Shownotes
Build In Repeat Sales With Subscription Programs
Tune into this conversation packed with actionable tips to discover:- How to funnel customers into a subscription program where people make repeat purchases.
- What NOT to do when it comes to subscriptions.
- The key to re-engaging with customers after their first purchase.
- Keeping customers engaged with their subscriptions to develop higher lifetime values.
- Ideas to provide value for subscribers beyond just money off on the order.
- How to make sure the right people get the right communications (i.e., you don’t want one-time customers to receive emails or texts for those in subscription and vice versa).
- And tons more!
Listen to this value-packed episode now to learn how to build in repeat business through subscription programs for your business!
Brandon's Contact Links
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Gift Biz Unwrapped Guest,
Speaker:episode number 391 Recurring billing.
Speaker:So you've got the credit card tokenized and you're gonna hang
Speaker:it at a defined date in the future for another order
Speaker:without the customer having to do anything.
Speaker:Attention, Gifters,
Speaker:Bakers, crafters and Makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one
Speaker:now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is Gift Biz Unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host Gift Biz gal Sue Moon Height.
Speaker:Well, hello and happy autumn from the Gift Biz Headquarters in
Speaker:northern Illinois.
Speaker:I'm in the best mood because this is such a glorious
Speaker:time of the year.
Speaker:It's brisk outside.
Speaker:The leaves are turning to shades of mustard,
Speaker:paprika, and sage.
Speaker:And the stage is being set for Halloween and Thanksgiving.
Speaker:That's one thing I love about living here.
Speaker:Things are always changing with one season,
Speaker:winding down and the next,
Speaker:making it entrance in all its glory with the seasons.
Speaker:I know what to expect during these transitions.
Speaker:Not completely,
Speaker:but overall,
Speaker:I know what fall,
Speaker:winter, spring,
Speaker:and summer will bring.
Speaker:Wouldn't it be nice if you could be more predictable with
Speaker:your business too,
Speaker:especially in terms of sales,
Speaker:Then your projections wouldn't be hopeful guesses,
Speaker:but more targeted thought through numbers based on a plan getting
Speaker:you to this point is what we're talking about today.
Speaker:Specifically how to set up your systems to build in repeat
Speaker:business. That way it's less left up to chance if a
Speaker:customer will ever buy from you again.
Speaker:You're more in control and accordingly,
Speaker:your sales are more predictable and can multiply just like a
Speaker:snowball growing and growing as it rolls down the hill.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:enough with the analogies,
Speaker:let's get into the details of how you can make this
Speaker:happen in your business Today.
Speaker:It's my pleasure to introduce you to Brandon Aroso.
Speaker:Brandon is the founder and CEO of Electric,
Speaker:a company that scales brands with profitable eCommerce models built from
Speaker:innovative proprietary methods.
Speaker:Today we're gonna talk about subscription models.
Speaker:Brandon will share with us his experience with the difference between
Speaker:subscription and non-subscription brands,
Speaker:how to get people to join and what companies often get
Speaker:wrong with loyalty programs.
Speaker:Brandon's the perfect person to hear from for this topic because
Speaker:he focuses on strategies that increase customer lifetime value by creating
Speaker:best in class consumer experiences,
Speaker:which can be naturally built into the subscription model.
Speaker:Brandon, welcome to the Gift Biz Unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Thank you for having me.
Speaker:I'm so excited to talk everything subscription and subscription boxes,
Speaker:this is gonna be amazing.
Speaker:But before we dive in,
Speaker:I have a traditional question I'd like to ask you.
Speaker:If you were to describe yourself through a motivational candle,
Speaker:help us envision what that would look like by color and
Speaker:a quote or a mantra or saying something like that.
Speaker:I think it would have to be a red candle,
Speaker:just because that's been historically my favorite color.
Speaker:And then I'd probably go with,
Speaker:I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things
Speaker:I haven't done.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:Yeah. So often we'll just put off taking action or doing
Speaker:something because we're afraid of what the result might be and
Speaker:then we either never,
Speaker:ever do it and continually talk about,
Speaker:Oh, someday.
Speaker:Someday. Yep.
Speaker:Or never even get into it at all ever,
Speaker:I guess I'd say.
Speaker:Right? Yeah.
Speaker:That's how I feel about most things.
Speaker:I guess the regret or the what if around what if
Speaker:I had done this is worse I think,
Speaker:than going for whatever it was and then it potentially not
Speaker:panning out.
Speaker:Cause at least you went for it.
Speaker:Yeah. Because what if it does pan out?
Speaker:Yeah, well that's even better.
Speaker:You'll never know unless you take the chance,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:So I think a lot of people who are listening can
Speaker:relate to that and I think it's human nature,
Speaker:like everyone goes through that.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:well what if this doesn't work out?
Speaker:I'm gonna put myself out there.
Speaker:Am I gonna be embarrassed?
Speaker:Is my ego gonna take a hit?
Speaker:Anything like that.
Speaker:But I do kind of feel,
Speaker:I mean you're a little younger than me Brandon,
Speaker:but in this environment and this world now people are taking
Speaker:those chances and it's much more acceptable if you will now.
Speaker:So the culture's just kind of gravitated to a point where,
Speaker:Go for it.
Speaker:A lot of people are so why not you?
Speaker:Yeah, I think that's been one of the interesting things we've
Speaker:seen over the last five years is more and more people
Speaker:just going for it,
Speaker:whatever it may be,
Speaker:a lot more entrepreneurs than ever before.
Speaker:And I think part of that is to do with just
Speaker:the internet and the rise of just knowledge that is easily
Speaker:accessible to everyone and more and more sort of influential people,
Speaker:whether it's on social media,
Speaker:whatever it may be,
Speaker:are showing that there's a different way to like have a
Speaker:career and it's really picked up a lot of traction.
Speaker:Yeah, agree with you.
Speaker:Well give us a little backstory over and above what I
Speaker:talked about in your intro of how you've gotten into the
Speaker:specialty that you have with electric.
Speaker:Yeah, so I started working for Direct to Consumer Wine Company
Speaker:my sophomore year of high school.
Speaker:It's like a social media intern.
Speaker:Got to wear a bunch of different hats,
Speaker:jump around.
Speaker:They were a startup.
Speaker:They were only about five or six people at the time
Speaker:that I started.
Speaker:I actually took a gap year in between high school and
Speaker:college to work there full time.
Speaker:I was like a marketing associate before I ended up going
Speaker:to USC out in LA and about a year into USC
Speaker:I decided to leave that company and take everything that I've
Speaker:learned there and start to freelance primarily for businesses in and
Speaker:around the LA area that were artisan like craft makers.
Speaker:Usually one to two person companies doing anywhere from a hundred
Speaker:thousand dollars a year in revenue to at the absolute highest
Speaker:end, like a million dollars in revenue.
Speaker:And I found all of them at Renegade Craft Fairs,
Speaker:which are,
Speaker:I think they're like a nationwide organization at this point,
Speaker:but they're like little popups that are two or three day
Speaker:events where 40,
Speaker:50, even a hundred artisans and makers will come to showcase
Speaker:their product.
Speaker:There's like airplanes,
Speaker:there's unique t-shirt shops,
Speaker:there's candles,
Speaker:the whole gamut.
Speaker:And they almost all were on Shopify and they made really
Speaker:cool products but they didn't really have a strong grasp on
Speaker:what to do when it came to anything e-commerce,
Speaker:which made sense because they were really good at making their
Speaker:product. They also weren't digital marketing experts.
Speaker:So I worked for them for free or super cheap to
Speaker:build out a bunch of reviews and case studies.
Speaker:Fortunately got it to a point where I was able to
Speaker:hire one full-time employee just before graduating back in May of
Speaker:2019 and then moved into dinky little office in Chinatown in
Speaker:LA with no natural light and no windows.
Speaker:So that was fun.
Speaker:Worked in that for about nine months before I moved down
Speaker:to San Diego,
Speaker:which is where we experienced a lot of our growth.
Speaker:Say we had our first really like big jump up as
Speaker:a company from about five to 12 people in 2020 I
Speaker:wanna say.
Speaker:And I always forget if the pandemic started in 2020 or
Speaker:2021. Like time is sort of a vacuum.
Speaker:Yeah, it was 2020.
Speaker:It was 2020.
Speaker:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:Yeah, so we were at about nine or 10 team members
Speaker:when that happened and I had no idea what was going
Speaker:to happen.
Speaker:None of us did actually back Then it was definitely a
Speaker:little freaked out.
Speaker:But I actually moved down to San Diego about two months
Speaker:after like the pandemic started and started to focus in on
Speaker:hiring team members in and around that area.
Speaker:Got the team to about like 25 just through referrals and
Speaker:through building out a network in San Diego.
Speaker:And then from there in 2021 we had to sort of
Speaker:pivot our strategy and focus entirely on retention marketing because when
Speaker:we first started I was like still learning and trying to
Speaker:do a whole lot of everything.
Speaker:But once we were able to hone in on this was
Speaker:like our true core competency that unlocked a lot of growth
Speaker:for us.
Speaker:So we ended last year with about 40 team members and
Speaker:then we actually got acquired in April of this year by
Speaker:a software company.
Speaker:Very cool.
Speaker:This so falls in line with what I think a lot
Speaker:of people experience who are listening here because many,
Speaker:many makers start with something like Renegade Craft shows,
Speaker:right? Yep.
Speaker:So it might be a local show that they have,
Speaker:might be a church bizarre,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:just to get their feet wet with this whole idea of
Speaker:making a product and then selling it and going through all
Speaker:the processes,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:And what I found as we got shut down at home,
Speaker:there were so many makers who didn't have an online presence,
Speaker:just like what you're talking about.
Speaker:And up until this point,
Speaker:many were successful without it because they were doing shows every
Speaker:single weekend and the only way they were selling was face
Speaker:to face but never getting what you're talking about here.
Speaker:These repeat sales and continuity with these customers that they worked
Speaker:so hard to create and then it was kind of one
Speaker:and done.
Speaker:Yeah. And I think there's a unique opportunity though in having
Speaker:that in-person presence and now going back into doing these shows,
Speaker:they'll be better off because they understand that they can nurture
Speaker:this relationship with this customer beyond just that one time purchase
Speaker:when they were there physically and they can put them into
Speaker:their email and SMS list and start to communicate with them
Speaker:for years down the road to help increase lifetime value versus
Speaker:just transaction at the event.
Speaker:I hundred percent agree with you,
Speaker:but I think this is a timeframe when we're really at
Speaker:risk because it's so easy to go back to what you
Speaker:used to know,
Speaker:thinking like this was a hiccup in time,
Speaker:it'll never happen again and jump back into what's always been
Speaker:comfortable versus now taking the approach of let's use these things
Speaker:together to make the business even stronger.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you can still be at the show attracting new people,
Speaker:seeing past customers just for re deepening relationships.
Speaker:But then also what about those people who can't come back
Speaker:to a show for whatever reason they've moved away,
Speaker:who knows what the number of reasons are,
Speaker:but why not continue to be able to get business from
Speaker:them, which is exactly what you are talking about and you're
Speaker:specializing in.
Speaker:And honestly most people don't look at it,
Speaker:they're always looking for the next new person.
Speaker:I mean look at how our behavior is on social media.
Speaker:We're always wanting more followers and well what about the ones
Speaker:you have,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:serving and working with the people that you already have?
Speaker:So I think this is gonna be super value in terms
Speaker:of conversation as we continue forward here.
Speaker:But I do have another question for you.
Speaker:So those 40 people that you were talking about that you
Speaker:were building with the team,
Speaker:what were they doing?
Speaker:What were those people doing that you were hiring in?
Speaker:Yes, we had about 10,
Speaker:well I'd say about eight or nine developers.
Speaker:So like front end,
Speaker:primarily Shopify developers.
Speaker:We had,
Speaker:or we still have,
Speaker:cuz this is still operating,
Speaker:we have two designers.
Speaker:So IU X designers,
Speaker:we had about a team of 12 email and SMS specialists
Speaker:who also sort of doubled as retention marketing experts.
Speaker:And then we had a team of about four client success
Speaker:managers, had some SEO and content people,
Speaker:had a few social media people and then myself a salesperson,
Speaker:sort of like an executive assistant and that was basically the
Speaker:full suite of our team.
Speaker:Okay. Did you or do you specialize in Shopify site and
Speaker:then the whole experience around that?
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:So basically,
Speaker:okay, getting that first purchase,
Speaker:once that purchase happens,
Speaker:everything from there really falls in our purview.
Speaker:We do a little bit on like the onsite optimization to
Speaker:get that first purchase to happen and increasing aob,
Speaker:but we're not doing any like paid acquisition campaigns or Facebook
Speaker:ads or anything like that focusing entirely on customer experience and
Speaker:retention and Okay.
Speaker:Only for businesses that are on Shopify.
Speaker:Okay, perfect.
Speaker:Well Shopify is my platform of choice.
Speaker:Anyone who's listening knows that I say that all the time.
Speaker:So we're right in alignment there.
Speaker:But let's move on to the topic at hand,
Speaker:which is subscription boxes.
Speaker:Obviously it falls right into play with my audience.
Speaker:I call my audience Gifters Bakers,
Speaker:crafters and Makers.
Speaker:And the thing that's so great about our products is many
Speaker:of them can be repurchase over and over again.
Speaker:Either they're candles that burn that need to be replaced or
Speaker:beauty products or jewelry because as a woman,
Speaker:let's face it,
Speaker:none of us can have enough jewelry.
Speaker:You might not know that Brandon,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:we can't or we can use 'em for gifts.
Speaker:Like there's so many different types of things where subscription boxes
Speaker:could really aid in at least a portion of our customers
Speaker:coming back over and over again.
Speaker:So let's start off I guess maybe with the difference between
Speaker:what you see with customers that run subscriptions of some sort
Speaker:and then those who don't.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:So the difference between the stores that have subscription programs versus
Speaker:those that don't.
Speaker:Yeah. And when you say subscription programs,
Speaker:let's start there and define what that is for everyone so
Speaker:we know we're on the same level playing field here.
Speaker:Yeah, so I mean there's typically two types.
Speaker:There's websites where you go to it and you'll see the
Speaker:subscribe and save sort of widget on each product page.
Speaker:So similar to like Amazon or Chewy,
Speaker:if you have a pet you will get like five to
Speaker:20% off if you sign up for auto delivery of whatever
Speaker:that order is that you're putting in your basket.
Speaker:And then second is companies that are even more subscription focused
Speaker:where they have like a whole subscription flow either through like
Speaker:a quiz or you're building your own subscription box bundle or
Speaker:they have like special curated sort of kits that you can
Speaker:subscribe to or you think of like a book of the
Speaker:month club or something or a Coffee of the Month Club.
Speaker:Those are typically the two subscription programs that we're working with.
Speaker:Okay. So and we also,
Speaker:I mean I've seen and talked with some customers here who
Speaker:will do things like you return your bottle to us and
Speaker:will refill it and send it out.
Speaker:So that kind of a creative thing too.
Speaker:So you could almost say subscriptions are anything that is encouraging
Speaker:and using an automated next purchase.
Speaker:Yeah, recurring billing.
Speaker:So you've got the credit card tokenized and you're gonna ping
Speaker:it at a defined date in the future for another order
Speaker:without the customer having to do anything.
Speaker:Yeah that's understood between both of you and you can just
Speaker:take it and go from there with it,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:And so is that what you describe as the difference,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the one time off sales versus the recurring billing or would
Speaker:you say there's more to that?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean the one time sales are better in particular
Speaker:use cases and I actually like to use like one time
Speaker:sales as a funnel into subscription programs.
Speaker:I'm not a big proponent of,
Speaker:and you see it on some websites where they force you
Speaker:into subscription for that first order and they'll give you some
Speaker:crazy percentage off like 40% off your first order.
Speaker:But only if it's a subscription.
Speaker:To me as a consumer it's like how am I going
Speaker:to subscribe to something if I've never even tried it before?
Speaker:Like I don't even know if I'm gonna like it and
Speaker:it's like a nice like marketing gimmick or tactic but we
Speaker:haven't necessarily seen it pan out in terms of retention and
Speaker:ltv. Cause the other thing to keep in mind is that
Speaker:as soon as somebody cancels a subscription,
Speaker:you're more likely to have lost that customer forever than somebody
Speaker:who makes a one-time purchase and then you reengage with them
Speaker:in like 90 days or 120 days.
Speaker:There's this like consumer mindset where you cancel that subscription,
Speaker:you're almost like canceling your relationship with that brand.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I can't even believe how relevant this is because just this
Speaker:morning, this is no joke,
Speaker:just this morning there's something that I've been wanting to purchase
Speaker:and I decided,
Speaker:Sue, it can be a birthday present for you.
Speaker:And now my birthday's until December,
Speaker:mind you.
Speaker:But I'm thinking early and it's a beauty product,
Speaker:it's a product that you buy and then there are refillable
Speaker:cartridges if you will that you have to buy to use
Speaker:the product,
Speaker:but they don't even allow you to just buy it one
Speaker:time to try it.
Speaker:It's only subscription And I'm like well first off I wanna
Speaker:try it second,
Speaker:I don't even know which one I want long term and
Speaker:maybe I wanna use different types of parts to it,
Speaker:not just one.
Speaker:So how can this even be a subscription?
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:I did exactly what you said.
Speaker:I'm like all right,
Speaker:I don't even know that I like this and I bounced
Speaker:off where they would've already had my purchase but because they
Speaker:were forcing me into that subscription,
Speaker:I'm on hold.
Speaker:I'm not saying I'm not,
Speaker:but I'm on pause for the time being.
Speaker:What do you think just in terms of based on what
Speaker:you've seen offering both because for my example that I just
Speaker:told you about,
Speaker:if they would've let me do a subscription,
Speaker:maybe I would have,
Speaker:but now they didn't even get my first purchase because they
Speaker:didn't give me the option.
Speaker:I know this with Chewy you can just buy one single
Speaker:or you can buy the subscription either way.
Speaker:Yeah, I think you wanna provide that optionality because not everybody
Speaker:wants to be on a subscription and you also don't want
Speaker:to make it so extreme where you feel like you're getting
Speaker:ripped off if you're not on the subscription.
Speaker:So like for example,
Speaker:I think Chewy is only 5% off if you auto save.
Speaker:So it's like a nice to have but it's not moving
Speaker:the needle in the sense that people are gonna feel uncomfortable
Speaker:making a one time purchase because they're missing out on a
Speaker:40% off discount on that order.
Speaker:Right. And it's a great funnel into getting people to subscribe.
Speaker:I mean part of having a customer is building trust.
Speaker:And so if you're able to make that purchase experience positive
Speaker:and you're email and SMS communications thereafter and then your marketing
Speaker:materials, you can start to layer in the benefits of the
Speaker:subscription program in a way that's not as obtrusive and sort
Speaker:of like in your face.
Speaker:Well and I think it also depends on the product.
Speaker:Like for me,
Speaker:I am a Chewy subscriber,
Speaker:we just got a new dog recently,
Speaker:so happy for that.
Speaker:Oh that's exciting.
Speaker:But once I know how much food will go through each
Speaker:month, I'm going to be on a subscription,
Speaker:not because of the price savings,
Speaker:but because then I don't have to go in and reorder
Speaker:it all the time,
Speaker:I just always know that it's gonna show up.
Speaker:So for me it's more convenience than even cost savings.
Speaker:Yeah. I am also subscribed to Chewy and part of the
Speaker:reason why I don't cancel it is because it's so easy
Speaker:to manage it,
Speaker:which is another thing that we've been sort of combating over
Speaker:the last five years.
Speaker:Cuz historically like the subscription programs were inordinately complex to get
Speaker:out of because the thought was,
Speaker:oh, if you can't cancel then we're gonna make more money
Speaker:off of you.
Speaker:But in fact all the data that we see shows the
Speaker:more people are engaging with their subscription,
Speaker:even if it's skipping in order or changing the date or
Speaker:whatever it may be,
Speaker:it ends up that they get more shipments over the course
Speaker:of their lifetime and they have a higher lifetime value than
Speaker:those who do not interact and engage with the program.
Speaker:So the thought process that you should make it very difficult
Speaker:to cancel or manage is not supported by the data.
Speaker:It kind of,
Speaker:I'm thinking to follow what you were just saying,
Speaker:it's kind of like if you have a subscription you make
Speaker:it hard to cancel.
Speaker:It's kind of like we're trying to trick you into having
Speaker:to keep going with us where really you want them to
Speaker:want it so much to your point that they're gonna add
Speaker:on. And here I'm gonna use myself as another,
Speaker:I didn't realize I had so many subscription things until we
Speaker:start talking but I also use Hello Fresh.
Speaker:Yeah and hello Fresh.
Speaker:So we get our meals,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:two or three times a week but they also have the
Speaker:add-ons now.
Speaker:And this has happened over time.
Speaker:So like now I'll sometimes order some extra things for breakfast
Speaker:or a dessert thing for my husband or and I'm building
Speaker:on even though I already have the subscription to your point
Speaker:Exactly Brandon,
Speaker:I'm going in there adjusting things and then adding things on.
Speaker:So my purchases are more then if it,
Speaker:they would've made it so hard to change anything.
Speaker:So you've brought up some really good definitions and I'm filling
Speaker:in some examples from my own life.
Speaker:So wonderful.
Speaker:Okay. So the difference is really the one offs.
Speaker:I like the idea of offering one time first and then
Speaker:coming back with the repeat purchase.
Speaker:And I think it really depends on how a business is
Speaker:set up,
Speaker:certainly what the product is that they're offering cetera.
Speaker:But something for us to think about certainly.
Speaker:And if you do just the one time for the first
Speaker:one, do you make reference to the fact that there'll be
Speaker:an option moving forward to have automated purchases or Typically in
Speaker:those cases it's just a product page where you can either
Speaker:do a one time purchase or toggle to subscribe and save
Speaker:and so the,
Speaker:it's not like we're not allowing them the option of subscribing
Speaker:if they don't want to.
Speaker:There's not really any mention of it until you get through
Speaker:the transactional communications.
Speaker:And then on like on your order tracking page that we
Speaker:send you to,
Speaker:cuz we don't use the standard Shopify order tracking pages,
Speaker:we'll use custom order tracking pages so that we can include
Speaker:marketing messaging in there custom like branded content because usually like
Speaker:15 to 20% of a brand's website traffic will be to
Speaker:those order tracking pages.
Speaker:So if you're just sending them to your standard Shopify order
Speaker:tracking pages where all it's showing is where the order is,
Speaker:you're missing out on a ton of touchpoints with that customer.
Speaker:So we'll layer in all of the subscription messaging into those
Speaker:transactional tracking pages for the one shot customers.
Speaker:If you're a subscription customer,
Speaker:the transactional journey looks different because you're already a subscriber.
Speaker:So our goal with you is referrals is other things then
Speaker:then getting you into subscription program.
Speaker:But sticking only in the Shopify platform,
Speaker:I'm assuming that there's some apps that you can upload if
Speaker:you wanted repetitive repeat purchasing subscriptions.
Speaker:Yeah, if you're looking to get started with a subscription program
Speaker:on Shopify,
Speaker:I mean Recharge is far and away the predominant player in
Speaker:the space but I think it's something like 80% of subscription
Speaker:programs are being run on their platform.
Speaker:But you also have some interesting up and comers like ski
Speaker:o protection subscribe that are worth potentially taking a look at
Speaker:as well depending on your business' use cases.
Speaker:Okay. And we've talked a little bit I think about getting
Speaker:people to join,
Speaker:but what else would you say with that?
Speaker:The best subscription programs we've seen are ones that are more
Speaker:than just percentage off.
Speaker:So there should be some other value associated with being a
Speaker:subscriber than just getting a little bit of money off on
Speaker:every order.
Speaker:Whether it's exclusive content,
Speaker:early access to things,
Speaker:there's a bunch of different ways that you can think about
Speaker:it and put that into effect and then make sure that
Speaker:you're communicating those value props all the way throughout the customer
Speaker:journey. Like free shipping for all subscription customers is a good
Speaker:one that we typically see as well.
Speaker:If you were to forecast then your upcoming revenue,
Speaker:you can do that because a certain number are subscription customers
Speaker:already. Yes you are gonna have some fall off but you
Speaker:put that into your numbers as well,
Speaker:you're able to have a much better projection of future revenue
Speaker:than if you were just one off all the time.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:We talk a lot here about the value of email marketing
Speaker:and talking about some of the things that you're already saying.
Speaker:Like what I'll say to people is no one wants to
Speaker:join another newsletter.
Speaker:Everyone knows what's gonna happen when you join a newsletter.
Speaker:You're gonna get emails and the emails are most likely gonna
Speaker:be selling you something and you know you need something bigger
Speaker:than that.
Speaker:Just to your point about subscriptions,
Speaker:you need something bigger and some of the things I'll say
Speaker:with emails is they join an exclusive group so they get
Speaker:first looks or they get promotions that are only for that
Speaker:group or similar things to what you are talking about about
Speaker:joining a subscription list or a group.
Speaker:Do you then communicate with your subscribers differently than the rest
Speaker:of a list that you have,
Speaker:which are maybe other types of customers?
Speaker:Is that your recommendation?
Speaker:So typically we're using SMS as the channel for exclusive like
Speaker:access and content.
Speaker:Cuz SMS has much higher engagement rates,
Speaker:the click rates are through the roof compared to email.
Speaker:But you can't treat it the same as email though because
Speaker:it's much more personal form of communication and people will unsubscribe
Speaker:very quickly if you start abusing it.
Speaker:In terms of like segments of customers though typically have like
Speaker:your active subscription customers and then you have like your regular
Speaker:customers, we like to split 'em out by like recency frequency
Speaker:and monetary value.
Speaker:So recency being like when's the last time that they purchased
Speaker:frequency being like how often are they purchasing specifically both for
Speaker:subscription customers and one time customers because subscription typically gonna be
Speaker:on a cadence like oh they're getting product every month,
Speaker:every three months or every six months,
Speaker:whatever it is,
Speaker:one shot,
Speaker:customers are a little bit more all over the place,
Speaker:maybe they're ordering every 30 days and then all of a
Speaker:sudden it's 120 days.
Speaker:And then from a monetary standpoint really looking at like their
Speaker:lifetime value and trying to bucket people into hey this is
Speaker:like a VIP customer they've ordered 10 times and spent a
Speaker:thousand dollars on our brand.
Speaker:Maybe we should be communicating with them differently than somebody who's
Speaker:only purchased one time.
Speaker:But you'd be shocked at how much time is spent on
Speaker:trying to convert people who don't care about the brand and
Speaker:have just been sitting on your list forever versus how much
Speaker:time and attention is paid to your top five or top
Speaker:10% customers who clearly are fanatics of the brand and there's
Speaker:not a communication strategy in place to make them feel special
Speaker:or to get them to start referring their friends or to
Speaker:get them to spend more because that's where,
Speaker:I mean it's basically free additional revenue sitting out there for
Speaker:you and They're the ones who are proving that they're gonna
Speaker:buy from you over and over and over.
Speaker:Yeah. So why not go back to Them?
Speaker:And that's one of the first places I like to start
Speaker:with brands.
Speaker:It's like look at,
Speaker:look you have a thousand customers who've ordered from you 10
Speaker:times or more and you haven't done anything differently for them
Speaker:than the rest of the group.
Speaker:Imagine if you were treating them with any sort of level
Speaker:of differentiation,
Speaker:how much better these results would look like and how much
Speaker:more loyal they'd be to your brand.
Speaker:And that's usually very low hanging fruit.
Speaker:I guess it's not as sexy or exciting to keep your
Speaker:existing customers spending more versus acquiring new customers.
Speaker:But I think that narrative is changing more and more as
Speaker:brands and investors start to look with increasing specificity around ltv,
Speaker:returning customer rate and and some of these other things versus
Speaker:just looking at customer acquisition cost and those first orders coming
Speaker:in. Can you share with us one or two really creative
Speaker:ways that you're using this more specialty communication and extra things
Speaker:for the top tier customers?
Speaker:You'll hear Brandon's answer to this question right after a short
Speaker:break. Yes it's possible.
Speaker:Increase your sales without adding a single customer.
Speaker:How you ask by offering personalization with your products.
Speaker:Wrap a cake box with a ribbon saying happy 30th birthday
Speaker:Annie. Or add a special message and date to wedding or
Speaker:party favors for an extra meaningful touch.
Speaker:Where else can you get customization with a creatively spelled name
Speaker:or find packaging That includes a saying whose meaning is known
Speaker:to a select too.
Speaker:Not only are customers willing to pay for these special touches,
Speaker:they'll tell their friends and word will spread about your company
Speaker:and products.
Speaker:Products. You can create personalized ribbons and labels in seconds.
Speaker:Make just one or thousands without waiting weeks or having to
Speaker:spend money to order yards and yards.
Speaker:Print words in any language or font,
Speaker:add logos,
Speaker:images, even photos,
Speaker:perfect for branding or adding ingredient and flavor labels too.
Speaker:For more information go to the ribbon print company.com.
Speaker:Yeah, so there's apps that you can use that can help
Speaker:enable some of this stuff.
Speaker:But typically I like to start with just using clavio to
Speaker:bucket out into different segments and then having associated like rewards
Speaker:for these groups.
Speaker:So if you think of like Uber Eats,
Speaker:they have a great sort of tiered system.
Speaker:I don't remember what the names are exactly,
Speaker:but I think it's like gold platinum diamond or something.
Speaker:And it's very straightforward,
Speaker:it's just based off of how much you've spent and then
Speaker:automatically you unlock rewards based off of your spend threshold for
Speaker:that given year.
Speaker:Those are the most powerful in my opinion because you're not
Speaker:putting anything additional on the customer.
Speaker:Like a lot of points based loyalty programs that you'll see
Speaker:on Shopify stores,
Speaker:it requires the customer to then go like take their points,
Speaker:figure out what they're worth,
Speaker:go to a page where they need to redeem 'em,
Speaker:then they need to log into their subscription portal so that
Speaker:they'll or take that new code and drop it in.
Speaker:Like there's so much friction that they're not actually using it.
Speaker:Like we typically see two to 3% adoption rate of those
Speaker:points based loyalty programs.
Speaker:So I much prefer,
Speaker:hey, if you've spent 250 to $500,
Speaker:you're gonna get 10% off automatically on every order.
Speaker:If you've spent $500 to a thousand dollars,
Speaker:you're gonna get 15% off automatically on every order.
Speaker:You don't even need to do anything.
Speaker:And then you can start to sprinkle in really fun surprise
Speaker:and delight stuff like on the fifth order maybe you include
Speaker:a free gift in the customer's order without telling them and
Speaker:then they just get it in their package and that's a
Speaker:really like strong customer moment to take place Or it shows
Speaker:up on the checkout page.
Speaker:Yeah, choose one of these three gifts on us because you've
Speaker:reached this level or things like that.
Speaker:Exactly. And when you have that,
Speaker:make sure you are communicating from the get go what happens
Speaker:when they reach these different levels.
Speaker:Because let's say you make your first purchase in those transactional
Speaker:communications that you're gonna be getting the order confirmed,
Speaker:order shipped,
Speaker:order out in transit order delivered,
Speaker:all of those should make reference to like,
Speaker:Hey John,
Speaker:you've spent $120 this far,
Speaker:look what happens when you make order number two.
Speaker:Or look what happens when you pass this certain spend threshold.
Speaker:Look at like all these exciting things that you have to
Speaker:look forward to.
Speaker:Okay, I like that.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:so again to make sure everyone's on the same page with
Speaker:us, Clavio is an email marketing platform.
Speaker:Many of you I know are on MailChimp,
Speaker:Clavio would be a step up and it allows you to
Speaker:do more of the things that Brandon's talking about.
Speaker:So you might have heard that,
Speaker:I'll put it in the show notes,
Speaker:but I just wanted you to be able to be with
Speaker:us as we keep going here.
Speaker:And so I'm thinking Brandon,
Speaker:to be able to do those types of things where it
Speaker:tracks by customer how many points they've acquired,
Speaker:how close they are to the next tier,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:That also would be another app or is that something that's
Speaker:InView? So you can do it in Clavio automatically and okay,
Speaker:the way you can do that is by just creating segments
Speaker:in Clavio.
Speaker:So let's say you wanted to just say we have two
Speaker:tiers, we have 200 to $500 spent and then we have
Speaker:500 to a thousand.
Speaker:You can just create a segment in clavio of customers that
Speaker:have spent more than $200 but less than 500.
Speaker:And then as soon as they enter into that segment,
Speaker:you can automatically trigger an email that goes to them letting
Speaker:them know hey this is your new status and this is
Speaker:what you can expect.
Speaker:You can also even assign Shopify tags to those customers leveraging
Speaker:Shopify flow.
Speaker:So Shopify flow is,
Speaker:Shopify is like automated,
Speaker:it's basically like an automation platform in Shopify.
Speaker:So we can tell that system,
Speaker:hey any customer that's spent 200 to $500 give them this
Speaker:customer tag,
Speaker:I don't know VIP one.
Speaker:And then for the next group we can say VIP two
Speaker:and then have these discounts or rewards or whatever may be
Speaker:automatically take place based off of that customer tag you can
Speaker:use. There are apps as well.
Speaker:There's probably four to five strong like loyalty programs that are
Speaker:point based.
Speaker:I'm just not a huge proponent of the point system because
Speaker:of how diluted it is.
Speaker:Like you go on half the Shopify stores I go on,
Speaker:they have a point based rewards program and they're all sort
Speaker:of just kind of thrown up there and there's not a
Speaker:real like strategy behind how they're going to make the customer
Speaker:experience better or how they're gonna get customers to use it.
Speaker:And a hundred points on one website might be worth a
Speaker:dollar on another website it might be worth a hundred dollars.
Speaker:So it's very hard for customers to equate what sort of
Speaker:value they're even getting from these rewards programs.
Speaker:Yeah. What equals one point,
Speaker:It's all over the board.
Speaker:Exactly. For Different programs.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:And in clavia,
Speaker:I mean you can have automatic discount codes get generated that
Speaker:are unique for each customer.
Speaker:So there's like very simple ways that you could start to
Speaker:create these personalized experiences for your customers.
Speaker:Yeah And listen,
Speaker:as you guys are hearing us talking,
Speaker:I don't want you to get overwhelmed by like all these
Speaker:options and all these apps and different things that you could
Speaker:do and then say this is too confusing,
Speaker:it wouldn't be for me.
Speaker:I want you to understand the theory and the strategy behind
Speaker:it first and see if it applies to your business.
Speaker:And then you start layering in the tech because it's so
Speaker:easy for us Brandon to say Ah,
Speaker:this is so overwhelming,
Speaker:this is too much for me.
Speaker:When really the opportunity and the value could be so great
Speaker:for a business they have someone help like you come in
Speaker:and help them get it all set up or they figure
Speaker:it out with their IT person or whichever way I want
Speaker:you to be understanding the strategy and the intention behind these
Speaker:things. Not necessarily worrying about how does it all get done.
Speaker:I want you to be thinking about what this could do
Speaker:for your business.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So let's move into,
Speaker:unless you,
Speaker:did you have anything else you wanted to say about initiating
Speaker:people? I was just gonna like start slow and make sure
Speaker:that you can actually follow through on whatever program you want
Speaker:to roll out.
Speaker:Like it'd be better to start slow than go download 40
Speaker:different apps and not really have a plan around how you're
Speaker:going to leverage any of them.
Speaker:Because there's,
Speaker:I've seen plenty of stores where they try to and get
Speaker:all the bells and whistles or try to get a loyalty
Speaker:program, referral program,
Speaker:all these other different types of apps and then all of
Speaker:them are being done half baked at best and you'd be
Speaker:better off like focusing on a few key things to roll
Speaker:out, making sure that you have the resources to support it.
Speaker:So walk before run.
Speaker:Excellent point for sure.
Speaker:Cause when we do something like that then we say none
Speaker:of it works when really we are the ones who didn't
Speaker:do it right.
Speaker:Yes. You know they work,
Speaker:we just haven't incorporated it properly into our businesses.
Speaker:Exactly. And Speaking of doing it right,
Speaker:share with me some mistakes.
Speaker:The things we need to make sure to avoid.
Speaker:This was the first one,
Speaker:right? Go slow,
Speaker:start off slow,
Speaker:make sure you're integrating it in properly.
Speaker:What else from there?
Speaker:I mean I think when it comes to anything check and
Speaker:like double check it again,
Speaker:especially when you're doing anything in LAO for email marketing or
Speaker:SMS marketing.
Speaker:Ensure that your flows are set up properly and excluding the
Speaker:people that need to be excluded and including the ones that
Speaker:should be there.
Speaker:I can't tell you how many accounts I logged into where
Speaker:there are flows and people are getting communications that they should
Speaker:not be getting either because the exclusion criteria set up incorrectly
Speaker:for the flow or because the actual segment itself was not
Speaker:built correctly.
Speaker:So make sure that you're double checking those because you don't
Speaker:want subscription customers getting one time customer messaging or vice versa.
Speaker:Or you don't want subscription customers to be getting messaging to
Speaker:go sign up for a subscription when they're already a subscription
Speaker:customer. Like one example of that is we were an auditing
Speaker:account and they had a win back flow.
Speaker:So like after 90 days you would get an email with
Speaker:the 20% off discount code to come back and purchase.
Speaker:But they weren't excluding active subscription customers from that flow.
Speaker:And so customers who were on a subscription but their subscription
Speaker:cadence was once every four months or once every six months
Speaker:we're getting these emails and it was a substantial amount of
Speaker:them. And aside from the fact that you're giving out free
Speaker:money, it's also just extremely confusing messaging cuz you're sending an
Speaker:email saying like Hey we want you back but you as
Speaker:a customer,
Speaker:like what do you mean I'm plate literally an active subscription
Speaker:customer of yours.
Speaker:Right? So it's very important that you make sure that you're
Speaker:buttoned up when it comes to that.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:I mean we try and do that on our end with,
Speaker:I'm gonna talk about the gift biz side cuz that's less
Speaker:product than my other businesses.
Speaker:But when we ever change any funnels or any flows or
Speaker:something has to connect differently or whatever,
Speaker:whatever, we'll watch individual purchases coming in and actually physically watch
Speaker:them go down the right funnels just to make sure that
Speaker:everyone's going in the right way.
Speaker:But to your point,
Speaker:don't just think because it looks like it's working cuz you're
Speaker:seeing numbers that it's working correctly.
Speaker:Yeah. Another thing is in Clavio and a lot of these
Speaker:email tools,
Speaker:if you email your subscription customers and they open it,
Speaker:which most of them will or they click the email but
Speaker:they don't actually purchase but they have a subscription order that's
Speaker:coming up in the next three days,
Speaker:five days and that falls within your attribution window in the
Speaker:platform. Then like let's say I have a subscription to a
Speaker:brand, I get an email from them,
Speaker:I open it but I don't actually do anything and their
Speaker:attribution window is five day view and my subscription order goes
Speaker:out three days later.
Speaker:That email campaign is going to get the subscription revenue attributed
Speaker:to it even though that subscription order was already going to
Speaker:go out the door.
Speaker:So the analytics can get messy with any of these platforms
Speaker:really like that's just one specific example when it comes to
Speaker:cement marketing.
Speaker:But if you added up the ROI of all of your
Speaker:Shopify apps,
Speaker:your store would be doing three or four times more revenue
Speaker:than it actually is doing because every app loves to take
Speaker:credit for the sale.
Speaker:Of course they do.
Speaker:So just make sure you have one analytics tool that's the
Speaker:source of truth for everything.
Speaker:Even if it's a little bit off,
Speaker:it doesn't matter just because that's consistently what you're using to
Speaker:gauge performance and And get your benchmarks.
Speaker:Yeah. Because gosh,
Speaker:if you're running your next moves off of your analytics and
Speaker:your analytics is wrong,
Speaker:that can get you down way bad pathway cuz you're not
Speaker:working with real life real things,
Speaker:real numbers.
Speaker:Yeah. So yeah for sure.
Speaker:What else should we be watching out for In terms of
Speaker:mistakes? Some of these aren't mistakes,
Speaker:it's more just like missed opportunities.
Speaker:Especially for smaller businesses that are growing,
Speaker:like take the time to make that first order experience really
Speaker:strong. That is the most important because every order,
Speaker:it's like order number one to order number two,
Speaker:there's gonna be some drop off order number two to order
Speaker:number three,
Speaker:there's gonna be some drop off.
Speaker:This is just natural.
Speaker:So the higher the percentage of customers that go from order
Speaker:number one to order number two,
Speaker:the higher the rest of the graph looks because let's say
Speaker:you're losing 5% on every order.
Speaker:If you're starting at a 75% reorder rate from order number
Speaker:one to order number two,
Speaker:it just makes everything look that much better.
Speaker:So with that first order you can include like a handwritten
Speaker:note or something to that customer.
Speaker:It takes five seconds and if you're not shipping a hundred
Speaker:thousand orders out a month,
Speaker:it's completely doable.
Speaker:Right? So little things like that and if you are a
Speaker:larger company and you work with a three pl,
Speaker:then you can do things where you put different inserts in
Speaker:the packaging based off of the customer.
Speaker:So if it's a one shot customer first order,
Speaker:include an insert that is specific to them.
Speaker:If it's a subscription customer and it's their first subscription order,
Speaker:include an insert that reinforces the value of the subscription program
Speaker:that they just signed up for.
Speaker:As well as reminding them here's all the ways that you
Speaker:can manage it and like you are in control as a
Speaker:customer. So there's a bunch of opportunity with making that first
Speaker:purchase a really exceptional experience.
Speaker:I think what you just said,
Speaker:this very last one is a really strong point that most
Speaker:people don't do is reinforcing that they made a really good
Speaker:decision on doing a subscription.
Speaker:You know just you know,
Speaker:kind of like pat on the back.
Speaker:Yeah. Buyer's remorse is a real thing.
Speaker:Yeah. Even if it's something little because we might not want
Speaker:to continue or we think we're not gonna wanna renew.
Speaker:Which does bring up another question as a subscription gets to
Speaker:its end,
Speaker:let's say it's a six month subscription or annual subscription,
Speaker:I'm assuming then you should be ramping up the value of
Speaker:the subscription and doing something for them to resubscribe If they
Speaker:cancel. Well if let's say it's just a six month,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:if it's not just into,
Speaker:what's the word?
Speaker:Perpetuity Into perpetuity.
Speaker:Yeah. You know if it is.
Speaker:Cuz a lot of things are,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:renew every six months,
Speaker:renew every year.
Speaker:And I'm thinking that's a strategy also.
Speaker:You're not doing this forever,
Speaker:you're not gonna forget about it.
Speaker:You're gonna go six months or know whatever it is.
Speaker:Then you start ramping up communications and talking about the value
Speaker:of the subscription as you're getting close to that time when
Speaker:they would need to re-do or resubscribe I guess I should
Speaker:say. Got it.
Speaker:Yeah that makes sense.
Speaker:A lot of times I see that in like prepaid gift
Speaker:subscriptions. Yes You like maybe I'm gifted a subscription from somebody
Speaker:and I have six months of it,
Speaker:but then there's an opportunity for the brand now to convert
Speaker:me into the purchaser versus just a consumer and knowing when
Speaker:that date is coming,
Speaker:like hey,
Speaker:in a month your prepaid gift is gonna run out.
Speaker:Do you want to go in and become a subscriber and
Speaker:add your own credit card information?
Speaker:That's one pretty specific use case where it makes a lot
Speaker:of sense to hammer on all the values and all the
Speaker:benefits and make sure that that customer or that recipient rather
Speaker:turns into a paying customer.
Speaker:Yeah, that's a great one cuz they're already having the experience
Speaker:right now.
Speaker:They just need to continue the experience from their pocketbook,
Speaker:not someone else's.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Yeah, I love this.
Speaker:I mean I think just the idea of not fighting so
Speaker:hard and spending so much money for a first time customer
Speaker:over and over and over and over again,
Speaker:but getting people to do repeat sales and second sales is
Speaker:one thing,
Speaker:but where they lock in a subscription is even better for
Speaker:a business to try and implement in terms of thinking of
Speaker:how to do it,
Speaker:what would make sense for your company and then getting it
Speaker:in play because then you can focus your efforts elsewhere while
Speaker:these sales are coming in and you're filling these sales with
Speaker:the rest of the people on your team.
Speaker:Right? So it just makes all the sense in the world
Speaker:to me.
Speaker:So if someone,
Speaker:just real quickly,
Speaker:I wasn't planning on putting this in here,
Speaker:but I think it'll be really valuable for our listeners three
Speaker:first steps if they're thinking about doing something like this very
Speaker:generic because we have so many different types of products here.
Speaker:Yeah. But what would be the first things to consider if
Speaker:what we've been talking about is resonating and but they're still
Speaker:like, Yeah,
Speaker:but what do I Do for a subscription program?
Speaker:Yeah, So I mean first you're going to want to find
Speaker:the app that you wanna leverage.
Speaker:I mean without the subscription app you won't be able to
Speaker:do subscriptions.
Speaker:So put together some of your requirements for what you want
Speaker:the subscription program to be able to do and then schedule
Speaker:a call with the top three or four service providers that
Speaker:you find on the Shopify app store.
Speaker:So that's really step one.
Speaker:Okay. Once you have the app in place.
Speaker:And the reason why I put the app first is because
Speaker:they can help you with best practices and they can help
Speaker:you with strategy and how you should be thinking about rolling
Speaker:it out to your customer base because you're gonna need some
Speaker:sort of strategy for how are you converting some of your
Speaker:existing customers into subscription customers and then how is it being
Speaker:represented on the website now to like net new site visitors.
Speaker:And Brandon,
Speaker:just a question here really quickly.
Speaker:You could start using this at any point in your business.
Speaker:So if someone is just starting out,
Speaker:that's kind of easy cuz it's right off the bat.
Speaker:But if someone's been in business for a long time,
Speaker:there are ways of transitioning customers and data that they have.
Speaker:Well I mean some of your customers will continue to be
Speaker:one shot customers,
Speaker:but you can send out an email to people letting them
Speaker:know, hey,
Speaker:like now we have a subscription program,
Speaker:we notice you've ordered from us 10 times in the past.
Speaker:This should be a great way for you to now be
Speaker:a subscription customer cuz you're gonna get X,
Speaker:Y, and Z benefits.
Speaker:Like do you wanna sign up?
Speaker:If so,
Speaker:click this link.
Speaker:Okay, so potential for everybody if you're interested in doing this
Speaker:program potential for,
Speaker:Okay, so what's the third one Then?
Speaker:So step three would be integrating it with the rest of
Speaker:your tech stack.
Speaker:So let's say you use Recharge for example.
Speaker:You're gonna want to integrate it with your play video account
Speaker:for your email and SMS marketing.
Speaker:You're going to want to integrate it with like your customer
Speaker:service environment,
Speaker:whatever that may be.
Speaker:Make sure that you set up like all the integrations and
Speaker:understand what they unlock for you in terms of features and
Speaker:functionality. Cuz that's really one of the bigger differentiators amongst all
Speaker:the apps now is like how well they play with the
Speaker:rest of your tech stack.
Speaker:Because in order to create these customer experiences,
Speaker:if you have disjointed systems that don't talk to one another,
Speaker:it's extremely difficult.
Speaker:Yeah, and I don't know this at all,
Speaker:but is it true then that the hardest part is just
Speaker:getting it all put together and then of course there's maintenance.
Speaker:It's not like you said it and forget it,
Speaker:you wanna use it and enhance it and all of that.
Speaker:But some of this sounds a little bit more complicated,
Speaker:but I think as you said,
Speaker:start simple,
Speaker:but once you get it in play,
Speaker:you're gonna see the value of it working for you and
Speaker:then you can add more and there are people out there
Speaker:to help you do this,
Speaker:right? Yeah,
Speaker:there's no shortage of Shopify partners.
Speaker:There's companies like ourselves that are much larger at this point
Speaker:in Shopify Plus certified.
Speaker:And really,
Speaker:if you're a smaller business and you wanted to work with
Speaker:like a company like ours,
Speaker:I would look at it more as a one time like
Speaker:strategic engagement project where we would just give you a brain
Speaker:dump and sort of a roadmap of this is what you
Speaker:should go and do or you'd go the other route just
Speaker:because like working with us on a monthly basis would be
Speaker:cost prohibited and it wouldn't make sense at that stage for
Speaker:the business.
Speaker:The other route would be finding someone like me from four
Speaker:years ago or or five years ago,
Speaker:like a more scrappy freelancer.
Speaker:Not like,
Speaker:you obviously have to be careful because there's just like a
Speaker:lot of freelancers in the marketplace,
Speaker:some who are really strong and some who aren't.
Speaker:I mean the same could be said for agencies as well.
Speaker:And then have them help support you as well.
Speaker:So there's thousands of Shopify partners though.
Speaker:I mean it's the largest eCommerce ecosystem,
Speaker:both in terms of the apps,
Speaker:but also in terms of the service partners and providers for
Speaker:it. Where do you find Shopify service partners and providers?
Speaker:There's a directory on Shopify's website.
Speaker:Okay. And then really,
Speaker:I mean the way that I learned any of this stuff
Speaker:for the most part was just like YouTube and then trying
Speaker:to do it myself.
Speaker:So there's always the YouTube avenue as well,
Speaker:which can get you quite a bit of the way there.
Speaker:Yeah. All right.
Speaker:So I like something that you just said here.
Speaker:So I just wanna clarify.
Speaker:You were saying that electric offers the opportunity,
Speaker:if you wanna do like a one time strategy call,
Speaker:maybe that's what you'd call it,
Speaker:Would you just provide direction?
Speaker:Did I hear this correctly?
Speaker:Yeah, Either a strategy call or like a one time,
Speaker:like we'll put together a deck of recommendations.
Speaker:I mean either then you could pay us to implement them
Speaker:or you could implement it yourself.
Speaker:But I think the biggest,
Speaker:most value you could get out of a company like ours,
Speaker:if you are a smaller business,
Speaker:is just unlocking all the knowledge and information we have from
Speaker:working with a hundred plus Shopify brands over the last four
Speaker:years on enabling all these things.
Speaker:And so we know these are the apps that you should
Speaker:be using,
Speaker:these are the things that you should look out for if
Speaker:you're in this industry,
Speaker:maybe think about this,
Speaker:Here are some other examples that we've done in the past.
Speaker:So there's just a lot of assumed industry knowledge there that
Speaker:would be good to get just like a dump of.
Speaker:But you can ascertain a lot of that from like the
Speaker:resources and content that we're publishing anyways,
Speaker:or all the YouTube videos,
Speaker:stuff like that.
Speaker:So really just depends on how much of a white glove
Speaker:approach you want versus rolling up your sleeves and figuring out
Speaker:some of this stuff yourself.
Speaker:Right? Yeah.
Speaker:Both approaches.
Speaker:Yeah. Can't be an expert in everything though.
Speaker:You can't.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:No. No,
Speaker:you can't.
Speaker:We're not experts at making candles.
Speaker:Right. But we can tell people how to sell them,
Speaker:right? How about that?
Speaker:Yep, that's true.
Speaker:So, alright,
Speaker:so where would we go and find out more information about
Speaker:electric and the resources and all of that that you have
Speaker:to offer?
Speaker:Yeah, so you could either go to electric marketing.com,
Speaker:it's just electric with the queue at the end,
Speaker:marketing.com. And then it's also my website,
Speaker:brandon amarosa.com.
Speaker:I do a weekly newsletter with a lot of this information
Speaker:and resource guides and PDFs and examples,
Speaker:videos, stuff like that.
Speaker:So either one works LinkedIn as well.
Speaker:We're pretty active on there too.
Speaker:Okay, wonderful.
Speaker:Well, I'm gonna put both of those websites in the show
Speaker:notes as well as social media platform site,
Speaker:the links that you gave me for that too.
Speaker:So anyone who is out and about and isn't able to
Speaker:catch that now,
Speaker:just access the show notes and you'll be able to see
Speaker:everything sitting there ready for you to click and then go
Speaker:investigate. Brandon,
Speaker:thank you so much.
Speaker:I really appreciate your time today.
Speaker:Some really interesting points that give us some cause for thought,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and hopefully implementation to make our businesses stronger.
Speaker:Appreciate all of your experience and your advice that you've given
Speaker:today. Thank you.
Speaker:Thank you for having me on.
Speaker:Remember Brandon's candle quote about not having any regrets,
Speaker:considering things that you haven't done.
Speaker:I can assure you that you won't regret thinking about and
Speaker:incorporating a subscription element into your selling plan.
Speaker:The level of sophistication can be your call,
Speaker:but the concept of setting up and offering a regular automated
Speaker:purchasing program will serve you well.
Speaker:That's a guarantee.
Speaker:If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to show support,
Speaker:a rating and review is always fabulous because it helps get
Speaker:the show seen by more makers.
Speaker:It's a great way to pay it forward.
Speaker:And there's another way where you can get something tangible in
Speaker:return for your support too.
Speaker:Visit my merch shop for a wide variety of inspirational items
Speaker:like mugs,
Speaker:journals, water bottles,
Speaker:and more featuring logos,
Speaker:images, and quotes to inspire you throughout your day.
Speaker:Makes a great gift too.
Speaker:And we've just added some new products for the season to
Speaker:the shop.
Speaker:Turnaround is quick and the quality is top notch,
Speaker:nothing but the best for you.
Speaker:Take a look at all the options@giftbizunwrapped.com
Speaker:slash shop.
Speaker:All proceeds from these purchases helps go to offset the cost
Speaker:of producing the show.
Speaker:And now be safe and well and I'll see you again
Speaker:next time on the Gift Biz Unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:I wanna make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook group
Speaker:called Gift Biz Breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and are a community
Speaker:to support each other.
Speaker:I've got a really fun post in there that's my favorite
Speaker:of the week,
Speaker:I have to say,
Speaker:where I invite all of you to share what you're doing
Speaker:to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week,
Speaker:to get reaction from other people.
Speaker:And just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody
Speaker:in the community is making.
Speaker:My favorite post every single week.
Speaker:Without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what?
Speaker:Aren't you part of the group already?
Speaker:If not,
Speaker:make sure to jump over to Facebook and search for the
Speaker:group Gift Biz breeze.
Speaker:Don't delay.
