391 – Everything About Subscription Programs with Brandon Amoroso of Electriq
One of the things I love about when the season begins to change is you always know what to expect and how to prepare for what’s coming next.
But what if you could be more predictable with your business, too? Especially when it comes to sales.
Imagine your projections being targeted plans instead of hopeful guesses. Sounds good, right?
Well, getting you to this point is exactly what we’re talking about today. Specifically, how to set up subscription programs to build in repeat business.
So that rather than being left up to chance if a customer will buy again, you can be in control with sales that are more predictable (and can multiply).
Brandon is the founder and CEO of Electriq, a company that scales brands with profitable e-commerce models built from innovative proprietary methods.
And today, we talk all about subscription models. Brandon will share with us his experience with the difference between subscription and non-subscription brands, how to get people to join and what companies often get wrong with loyalty programs.
Brandon is the perfect person to hear from for this topic because he focuses on strategies that increase customer lifetime value by creating best-in-class consumer experiences which can be naturally built into the subscription model.
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
Website | Instagram | LinkedIn
Join Our FREE Gift Biz Breeze Facebook Community
Become a Member of Gift Biz Breeze
If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you automatically get the next episode downloaded for your convenience. Click on your preferred platform below to get started.
Also, if you’d like to do me a huge favor – please leave a review. It helps other creators like you find the show and build their businesses too. You can do so right here: Rate This Podcast
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify
Thank you so much! Sue
Know someone who needs to hear this episode?
Click a button below to share it!
Transcript
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.