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EP 276 - Sarah Williams | Otter.ai

EP 276 - Sarah Williams

Ellen Yin54min

Speaker 1

00:00

You're listening to Cubicle to CEO episode 276, today's case study dives into how subscription box queen, Sarah Williams achieved her highest ever conversion rate during the annual launch of her subscription box coaching membership launch your box. Sarah's $15 subscription box week combines interactive exercises, live Q and A sessions and daily interviews with successful members to give participants a hands on preview of her program. And since the pre launch experience has a cost of admission, $15 Sarah is literally getting paid to sell to her people.

Ellen Yin

00:34

This year, she fine tuned her approach with new strategies like staggered expiring bonuses, the first ever ticket price increase and a deeper, more personal connection with her audience, the result a staggering 43% conversion rate from subscription box week attendees to members, her best launch yet, even as many online programs face declining enrollments learn how Sarah used data driven decisions to boost urgency, engagement and trust, inspiring nearly half of our participants to swipe their cards again by the end of their week together.

Ellen Yin

01:09

Welcome to cubicle the CEO, the podcast where we ask successful founders and CEOs the business questions you can't google. I'm your host. Ellen Yin, every Monday, go behind the business in a case study style interview with a leading entrepreneur who shares one specific growth strategy they've tested in their own business, exactly how they implemented it and what the results and revenue were. You'll also hear financially transparent insights from my own journey bootstrapping our media company from a $300 freelance project into millions in revenue.

Speaker 1

01:51

Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. Today, I have joining me. Sarah Williams, founder of launcher box. She is a subscription box expert and Queen. And I'm super excited about our case study today, because it's all about how she was able to get a 43% conversion rate from lead to sale in her most recent launch of her subscription box coaching membership. We'll get into the details in just a moment. But first, Sarah, welcome to the show.

Sarah Williams

02:18

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1

02:19

I'm super excited to talk about this today. We're really excited to have you. And you know, we usually start the show off with asking our guests what their Cubicle to CEO story is, but I feel like for you, it's maybe more of like a I mean, I know, I'm sure there was like a leap that you took from working a day job to working in your retail shop that you opened, but I feel like your more true story for the purposes of this case study, it was like, what was your retail to subscription boxstory?

Sarah Williams

02:46

Yeah, and I don't know if it's retail to subscription box, but retail to business coach really is the biggest journey there. I had my shop for six or seven years. I started the subscription box, and it just exploded on me. And people were just in my DMs. How are you doing this? Where are you getting packaging? How are you sourcing this much product? Like, can you teach me? I want to do this for my own boutique or my own business. And so those DMS were just piling up, and I took on a one on one client one summer and helped her launch her subscription box for, like, the cheapest amount you would ever imagine, because I didn't know my worth back then, right? I didn't know and so we spent three months working together on her business, and she launched her subscription box, sold out on her first launch, and I was the proudest subscription box mom that you could be.

Sarah Williams

03:36

And I realized that that was something I was missing. I really enjoyed teaching. I really enjoyed serving in that way. And I thought, what if I turned this into a coaching gig? And I just took all those people that were in my DMs, and I sent them a message, and I said, Hey, I'm starting this thing called Launch your box. I don't have anything built yet. I want to build it with you. Would you like to be a founding member of my coaching group? And I had 19 people take me up on that. And now, years later, I have coached over 7000 students, and some of them have been so so successful. A lot of them have been so successful.

Speaker 1

04:16

Yes, well, honestly, that's the best way to do it. I'm such a big believer in pre selling your I guess it wasn't a digital product, per se. It was much more involved, as you know, you were coaching these people. But still, it's like putting something out there that maybe doesn't exist yet and asking people, Hey, do you want to come co create this with me? I think there's so much power in making that ask. So I love that that's your journey for how you started on the business coaching side.

Ellen Yin

04:42

And I'm just curious for maybe, like, the context of our listeners, when you started your own subscription box, so you said you owned a boutique, or, like, a retail shop of your own, a brick and mortar, did you just kind of curate some of the inventory or products that you were already carrying in your store and then just create. The first subscription box out of those products, or were you ordering specifically for the subscription box? And they weren't necessarily items that you were carrying in your boutique?

Sarah Williams

05:10

So there's a yes and a no in that, because when I started the subscription box, I wanted to be exclusive, and I wanted it to be unique and special, so I curated that very first box from brand new products, but I curated it from my top, best selling categories in my gift shop. And so I took, I had data in my store, you know, I had data. So I took those best selling categories, I took my average order value and made that the price of my box, and I had proof that that's what people wanted right right now I was just going to curate it in a box, so that first box, and every box since has been custom exclusive items, but they were taken from what I knew were my best sellers in my shop.

Speaker 1

05:58

Okay, I love that. It's almost like your your brick and mortar was like a testing playground where you could get all of this valuable real time feedback from real life customers, and then your, you know, obviously translating that into a digital subscription. Do you still have your subscription box line of your own today, in addition to educating others, and then also, do you still own your gift shop, or did you end up selling that?

Sarah Williams

06:24

So yes and no again. So it's morphed over the years. I still have that business. It's called framed by Sarah. And now, instead of a brick and mortar, we're in a warehouse. We moved into a warehouse because I outgrew that brick and mortar so quickly with the subscription box business, but I still have a little storefront in the front of my warehouse, because I have hundreds of local customers still and hundreds of local subscribers still, so I didn't want to lose that face to person interaction.

Sarah Williams

06:54

So we have a large warehouse at brick and mortar. We're only open three days a week at the warehouse, so it's more of a warehouse style, but they still can come in, they can see us, they can talk to us, they can pick up their boxes. They can shop. We have a little boutique in the front where they can shop a lot of it's behind the wall, on the racks, and it's not, it doesn't look like a traditional it's like one of everything is kind of styled on mannequins or tables or whatever. But they can still come and shop like it's a brick and mortar, but it fits our need to not be tied to brick and mortar retail hours. We're only there when we're working in the warehouse, and so that is kind of this hybrid.

Speaker 1

07:31

That's magical. Okay, well, I need to come visit your warehouse slash shop if I'm ever in the area, so we'll make sure, if you're if you're listening or watching this on YouTube, I will drop the link to your in person presence in the show notes, if any of you guys happen to be local. But let's get into the case study real quick. Your launch event, the one that produced a 43% conversion rate like I referenced, is a week long experience called subscription box week, where you give participants a sneak peek of your membership. Launch your box in the form of trainings, interviews with current members and an engaged, interactive community.

Ellen Yin

08:08

So before we get into the day by day play of subscription box week, because I do kind of want to walk through that schedule with you. How do you get people to sign up for this week? Where are you promoting? It sounds like you do a mix of both paid and organic. So kind of give us your promotion strategy for filling the room.

Sarah Williams

08:25

Yeah, so I am heavy on Facebook ads for this, and I am going to spend way more money getting people to come to this week than I will to just put my coaching membership out there, just, you know, to conversion to sales, I want you to come to this week, because here's what I know about coaching after I've done this for so many years, once somebody gets to know like and trust me, and they can see the expert knowledge that I have and the way that I coach people, they are more likely to join My membership, and they're more likely to have a higher LTV and so I know that they need face time with me. It helps with retention, and it helps with conversion, and so we spend a lot of money getting my ads out there to join subscription box week.

Sarah Williams

09:16

And it's very specific, right? Ellen, it's very specific. Like, do you want to start a subscription box? Boom, it's not. Do you want to start an online business? Do you want to have a retail shop? Do you want to be, you know, a product based business owner? No, it is very, very specific. So that's how we're able to, you know, I always say the riches are in the niches, because when someone sees that ad, it's either for them or it's not. And so it converts really well. But I also spend the entire year building my email list. I am so focused on that 365 days a year with opt ins or SLOs or different kind of things that I lead magnets that I've got going on to find that right exact person. So I get a lot of sign ups through email because. I focus on building that list right, and then I get a ton of sign ups through or, I mean, through paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram,

Ellen Yin

10:08

that's super helpful. And I mean, you've built up an impressive email list size. I believe pre interview had submitted a couple stats. It's around 40,000 you mentioned you're really good at targeting the exact right person to actually get on your list. So I understand how you do that with paid marketing, obviously, because you can select the exact demographics or interest groups that you want to reach or create look alike audiences, right of your existing buyers. But when you're focused on organic opt ins, organic content, how are you really pulling out those people that, like you said, have that very clear intention. I want to create a subscription box. Not just like, Oh, I'd love to make some money online, right?

Sarah Williams

10:46

I think you have to do the same thing that you do paid. You have to do that organic. So when I show up and do I do a Monday morning live, every Monday morning, I'm talking to subscription box owners. I'm on YouTube. I'm talking to subscription box owners, or someone that wants to start a subscription box, all of my content is geared around that one thing. And that one thing brings me the right person. If you were to go look at my social media right now, like you would say, well, she has a very low social media I have a low number in like, big, you know, Facebook, Instagram, world, like you're like, Who is she? Like, she doesn't have very people.

Sarah Williams

11:24

I have the right people. I have the buyers. I have the people buying my program. I have people staying for years in my membership. I don't need the vanity numbers. I don't need to have hundreds of 1000s of followers. I have 30,000 followers that pay me very, very well because they're the right person, and they feel like I am talking to them every time I show up and provide more content. And I think that's what we have to focus on, whether we're doing that organically or we're doing that paid. It's the same concept, and that's how we attract the right person.

Ellen Yin

11:58

I love how focused you are there. And what you said about not getting caught up in this idea of needing the vanity metrics right because to your point, and I think this is worth reminding all of us, all of our listeners, if you are really zeroed in on a very specific solution that you offer, in your case, subscription boxes by default, you know, you will never be able to have like the millions of, you know, people if you're trying to build with buyers, because just naturally in the world, that kind of limits the amount of people who could potentially be interested in actually taking on such an endeavor. Right?

Ellen Yin

12:36

There's not millions of people walking around saying, I want to create a subscription box, or I have the tenacity to actually follow through on that idea. So I really, really appreciate that you are so cognizant of that, and don't let yourself get distracted by, you know, these other things that don't actually lead to bottom line success.

Ellen Yin

12:54

You also charge for the subscription week, $15 per ticket for someone to come to this week long experience, to get a preview of everything you have to offer. I know for you, the cost of the ticket is really just to help fund the ads, but I wanted to kind of understand your decision around why $15 specifically? Is it that, over time, you've discovered that the cost per lead is literally $15 so you're like, Okay, I'm just gonna make it equal, like, literally break even if someone buys through an ad. Or is the $15 strategically positioned as some other strategy? Is it like a pricing point where you've just found people can easily buy in without, you know, having much context, any insights you want to share there would be super helpful.

Sarah Williams

13:42

Yeah, so this is the fifth time that I run coaching week, subscription box week in my business, and I started it out as a $10 offer, and that was great. I was getting leads. And we're talking like 2019 so you've got to remember Facebook acquisition costs were very were low. I was getting leads for four bucks, six bucks. It was great. I was making money. It was awesome. And then, you know, as we know, iOS, and then global pandemic and all these things that happened to us over the years, the price of acquisition has gone up. So this was the first year that I had increased the price.

Sarah Williams

14:16

I'd run it four times at $10 and the reason, and there's a lot of people that do free things, and I have tried both, and what I realized is that people don't show up to free things. They sign up for them, and then they don't. And all I needed was a little bit of skin in the game. Have a little bit of skin in the game, like the price of a coffee or a lunch or something like that, will make you show up, and in it such a small amount, right? So at first it was I needed to fund this ad spend, and then it was like, Oh, well, people actually show up when they pay something for something. So that was great. And then as costs had got higher, I decided to go ahead and increase it this last year. And I didn't know if that was going to hurt my sign up.

Sarah Williams

14:58

My sign ups were actually a little bit lower, not by a lot, but a few 100 were lower than normal. But I got such a good quality of person signing up this time that it made all the difference. And that's why we saw a 43% conversion. But that's really the pricing strategy for me. I want to fund the ad spend. I don't want to take it out of my pocket. And some of it, I had to like, you know, acquisition was a little bit higher than 15, but I planned for that. I just don't want to pay 15 for every single, you know, I don't want to come out with the all of it for every single person. So that helped fund it, so that I'm not waiting for month four in the membership to actually make a profit on this thing, right?

Sarah Williams

15:37

And so that's where we call it an SLO it's just a self liquidating offer. It's an offer out there that's just self liquidating, and we put that back into ad spend. I'm not making any money on subscription box week, but the goal is that I'm finding a person that's going to show up, consume the content, hear my pitch, and I'm going to be able to convert into a member, absolutely.

Speaker 1

15:56

And I'm a mega fan of slow funnels, because, you know, like you said, you're building your list with buyers, with people who have already transacted with you, from day one, they've have skin in the game. And that's such a different ball game, I feel like, than talking to a bunch of people who downloaded freebies that they may or may not actually have ever opened or participated in. And so I think that's so so smart. And speaking of show up rate, you said you you know, you recognize that people who paid actually did show up. So how many people ended up signing up for the most recent subscription box week in June of this past year? And of that amount, how many people actually participated live in some form during the week? So like percentage or or ballpark number, whatever is easiest for you? Wow.

Sarah Williams

16:39

I don't have the exact number in my head right now, but I know it was a little less than 2000 and in the past, I've always had over 2000 closer to 2500 so I had a little less than 2000 in this particular week, which was fine. I spent more money than I had before. Again, acquisition cost was higher than it's ever been. And when I have, like, there's so much that I do during subscription box week, and I think we're going to talk about it, but I know day one, the very first thing that I show up live for has my biggest show up rate. That's usually half. I can usually get half of the registrants to show up. And we do that in a way of, I do a pre live in the group, like, Hey, this is what's coming. This is what you need to bring. I also do a text message out to them so that they know that, hey, I'm about to show up in the group.

Sarah Williams

17:32

We do email funnels making sure they're in the group and I'm showing up. So we kind of make it a big deal to come to each one of these lives. And so we kind of push that hook out there, like, this is what you're going to get. This is what you're going to learn. This is, you know, this is exciting. And so we try to really work that to get them. It's not just sign up and then, hey, come this is the schedule. We really want to create a lot of buzz around showing up and participating in real time.

Ellen Yin

18:00

Yeah, sounds like you make it an occasion, right? Like a can't miss gathering or event. Do you find that people who show up on the first day continue to show up the rest of the week, if they're making that effort that first day or with the drop off, how do you bring them back?

Sarah Williams

18:20

So there is always drop off. You can see, day one, we'll have the heaviest live viewers, and then it drops off, and then it drops off. And by the end of the week, you're kind of it's a little bit sparse, but I always try to create a little bit of FOMO in the group. So I'll show pictures of, like, here's what we did, or I'll show, like, a picture of the live of what we're working on. I want to get them back. It's okay if you missed it, and I put a gap in a in the days, so that if they have to watch it on replay, it's okay, take your time, watch it on replay and join us tomorrow. And I just remind them that you're not behind. Just go get to where we're at, because we're making progress this week, and I want you to make progress, too.

Sarah Williams

19:01

And so I'm always kind of teasing what's up next, and reminding them to go back and watch that last one hour live before we do the next one tomorrow. So I'm constantly reminding them to consume the program so that they're ready, because I know if they'll consume it, they'll have a quick win for the week. I need them to have a quick win. I'm trying to deliver a quick win for them so that they feel good about taking the next steps with me.

Speaker 1

19:26

Brilliant. And is this all happening inside a Facebook community? And as you're describing this, it kind of sounds similar. We don't necessarily host anything like, you know, a week long experience around launching to a paid program, but we do have a paid challenge that we've hosted many cohorts of, and we create this like seven day pop up community where there's a little bit of urgency built into that too, because if they don't participate, it all goes away. Is yours similar? Do you remove them from the Facebook group after the week is over, or do they get to continue and stay on in that community?

Sarah Williams

19:58

Yeah, so that. Is part of the urgency, right? I think we have to create urgency in this offer, and it was something that I hadn't done in the past. And I also think that's why I had a higher conversion rate, because we do put them in a Facebook group. It runs from Sunday to Friday, but then I'm doing my public launch from Friday to Monday, so I'm in that group from Sunday to the next Monday, right? Because they're my hottest, warmest leads at this point. Even though I'm public launching now and we're seeing stuff on the public page, I'm still streaming it into the private group as well. So yeah, we let them have it for, like, I want to say, a week or two. It's always, like, the end of the month, but we don't.

Sarah Williams

20:41

I used to give it to them for life, like I used to, like, download the recordings and email them out and all that. But also that's when people were showing up. You think about 2020 I did this three times in 2020 people were consuming it the minute it dropped, because they had time to do that. Yeah, they don't have it now, so we have to create the urgency that they need to participate, because also, if they don't participate, they're not going to hear the pitch, right? They're not going to have the win, they're not going to have the drive to then join the membership. So if we just give it to them for six months or three months or a year, they're not going to consume it. And then we're not going to have the opportunity to have that person, you know, join our thing, and so we've got to create that urgency around it, and we removed them from the group.

Sarah Williams

21:26

And that was something I did after the first one, because it got really spammy after the week. People. I had, like, box companies in there, and DMing people. I had, you know, product companies, vendors in there, DMing people. I'm like, no, no, this is my group. I paid heavily to have these people in there, and so after they were done consuming that content, we removed everyone from the group. Everyone was removed. And we use that group over and over again every time we consume it, because we're just removing all the people every time. That way, there's not poaching going on in that group after we're done, right?

Ellen Yin

22:03

No, you have to protect, yeah, the community at all costs. So that makes a whole lot of sense. You keep referencing this like quick win, quick win. So I do want to kind of zone in on that. What is the one specific result or win or outcome that everyone who actually shows up and participates in subscription box week is supposed to leave the week with, regardless of whether they join your membership after or not,

Sarah Williams

22:29

they're going to leave with a six month curated subscription box. So basically, what we do is we do this brainstorming with our ideal customer and the products they're gonna leave with six months of curated boxes. And it seems simple, right? Because we can lay in bed at night and think, Oh, that would be cute in a box. Oh, that would be cute in the box. You know, we could dream about that, and that's the fun part. But what I'm teaching them in this week is why we want to put something in there, what we want to put in there, how much we want to put in there, or how little we want to put in there, the value of it, so that they can see what's possible for their subscription box. Because before this, people want to go to packaging first. You can't, because it's fun. You can't decide on your packaging until you know what's going to go in your box. So that doesn't make sense.

Sarah Williams

23:23

People want to go to, oh, I want to make a logo, and I want to make branding, but that that's not realistic. We have to lay this out. And I know if they lay this out with me for the week, and we go through the process of curating six months worth of boxes, they'll be ready to take the next steps, because they can visualize this for themselves and for this business, if they can't even visualize what this is going to look like for six months. It's really hard to talk logistics. It's really hard to talk about buying product and sourcing. They don't know what they're going to do. It's really hard to talk about packaging. They don't even know what size packaging they need. And so I need this is like their first step to really visualizing what's possible for their business, and then we get into the nitty gritty. And that's why they want to join, because now they can see this. Now they're excited. Now they're ready to move forward with the next steps of actually building and launching their subscription box

Ellen Yin

24:19

that makes so much sense. You're like, giving them the what, but not the how, and they're really getting bought in, like you said, to that vision. And it's no longer just this kind of hypothetical idea floating in their head, right? They can see it in front of them. That's so smart. You've mentioned this big kickoff planning session that gets like, half the people to show up live on a Sunday. You said that, you know, you find that, obviously the most amount of people actually show up on day one. But I wanted to kind of further understand, did you specifically choose Sunday because you have data around like people just being more apt to show up on a weekend than a weekday or Sunday? Just kind of like tradition. You've always done it, and now that's what it is.

Sarah Williams

24:57

I find that more people show up on a Sunday. Afternoon evening than any other time that I've done anything. Wow. And because they're they're usually done with their weekend, they're home, they're getting they're prepping for the next day. And so people that are working are available. People that are not working are available because their partner is at home and can watch the kids or whatever. But I find that Sunday afternoon evening is I have the best show up right to anything.

Ellen Yin

25:28

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Ellen Yin

26:58

Interesting. Okay, I'm gonna file that little nugget away, because I have like, a live workshop coming up, and I've always done, you know, my live events. Like, usually, I'm just a creature of habit, like, I just randomly chose 11am Pacific Time, one time, and that's been, like, my time forever, and it's usually on, like, a Tuesday or Thursday or Wednesday, but that's really interesting, so I'm gonna have to test that, and I'll have to report back to you on whether that translates to my audience as well. But good to know and good to file away for any of our listeners in this first planning session.

Ellen Yin

27:27

So let's actually kind of like walk through the schedule now, Sunday, you have these people show up. I believe you have them bring some tools with them, right colored, sticky notes, markers and, of course, an open mind the planning session. What does that look like? Because obviously, the end result of the whole week is to have six months worth of subscription boxes planned. Do you do all of that six months on that first night or, Oh, wow. Okay,

Sarah Williams

27:50

yeah. So it's about an hour and a half, sometimes two hours, depending on how chatty The chat is, you know, because I always want to engage with them and acknowledge that they're there, because that keeps them there, right? So we do that. It's an evergreen webinar that I teach called the six and 60. I just do it live in that first day. And so that is what we're doing together. I'm helping them plan it out. I'm also teaching them about what if it's a one thing of the month? What if you did, like candle of the month, or jerky of the month, or whatever it is.

Sarah Williams

28:22

So we're looking at all the aspects, so they can get their wheels turning, and plan out a whole box, or even a one thing of the month, like, what would that look like? What's the lowest hanging fruit in your business? And so we do all of that. I answer a lot of questions. I'm also selling launcher box on day one, and so I'm pitching in that as well as I'm teaching. So day one, we do the six and 60 workshop that's on Sunday. Monday, we don't have a training session, so if you miss Sunday night, you have all of Monday to go back and watch it. Tuesday, I do what's called kind of the post its to plan. So now we've got our post its all together. Let's organize our thoughts. Let's put it in a plan, because here's the next steps, and I kind of walk them through.

Sarah Williams

29:04

Okay, now that you have this plan, here's what we do next, here's what we need to do next, here's what we need to think about. And I help them do that on Tuesday, then on Thursday, we do something that's super fun that I do in my membership every other month, but I do a box opening, so our members get to ship their boxes to me, and I take 10 or 12 at a time, and I just unbox them sight unseen and give my feedback. So I have our members, you know, send me boxes, and now I'm doing it in the group. Now that you've planned this out, I want to give you a visual of what this could look like. Here's some different industries, different types of boxes, and let's see how they've put it together. So now they're getting another visual. It's so fun, and they love it. My members love it every time I do it, so I thought they need to see this too, because this is part of being a member.

Sarah Williams

29:52

And so then that's on Thursday, and then on Friday, I do a live Q and A so we're kind of wrapping up the week. I'll answer eight. Any question that you have, and I go for an hour, and every single one of those four days, I'm pitching launcher box, and there's a bonus wrapped into every one of those days that expires. So I'm creating that urgency to join. The quicker you join, the more bonuses you're going to get. And so I'm really and I do that because I know I'm gonna have the biggest show up rate on day one, right? So I need to grab them while I have their attention.

Sarah Williams

30:27

Now also in this week, every single day, Monday through the next Monday, because I go into the launch, the public launch, I'm interviewing a member. So I'm showing up in the group with an interview. We're talking about their journey, their success story. I'm interviewing people of different ages, people of different races, people of different industries. If they can't see themselves in me, I need them to be able to see themselves in one of my students. And so we're just talking about success stories and their small success stories and big success stories, because I need them to kind of feel like they can do it. And so every single day, I'm live again with a member, and we're talking, and then we're saying, hey, come join us and launch your box. We have so much fun in there. And so it's another pitch every day, they're hearing that over and over.

Sarah Williams

31:15

And then one of the bonuses is VIP zoom calls with me. And so if they get signed up by I want to say it's Tuesday, they get to come to the VIP. Zoom calls after hours. So now I'm on a call with them. So I've gone live in the morning doing a training. I've gone live in the afternoon with a member, and now it's eight o'clock and we're drinking a glass of wine, and we're chatting on zoom with however, many hundreds of people have signed up at that point. And again, it's that face to camera. It's that connection point. Now I'm on a zoom call with them, versus a Facebook Live, and I'm seeing their face, and it's more intimate, and we're talking about different details, and I'm letting them ask me personal questions by raising their hand and verbally asking me. So it's another connection point, and I do that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

Sarah Williams

32:07

So if you sign up Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, that's how many zoom calls you get. If you sign up Thursday, you get one. If you've signed up by Tuesday, you're going to get all three of them and some of them every night. And so that's another bonus. So I am all in on this week. I am exhausted. I lose my voice almost every time, and then everything's cleared from my calendar for this week, because when I'm not live, I'm also in the group answering questions. I am showing up, I am giving everything I can to this week, and that's why I got a 43% conversion rate, incredible.

Ellen Yin

32:46

I mean, so many interactive elements, so many juicy golden nuggets. I want to dive into first though. I just want to clarify something, because I'm afraid I missed it. You were walking us through the schedule, you know, Sunday, the six to 60 webinar, Monday, bringing back the I think, or Monday, you give them a chance to watch the replay. Tuesday, they're doing the post. Its Wednesday. What happens on Wednesday? Because then it skipped to the Thursday

Sarah Williams

33:09

off. It's their day off too. The only thing that's happening Monday and Wednesday is they're getting an interview with one of my students, right? Because it's happening every day. So they're going to come back for an interview, and then Wednesday night, if they've joined, they get the VIP zoom with me. So Wednesday's like, I'm giving them these two trainings, yeah. And then they have a day after those two trainings to finish them or watch them or catch up. And then Thursday and Friday are just really like, you're gonna come to the box openings and watch or come to the Q and A and ask questions. But the two trainings, I give them a day after, just to kind of, I don't want to overwhelm them, right?

Sarah Williams

33:45

That happens so easy with our audiences, and we feel like we just want to dump all of our knowledge on them, but it overwhelms them. So I want to give them time to think about what they did the day before, if they came live, if not, give them time to consume it, if they had to work or whatever, had other commitments, but that gives them time to show up then the next time. And I always tell them, like, if you can't come live block time in to watch the replay as soon as you can, and that way that you're staying with the group all week long. And so that's really what I encourage them to do.

Ellen Yin

34:20

Love that, giving them breathing room to, like you said, digest and actually implement, it kind of is giving me ideas about, oh, how can, how can we all do a better job of, like, building in implementation blocks or days into whatever programs or experiences we're creating for our community? So super helpful. You also mentioned that with like, the evening VIP zoom calls for those who joined by Tuesday, and then, of course, you run them for three days in a row. So the other trainings then that you're doing, or the interviews with your current members, those are all only streamed Facebook live those, none of those are on Zoom. It's only the VIP calls that are on Zoom. Is that my understanding?

Sarah Williams

34:58

Yes. Yeah. That's kind of another, like, higher level connection with me. So it's like a bonus. It's not just Sarah talking, you know, for an hour, it's Sarah interacting for an hour, because we'll be found, like we can give them all the things, all the things for me, we they, ultimately, they just want more of you. And it's hard sometimes, because I'm putting so much into this week. But I know if they get on one of these connection calls, their lifetime value in my membership is so much higher because they're getting that personal interaction with me that when you get into that group, there's, I have 1000s of members, so it's kind of that time to make a quick connection with somebody before they go into that group.

Sarah Williams

35:44

And then what's great for me is like, I remember a lot of them from coaching week, because I've had that face to face with them, right, even if there's 75 people in there and but if someone has talked to me and asked me a question, then I see them in the group. I'm like, Hey, Shannon, good to see you in here. Tell me how you're if you've picked a launch date yet, or something like that. And so also have my community manager on those zoom calls too, because then she's bringing awareness to Okay, these are new members of our community. Let me connect. Let me make sure that they're seen and heard. Now I know a little bit more about that business, and so it just makes that interaction that much better,

Ellen Yin

36:22

right? That completely makes sense, and I'm sure it makes them feel like you said, more seen throughout their entire experience as a member, especially, you know, even though your launch event is really large, like there's 2000 people, since not every single person is showing up every single day. I'm sure they kind of get more opportunities for that, like individualized attention from you so smart for the people who take advantage of that. And the bonuses, the expiring bonuses, I think that's another incredible element that you mentioned. So you start offering people a chance to join the membership, literally on day one, and then you said you have a bonus that goes away every single day as the week drags on. So like, someone who joins the first day is going to get all the bonuses. Someone who joins by the last day is only going to get one of the bonuses. Right? Yes.

Ellen Yin

37:12

Do you mind run giving us a quick, just like, rundown of what those bonuses are, or if you can't remember all of them off the top of your head and maybe just pick, like, your top two favorites. I know you already mentioned the VIP zoom calls, but, like, what else?

Sarah Williams

37:26

Yeah, so I know I'm by the back my hands. I got you. So there's four bonuses. Okay, so you've got to remember this is going to run Sunday to the following Monday. Okay, so there's four bonuses. So the first bonus is, are you've paid $15 this happens on Sunday night, and it ends Monday night at midnight. Okay, you're gonna get your $15 applied to your first month of membership for launch your box, and that converts like, I think I had 80 or 100 people join just from that one little bonus. Okay, so that was on that first 24 hours, then on from Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, the urgency there is, if you join today, you get to join a call with me tonight, and I get to talk about that Tuesday while I'm delivering the training.

Sarah Williams

38:11

And then I can talk about it Tuesday afternoon when I'm live with my student. Hey, don't forget, if you join now, you get to join us tonight on Zoom, and then I get to talk about it Wednesday. Also, I like to take a little screenshot of the zoom, and I put it in the group. I'm like, we had so much fun last night. And I'm like, we talked about sourcing overseas, and they're like, oh my gosh, y'all did, and so I'm creating that. FOMO, yeah. So then on Wednesday, when I'm interviewing my student, I'm like, you know, Lexi, remind them that we're going to be on Zoom tonight. You know, they could come join us. And so I'm plugging that bonus. Then I'm plugging it twice on Thursday during my teaching and then during my interview. So those are the bonus till Thursday, then Friday. So that's bonus number two, the VIP chats.

Sarah Williams

38:59

Bonus number three starts on Friday. It's my public open cart. It's on my sales page, and so I'm now streaming publicly and in the group, and I'm promoting, you know, join launcher box now we're open and that bonus is a year worth of social media graphics. And so we have them for every month. And so they get a whole Google Drive of social media graphics for their business. And so everyone that signs up Friday by midnight gets that one, so that we're creating that urgency to sign up on Friday.

Sarah Williams

39:31

And then Saturday, there's no bonus, which is like the dead day. It's the dead day. I'm live with a student again on Saturday. And so I'm talking about joining blah, blah, blah. Sunday, we do bonus number four, and that is a master class that I have taught before. It's called the 30 days to launch, walking them through how they could launch their subscription in 30 days. So it's a free master class. It's delivered digitally, and then Monday is our last day.

Sarah Williams

39:57

There's no bonus on the last day, it's just get in before. We close the cart because we have a closed membership, so there's urgency there to get in before you can't get in until we open again. And so those are the four bonuses, and they're just strategically placed through there. There's only one day Saturday we don't have a bonus, and it kind of gives me a day to rest a little bit. But before we go into closed cart, you know, days, but I'm converting really consistently every single day because of those bonuses.

Ellen Yin

40:27

Wow, I feel like I, even though I have no intention to create a subscription box in the next year or two, I feel like I have to show up to subscription box a week just to, like, witness this excitement firsthand. I'm someone I don't know about you, but I learn a lot through observation of other people's, you know, containers and offers, and so I just want to see you in your zone, in action and well deserved rest day on Saturday, by the way, I can see why you're losing your voice by the end, because that's a lot to show up live, and I know you're pitching live every single day, like You mentioned throughout the week with these bonuses and throughout the trainings and live interviews with your students.

Ellen Yin

41:05

But do you also like the people who are part of the subscription box week? Are they also simultaneously receiving like sales emails in their inbox every single day during this challenge, so that even if they're, let's say, not tuning in live or not, maybe checking the Facebook group as much they're still getting that ask every day, yeah.

Sarah Williams

41:26

So we do an email every day during the week to and it's, it's kind of like a wrap up email, right? Like, here's what we did today, here's the link if you missed what we did yesterday. Here's the times to show up tomorrow. And then here's the bonus, if you join today. So every day, we have a reason to talk about joining, because there's a bonus attached to it. And so it's kind of this wrap up email that they're getting every single day. You got to get the links in front of them. They can't, you know, be looking around the Facebook group with 1000s of people talking their heads off. It's crazy. Your whole Facebook feed turns into this group for the week.

Sarah Williams

42:00

So we try to just get everything out in front of them. Here's the link from day one subscription box week. Here's what we did, here's what's happening, here's how you can join, here's your bonus. And then here's what's going on tomorrow. And so every day, they're basically getting a sales email without knowing they're getting a sales email, if that makes sense, without really feeling it being all salesy, yes. And then on Friday, they're automatically put into our open cart campaigns. And so they're gonna get, I mean, because that's the last day of subscription box week. So now they're getting our sales emails that are really salesy, you know, like to convert. So they're kind of getting a mixture of that throughout the week.

Ellen Yin

42:37

It sounds, actually, again, very similar to what we do in our live challenge as well. And I want to emphasize that point you made about how you know you mentioning the bonuses daily and kind of just seeding that into your wrap up or your daily recap email. I can see why that's such like a subtle way to it's like a suggestion, right? It's like, Hey, by the way, we're doing you a favor and rounding up all of the value so that you have it in one easy to reference place. But also I just want to make sure I remind you, or that you don't forget about this amazing bonus. So I love the way that you kind of tackle that from two different approaches, the more subtle suggestion throughout the week, and then really hitting it hard once open cart happens.

Ellen Yin

43:15

How long is your entire open cart? Is it just the four days? Friday, Saturday, Sunday, close on Monday or Okay, for everybody, right, all right. Why four day open cart? Is that something that you've tested different lengths and you just found that works the best? Or yeah, what's behind that decision?

Sarah Williams

43:31

I think if I was just doing an open cart launch, I would probably do five or six days. But because this is tied into subscription box week, I feel like I have the attention of my warmest lead anyway, yeah, so when I do open cart one, I'm exhausted by Friday anyway. So I feel like, if you're just in my email list, or you're following me on YouTube or Facebook or whatever, you're ready to join, you already know you want to join, because you already know who I am. Maybe you've been listening to my voice on the podcast, maybe you've been watching my YouTube videos, or you show up every Monday for Monday momentum, whatever the case may be.

Sarah Williams

44:07

So I feel like I'm really just launching to subscription box week, honestly, because I feel like the other the other part of my list, knows whether they're gonna buy or not. They know it's coming. We've sent out, you know, email campaigns and launch your box is open. They got all the emails about subscription box week going on. So they know that that was coming too. So I like to do a short launch window, because I can go hard in four days. I think when you have a long launch, it just putters out like you just you can't go hard that long. And I know when I go all in, I see results. But trying to go all in for 710, 14 days, that's too hard. It's an it's kind of like you're sick of looking at it. So that's why I just. To do a short window. I do this, this thing with my retail e commerce business. When I'm launching that box, I do it for four or five days. We go all in, we talk about it non stop, and then we're done. And so that's just really what works for me.

Ellen Yin

45:12

Yeah, I think it comes down to knowing your own energetic capacity and how you like to show up. Like you said. It sounds like you have a really good grasp on that for yourself, and it is tough to carry that momentum for you know, weeks on end that stretch. So I love that you found the right cadence that works for you. To wrap up our case study today, I wanted to kind of pull out a few other factors that you feel really made a difference in creating your highest conversion rate ever at that 43% we've already walked through some of these contributing factors. You talked about why you increase the ticket price for subscription box weeks from 10 to $15 you talked about all of the bonuses, the four bonuses that really drive that urgency, and FOMO daily.

Ellen Yin

45:55

But the two, I feel like we haven't talked as much about that. I just want to kind of get your last bit of you know, insight on is, first the increased ad spend. I feel like part of this is maybe obvious, like you said, just because of rising ad costs. But if there was anything else that you feel contributed to you increasing the budget, yeah, anything around ad spend that you want to add, this would be a great chance to pipe in, and then I'll ask you about the last factor after that.

Sarah Williams

46:22

So my strategy for increasing the ad spend was I had a goal of getting 1000 new members. So when I looked at historically these past, you know, four subscription box weeks I had gone, my conversion rate was going down each one. And I don't know if it was because, you know, we'd gone through this period of different timing with, you know, the world and things like that, or if they just seen it over and over again, and I wasn't converting. So actually, my last subscription box coaching week, I converted at 26% okay? And so in my mind. I thought, okay, if I want 1000 members, I need to get 4000 people into coaching week. Okay? And so I thought, in order to do that, I needed to spend quite a bit more money. So I increased my budget by $20,000 and so I thought, if I can increase my ad spend, I can get more people into coaching week. If I convert it 25% I'll get 1000 members. So I just did the backwards math.

Sarah Williams

47:27

What was happening was I wasn't getting as many members. And it started to make me scared a little bit, because I thought, okay, if I convert it 25% I'm gonna have a few 100 new members. Now I've spent this extra 20 grand, right? And I wasn't getting the sign ups, and I I kind of just was, like, it was too late to stop the ad spend, because now we're, like, two or three days before coaching week. I've spent a lot of my budget, and I thought, I can't stop the ads now. Yeah, we're so close to this. Most people sign up at the last minute. Yeah, let's just let it ride, and I'm gonna do my best to show up and convert the heck out of people. And that's what I told myself. I was like, now it's in my hands. It's in my control.

Sarah Williams

48:09

Yeah, I have to show up as the most confident, best version of me in this group and help them see what this could do for them in a form of reoccurring revenue. And according of like, lifestyle changes, like, I have to show them that, and I have to make them believe that they can really do this, because my students that are doing this, their lives have changed and and so I just knew that I had to do that, and that's where my confidence really shifted, and I went all in, and that's where some of the extra bonuses came in. Because I thought, okay, if I don't have 4000 people in here, I gotta convert better. So I added in the $15 off the first day. So that was new. And I added in bonus number four, which was that free master class kind of late cart bump there. I had the other two bonuses already planned, because we do those every time.

Sarah Williams

49:01

But I'm like, I think I need some more conversion points here, more urgency here. And so that was really my thought process behind the ad spend was I was hoping it was going to bring me more sign ups, and it did not. But fortunately, I had a much better conversion rate than I expected.

Ellen Yin

49:20

There you go. And I think that speaks volumes about, you know, keeping your I don't even know if it's the word, like, optimism is the right word, but like, just not letting yourself get totally derailed if the front end metrics don't line up with, you know, what you were hoping for, because you always have ability to control the back end right, or the bottom of the funnel too. And I love that you were able to pivot in real time. In real time and figure out, okay, we didn't quite hit the registration numbers we wanted. But what else can we do to really increase that? And that's huge, by the way, Sarah, I just want to congratulate you again. Like 26% conversion rate to 43% in you know, just one round difference is absolutely amazing. So. So huge, huge kudos to you there.

Ellen Yin

50:01

The last thing that you did that really influenced the success of this round was your vulnerability and your ability to share openly get personal. What do you mean by that? What was different about what you shared with this group that you feel like maybe you didn't open up as much about in previous cohorts?

Sarah Williams

50:19

I think that I'm very open and transparent in my membership day to day, whether you're in, launch your box, scale your box, or my mastermind, like, there's no question that I won't answer. Like we were doing a live Q and A last week, they asked me questions about my boyfriend. You know, when you're 45 and dating? Like, that's what they're curious about. I'm like, All right, let's talk about my boyfriend. But so there's not anything that I won't answer about my own business, like I was in scale your box last week, and they're like, tell me about how you're better than Black Friday sales going. I've been seeing your ads, and I'm like, here's what my acquisition cost is, here's where my sales are at, here's where I'm at compared next year.

Sarah Williams

50:54

So I'm very transparent in that group, but then you put me in front of new people, strangers, maybe, and I don't feel as comfortable, right? Like I hold back a little bit because I don't know these people, not that I know all my members anyway, but it feels like a safer space for me, because it's a closed, private group, right? So I had to just be like, Okay, and this is what I told myself when I shifted from my retail brick and mortar to the E commerce, I had to show up online the same way I would show up if somebody walked through my front door. Right? I'm greeting them and ask them how their day is. Can I help them find anything I had to show my personality, and I had to show my transparency in this group.

Sarah Williams

51:37

And I think I'm more confident than I've ever been before, and it's just, I think it comes with experience, and it comes with age, and it comes with failures, and I think that that confidence showed up in this group that maybe hasn't been there before.

Ellen Yin

51:54

I love that. And an encouragement for anyone listening like Sarah said, this only comes through experience, right? So, like, you can't will your way into more confidence just by thinking it through. Like, yes, of course, you have to work on your mindset and whatnot. But a lot of it does have to do with just like, rolling up your sleeves, getting your elbows dirty, and kind of, you know, flopping and figuring things out as you go. And that builds resilience and that builds confidence. So thank you so much, Sarah for just sharing so transparently. I can definitely sense that in you. I feel like that's what makes you such an amazing guest for our show, is like, we so so value that commitment to transparency and showing people like what it really takes to run a business.

Ellen Yin

52:32

And again, like, huge congrats on the 43% conversion. I think that gets you close to that 1000 member market that you were looking for, right? Yeah, so that's that's amazing. And one final point, just for our listeners, I realized I was supposed to say this at the beginning to kind of give you guys a little bit more context. But launch your box is a $67 a month membership, so this is a very low ticket membership, and that's why I think that day one bonus, that $15 credit that they can apply towards their first month in your membership probably converts so well, because, I mean, basically, if you take $15 away from 67 they're practically paying for like, a third of their membership costs, right? So just thinking through that for yourselves, as you're listening into this case study, if you do something similar, where it's like a paid launch into a paid product, thinking, how can I reward those who have already invested by giving them that fast action bonus.

Ellen Yin

53:23

So Sarah, thank you so much. Where else can our listeners connect with you? Join your next subscription box week. If there's someone who falls into that category, tell us all the links.

Sarah Williams

53:33

Yeah. If you love listening to podcasts, you can come over and listen to mine. It's called the launcher box podcast. Also you can find me at my website is launchervox.com so you can come find all the free resources that you might want. You can check me out there. And of course, I'm live every Monday morning, just giving a little bit of motivation and inspiration to kind of get your week going every single week.

Ellen Yin

53:55

I love that. Well, if you're watching this on YouTube, all of those links will be below in the video description. If you're listening on your favorite podcast player, make sure to check out the show notes, Sarah, thank you again for joining us, and thank you all for tuning in. We will catch you in next week's episode.

Ellen Yin

54:18

If you love today's episode, send it to a friend. Tag us on Instagram at Cubicle to CEO, or give us a five star rating at ratethispodcast.com/cubicletoCEO. You can also access bonus episodes on our private podcast by joining the C Suite, our flagship annual membership providing exclusive cash savings content and an offline community for small business CEOs, check out the link in the show notes to join us.

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