How I Use a Live Box Opening to Increase Traffic, Conversions, & Retention

Good morning. Happy Monday, everybody. Let me know that you're here. Let me know where you're watching from. Are you on YouTube? Are you watching on Facebook? Are you inside one of our groups, Launch Your Box or Scale Your Box? Let me know where you're watching from this morning. Today we're going to talk about how I use a live unboxing to increase traffic, conversions, and retention. Last night I did a live box reveal on my e-commerce page, and as I've I was going through it, it's something that we are going to be talking about all year long. We're talking about these 5 healthy habits for your subscription box business. And one of those healthy habits is showing up, going live, showing up, engaging. And so as I was doing that last night, I got to thinking this morning about let's talk about how I am really using those lives to help drive traffic, to my website to increase conversions to subscribers and how I am using it to build retention in my subscription box business. Because if we think about those three things, that's all our businesses are. They're traffic, conversions, and retention. That is the, that is the core backbone of our subscription box businesses. And so if everything that we do, if we do it intentionally and if we do it for traffic, conversions, and retention, then we are always going to make progress. All right. I'm going to come over here and jump in the chat and say hi to everybody this morning, and then we're going to get in. Grab a notebook if you are a note-taker, because I want to give you some actionable things that you can do. Excuse me. I don't know if that was a cough or a sneeze. I want to give you some actionable things that you can do. Let me know in the chat. I'm going to take your temperature real quick. Are you doing a monthly or quarterly or whatever your subscription box recurring is? Are you doing a live unboxing? Say yes, live, or no, not live. Let me know in the chat because I want to, I want to see where we're at. We started this year off talking about 5 healthy habits for your subscription box business. Showing up, engaging your subscribers, and going live is one of those healthy habits. And if you didn't watch that Monday Momentum, we've got a link here for you. If you want to go back and watch those 5 healthy habits, I want you to write them down. I want you to put them on Post-it notes. I want you to attach that to your computer screen, the wall next to you, your corkboard, whatever that is. I want you to look at these 5 things every single week in your business, and I want you just implementing. How can I build these healthy habits into my business this year? We're going to talk about them all year long. I'm not going to let you slide on this. I am your permanent accountability buddy on these 5 things this year. So we're going to continue to talk about them because I'm going to continue to push you out of your comfort zone a little bit and get into these. And if you can just create healthy habits around these 5 things, then you're going to be winning, period. Period. We don't have to keep struggling and not knowing what to do. I just really want you to be building healthy habits in your business. And it's not about doing the next crazy thing and it's not about, you know, spending a whole bunch of money on ads. It's about building healthy habits in your business that you can do week after week, month after month for this entire year to really make progress. All right. I'm going to come over and say hi in the chat. I can see lots of YouTubers, man. The YouTube channel is off and popping and I just want to give a big thank you to everyone that has subscribed to the channel that is watching video, that are watching videos over there. We're putting some great content. I'm actually building content specifically for YouTube only right now. So if you are not over on the YouTube channel, I want to make sure that you subscribe over there. Team, can we grab the link to the YouTube channel and put it in the chat for anybody that hasn't subscribed yet? I can see Susie's over there. Hey, Andrea. Hey, everybody. I can see you are on YouTube. Bev's here. Hi, Denise. Good morning. Hello, Allison. Antoinette's here. Sarah's here. Good morning, Cameron. Good morning, everybody. Hey, Jonica. Hey, Carolyn. Um, I see Brandy's here. Okay, um, and let's talk about it. So I can see in the chat where a lot of you are no. No, we're not doing the live unboxing. Okay, some of you are yes. Hi, Marina. Um, okay. We are going to build those healthy habits. It is 1:30 AM. Jenny, thank you for being here from South Australia. Why are you up so late? Or is this you are up early? I don't know which one, but there is nothing about me that would be up at 1:30 in the morning. I couldn't even really make it past midnight on New Year's Eve. So, you know, it is what it is. OK, so let's, let's get into this. Last night, I, um, went and did my live. So every single month I do a live unboxing on my retail page, um, for my subscription box. So this was the February Monogram Box reveal, I believe. Okay, so it's like 26 minutes. So I was live for about 26 minutes last night. I'm at home last night. I did it from my home office. And I'm going through the box reveal. And there's really a couple goals when we talk about doing a live box opening. And the goal, the first goal, okay, because our goals are traffic, conversions, retention, okay? Traffic, conversion, retention. So the first goal is to get people to come watch. I'm looking for traffic here, and I do that with the hook, okay? The hook last night was, come join me for the February box reveal. And stick around because I'm going to give you the first look at the March Monogram Box sneak peek, and I'm going to give you your first look at the March T-Shirt Club reveal. Okay, so this is my hook. I want to get traffic to my live because if I can get traffic to my live, I know I have a better chance at converting. If you're not on my live, you're not I'm not going to convert you. I also have an opportunity to retain current subscribers. So if you come join me for the live and you're a subscriber, you're going to get to know, like, and trust me more. We're going to feel more like a community. And then I'm also going to be able to send more traffic over to the website during that live. Okay. So when you think about your hook to get people to come to your live, I want you to use words like reveal, First look, exclusive sneak peek. I want you to use those lives. That's, that's going to be, that's going to be the title of your live. That's going to be the first thing that you say when you go live and don't wait for people to show up. Okay. Because remember, about 85% of the people watching your live are going to watch it on the replay. They're not going to watch it live. Okay. Like I've got about 80 people watching me live right now. But I'm gonna have thousands of views on this by noon. Okay, so I need you to remember that you're going to have most people watching your live after you're not live anymore. Okay, so you can't wait around because if I'm scrolling my feed and I see a past live that you did and you're like, hey, I'm getting things set up and we'll just wait for a few people to get on and then I'll do the box reveal, I'm gonna keep scrolling. Because I don't know how long I'm going to have to wait. So I need you to instantly get into it and people will come. Don't worry about it. And if nobody comes, don't worry about it because people are going to watch on the replay. Okay, so, so then I'm going to start talking about my subscription box. Usually I give some kind of story about what I had going on for the day and what I'm doing. But the goal is to start Say the hook because that's what's going to hook people into actually watching your live. Let them know if they stick around, they're going to see the sneak peek for the next month. I need you to come. I need you to watch and I need you to stick around. Okay. So that's what I'm really doing with the hook. Now, during my live, we want to get, we want to send traffic to our website and I do this in a couple of different ways. You can do this by using a vanity URL. So if you went to monogrambox.com right now, you would, it would hit my sales page for my subscription box. Okay, so when I'm live, I can say, check it out at monogrambox.com. We can pop that in the chat. It's an easy vanity URL. So if you don't have a vanity URL that you can easily spit off as you're live, you wanna get one, okay? And a vanity URL is just a URL that is easy for someone to, put in, you know, in the little URL box, and it's going to redirect to your website. Okay, so if you go to monogrambox.com, you're going to hit my Monogram Box sales page. Okay, instead of going, oh, I need you to go to framedbysarah.com/monogrambox, but whatever that— whatever the real URL is. Okay, so that's a vanity URL. It's just a simple URL that you can use, um, during a live. The other thing that I like to do is I use a program called ManyChat, and what that does is I can put specific links into my ManyChat. I can tell the people watching to type the word link in the chat, and then I'm going to send them a message over into their Messenger and it's going to have the direct links to whatever I'm talking about. From there, I can put my monogram box, I can put my t-shirt club, I can put the cardigan that I was wearing with the t-shirt last night. All of those links were in that URL, and I could do that through a program called ManyChat. Okay, so we want to have a way once we get traffic to our live to also send traffic to our website. Okay, and you could drop a link in the comments, you could drop a link in the description, you can, you can use a vanity URL, or you can use something like ManyChat. Okay, many like M-A-N-Y. M-A-N-Y chat. Not mini like small, but many as in lots. Okay, if that— does that help you now? Okay, so, um, this person says, I don't recall getting a notification for your live unboxing. Do you send an invite only to your monogram box subscribers? I send a text invite to everyone on my text list. So if you are on my framed text list, you got a text from me last night that I was going live and unboxing the February box. Live and I was giving— it was the first look at your March Monogram Box. So that's what the text said last night. Now, the next goal, once I get traffic and I spit my hook off right in those first 7 seconds, those first 7 seconds are so crucial to your live. Okay, so don't wait. Get it on there. People have the lowest attention span ever in the, in the history of the world right now. So we have to say our hook right away. Then you can engage in a story. That's really when I engage in a story. I was talking about how I just got home from Dallas and blah, blah, blah. That's where I'm letting people join. But I'm just engaging with a little bit of a story. I also talked about how I, how I broke like 3 nails last night. So I was breaking— I was just talking basically, but I was engaging the audience after I had the hook. Letting people join me. Now the next goal is to really engage with the audience. So remember when I started this and I said, let me know that you're here, let me know where you're watching from, and that started some engagement in my chat. That was one way that you could do engagement. And then I said, let me know in the chat if you do a live unboxing or not. I'm engaging. I want you to be involved in this conversation. Okay, so that's the goal is to get them engaged. So last night I'm engaging, let me know if you're a subscriber and which subscription that you have because I have 3. So they're popping in the chat which subscription they have. I'm asking some questions. I can see how many people are joining me that are subscribers to my subscription. That's how I'm starting the engagement. We want to get them involved in the conversation. I don't want this just to be a one-way conversation. I need to engage. So I'm asking you to talk to me in the chat and that's what I'm doing there. And so I also said, hey, if you're new around here, and there wasn't a lot of new people watching me live last night. Those were pretty much my regulars and pretty much were all subscribers. But I'm going to tell you what I, what I wanted to do with that. I know a lot of new people are going to watch that video on replay. So I said, hey, if you're new around here, let me know that you're new in the chat. I would love to say hi to you. Okay, so I'm addressing the fact that new people are watching me. They weren't watching me last night, but I know they're going to watch me, and I'll tell you why in just a little bit when I get to that part. But this also helps with your retention. Okay, so we talked about traffic, getting people to the live, then getting people over to your sales page. That's the traffic that we're we're trying to increase as we do this live unboxing. Now I'm talking retention. If I see my subscribers in the chat talking about, you know, hey, I have the Ultimate, hey, I have the Combo, hey, I have the T-Shirt Club, I am talking to them, I am engaging with them, I am engaging with the existing subscribers. I need them to know that we're part of a community that's bigger than just this box. So I'm talking to them, I'm saying, hey Connie, I'm glad you love your Ultimate box. They're sharing all these wonderful things about their subscription. I love the color, I love this bag, I love this scarf, and I'm pulling that up on the screen. I need that to show that their comments matter, okay, and that I see them, I hear them. People just want to be seen and heard, and that's really all engagement is, is that I see you and I hear you. And sometimes when there's a lot of people live, you can't see and hear everyone, but when you can pull someone's comment onto the screen and really talk to them, they feel seen and heard. So I want you to try to do that as much as possible, but you have to have a balance with that because you don't want it to take over your whole life or you will lose people. Okay? So there's a fine line there. Engage with your existing subscribers. Nobody in the chat said they were brand new when I was live last night, but I would engage with non-subscribers too. I'd be like, hey Holly, so glad that you're here. Tell me how you found me. Like, let me know. How you came to my live. If you're brand new around here, I want to know that. Obviously, for my marketing research, my marketing efforts, I want to know how Holly found me. And so, um, I'm, I'm gonna get engaged with Holly. And then what I will see in my chat typically is subscribers will be like, oh my gosh, you need to sign up, you'll love this subscription. So they're, they're selling it for me in the chat too, because I've recognized there's a new person in the chat. Is there anyone new watching me right now? Like, is this the first few times that you've ever watched me live? Are you not in one of my programs? If you're new— and this is real— if you're new, let me know in the chat. Let me know if you're new to How to Start a Subscription Box. Well, let me know if you're new to Sarah Williams, because I would love to say hi to you. I'd love to welcome you into our world over here. Um, just the same way I'm doing it right now, that's exactly how I would do it on my live with my customers. Annette says she's new, so welcome, Annette. Looks like you're watching me on Facebook, so I love that. We have tons of freebies around here, so you can find that at my website at launchyourbox.com. Packaging cheat sheets, we got all kinds of great info, but I love that you're here. And if you like podcasts, I have a great podcast called the Launch Your Box Podcast. I can see that Elizabeth is here. Hi, Elizabeth. Hi, Brandy. I got a new YouTuber over here, so hi everybody. And then there's Lexi who just wants some attention. Hi Lexi! She's not new, she's not new around here, um, but it's that engagement. It takes so little of your life, um, but that's how we engage people. Okay, so I want you to do that, and I just want you to feel comfortable. I don't have to sell you anything, I don't have to do anything. I'm just telling Annette that I got some free resources if she wants some more information. She's new around here, she don't even know what my— not know what my website is. She might not know that I have a podcast. She might not know that she can watch some of these past Monday Momentums over on my YouTube channel. So I just want to serve my audience in that way. Okay. So anyway, this is how you engage. It's very simple. Make it very natural, make it very conversational. Okay. So that helps with our retention. Lexi feels seen and heard even though she's not new around here. You know, that's going to help with our retention. All right, so I want you to do that and don't be shy. It would be like somebody walking into your store and you saying hi to them, "Can I help you find something?" That's all it is and that's my background having that retail store. So that's all this is. I'm welcoming you into my store, into my world. Can I help you with anything? Are you looking for something special? Can I help you with a training, a blog, a podcast? Tell me what you need. I'll direct you to where it is, okay? Now, as I'm revealing each item, so we have the link if you want to go back and watch my live. Like, if you're listening to this and you just want to see it in action, it's on my public page. I do this publicly every month. Please go watch it. I want you to take some notes. I want you to see what I'm telling you. I want you to see how effortlessly I'm doing it during that live. And the thing about it is is that you get more comfortable with this the more you do it. So you get better and better. It's going to feel awkward and weird at first. You don't have to be salesy. It can be very conversational. The team is dropping the link from my box reveal, the Facebook link. You can go back and watch that today if you want to see this. It's very casual. I'm just me. I'm just me in this, in this live. Okay. Now, okay, so I'm starting to reveal this is the box and I want you to talk to people as if they've never seen your subscription before. Because again, we're gonna push this out in front of new people and I'm gonna tell you that at the end here. But I'm gonna talk to you as if you don't know what this is. This is the Monogram Box. I have 3 levels. We have the Monogram Box, the Combo Box, and the Ultimate Box. And as I open this, I'm gonna walk you through what's in each of those levels so that you have a good understanding after you watch that, which one you might want, okay? And so as I'm revealing each item, I'm telling them how to consume the item, okay? So this is for my subscribers. I'm telling them how to consume each item. So I take out the crossbody bag last night and I'm like, look at this crossbody, it's quilted, it's super soft. I can fit my big wallet in there. I hate getting a crossbody that I have to change wallets for. I'm telling you how much I love this item and how I'm using it. I love this crossbody because it fits my full-size wallet and my phone and my lip gloss and anything else that I want to take in it. And it has an adjustable guitar strap. So I am really selling you on something that you already got in your box, right? So you already got this in your subscription box. I'm just selling you on how much you should love this item, how you should use this item, how to consume it. I need you to take it out of the box, and I need you to use it. Because if that crossbody bag sits in that box for the next month and you never take it out and use it, you're going to feel like you're not using the product, you're going to cancel. So I need to sell you on something that I've already sold you. I've already sold you the box, right? I need to sell you on actually using the stuff in the box. Okay, so I'm talking about the crossbody bag, I'm talking about how functional it is, I'm talking about how I love— why I love it, because it fits my full-size wallet. Now, if somebody got this box last week and it's been sitting over there and like, oh, I could take this here, all I have to do is take my wallet out of my big purse, throw it in this one. I'm giving you ideas of how to consume it. Next item was this— was a scarf. Okay, and so, um, for the scarf, I, I show you different ways to wear it. I showed like 3 different ways to wear it. I also showed how you could use it as a lap blanket because it— you can fold it and lay it across your lap. Say if you're on a plane or you're traveling and you just want something to cover your legs. I showed you how to wear it in a couple different ways last night. I need you to consume that scarf. I need you to take it out of the box. I need you to use it. We have a few more cold months. It's a lightweight scarf, and so I need you to use it. So that's what I'm really showing you as I'm going through the box items, and you'll see that if you go back and watch, um, my live from last night. But if we can get our subscribers bought in on consuming what's in the box, they won't cancel. That's going to help our retention. If we also can show anyone that's not a subscriber how to use the items and how fun the items are and how functional they are, we're going to create more conversions. They're going to be like, oh, I love that crossbody. Oh my gosh, it would fit my full-size wallet and my phone and everything. I've been looking for something like that. I totally need to subscribe to this box. I love that scarf. I love that crossbody. I love the t-shirt. And so I'm creating conversions and I'm also increasing retention rates as I'm talking through each item of the box. It's great for both parties. It's great for your existing subscribers. You're building your know, like, and trust factor. You're helping them consume the contents. And also you're really showing the benefits of the items in your box for non-subscribers. And you're really creating that need and want for your subscription box. So that's why you've gotta go through each one of these. Now what's also great for you to do, in my case, I can wear the t-shirt in my box every month while I'm live. And you see me, you see me here, you can't see it 'cause the box is in the way, but I'm wearing the t-shirt. And so they can see how it looks. I'm wearing the earrings, I'm wearing the t-shirt. If you don't have something that's wearable in your box, say you have like something decorative, have it behind you. Say you have a tier tray box, have it set up on your tier tray behind you, the one you're showing. It doesn't matter that you're revealing it, but have it there. They need to see how you style it. They need to see how you use it. They need to see what it is. So if we can just really subtly do that, I do that by wearing the items. You could do that by displaying the items during your live as you're going through each piece, and then they're putting it all together behind them in their minds, like, oh, that looks so good on her tier tray behind me. So we've got to show them how to consume that box, the items in the box. And then what I do after I go through each item, I put it all back in and I hold it and I show them, and I just, I recap everything that's in, and then I'm saying, are you ready to see the sneak peek for the March Monogram Box. I want to create some FOMO. This also helps retention and creates conversions. Okay, so I'm showing you the sneak peek, you're getting excited about it, and let me show you what that looks like. Let me pull it in real quick. Um, I, I didn't pull it in prior. Let me see if it will let me Here, I'm just gonna fast forward on this, um, Facebook Live real quick so you can see where I get to— hang on, there's the bag. I'm talking about March, I'm telling him it's my birthday month. Okay, so here, here's where I pop the sneak peek in. Okay, so this was the sneak peek for the March box. Now they can't really tell what this box is, but I am excited about it. You can see the pop of color, you can see this bold monogram on it. And so I get them excited about what's coming next month from this one picture, okay? And so this helps me retain my subscribers because my subscribers that are watching are like, ooh, I can't wait, I can't wait, um, to get Sorry, anyone that's not a subscriber is like, oh, that's super cute. Um, I, I gotta get signed up before that box goes out. So I'm creating that FOMO. And you could do that with a sneak peek like I do there, and I do that every month. Or you can also do it if you reveal your items. You could do, this is your first look at the March t-shirt club, this is your first look, or this is one of the items in your March box. You, however you want to play this, give them something to get that, keep them excited. We don't want them to go in and cancel our subscription. We don't want them to say, oh, this box was fun. Maybe they didn't love all the things in this current box, but if I show them the sneak peek, I'll, I'll, they'll keep the excitement going. Okay, so we have to give them something to hold on to for the next month. Okay, I don't know who this is, I can't see their name. It said, I'm a subscriber and I just thought, oh, what's that? Exactly. Now you're excited. You're not thinking about going in and canceling your subscription because you can't wait for the next box to show up. Okay? So we've gotta create that FOMO. That's gonna help with retention. It's gonna help with conversions. Okay? Then our, our next step is to create a clear call of action. I'm gonna recap these simple for you. So if you wanna write 'em down in number order, I'll recap that for you. Create a clear call to action. We have to be clear. We have to tell people what we want them to do, right? So I have to say, join now to get that super cute March monogram box. Join now. And you'll hear me say that. Join now. Your payment will come out on March 1st. I say that in the live. If I had a waitlist or if you have a waitlist, you say get on the waitlist to be the first to know. And that link has to be there. Okay. For me, it's join now to get the March box. Type the word link in the chat and that's going to send them my mini chat. Or you could send them to your vanity URL, go over to monogrambox.com, or you could drop the link in the chat as you're talking about it and pin it to the chat in the live. Whatever that is, we have to be clear about what we want them to do. We can't go through all of this. We can't engage with our subscribers. We can't go through every item. We can't do all of this and not tell them what we want to do at the end of it. We have to do that. And I know it feels like you have to show up and sell, but it's easy. Do you love that sneak peek? Come join me. I've got X number of spots open. Sign up right here. Okay, now after the live, and this is important because everything that you do during the live, you're thinking about who's live with you, but I really want you to flip your mindset around that and think about who's going to watch it when you're done. I know that if I can get someone to one of my lives that I am more likely to convert them because they're going to know, like, and trust me. They're going to go through the what and the why of my subscription box. I'm going to show them the sneak peek. I'm going to do all the things with them that we just talked about. And for someone new, that's very important. It's not just sending them over to the sales page and telling them to sign up. They get to see who I am. They get to see how I put a subscription box together. They get to to see the process, see and hear instead of read. Okay? And so that's why it's important that after I'm done with this live, I shoot it out as a Facebook ad. I wanna get my warm audience in there 'cause I need the social proof. So I wanna use some of my warm audience to target, but I also wanna send this out to cold audiences too. So I wanna send it to both warm and cold. I need more subscribers. I need new people in my funnel. I need to push this out out so people can know, like, and trust me the same way my subscribers do. And so when you're talking on a live unboxing, remember that there are going to be brand new people see you for the first time. So don't just act like they know. That's important because a lot of times when we're live, we're talking to the people that are there, and a lot of times that's our subscribers. We have to introduce this and we have to talk to them Talk to our subscribers, but also talk to the people that are brand new, have never seen us before. And that's the goal. Okay. Number 1, state your hook right away. We gotta build traffic by having a good hook. Number 2, engage them once they're there. Okay. Engage your existing subscribers and engage non-subscribers. Number 3, as you reveal, you're going to show them how to consume the contents of your box. Show them the what, show them why, show them the how. Okay, number 4, create FOMO with the sneak peek, the reveal of the next box. And number 5, give it a clear call to action tell them exactly what you want them to do. If you can operate with those 5 things and do a live unboxing once a month or bimonthly or quarterly, whatever, whatever your frequency is, you're going to be able to increase your traffic, increase your conversions, and increase your retention with that one thing. With that one thing. And then you already know that I have lots of content that you can create from that one live. We talk about it inside LauncherBox, how you can take that one live, create emails, create reels, create more content from that one live. This one live is very, very powerful for your subscription box business. And if you're not going live right now, start with this. You can do it once a month, and then we can build so much content off of it. Healthy habits, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Healthy habits, that's what we're building in our businesses this year. All right, I want you to go live, I want you to do an unboxing, and I want you to let me know how it goes. All right, I'll see you guys this week. I'll be inside Launch Your Box doing box openings of your subscription boxes. And I'll also be in Scale Your Box doing our Zoom with Sarah this week. Both of those are on Thursday this week, so I'll see you inside the memberships.