During the pandemic shutdown and the recession, subscriptions services have used the unique situation to see 50% to 200% growth.
Many of the subscription services are known as “box subscriptions.” These services are booming because they offer customers quality products, tailored to their specific needs and wants, delivered right to their doorstep.
Businesses like Stitch Fix, Blue Apron and Birch Box, FabFitFun, Ipsy Glam Bag, and Winc are pulling in new – and loyal – subscribers as though there’s no recession at all.
Traffic to the top 270 box subscription sites is booming … and this platform still has incredible profit potential for growth.
Even larger corporations have developed their own box subscription services.
So, what is the #1 secret to successfully market and advertise your box subscription service?
It’s not just a neat idea, beautiful graphics, or stylized emails.
It’s direct response marketing.
Direct response marketing is the most powerful way to reach your best prospects, gain new customers, and increase profitably.
I’ve helped hundreds of clients supercharge their marketing, expand their customer base, and boost their recurring profits. We have tested more than 10,000 variables to see what works best.
Based on these results, here are 11 keys to help you supercharge your direct response marketing for your box subscription service.
- Postal and email list targeting.
To be successful, only use the very best postal and email lists. This requires knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. What works is a mixture of transactional data modeling and the best direct response names. Without the right names, it doesn’t matter how good your creative execution is. Call my list management company Infomat at (615) 933-4677 or email listmgr@infomatbiz.com for help on targeting the most responsive market.
- Use a multichannel, integrated campaign to supercharge response.
A multichannel, integrated campaign increases response because a prospect will see your offer again and again. They might see an ad on social media first, then notice a banner ad, get an email, receive a direct mail piece, then finally click through to your landing page to make a purchase. An integrated approach means that prospective customers have multiple opportunities to say “yes” to your offer. It’s a comprehensive campaign all to one tightly defined prospect universe.
- Use powerful direct response copy.
With any direct response marketing campaign, effective copy is key to the success of your email, Facebook ads, direct mail, banner ads, video, magalog, or catalog and other marketing tools. Highlight the unique benefits of your service. Be clear and specific. Write long copy if necessary.
- Drive customers to a landing page.
Create a separate landing page for your offers. When prospective customers click on banner ads, emails, paid search ads, and Facebook ads they should be taken to a page with a clear call-to-action to respond to your offer.
- Retargeting boosts sales.
Retargeting focuses on customers who have left your landing page or shopping cart without finishing a purchase. When you retarget these prospects with banner ads or additional material, they will remember to return to your page to finish a transaction.
- Custom lists help dramatically increase results.
Custom lists make it possible to market and advertise to your existing customers and prospects with Facebook, Bing, Google, pre-rolls, and more, targeting a finite universe for great results.
- Look-a-like audiences expand your prospects.
Look-a-like audiences imitate your best prospects. They can be built through Facebook, direct mail transactional data, traffic on Google search, AdRoll, Bing, and other platforms, so you can reach more prospects with email marketing, banner ads, and more.
- Pre-roll ads are powerful response boosters.
Pre-roll ads are video commercials that run before YouTube videos, for example. You can use them with powerful effect in retargeting campaigns to reach your best prospects – those who’ve already been to your order form – to entice them back.
- Value-added marketing creates a powerful incentive for prospective customers.
We call this V.I.V.A.: Valuable Information, Value Added. Offer prospective customers a free, added piece of relevant information or something useful to build rapport with them and change the tone of your marketing. When you offer something of value for free, you tell a prospect that you’re not just there to take, but to give. For example, for a direct mail campaign for the Wine of the Month Club, we enclosed a free checklist, advertised on the outer envelope [shown below].
- Make your shopping cart irresistible.
Many customers abandon their shopping carts for one reason or another. In fact, you could lose up to 80% of your orders because of a poorly optimized shopping cart. So, make sure your shopping cart has these three critical elements to help customers breeze through the order without pause …
#1: Have no more than two steps during the checkout process.
#2: Include direct response copy and graphics on your checkout page to reinforce the benefits or your product or service.
#3: Avoid any navigation distractions in your shopping cart.
- Offer coupons, discounts, and special promos.
Try a special promo, discount code, or coupon as an added incentive to sign up for your subscription service. For example, offer prospects the first month of subscription at a reduced rate. Advertise this offer across all your channels, including direct mail, your landing page, banner ads, and social media. For Wine of the Month Club, we offered customers two bottles of wine and four glass goblets for less than $10.
I’d be glad to talk to you more about these powerful marketing strategies, and about what we can do to create powerful marketing materials and strategies to help you profitably grow.
Give me a call today at (615) 615-947-6120, or email Caleb at caleb@cdmginc.com. Ask for our special report on subscription box marketing.
And, for postal or email list targeting, call InfoMat at (615) 933-4677 or email listmgr@infomatbiz.com.