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So you want to launch a subscription box and don't know where to start, girl, you are in the right place. I'm Julie ball and I'm Renee Gonzalez, your host here at subscription box basics, a podcast for new and aspiring subscription box entrepreneurs wanting to avoid overwhelm. So grab a coffee, some pen and paper, and let's have some fun.

Julie: 0:22

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Subscription Box Basics. I'm Julie Ball, your head coach, and I'm joined today by, Renee, your marketing coach. Hey, Renee. Hi, everyone. I'm pumped today because we had an episode of probably like a month or so back that we talked about some of my favorite subscriptions that I'm experiencing now and we learned from them how they created these great customer journeys, these experiences, and we got some really good feedback on that episode. So we're doing another one of those episodes today. Where we take a page out of the big guy's book and learn from them the good and the bad from a customer standpoint and then we can apply that to our own boxes and our own customer journey. So, today we are going to start out with my new favorite obsession. It's called Oats of Love. overnight. And so this is a take on the traditional overnight oats that a lot of people will make in crockpots or leave in the fridge or, you know, create on their own. But this is a pre made version of it. So before I dive into it, Renee, have you tried this yet? I

Renae: 1:32

have not, and I am so excited to learn more about this, because this is one of those subscriptions that I have gone all the way into putting into my cart, I've looked, I've saw their ads, I've, I'm very, very familiar with it, I've done everything except hit, like, Complete order. So I'm sure after we talk today, I'm going to hit complete order. Okay. Well, I'll make sure to put

Julie: 1:55

my referral link in the show notes for you and for everybody else, but I love their ads. Can we just start there before we talk about the customer journey? They have the best ads. One of my favorites is they have a series of ads that showcase their bad reviews. And so an example of one, I think there was like a one star review and it said, it was too chocolatey or something like that. And then in the caption, it said something like such and such think it was too chocolatey, but hundreds of thousands of others love this and kept giving it five stars. So it's kind of like they're poking fun at their own product, their own bad reviews. They have far more good reviews than bad, but they're just kind of hand picking these silly ones and

Renae: 2:39

putting them as their ads. Yeah, they're, they're genius. Their social media department, their marketing department, the marketer and me absolutely loves, cause they do a great job too. Just if you look at their social media feeds of mixing up behind the scenes stuff and then static photos that are professional photos. And then like you mentioned, product reviews that they pull from or actual product reviews to have influencers. So they really have a really complete marketing strategy to that is just genius. Yeah,

Julie: 3:10

they use a lot of videos from the warehouse of just packing orders, and it's a way for them to showcase the flavors. It's crazy. So, basically you're all gonna get Oats Overnight ads now because you're listening to us talk about it, and Facebook's probably listening in on it. But if you, if you don't get them and you want to get them, just Go look them up and then they'll start retargeting you with the best ads. Okay. So I'm going to show you if you're watching the video on YouTube, you can see I have a couple of samples of them. So they're single serving high protein oatmeal. That you drink, sort of. And why I say that is because that's, people are used to eating oatmeal with a spoon. And when I tried to explain it to someone, I was like, well, you sort of drink it. And it's so funny because I went to their website before this podcast just to do a little research. And they use that exact phrase on their website. I was like, that is some of the most brilliant marketing is using the language your customer uses. So it says. high protein oatmeal that you drink, dot, dot, dot, sort of.

Renae: 4:16

That's awesome. Yes,

Julie: 4:18

and

Renae: 4:18

exactly how

Julie: 4:18

you

Renae: 4:18

explained it.

Julie: 4:19

Yeah, exactly. Okay, so they use different types of protein, mostly whey, some of the pea protein ones I don't really like, but it's 20 grams of protein in this, and that's one of the reasons that I bought it. I have high cholesterol, and so oatmeal is supposed to be good for that. I don't like to eat a lot of meat, and so this is a way that I'm getting some of my protein. And actually, now that I think about it, the Facebook ad that got me, the one that made me click through, was a woman talking about high cholesterol, and how oats are supposed to be helpful with that, and how she ended up getting tested later, and her, her cholesterol went down. I was like, that's what I want. Yeah, speaking directly to you. Directly to me. But I had seen plenty of other ads that showed other things that it helped with. So talking about protein and talking about it being non GMO, talking about it being gluten free, all of those things spoke to me, but the one that really spoke to me was the cholesterol one. And that's the one I caved on. And I,

Renae: 5:19

I bought from. Oh, that's awesome. Now this is more of a personal question, but because I haven't tried it and my family is very active, has McKenna had it at all? Or like, does the rest of your family like them?

Julie: 5:30

Yeah, she hasn't tried it yet, but I drink it. I actually drink mine over two days. And okay, let me take a step back. You drink your oatmeal. You're basically putting in eight ounces of milk or milk alternative, and you put it in this little blender bottle, shake it up, you put it in your fridge overnight, in the morning, you, it is a, you shake it up again, and it's a consistency where it's just like a soupy oatmeal. So if you have, if you or your family has sensitivities to like texture, It's probably not for you, but otherwise, I like my oatmeal soupy. You can still make it in a bowl. You just put four ounces of liquid in it instead of eight. So the, my husband has liked some of the flavors. I've liked most of the flavors, but listen to this. This is such a cool thing that they do and part of their customer journey is you can log into their, your subscription and rate the flavors. And so, of course, the first time I got my order, I just got one of, I think it was 16 different flavors or something. And so, as I would try each one, I logged back in to their website and rated it so that I knew when I replenish or if I order more, which ones to buy and which ones not to buy, because they have 40 flavors. So how are you supposed to remember, you know, and so that has been such a cool customer touch point. I'm legit going to their website and interacting with it almost every other day as I try a

Renae: 7:00

new flavor. Oh, that is, that's brilliant. And, and so useful too, as a customer, but just brilliant to get them. You keep going back for that touch point. And while you're there, you're like, Oh, I'm, I'm close to sell or being. I sold out, I need to get some more,

Julie: 7:15

so. Exactly. So as I was going in there, if I didn't like a flavor, and I've liked Probably three quarters of the flavors that I've tried, I've only put one star as a rating in my personal ratings for a few of them, and they all had the pea protein, because it has some sort of weird aftertaste, it's just not my jam. But it's, as soon as I started realizing, okay, my auto renew is going to give me the same flavors, I started going in there and switching out flavors, trying new ones, and, They have so many flavors. Like this one's mango custard. This one's chocolate, peanut butter, banana. There's cinnamon roll. There's fruity cereal. There's seasonal ones too. So they had like a pumpkin spice one. They have so many flavors and I've got to tell you about this really cool thing that they do as part of your journey and listeners. You might be able to implement something like this, too, in your business. So, with every package that you order, you get a flavor in development. And you, yeah, right? So you get to test a flavor that's in development, and you get to give them feedback on it, and based on that feedback, Oats Overnight is either going to release it as is, because they've perfected the flavor, or they're going to tweak the formula to make it better based off of feedback, Or they're going to ditch the flavor altogether. And so in my first box, I got, What is it, the chocolate that's red? Red velvet? Yeah, red velvet. So, that's red, that's the flavor in development now. And I saw they just announced this month's flavor in development is root beer float. Oh, cool. So, it's super cool. There's ways to give feedback. And, So if you're listening and you're like, Oh, that is so cool. That is such a great way to get customer feedback is to let them try something that the general public doesn't get to. It's such a little

Renae: 9:13

VIP perk. Absolutely. And that, that is really cool. I'm looking at their website now too. And I just saw the root beer float. So

Julie: 9:21

they promote it, that you get to be part of their in development flavors. And so, okay, you're on the website. So. If you scroll part way down, you see this really cool section that I think we could all learn from. And it says Breakfast Reimagined. And they share comparisons to a normal breakfast that you might eat instead. So for example, it has a side by side comparison of the fruity cereal flavored oats that they have versus Actual fruity cereal and they, I think they compare like calories or protein or something on it. There's another one that they share their mocha dream flavor, which is probably my favorite right now. It is so good. It legit tastes like a frappuccino from Starbucks. But on their website, they do a side by side comparison of a frappuccino style drink showing you the difference in calories or sugar. And so they're giving you these real life examples to show you how your breakfast can be reimagined by doing oats overnight instead.

Renae: 10:22

Yeah, I'm looking right at it. It's pretty crazy. Like, like you were saying for the Mocha one, it's sugar is their comparison and it's their Oats Overnight is only eight grams of sugar and compared to 51 grams of sugar on the actual Frappuccino. So that is, that's, this is, they, they're doing it right over here at Oats Overnight.

Julie: 10:43

Yeah. So if you need some inspiration for your own website, go there now. Here's a couple of other things I noted that were on their website. They again, are acknowledging what the customer's thinking. It says, you think this is weird, so do so many others, but three of four people who try this buy it. And so it's giving you that social proof. It's kind of validating you that to you that, yeah, your thoughts about drinking oatmeal. Yeah, that's kind of weird. But then they show a video of people trying it for the first time. I think it's maybe they're on the street and they like are just grabbing random people and letting them try it. I think it's so cool what they do with that. And then They also, on their website, talk about their amazing refund policy. Did you see that part yet, Renee? Oh, I haven't seen that yet, no. It says, if you don't like it, we will refund you or swap it with a flavor that you do like. No questions asked basically, and that is, that is a really good refund policy. And I can see that would be really hard if you were a small business, but at their scale, they probably can, it probably doesn't impact them that much, but that just goes to show how important it is to keep happy customers. They, they want you to enjoy it. And so they'll swap it with a flavor you don't like. Now there were a couple of flavors I didn't like. But I didn't reach out. I was like, you know what? I'm just trying them. I'm not going to make a big deal out of it. But I think that's a really aggressive and good refund policy.

Renae: 12:11

And I think as subscription box owners, so many people do things as like, like if something's broken, you'll, you'll send one courtesy. And there's so many things that subscription box owners that you're already doing, but maybe not telling, and maybe you're a little nervous, but look at how, like they put it right on their website. And like you said, you didn't take advantage of it, but knowing it's there just gives that extra customer experience where you're like, wow, this is amazing. I, I have that. When I'm going to order, I know that if I don't like it, I can send it back. So another cool thing on their site, I don't know if you have this on your little list, but I like how they, they spit out numbers like 44 over 44 and a half million meals enjoyed. And then how many morning minutes saved. It's 891 million. So it's like having numbers of what they're actually sending out, what that quantifies in minutes saved for their mornings, because it's a quick grab, grab and go. If you are trying to work on that customer experience and you have a box that you're sending, like what, what is the return for your customers? Like how is it saving the minutes if they're not having, if you have a children's box and you're not having to prep all this stuff or, or you're an entrepreneur box and you're not having to research it cause you're getting this personal development, like really thinking of the customer journey and putting that on your website and, and having that be part of. What you're using in your marketing too.

Julie: 13:40

It's like quantifying the pain point that you are helping solve. And it's important to me because that was, One of the things, I'm not a cook. I do not like to cook. I'm sorry. But this takes like two minutes total. I basically pour some milk in there. I pour in the packet that's already pre measured. I shake it up, put it in the fridge. The only thing I have to do is remember to do it, you know. And then in the morning, then it's ready for me. And so I think that that's great. Two things that I want to make sure we cover kind of next here are an offer and then a Facebook group. So first of all, Their offer was that you get a free blender bottle, like a free shaker bottle, with your first order. And I think this is super smart because this is actually the kitchen piece that you are going to use to make the oatmeal. Like, you're not going to make it, you can make it in, you know, Other things you can put it in a bowl or whatever, but to make it and put it in your fridge overnight They've they've basically partnered up with the blender bottle brand and have created their own oats overnight Branded one and it comes free in your first order we've talked about offers in the past, you have to have some sort of offer just offering your subscription isn't enough anymore. And one of my favorite offers is a gift with purchase. And so if that gift with purchase can help them use your product. It's such a win. So think about, is there something with your subscription box or with the experience that's going to enhance that experience for your customer? That could be your gift with purchase. I imagine this does not cost very much, but it is the necessary thing to make oats overnight in the way that they promote it.

Renae: 15:25

Yeah. And if, if you're ordering their oats and you don't have that, if they were to not send it, it probably wouldn't have been as good of an experience for you and you probably wouldn't have reordered. But because you already have that shaker bottle that they sent, it's like, Oh, this is, this is easy. This is, this is my tool for that. So yeah, that's really cool.

Julie: 15:44

I could use a ball jar. I could use, you know, anything or some sort of thermos bottle or whatever. But this just makes it so easy and then I just wash it and put it on the drying. I have a dish drying rack. So it's right there every day when I use it. Now I'm eating this probably every two or three days, but so often I think I mentioned is I can eat it over two days because I just don't eat a ton at once. I eat often, but small amounts. And so it kind of let makes it last longer too. But I'm just. Loving this brand. They have over delivered for me as far as the experience. So one more thing I have to share about Oats Overnight is they have a Facebook group and you guys are probably thinking like, okay, they're a food product, a replenishment product. Like, why would you have a Facebook group? But I'm seeing that this is more and more of a trend. And I'll share more about it with other food replenishment groups, too that I'm a part of. But they have an Oats Overnight, they call it a VIP group, and that is where people can share their experience, they can give product feedback. There are absolutely several Oats Overnight team members in there watching, responding. It is so funny, though, how, what's the word I'm looking for? Like, how do you, intense. People can be about the flavors. They have a new, newer flavor. It's called blueberry glazed donut or something. And it is a sweeter version of blueberry cobbler, which is a very, apparently trigger flavor for a lot of people because randomly you'll see posts in there like it says blueberry cobbler is my favorite flavor. Come at me Like you just get some popcorn and read everybody's opinions I truly believe that it is Customers posting these things like they have opinions about flavors, but a little part of me that little tiny conspiracy theorist part of me was like, I wonder if this is like overnight team members just trying to create interaction and get solid feedback. So I don't know. Either way, it works. Either way. It is so funny. And it is It's great too, because people share recipes. They'll be like, Oh yeah, I poured some of this into my muffin mix today. Or like, they'll talk about all the different milk alternatives. Like, did you ever try it with oat milk versus soy milk versus almond milk? There's just conversations about the product. And you would not believe how passionate people feel about this brand.

Renae: 18:26

Oh, that's, I was, when I went to their website, one of the things I was wondering is if they had recipes beyond just using it normal. So that's cool that they do that in the Facebook group. There's people that post that because that's, again, just another way to, it goes from making the product a want to a need. Like now it's people, people need it in their breakfast routine every day. That's really cool.

Julie: 18:47

I have noticed. The Oats Overnight team also posting about ideas of upcoming flavors in development. There was some sort of other product and off the top of my mind, I can't remember what the product was, but it was not oats. It was something else that they were playing around with the idea of it. And they said, we have a limited quantity of these and if you want it in your cart, You need to put it in there on this day at this time. So they were kind of giving you that heads up, that head start versus the general public. And the other thing I noticed that they were doing is, Sometimes they run out of a flavor, and people will start complaining in there, and then Oats Overnight team will post randomly, like, Strawberry lemonade is back in stock! Or, I don't even know if that's a flavor, but, you know, like, they'll tell you if something's back in stock, and you would not believe the frenzy of comments saying, Got mine! Got mine! Got mine! And I'm thinking, like, In, in their revenue, these are just adding up, like it's, when they, when they need an injection of revenue, all they have to do is do a restock of pumpkin spice or something like that. So they really use this as a mechanism to get feedback for people to connect over their passion for oatmeal. Which is crazy to me to think how many people are passionate about this brand. But, I mean, I was already a fan of the brand before I ordered. And I think

Renae: 20:20

you are too, right? Yeah, absolutely. Not even a customer. And, both from just, Again, a marketing view and from a consumer, because they're drawing me in. So, and after chatting about it this morning, we're going to, I'm probably going to be a future customer, but really, I think whether you are into overnight oats or you're a subscription box owner, and you're looking for ideas and brands that you want to. Drawing ideas from you don't have to purchase anything to go to their website, go to their social media and really start to see what are they doing? That's working for them. And what, how can you twist that and implement it for your business? And I think you said it perfectly. If these people are that passionate about overnight oats, it's the brand doing their job. It's, you can make your people that passionate about whatever your, your box is about. Because. People are passionate about overnight oats. They can be passionate about your brand.

Julie: 21:18

Exactly. I mean, oatmeal, does it get much more boring than that? So anyhow if you decide that you want to try it, then I'll have a link in the show notes, but definitely put mocha dream on your list. And my other favorite so far has been there's apple cinnamon. That's been really, really good. I've tended to like the fruit ones more than the than the sweet ones, but there have definitely been some good ones, like cinnamon roll was good, the, the blueberry cobbler was not my favorite space brownie. Is very controversial in the Facebook group. People either love it or hate it. Which is funny cause I found myself right in the middle, but it's just. Funny to, to read these, these conversations. And honestly, as I was choosing my next shipment and I was telling my husband about it and like, I didn't mean to become passionate about it, but here I am like doing a whole podcast on it, but I looked back at my ratings. You know, my personal ratings before I placed my orders. I wanted to try new flavors and I was taking into consideration some of the things I saw in the group. So it's working. Yeah. If you guys already subscribe to this, let us know on Instagram or if you decide to try it, let us know what your favorite is. And Renee, we'll have to check in with you later to see what your favorite is.

Renae: 22:42

Yes, I know. I'm, I'm gonna, our whole family, I mean, my husband loves He wakes up, he leaves our house at 4. 30 in the morning and my girls are super busy and active with sports too. I think it's, it's literally been something for months now, maybe a year where I've been just haven't pulled the trigger. So I'm going to pull the trigger. You got me.

Julie: 23:02

Okay. There's, there's two other things I wanted to say. One, even if you're not going to buy from them, go sign up for their newsletter because their marketing is just that good. You can learn from it by watching. And to. There was, I don't remember if it was an Oats Overnight video or if it was a review that someone did on YouTube, but there was a video where this girl had a whiteboard, and she, dissected a couple of flavors of what it would cost to make that. So it was like, if you, if you bought the organic non GMO oatmeal, and you bought all the ingredients, what it would cost versus what it costs per packet when you become a subscriber, it was incredible. Some of the flavors were, it was actually less than, it cost less to buy the oats overnight than to make it yourself. And some of it was kind of break even. But it was just an interesting take on it. I was like, that's a really good pre objection. Answer to the price point.

Renae: 23:57

Yes. And again, every single box owner could do that because what I'm sure no matter what category your box is in, so many times people are probably, if you get a complaint, it's, I can make this myself. I could buy this myself. So like you said, if you get that objection before you hear it and be like, okay, go ahead and try it, to cost you more than that's so awesome. Yeah.

Julie: 24:19

Make a video, put it on your website. Well, I hope that you found this inspiring. I hope you go check out their website to learn from them and join their newsletter so that you can see how their amazing marketing pans out. So again, check out the show notes for all the links and thanks for listening today. Bye. Bye.