Using the Welcome Box Strategy to Delight Your Clients/Students with Julie Ball

Jaclyn Mellone

Welcome to Go-To Gal episode number 185. As always, I’m your host, Jaclyn Mellone. So today Julie Ball with Sparkle Hustle Grow online subscription box is joining me for this conversation. Julie and I go way, way back. I think we first met in person, so I’m sure we connected online before this, but we first met in person in 2017. I know we met online before them because I was excited to meet her in person.

We were both speaking at the Boss Mom conference, and she is just one of those people that is so much fun, so full of just, I don’t even know just pure joy energy. I absolutely love every time I get a chance to chat with her, and I am so excited to get to share her and all her amazing business wisdom with you today.

We have some exciting things to cover. Now, Julie teaches people how to start subscription box businesses. And most of the time that is what her interviews are about. In fact, the topic of this conversation of this interview is something that she’s never been interviewed about before. How cool is that? So here’s the thing.

Whenever I bring guests on, I’m always thinking about you and what you want to listen to. It’s not about me and truthfully, I’m not going out and starting a subscription box business myself. So even if I was going to pick Julie’s brain about something, that wouldn’t necessarily be what I would do it on.

And so in chatting with her and seeing more about her business, well, I know there are some of you that would really benefit from, and probably are really intrigued about starting a subscription box. Definitely go check out more of Julie’s stuff. I realize most of you are and something that Julie has started and has really leaned into and sees the need for is for those of you that are not judging your whole business model to you these having subscription boxes. Having just one box, a one-time box, a welcome box that you send your clients or students, and spoiler alert the box doesn’t need to actually be a box, but we’ll get into that.

Sending something physical to your clients and students unlocks this magic. There’s something powerful, magical even about having that physical thing, whether it’s a piece of paper or a box, or what have you, that taking your online-only offer and having this now physical component, whether, again, it’s a piece of paper or a whole box of goodies.

It really cannot just delight those clients and students, but it can really shift the relationship. It can set the tone for the offer, all of these things. We’re going to go into a way more with Julie, but I’m really excited to explore this. It is something I have not done much of myself. So I was really excited to pick her brain on this.

And I know whatever offer you have, whether you’re working one-on-one with clients done for you, coaching consulting if you have courses, I would say the only thing time doesn’t, wouldn’t necessarily be the case for you is if you have just a digital product that’s low price. But we could probably figure out a way to leverage that for you as well, especially if you’re looking for repeat business or a recurring business. 

Keep an open mind. I’m excited to pick Julie’s brain about this topic that she shares with us. So, not just the strategy and ideas, but straight up the links, and go here for this. I don’t know if you can hear Lou shaking his collar.

I’ll make sure we put those in the show notes too because she gives so much away. Before we start the conversation, as always, I want to formally introduce you to Julie. Julie Ball is the founder and chief sparkler of Sparkle Hustle Grow, a monthly subscription box and online community for female entrepreneurs.

Julie leads thousands of women through personal development and business training in a way that’s fun and supportive. And through her coaching programs, podcast and book, she has helped hundreds of aspiring subscription box business owners turn their ideas into reality. She’s a wise mom, the corporate girl turned entrepreneur subscription box coach, outdoor enthusiast, music lover, and she has been featured in as well as the Sparkle Hustle Grow box has been featured in Forbes business, Insider, USA Today, PopSugar, and more.

All right, let’s get to it. Here’s my conversation with Julie. 

Julie. I’m so excited to have you here.   

Julie Ball

Hello. I’m really, really excited to be chatting with you today.   

Jaclyn Mellone

All right. Well, before we dive in, take us back to when you were growing up, what were you the go-to gal for back then?  

Julie Ball

Okay. So it’s very clear for me to say this now, but it wasn’t clear at the time,  but all my life, I had been a cheerleader.

So for the basketball team, for the football team, and just in general. I didn’t have one particular group of friends.  I just kind of,  I don’t know. What’s the word for that? I just dance around all the groups of friends. After high school and even in college, I’d look back at myself and I’d say, oh, I had my priorities all wrong.

I can’t believe I was just a cheerleader, and I should have been doing something more impactful,  Well then, fast forward until now, I am leading thousands of women through Sparkle Hustle Grow which is my monthly subscription box for female entrepreneurs.  I’m cheering them on in their business, and it dawned on me just a couple of years ago that that is my superpower. That has been my go-to for years, and I fought it for so long, and now I’ve embraced it again. I am in full cheerleader mode. I am everyone’s biggest fan. I am an optimist, but also a realist, but think that you could easily say that cheerleading is my superpower and my go-to.

Jaclyn Mellone

I absolutely see that in you, and I love that.  You’re probably one of our most prepared guests on that answer because not only do I know what I was the go-to gal for, but I’ve already thought about exactly my journey with it and how it connects to what you’re doing now. I definitely see the true line there, and it’s funny how you judged it for a little bit. I’ve been like that with myself about things too.  And then to get that perspective, oh, wait, no, I shouldn’t be judging myself for that. 

Julie Ball

 It’s so freeing. It just allows you to be 100% unapologetically. And  I love the quote that says, “I’m not for everyone.”  And I think we all need to wear shirts that say, “I’m not for everyone and that’s okay.” That’s why there are hundreds of coaches out there and there are all kinds of different paths you can take in your life and in your business.  There’s no one-size-fits-all, so, I realized I’m not for everyone, but for those people,  those women in their businesses that need motivation and accountability and some focus, I’m your gal.   

Jaclyn Mellone

Yes. Well, I think it shows you too, that we can, I don’t know when looking back at our own journeys. There are the things that actually happen, there are the facts, but we can choose to look at them in a bunch of different ways. I used to give my parents a hard time about,  I don’t know when I was in fourth grade, I was in the chorus. I was in Girl Scouts, and I was in dance and they said to me, okay, this is too much. You have to let go of one of them. And I decided to let go of dance because dance was across town.

It wasn’t like my group of friends wasn’t in it and all of this stuff. And I said, okay, I can’t sing, and nobody does Girl Scouts for forever. I’m like, what were you thinking about letting me stop dance? Why did you trust me? I am nine years old to make this decision maybe, I could have gone on and done something with dance. Two years later, I got cut from chorus and quit Girl Scouts. I used to give them a hard time about this, and recently, in thinking back, I was having a conversation with someone else, and it clicked off like, you know what, I look back and them giving me that ability to make my own decisions, and I realized that it’s okay to quit something.

There are probably more complex reasons if I wanted to quit.  I don’t know, some people would say, oh, make your kids stay through with everything. But the ability to be able to quit stuff, I think has carried me through. Leaving jobs and leaving opportunities that I wanted to leave. You can reframe it either way.

Julie Ball

And I think, you need to reframe the word, quit to resign or changed course or something because quit sounds so negative. Sometimes we have to stop doing something in order to move forward or to get into our zone or figure out the right fit. And so it’s not that you quit dance, rather you resigned from it or changed course.

Jaclyn Mellone

I retired, from it. But yeah, I think when we look back, we can choose to look at it in different ways, and it’s more empowering to find the paths that have helped us. I mean, certainly, there are certain things we don’t want to gaslight ourselves on, but some of those things that maybe aren’t as impactful,  we can choose how we’re looking back on those experiences.

Julie Ball

And I think too when you get to, I’m in my early forties, so I think you have these change of perspectives to where you stop caring so much about what everybody thinks, and you just start to be yourself a lot more.  And as I said, it’s so freeing and that’s really when I figured out that it was okay for cheerleading to be my superpower or my go-to because I’m good at cheering people on. And I shouldn’t be embarrassed about that or I don’t want to feel bad about something like that. It was really, as you said, reframing it, but it took me a lot of reflecting to figure that out.  

Jaclyn Mellone

Totally. And I’m 38 going on 38 and a half. I feel like with that horizon of 40, this has totally been the work that I’ve been doing, letting go of the people-pleasing and all of that.

 Julie Ball

Yes, girl. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Yes. I feel that so hard. Oh, all right. Okay. Well, we could clearly just talk all day about all of the things. So let’s jump back into you being the cheerleader.  In the present day,  what do you do and who do you help?  

Julie Ball

Sure. So I run Sparkle Hustle Grow which is a monthly subscription box for female entrepreneurs. We basically cut through the clutter, and deliver the best of the best in personal development, office supplies, tech, gadgets, and all the fun stuff in your business that is going to inspire you which is pretty and practical. I’ve been running that since 2016. We’re about to celebrate our five-year anniversary. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Wow. 

Julie Ball

I know I cannot believe it, and over the years, I have learned so much about the subscription box industry and have been asked so often, can I pick your brain? How do you do that? So at this point, I’m also a subscription box business coach, and I’ve helped hundreds of other women start and grow their own subscription box business through my signature program, Subscription Box booth camp.

Jaclyn Mellone

I love it.  It’s so cool to see how you have taken this and just taken it off. I think we first met right around the time you were starting that, so it’s been really inspiring to see your journey in action. One of the things I love about Sparkle Hustle Grow is that you have an online component as well. So we’re going to talk about a few different things today, but this idea of having a subscription box and adding this recurring revenue stream to your business is very interesting. And the way that you’ve structured it, it’s not just a physical product, but it also has a digital component to it. So will you just tell us how that all works? Have you always done it like that?  

Julie Ball

So that is so important because there are so many products out there, so many subscription boxes that are just boxes of stuff, and that is not the core of our mission. We really want to provide so much more than that. We want to create an experience. So we have two digital components to the box. We’ve got an online community. It is for subscribers only, and it’s where we connect and collaborate. We do training in there and just cheer each other on it’s a great place to network.  

And it’s funny because we regularly survey our customers and say, what brought you here? Why did you join?  And then why do you stay? And every single time, over the past five years, it’s always what brought you in was the stuff. So they saw the shiny object, the pink box, and they’re like, ooh, that sounds fun. But then they stick around for the community because that’s what I feel that we need.

It’s clear, and the data is showing us that that’s what we need as women entrepreneurs. No one wants to feel like they’re on an island making decisions by themselves and just drowning in signing up for this lead magnet and this course, and then just feeling so overwhelmed.  So that’s what we try to do in the community.

And then we also have a membership hub that is all digital.  And in that membership hub, we host our training. We host things like membership perks, and those are virtual events. Those are software discounts, things that are going to help you move the needle in your business.  So you can kind of think of it as three things, the physical box, the online community, and the membership hub, and all together, it creates this beautiful experience that we see women,  making big moves in their business, growing their business in a fun way, in a way that feels really supported.  

Jaclyn Mellone

I can absolutely see that. The interesting thing with this is that you probably launched this all at the same time. But maybe some people have a subscription box and then eventually add on an online component. I see a lot of people that may be listening that maybe have that are ready membership or group coaching program or something that they already have the virtual component. There’s this opportunity to now add the box to it, to help it grow.  

Julie Ball

A hundred percent. Yeah. There’s kind of that gap when you’re just doing a digital membership or a mastermind event or a virtual event, and it can be amazing. I have no doubt,  but there can also sometimes be a little bit of a disconnect because there isn’t anything in person you’re not shaking a hand in person, or you’re not getting that swag bag when you walk through the door. And so, I think there’s definitely an opportunity for so many of your listeners to easily add in a product or a welcome box or some sort of physical manifestation of their brand in their programs.  

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. I love the idea that you say welcome box because that feels a little easier to take on because we may get excited and say, okay, there’s maybe this potential to add on a subscription box to what we’re already doing, or maybe to have it as an additional revenue stream. Maybe the first step in that direction could be, okay, how do I take advantage of that physical aspect? How do I give them that tangible? There’s going to be some psychology to that. Of having your customers be able to actually hold something. What do you think that that meant?

Julie Ball

Oh, so much. Yes. Let me tell you this quick story. So I was at this mastermind event that it was in person, and I was literally the only product-based business owner there out of probably 20 to 25 people.  And so of course, they had a lot of questions about products for me.  And one of the girls that were there said she invested in a high ticket mastermind that she ultimately was underwhelmed with, she didn’t feel that she got everything out of it that she was expecting. But they had a kick-ass welcome box, and she was just blown away and said, oh, I got my money’s worth. So it’s crazy because she got this physical product that welcomed her to it.

And it got her super stoked about what they were about to do, and it can really remove buyer’s remorse.  It can reflect your company culture based on what you put in there. It can provide them with additional tools and resources that will help them succeed in your programs. So there are all these reasons why you would want to send a welcome box. Think of it as an onboarding just like when you hire a new person for your business, for example, you probably have some sort of onboarding flow.

They fill out some forms. You might send them a little thank you note, or you might send them something sweet in the mail. It’s the same concept. Someone just invested in you, so send them some happy mail, and make it that much more of a better experience.  

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. I totally did not have a nice onboarding sequence… For clients, but you would say, oh, you probably have something for you. I go, oh no, we’ve never done that. Also, I’m allergic to, okay, this is going to be good for us to talk about because my biggest apprehension was something like this, I’m allergic to the post office. 

Julie Ball

You don’t even have to go. I promise you.  

Jaclyn Mellone

It’s a very, very deadly allergy now. Seriously, it’s a problem. Okay. So how can the people that are like me that are like this, okay, this sounds really good, but there’s no way I could ever be responsible for sending something? It’s possible to… I’m just trying to be honest.

Julie Ball

Okay. Regarding your allergy, you can buy your postage online, print it on a plain black and white printer at home, and then schedule a pickup where the US postal service is going to deliver to your house anyhow, so they deliver your regular mail. They can pick up your boxes and just take them with you.  

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. That’s easy. That’s an interesting option, but is there also the option though, where it’s done where someone else does it for me. I mean, maybe I have a team member who will do it, but is there that like, it just exists somewhere?

Julie Ball

There are some companies that are swag management platforms or I don’t know off the top of my head, the names of those platforms because we’ve always done it ourselves and taught others to do it themselves. Because it’s fun for me, at least, this is my world. I love products.

I love shopping for my customers, thinking about the surprise and delight that they’re going to experience when they open that up. One of the things you can think about is, what is going to help them with your program. So that could be as simple as a pen and a journal, and that’s inspiring.  Also, a mug that could be, or a handwritten note. You could go as simple as that, it doesn’t even have to be a full-on welcome box.

Maybe, send a handwritten note with a laptop decal or some sort of sticker that they can put on their computer or in their office, something like that. So you don’t have to make it to this massive project. You can start super simple, but think about the feeling you get when someone sends you a handwritten letter these days, or a thank you card, and how much that stirs up emotion inside. There’s gratitude and that feeling of, aw they were thinking of me and they took the time to do that. So think about doing that as your starting point for new customers, new clients,  new masterminders, people that join your course. So it doesn’t have to be as hard as you think.

Jaclyn Mellone

 Okay. I love the idea of being able to start a small desk. It doesn’t have to be a box. It can be a metaphorical box. 

Julie Ball

Yes, exactly. 

Jaclyn Mellone

 And so, it can be a welcome envelope that has a welcome note in it, but it could also be a box or just an item.  Are there, those are some really good ideas of what we could be putting in it. Is there anything that you found, I don’t know that people get the most excited about? Or… Because I think there’s a mix of, okay, what’s practical in terms of, this is going to help get them maybe excited about the program,  and then there’s the what’s Instagramable. Maybe that’s gonna help.

Julie Ball

Yes. Things that are social media-friendly. Stay away from sized items because you don’t want to get into the business of exchanging sizes. So if you’re going to do a wearable, do a hat instead of a shirt. Do you know what I mean? Drink koozie’s mugs, things like that. It really depends on what your target audience is and what type of program you’re doing.

Do you know what I mean? So if you are teaching a course on how to run Instagram, how to run  Instagram ads, and show up on Instagram live, well, maybe you want to include some props that they could put in their Instagram videos. Maybe you want to include a selfie light so that they have better lighting, and that’s going to make them more successful. So you really got to think about what’s going to help them.  

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. Those are really good ideas because I think this brings us back to, so when I first think welcome box, I think our own brand, and I think to offer specific maybe a workbook or something, or a journal which would probably be more branded. But this is interesting because it’s other people’s products kind of going more into what a subscription box would be? But it’s a one-off. 

Julie Ball

Sure. So either way, even a mix of things is good because when you’re going to have something custom-branded, there are so many promotional companies out there that we like to use for the imprint, for all promos discount, mugs.com, some of those. They have some minimums. So for example, maybe you have to buy 50 mugs. So that’s something to think about, or you could go to Etsy, and you could buy something that’s custom there or ready-made with a quote that’s just gonna relate to them or just something that will get them excited.

So you can go either way, you can do ready-made products, or you can go and get some branded stuff. I will tell you, however, don’t go to Target, or don’t go to Walmart or whatever, and pick from the dollar bin because they’ll know they’re dollar bin items because they shop there too. And you’ll pay retail price.

You’ll pay full price for those items. Whereas, say you want to have some fancy pens, so one of the brands that we love is called U Brands, just like U, the letter, U Brands, they have a wholesale program, and so you could reach out to ubrands.com, sign up for their wholesale program, and buy them at 50% off retail.

That’s called a wholesale price, and the way that you can do that is by buying in bulk. You’re not buying one. Maybe you’re buying 20, for example, and you’re sort of reselling them to somebody else. So that’s how you can qualify for that wholesale rate. You don’t want to break the bank and then go to a retail store and spend top dollar on these items. There are ways that you can get them at better prices.  

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. You definitely have my wheels turning with this. Oh, and thank you for spitting out the different websites where we can go to check out this. So you mentioned the tripod or something like that. This probably branches over into a little bit of what you talk about with subscription boxes, but thinking about this welcome box,  is there a way to, I don’t know, maybe have companies donate if that’s the right word. That or even just, I guess what would that look like in terms of, okay, if we weren’t going to have our own branded stuff, if we were going to buy a product that someone else made, whether they’re able to donate it, or maybe there’s a way to get a bulk discount.

Julie Ball

I think there are ways to do that. In my business, I’m typically paying for the majority of the products that I feature. We’re featuring a lot of small businesses. We want to compensate them for their time, but there are ways to get products donated and think about it as if it’s a media pitch.

You put together a list of who you are, what you do,  and what’s in it for them. I think that’s the most important thing. What value can you bring to them? Are you going to feature them on your social media?  Are you going to do a professional photoshoot of the box with their product in it? Are you going to allow them to come into your community, and share more about their business? 

I think it’s really important that you treat it just like a media pitch, and say, this is what we’re looking to do, and this is what’s in it for you because that’s what’s most important, what’s in it for them.

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. 

Julie Ball

Oh, okay. I have another resource that I want to share with you before I forget. So earlier, we were talking about how you could do thank you notes. So when maybe someone joins your course, and you just want to send them something little, something easy.  Well, there is a service that will help you automate it. And it’s called thanks.io. And actually, I believe she’s one of the co-founders, and she’s one of our Sparkle Hustle Grow subscribers. That’s how I know about this amazing service, and you can connect it to your software, and you upload your artwork that you can make in Canva, and make it really super simple.

You can customize the front of your notecard, and then you can type out a message where it’s going to insert their name, for example, and you can even put it in a script where it looks as though it’s handwritten. I’ve received a few of these in testing them, and they’re really, really nice. They feel legit.   You can automate it. So if you don’t have time to do all that,  you do have options.  

Jaclyn Mellone

That is a really cool option. I am loving all of the resources you were sharing with this. So as I’m thinking about it, okay, who can benefit from this? If we have our own branded stuff, or someone’s joining a program or a membership, and we have the brand, and then maybe if there’s a course and we want them to have physical products that would help them with the course in some way, what about for a service provider or a one-on-one coach that wants to send a that welcome box to a client? 

And maybe they don’t really have a brand, or they don’t want to have a brand, or if they had a brand, they may be like, well, I don’t know if this person will want to walk around with my brand on their head. Depending on what their brand is. I’m sure some people could be thinking that that’s where I think, what would you say for those people?  

Julie Ball

I think snacks. I think coffee or tea. I just discovered this really cool gum called Neuro gum, and they have two different flavors. One is for focus and one is for calm and clarity, so those types of really unique things. Don’t ship chocolates in August.

Jaclyn Mellone

Good note there. Yeah. 

Julie Ball

That’s for sure, but I think there are some really basic things that you can send. For example, notepads and journals, and pens, and mugs, things like that. They don’t have to be branded specifically, Sparkle, Hustle Grow. For example, they could just have a quote on it that’s really relatable to my target audience. I love the idea of mugshots. I know Sarah Blakely does those mugshots on Instagram all the time.  So you could easily… 

Jaclyn Mellone

I don’t know what a mugshot is.

Julie Ball

So a mugshot is just a social media image where you’re holding your mug in front of your face and smiling. And usually, that mug has some fun, little quote on it.  This mug says, ask me about my podcast. Yes, exactly. You just hold that in front of you, and it’s a great little mugshot. So you can then challenge your new course students, or maybe your virtual event attendees to take their mugshot today and tag you on social media. And that’s just a way to get a flurry of activity related to your brand that you can then. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Oh, that’s so simple but so brilliant. It’s so actionable. It’s clear. It’s fun. It’s a very practical item. 

Julie Ball:

Books are a good thing to do too. Personal development books are really, really popular with my crowd and the people that I send boxes to. I could just pick my favorite book, and send that book. You can get discounts on places like bulkbookstore.com,  bookdepot.com. There are all kinds of places you don’t have to, again, go to Barnes and Noble or whatever, and spend retail value. You can get better pricing if you find those wholesalers.

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. We are getting all of the behind-the-scenes. All the links I’m here for it. Okay. Then now that’s really creative because I think that takes some of the pressure off if they don’t feel that, oh, I don’t have a  brand that would go on a pen or a hat. But to be able to have a service that would lend itself to having the tripod stand or something like that if that would make sense.

Being able to just kind of gift their people with something nice but in a way where it’s a little bit more systematic. I think some people do this one-off.  What do you think the benefit is from making that decision of this is what we do? This isn’t just like when I think about it or for some clients, but this is something that we do as a business.

Julie Ball

I think that it becomes part of the DNA, and it is a reflection of your company culture. You’re sharing gratitude. I think one of the things too is coming up with your workflow and then passing it off to a team member because if you’re the CEO, or you’re the founder, or you’re the person who has to show up, live to do the training, you might not have time to pack a box. So you can actually come up with your workflow, come up with your SOP, your standard operating procedure and pass it off to an assistant or a team member. 

Jaclyn Mellone

That’s really reassuring. And even if you have the time, I know for me, sometimes I get stuck in that, well, technically, I may have the time, but if I take the time to do that,  it may be taking mental bandwidth away from something else.

Julie Ball

Yeah. And you have to think of it as part of the experience.  And you have to remind yourself that when they receive that that’s going to help erase buyer’s remorse. That’s going to help bring your program more value, and here I’ll make it easy. Wednesdays, you do these Wednesdays once a week.  And then if you time blocks it for 30 to 60 minutes every Wednesday, it just becomes part of the workflow. And if you’re having a big launch, for example, just know that you’re going to have to pick a day where you batch ship at all. So I think it’s just making it efficient and not a burden. 

Jaclyn Mellone

I like the idea of batching it, especially if someone is doing it themselves. It’s like a set time and place that we’re doing this. It’s not going to interfere with other things, and it makes sure it gets done. Now, what do we do? Let’s say, we’re planning on a launch, but we don’t know how many people, we have goals of how many people are going to join the launch, but we don’t know how many people to expect or with one-on-one clients, or maybe it’s a little bit more sporadic. How do you plan for that?  

Julie Ball

Well, just like in business, you’re going to have to take some risks. You’re going to project what you want. If you think you’re going to have 50 new students, then buy for 50, if you only enrolled 30, you have 20 extra. Figure out other ways to use those to either promote the business or bring in new business to reward long-term clients. So there are so many other ways that you can use those products in creating a buzz or, just general acts of gratitude.  if someone has been a Sparkle Hustle Grow subscriber for three, four, or five years, darn. I’m sending them random things to thank them for being around so long.

Do you know what I mean? So, don’t think of it as what am I going to do with all this extra product?  Think about what can I do with all this extra product you have to again, reframe it in a positive way.  And there are price cuts too if you buy more. So if you buy 50 versus a hundred mugs, for example, you might get a better price point. So think about that. Is it worth it to go to the next price break, to get that better price, and then figure out what you’re going to do with those? You could also, at some point, if it made sense, sell those products on your website. If you already have a website, you probably have Stripe or PayPal as some way to collect cash. You could sell them.  

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. Very creative ideas for that. So we have to kind of use our best guest’s judgment there. And if we, by chance under guests, then I can always order more. It only needs to be a little bit of a time to delay that all.

Julie Ball

Yeah. And it’s no big deal. And a lot of times too, if you’re just transparent with your customers, say,  Hey, our first batch of welcome boxes went out this week. The next batch goes out next week. That buys you that time if you need to reorder some things. But just like any part of your business, you’re going to make goals. You’re going to make projections and then you plan it.  

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. Good. All right. So what about international? I realized some of this is just part of doing business. It may cost more, but is there anything that you found the easiest thing to be able to ship internationally or any workarounds for that because a lot of us are working with people around the world? 

Julie Ball

We don’t ship internationally at Sparkle Hustle Grow,  but I have a welcome box for my subscription box boot camp,  of course, and I do ship that internationally. I use a shipping service called pirateship.com. It’s free to use. They give you commercial rates for the United States postal service, but they do offer international shipping options. And some things to think about would it be there are going to be some things that are restricted when it comes to international shipping. I don’t know all of that off the top of my head,  but, I know this is really random, for example, batteries. You don’t want to ship things with batteries across borders. Yeah. For example, that selfie light might have batteries in it.

So it’s just you have to figure out some of those things, but if you go to pirate ship.com, they have so many resources, and they make it really easy to purchase postage at a discount rate, and again, you can ship internationally. Now, international shipments will take longer to arrive. Sometimes they might get caught up at customs, so it’ll be, there might be delays.  

You want to think about that when you’re shipping any food item that could spoil, or that could expire or that could melt, or things like that. But honestly, just like with my business coaching, I just tell people to keep it simple. Don’t try to make it this complex box. Don’t put three or four items in it. Don’t overdo it.  That’ll make it less of a burden. That’ll make it still amazing to receive. So you just want to cut, what is the word where you’re just trying to eliminate any potential problems? Just keep it simple.  

Jaclyn Mellone

I don’t know what that word is.

Julie Ball

There’s another phrase I was trying to think of, but I can’t think of it right now. So we’ll just go with keeping it simple. 

Jaclyn Mellone

It’ll come. It’ll come, but I think to keep it simple really gets the point across for that.  Now, is there something that you would use in your marketing if you are going to have this welcome box for your course or program? Do you, I don’t know if a picture of it or somehow, let them know it’s coming or is it just a total surprise or they both work? 

Julie Ball

Both work actually, so we don’t promote them on our sales page. It’s something that happens. For example, with subscription box boot camp, we ship it within the first seven days because we have a seven-day refund policy. We want to get that into their hands before that refund policy is up so that they’re feeling loved on they’re feeling welcome.

And in our box, I’ve got some office supplies and cute things like that, but I also have QR codes to log in to the course and to access our community. So if they’re struggling to find those links, all they have to do is look at that insert, and it’s got resources to immediately jump into our Facebook community and immediately jump into the course modules. 

So they usually post on Facebook or Instagram, look, what I got, and they’ll tag us, and we’ll share that, but we don’t explicitly say it on our sales page. Now, I have seen some other retreats, masterminds, and courses put on their sales page as a VIP upgrade.  So they’re actually charging more and they’re covering their costs of the box and the shipping through that.

And they’re adding some other components like you get your welcome box and maybe you get additional zoom session or things like that where they value stacking things including that welcome box. And with that price point, they’re covering the costs. So, I mean, that’s really a no-brainer if that’s the direction you wanted to go.  

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. Cost is a really good thing to think about too. Is there, I realize this is a very broad question, but are there any, I don’t know, general rules of thumb or guidelines when it comes to figuring out how much we should be paying for a box, depending on how much the program or the package is?

Julie Ball

Yeah. I don’t have necessarily a rule of thumb where it’s a percentage or anything, but obviously, what you want to put in the box and the price you’re going to pay for all the contents definitely need to be relevant to what they’re buying into. So for example, I’ve been in programs where it’s just $497, and I got a welcome box that had a mug and some pens, and a welcome note, that type of thing.

But then if you’re doing a higher-ticket item, maybe it’s a mastermind where you’re spending four, five figures for the whole year, you definitely need to reflect that you don’t want to put in a Jotter pad and a loose pen in there.  You want to put things that are of higher value and things that might be electronics.

For example, power chargers aren’t necessarily a high-ticket item,  but some of them can be $30, $40. So you’d want to choose something like that instead of a $2 power charger. You want to make sure that it reflects your brand. It reflects what they just bought into.

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. So that’s something really interesting to think about because what you’re saying is with a higher ticket program,  it could almost, maybe not backfire, but it can come off kind of bad if it’s a higher-ticket offer and they’re getting a box, but it just feels really cheaper thrown together.

Julie Ball

Yeah. I would definitely make sure that the higher ticket items are, you have welcome boxes that reflect that. If I did a higher-ticket item, I wouldn’t just send a handwritten note, and that automated service that doesn’t feel good.  If it’s a higher ticket program, I want to make sure that when they opened that box, they’ll say, oh my goodness, this is amazing. I can’t wait to share this with everybody. And there’s a handwritten note.  

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. That’s a really good point.  So maybe on the higher ticket programs, it’s more of a 50 to a 100 dollar range for giving range or even more. Is that what I’m feeling here and then for everything else it’s somewhere under 50 maybe?

Julie Ball

I think that would be fair to say. Yeah, as I said, I don’t have necessarily a percentage that should go to that or whatever, but I think that that’s fair to say and think about what are some luxury items that your audience really loves? I’ve even seen some people do welcome boxes that had some sort of Tiffany piece, or some high ticket stuff. 

Jaclyn Mellone

What do you guys love? What’s the high-ticket stuff you love? I don’t even know. 

Julie Ball

So that would be a great first question to ask your customers, what are some of your favorite brands?  And then look at those brands, what type of products are they selling? Are they luxury items? What do they feel like? And how can you duplicate almost that same experience with a similar product?

I’m not saying that you need to put a thousand-dollar handbag in these welcome boxes, but you’ve got to figure out what they like, and what’s going to surprise and delight them, and then what’s also in line with what they’ve paid you.  

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. These are really good things to think about.  So it’s interesting as I’m thinking about asking, what would you guys want? The recent time that I’ve done this was when running my program, Best Month Ever live. We did prizes, or well, you know, it’s Plug-N-Pitch Live. We did it for both where we had prizes for both programs. And we asked, what would you want for prizes? And some of the things were expected, like books and stuff like that. But the thing that I would never have guessed, and we weren’t asking for a high ticket item or anything,  but I never would have thought it was chocolate.

And that was one of the examples you gave of, you know, luckily this was the winter when we mailed it. So no issues there, and we mailed it right from the place, but it was expensive. And I think the chocolate, by the time we sent it was over $50 for just the chocolate. I mean, it was a lot to spend on the chocolate.

I did want to send it from an independent place. So we spent a little bit more to not go to maybe to a big brand. It was definitely expensive to do that, but it was worthwhile. But what I’m thinking about, I guess, with all this is, okay, we’re talking about welcome boxes, but maybe there’s a way to have it as a prize box almost that it’s done ahead of time. So now you have me thinking, oh, what’s another way we could use something like this?

Julie Ball

Yeah. That got me to thinking that some of that if you have an extra product, use it for prizes and gamify your course, or gamify the retreat, so people actually get more involved.

Now, one of my colleagues runs a course, and she only sends the box to those who graduate. And to graduate, you have to physically go through all of the modules, and get to that last module. And that kind of triggers in her system to her team send the box.  So instead of it being a welcome box, it’s more of a celebration. Like, congratulations, you graduated box.  And so you really could use it in so many different ways. You could use it along the way with prizes and gamifying it.  And what I mean, when I say gamifying, it is maybe you have people post on social media using a certain hashtag or maybe they have to respond in your Facebook group with the answer to a question. There are all kinds of ways to gamify it, and you can use prizes or, boxes of goodies.

A lot of times, we’ll do prizes with Sparkle Hustle Grow, and we just use a mishmash of excess inventory, and we just call it a prize bag. We don’t even tell them what they’re going to get. So it’s like a surprise when they open it, and people love that. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Yes, there are so many different ways to use this. I think we’re seeing here too, is that it’s really powerful taking that extra step to have them have something tangible that they’re going to put on their desk or on their nightstand, or it’s going to be in their house or their office, but there are so many different ways to approach this clearly the subscription box. But even if that’s not your whole business model, there are so many ways to work this in with the welcome box or a prize box, or a celebration box. There are so many different ways to get creative with this.  Okay. Before we wrap up anything. Do you have any final thoughts on this?

Julie Ball

It’s been so fun talking this out with you. I can literally see your mind just going in circles thinking about all the ways that a service-based business can incorporate a product without becoming a product-based business. This is just a little component of it,  just a little treat for your customers to make them feel really, really loved.

And I promise you,  it goes a long way. The time and effort that you’ll put into this, and the love that you’ll put into this, and the gratitude, it shows, and people will feel it.  

Jaclyn Mellone

A hundred percent. I feel that as we’re talking about it. I really do, and your passion for this shines through so much. I think that’s part of what’s inspiring me is you’re so lit up at it and I’m like, oh wow. I never thought about it like that. And absolutely we don’t have to entirely shift our business model to be able to tap into this really powerful tool to have that connection and that appreciation. Yeah. It just solidifies everything because it is so tangible when everything we’re doing is not tangible.

Julie Ball

Yeah, exactly because think about all the events that we would go to in the past, and I know events are starting to happen again. It’s super fun to get that swag bag, so it’s kind of you’re recreating that,  but from home or from your office. And so it just helps kind of build this stronger, more positive relationship with that end recipient.

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay, so Julie, how can we stay in touch with you? And if we’re really like, okay, I need to make this whole welcome box thing happen. How can we get more support with doing that? 

Julie Ball

Awesome. So you can always follow me or message me over on Instagram. Our handle is Subscription Box Bootcamp. That’s the best way to get to me.

I love doing audio chats in there, so please hit me up in there.  If you are actually interested in starting a welcome box for yourself, I do have a short actionable workshop that you can learn to create your own welcome box. It makes it so easy. You can get it done in under an hour. You can create your plan. It’s got a planner, a handful of videos, and then you can pass it off to a team member if you want. And so that’s $97, but if they use the code go-to,  then they can get $10 off. And that’s a really easy way to get this started. You can use that workshop and the planner over and over and over again for any sort, of course, mastermind, retreat, summit, whatever you’re doing.  And so that’s what I would invite your audience to come to check out. It’s at subscriptionboxbootcamp.com/welcomebox.  

Jaclyn Mellone

Amazing. All right. Well, thank you so so much, Julie, you definitely opened up my mind to these possibilities. The wheels are turning, and I so appreciate you sharing so openly all of these websites and ideas. This has been so fun. 

Julie Ball

Thank you so much for the opportunity to chat with your crowd, and let’s send some welcome boxes out there.

Jaclyn Mellone

Yes, let’s do it.