Start a Subscription Box with Julie Ball

Posted in Podcast

There is something really powerful when your audience can touch and feel and hold something that belongs to your company.

In the digital world, it’s easy to forget about the power of physical products. We recently started a merch store, not as a huge revenue builder but so our audience has something to physically connect with.

Today I’m talking with Julie Ball, she is the head honcho over at Sparkle. Hustle. Grow. and Subscription Box Bootcamp.

She has been featured EVERYWHERE about her subscription box for female entrepreneurs.

This episode is Jam-Packed! We’re going to cover a lot of ground, so if you’re interested in learning all about how to start a subscription or even participate in one, press play on today’s episode!

In today’s episode, we talk about:

Starting your own subscription box.
Adding a subscription box model to your already existing business.
Utilizing subscription boxes even if you don’t want to start one.

Some of the highlights of this episode include:

Thinking Outside the Box (:smirk:)

Julie’s story is so fascinating! In this episode, we dive in and discuss how she went from running her own online marketing firm to seeing an opportunity to send happy mail to women just like her!

It’s wild to think that she has grown her business and is now coaching others on how to start their own subscription box business! And it all started with an idea and 50 purchased boxes!

I love her take on who she thinks could benefit from incorporating subscription boxes:

Product-based businesses…no brainer.
Brick and mortar shops…obvi.
Digital services….that’s right, even online businesses can join in!

There really is something powerful when a physical product, digital service, and community meets.

Don’t stop at just the physical product. You have to realize you have an audience that is connecting over something, otherwise, they wouldn’t want your product. So take it up a level and give them somewhere to connect and experience more.

“Ok…but like…how do I start?”

We get into the nitty-gritty on how to actually take steps – what it really takes – to start your own subscription box.

Julie shares her 5 Steps to Prelaunch

Carve out your concept.

What is your target audience?

What is the pain point you’re trying to solve?

As you think about this you want to be a non-negotiable, you can’t just be a luxury item. You want to be with that customer for a long time.

Nurturing/growing your email list.

Today’s industry-standard: email is where you’re going to convert.

Don’t let the insecurity or fear of not being 100% ready keep you from engaging your list. Nurture your audience and get them primed to buy.

TIP for growing your email list…a Giveaway! Something that works even better is if you can collaborate with someone else and get in front of their audience as well.

Develop your product.

This is the phase where you work on your prototype. Work on a mock-up of your vision.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to represent everything that’s in the box. Do some research. Do some shopping and mock it up.

Tech Time.

You need to have a solid platform to do online business. Find a platform that supports recurring billing. CrateJoy Subbly, Shopify. Figure out what is right for you.

5. Keep it simple.

Don’t offer customizations right out of the gate. Using scarcity and time sensitivity I launched to my email list of 1000 and offered 100 boxes only. Because I pre-launched I was funded for the real launch.

Hot Tip: If you have an idea of how many boxes you want to sell at launch you need to 10x that number for your email list. So if you want to sell 100 boxes at launch, you need to have a list of 1000.