Our new sleep supplement brand is 30 days old. That means the first round of recurring orders are about to come in.

Today, we share six lessons …

1️⃣ Give a Gift For Subscribing
2️⃣ Measure Msg, CAC + LTV
3️⃣ Onboard Customers for 30d
4️⃣ Personalize Winback Flows
5️⃣ Let Customers Reschedule
6️⃣ Get It Out the Door Sooner

Four 9-figure executives + one new operator are building a supplement brand in public.

Cody Plofker

Jones Road, Advisor

Are Celebs Buying Your Products?

When we had Kim Chappell (CBO, Bobbie) on the pod a little while back, she told us the story of how Bobbie’s partnership with Cardi B was formed.

It wasn’t forced. Cardi B was already a customer who genuinely loved their product and used it to feed her baby.

We’ve had similar unexpected partnerships at Jones Road. Just because some celeb or influencer organically started using our product + we reached out.

Question is, how do you know?

That’s what OuterSignal is for.

It reveals the full (real person) profile behind every order.

Age + gender
Occupation
Social following
And lots more

You can use it to find VIP customers.

Or even discover retail opportunities.

Plus, you can build segments around what your customers have in common, tailor your outreach, and create lookalike audiences to find more people like them.

No surprise that yesterday, OuterSignal announced raising $22M for their Series A.

If you don’t have good visibility, OuterSignal will scan your customer base and show you what you’re missing.

Scan for VIPs Now (Free)

Matt Bertulli

CEO, Pela + Lomi

6 Lessons on Getting & Keeping Subscribers

We just crossed the 30-day mark from launching Winks.

That means reorders are starting to fire.

Our CPMs are a lot more under control than the $200 we were seeing at launch. At current CPAs, our spend is outpacing our revenue by ~2 to 1.

Will LTV make up for that? It’s too soon to tell. We should have some early retention data in the next few week.

To be honest, we are still making our best guesses about offer, onboarding, and how to retain customers.

That’s why Cody and I sat down with Aidan Thibodeaux from Skio and Bernard from Omnisend to jam on subscription.

Here are six things we’ve learned about getting + keeping subscribers (so far).

1. Give a Gift For Subscribing

It’s easy to get excited about everything subscription software lets you do (we are using Skio).

Upsells
Cross-sells
Quarterly vs monthly

We do have an upsell live, but only post-purchase. It’s more of the same because we are one-SKU brand.

But ground zero is the offer. What does somebody get when they first subscribe? Aidan said we should add value before testing a bigger discount.

Right now the only way you can buy Winks is through subscribing. But if you buy three bags, you get one for free + these four gifts:

Free shipping
$25 at Caden Lane
30d of RISE app
Digital sleep guide

But we want to add a physical gift too. So we are reaching out to Kitsch to get some sleep masks.

Before launch, we also had to decide between monthly or quarterly subscription.

Quarterly gets more cash upfront. But higher upfront prices could make acquisition harder.

Right now what we need are freaking customers.

2. Measure Msg, CAC + LTV

Great CAC does not equal great subs.

One ad might get a much lower CAC on customers who cancel after their first purchase. Another ad might acquire customers at 2-3x the cost but generate longer term subscribers.

We don’t have the data yet.

But we will need to connect the dots between our retention metrics + which messages or ads acquired them.

Aidan said he sees around 80% second-order retention among subscription brands like ours. He challenged us to aim for 90%.

3. Stop Promos + Onboard

For a single-SKU brand, Aidan recommended excluding subscribers from promotional campaigns.

They already bought. Don’t keep asking them to buy it.

There’s a big exception though: Onboarding.

Both Aidan and Bernard emphasized that the first month is all about educating your customers.

What did they subscribe to?
When will it arrive + renew?
How should they use it?
Can they pause an order?

Our first email covers a lot of those bases.

The rest of our welcome sequence educates them on how to use the product and get the most benefit.

4. Personalize the Winback

The standard winback email is pretty lazy: “You canceled. Here’s 20% off. Please come back!”

But what if …

They hated the flavor
Had too much product
Their favorite was OOS
Dosage was too high
Or it was too low to work

A discount doesn’t address those reasons.

This is something we’ve only started to play with, but Skio allows us to ask customers why they canceled and then personalize their winback flow based on the reason they selected.

Out of the gate, we will test:

Discounts
Free gifts
Frequency

As we collect more data on why people cancel, we will test offers that address the real reasons people are leaving.

5. Let People Re-Schedule Delivery

If you’ve ever subscribed to a consumable, you already know what happens when you fall behind on taking it.

Three months in, you’re already oversupplied.

Then a renewal email arrives.

“Your order is on its way!”

You look at the product still in your cupboard. You might even cancel to avoid getting more than you need.

On the other end, maybe you are super consistent. But both you and your spouse are taking a one-month supply.

So you run out halfway through the month.

Each of those customers needs the same thing: the ability to pause or reschedule their next order.

At Winks, we’ve set it up so customers get a reminder when their next order is coming (before it ships!). Then we make it super easy for customers to reorder, pause, or change the schedule of their next delivery.

This gives people flexibility to create a new habit. Your schedule is not your customer’s schedule.

6. Get it Out The Door

By the end of the conversation, Cody and I had a long to-do list.

But not everything needs to be perfect at launch.

Winks wasn’t.

We’ve already redesigned our website like three times, we’ve changed the price, we will test new gifts-with-purchase, we are currently trying to figure out how well the product retains.

The learning only begins after you launch.

The starting line for subscription is …

1️⃣ A compelling offer
2️⃣ Retention metrics
3️⃣ Helpful onboarding
4️⃣ Relevant winback
5️⃣ Flexible delivery

Then get it out the door.

We’re only 30 days in. We have a long way to go. We will keep sharing what we learn!