How people find our box
Subscriptions live or die on a suspicion, and the suspicion is that signing up will be easy and leaving will not. We decided the fastest way past it was to stop arguing and simply show everything. Our plans page lays the monthly, quarterly and gift options out side by side, and the page explaining how to pause, skip or swap is public rather than buried in an account area nobody can reach until they have already handed over a card.
That has changed what our marketing has to do. We are not persuading anyone that a box of curated goods is a nice idea, they already know. We are proving that this particular box is worth the standing order, so the reveal page shows what actually went out this month and the archive shows what went out before it. If somebody wants to judge us on our worst month, the evidence is right there.
The reveal page does the convincing
People search for subscription boxes in the abstract and then need something concrete before they will commit. The monthly reveal is that something, and the past box archive is what turns a single good month into a track record. Both get found on their own, because somebody searching a maker we have featured lands on the box that carried them. The plans page is where those visitors go next, and it is written to be scanned rather than studied.
Saying the awkward part out loud
Our piece on gifting a subscription without the awkwardness exists because that gift genuinely can go wrong, and pretending otherwise would insult the reader. The case for pause and skip is the post we are most often thanked for, since it tells people how to leave gracefully before they have joined. Writing about how makers get chosen for a box answers the quiet question underneath all of this, which is whether anyone actually curates these things or simply fills a carton.
When somebody asks an assistant to recommend a box
Gift shopping has moved toward describing a person to an assistant and asking what to send them. An assistant needs facts, not atmosphere, so we give it facts: what each plan includes, how gifting works without an ongoing commitment, how skipping a month is handled, what sort of makers we work with. Our stories hub helps, because members describe the box in their own words far better than our own copy ever manages to.
We advertise the gift, and not much else
Gifting is the one place we spend, because somebody looking for a present has a deadline, a budget and a genuine need for a suggestion, and our gift page answers all three at once. Ongoing subscriptions we leave to the reveal page and to members telling other people. Advertising a standing monthly commitment to somebody who has not seen a single box yet asks for trust we have not earned, and it churns straight back out again.
Subscription Box marketing questions we get asked
What does digital marketing involve for a subscription box?
Proving a claim rather than making one. Nobody needs persuading that a curated box is a pleasant idea; they need evidence that ours is worth a standing order. So the reveal shows what actually shipped and the archive shows every month before it, including the ones we found disappointing.
Why is your pause and skip page public?
Because the suspicion people carry is that joining will be simple and leaving will not. Putting the pause, skip and swap rules where anyone can read them before handing over a card removes that argument completely. It is also the piece readers thank us for most often.
Does SEO matter when most people discover boxes on social?
More than we expected. Somebody sees a box on a friend's feed, then searches the maker or the box by name later, and the reveal and archive pages are what they land on. Social starts the curiosity, and search is usually where the question gets settled.
How do gift shoppers tend to reach you?
With a deadline and no idea. They describe a person and want a suggestion, sometimes to a search box and increasingly to an assistant, so the gift page states what each plan includes and how gifting works without an ongoing commitment. Plain facts travel; atmosphere does not.
What do you choose not to promote?
The ongoing monthly plan, to anybody who has not seen a box yet. Asking a stranger for a standing commitment asks for trust nobody has given us, and those signups tend to leave nearly as quickly as they arrive. The reveal page and members talking to friends handle it.
This site runs on WorkspaceCMS, and the campaigns described above are run by its team. See how Subscription Box campaigns work.
