. You can— I've even seen several of my members do like monthly Zoom calls with their subscriber. How are we building community around our subscription box? And then the one that I love to do is just sprinkling in a few surprise and delights in their, in their boxes. So I want you to think about how you can do that as well. For me, my average box subscriber stays for 17 months. That's 17 sales from one person. And it's far easier for me to retain that subscriber than to acquire a new one. So I want you to think about this. What do you— what do your subscribers experience after the checkout? Map it out. What does it look like when they become a subscriber? What happens next? And what does that lead to? When do they get their first box? How does that experience feel? How are you infusing that experience in them? And then how long are they staying and why are they staying? I want you to think about that. Okay. Number 4, man, I've seen this a lot lately. Their website converts. Your website is probably the most important sales tool that you have. It isn't a brochure. It isn't a how-to guide. It isn't a pamphlet about your business. A successful website answers 3 things above the fold. And when I say above the fold, when you land on a website before you scroll at all, that's called above the fold. It's that first impression. And most successful websites answer those 3 things not with a bunch of text, with a headline, with a subheadline, with an image, and a call to action button. This is what they answer: what it is, who it's for, why I need it. If you look at above the fold on your website Does your subscription at— does your subscription page answer what it is, who it's for, and why do I need it? Or do I have to figure that out by scrolling through the whole page? I want no confusion when we land on a site. No scrolling needed to understand it's a subscription box and it's for women and this is what kind of things are in it. We need strong visuals, high-quality photos of the box, what's inside. Put a pass box up there. Simple, clean checkout experience. I want you to go through that checkout experience because we think we have all the things set up. And then when we actually go through the checkout process, it's a little clunky. And I get this question asked a lot too, like, Should I put my price on the page or wait till they check out? Price transparency. It helps eliminate the cart abandon. So if they know up front, what are my options? What is my price before I even click that to check out? I reviewed a website recently and they have a great product. They have a great box. But there was nothing visual above the fold. There was no photos of an actual box. If someone has to guess what they're buying, they're not buying. Make it so clear. And what I, what I hated was this brand was so colorful and vibrant and fun, and all they had was text above the fold. So here's your, here's your little audit for you. I want you to open your box page. Can someone understand your box in 5 seconds? I want you to look at it with fresh eyes. Okay, number 5. All successful subscription box owners that I know started small, and they're okay with that. Slow, steady, profitable growth beats fast and chaotic any day. Most successful subscription box owners that I know didn't aim to get 500 subscribers out of the gate. They grow intentionally. 50, 75, 200, 300, 500. They understand cash flow because growing too fast can drain your resources. Because if I start with 100 subscribers, I have to buy 100 of everything right out of the gate before I even have any revenue, right, from, from my subscribers. So is it better for me to start with 50 and then next month I'll do 100? Think about that. They'd rather sell out of their waitlist than overbuy and get stuck. That's where some people get in trouble. So I want you to think about that too. I've seen boxes grow so fast that they couldn't afford to keep up. They are cash poor, they are stressed, and they are scrambling. It's so much easier on you to start small and manage your growth. So think about this. What is your subscriber cap right now? What can you fulfill comfortably right now at this level? Start with that. Grow intentionally. Don't overdo it. Section— not section— number 6. Number 6: they keep showing up. They keep showing up even when it's not going perfectly, even when it feels hard, even when they don't want to. Success is is built on consistency, not perfection. You don't have to be the best at anything to be successful. And in my experience, if you are the best at something, you're typically not the most successful because you don't have any aspect of consistency. They keep emailing even when open rates drop. They keep posting even when no one's engaging or engagement dips. They test, they pivot, they tweak. They don't quit. And they don't compare themselves, that is, to someone that is 3, 5, 10 years ahead of them. Don't compare your beginning to someone else's middle. That will steal all excitement and joy from you. The box that you admire with a, with 1,000 subscribers, 2,000 subscribers, 3,000 subscribers— she had 44 at one point, just like you. But she kept showing up and showing up. And she didn't give up when things got hard. She didn't give up when subscribers dipped. She didn't give up. She kept going. And it's that consistency that made her successful. So I want you to think about this: what is one way that you can keep showing up this week, even if it's not perfect? Show up with your pajamas and a, and a messy bun on and your glasses. Show up when you feel chaotic for 5 minutes, 10 minutes. Show up behind the scenes. You're working on something today. Film it. 30 seconds of it. 10 seconds of it. Film it. Show up. And I need you to do that over and over and over again, almost to the point where you're bored with it. The most successful people don't jump from thing to thing to thing to thing. They stay laser-focused on the one thing even when it gets boring. I've just shared our 6 key traits that I see in the most successful subscription box owners that I've coached. So I want you to ask yourself, which one of these is your strength and which one of these is your opportunity? I want you to pick something to work on this week, and let's start to do that. And I also want you to celebrate your growth. We need to have that. I'll be back next week with another great episode.