Packing List Best Practices

#056 - A well-designed informative packing list can improve the perceived value of your box. It can help increase the likelihood that someone has a good experience and that then they're going to leave a good review. So in this episode, we are talking about packing list best practices. 

Summary:

• Packing list popular sizes  (00:02:19)
• What to include in your packing list: 
  1. Monthly identifier (00:04:33) 
  2. List of items and description (00:05:21) 
  3. Retail value (00:06:00) 
  4. Social media handle or hashtags (00:07:03) 
  5. Announcements (00:08:09) 
• When and how to create your packing list (00:09:44)

https://www.sparklehustlegrow.com
https://www.subscriptionboxbootcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/subscriptionboxbootcamp

Transcript

Julie (00:01):

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, a subscription box coach and your host here at Subscription Box Basics, a podcast for new and aspiring subscription box entrepreneurs that want to avoid overwhelm. So grab a coffee, some pen and paper and let's have some fun!

Julie (00:20):

Hey friends, welcome back to the podcast. This is Julie Ball, your host of Subscription Box Basics. I am going to talk about packing list best practices today. It is going to be short, sweet to the point and actionable. I know you guys love when I give you those nuggets that you can use immediately in your business. So let's get right to it.

Julie (00:49):

We are going to talk about packing lists today. So I'm curious. Do you already include a packing list in your box? Hit me up on my DMs over on Instagram. The handle is @SubscriptionBoxBootcamp. Make sure you're following us there for all the latest information and to follow along this journey that we're on together. But tell me in the DMs, do you do a packing list? I'd love to see a picture of it too. So if you are bold enough to send me a picture, I would love to see it and maybe we'll even give you some feedback on it.

Julie (01:22):

So why do we want to include a packing list? Well, a well-designed informative packing list can improve the perceived value of your box. It can help increase the likelihood that someone has a good experience. And then it's going to leave a review. It is going to inform them what's in the box in case they see something and they're like, "What the heck is this?" The insert is a great place for them to refer back to, and it allows them to see if anything is missing.

Julie (01:53):

Oftentimes, you know, if you're missing a product and let's face it, it happens because we're humans and these boxes are packed by humans and we make mistakes sometimes. And that's okay. But someone wouldn't know that something is even missing unless they have a packing list to look back at. So I'm going to move into what are some common sizes and how you can actually execute or implement your packing list.

Julie (02:19):

Some really popular sizes for a packing list and this kind of depends on what size your box is too. So sparkle hustle grow is six by nine by three. And in the past we have used different sizes. Um, when we were doing a basic insert, we would use a, I think it was five and a half by eight and a half. It's a special size on Vistaprint. That was a perfect size for the box.

Julie (02:41):

But other popular sizes are four by six, although that's pretty small. So unless you don't have a lot of information, a four by six is going to be too small for you, but maybe five by seven, or if you're doing it yourself, you could even print it out on a regular eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper, and then fold that if you need to, to put it in your box. However, I highly recommend that you get your packing lists professionally printed. If you can't then get some higher quality paper, make sure you have a good color printer, but otherwise we have gotten ours printed at Vistaprint over the last four and a half years. I highly recommend them. Maybe you can find a local printer that would work better for you. That would be fine. And also you could print directly on canvas.

Julie (03:30):

So we use Canva to design our inserts and in Subscription Box Bootcamp, we actually even give templates for our packing lists, but you can create one on your own in Canva and order directly from them. But what we do at Sparkle Hustle Grow is we design in Canva print at Vistaprint.

Julie (03:48):

Now we recently I'd say maybe in the last, it must've been in the last eight months. We switched from doing a postcard insert to doing a booklet. So instead of having say four to five different postcard inserts, we have decided to make it a booklet and put everything in there and including our packing list. And it's been such a better experience for our subscribers because they don't lose things. They have this one booklet and I envision them in their office putting all of their booklets in one specific place in their office. Maybe it's on a bookshelf or something like that. So they can refer back to them at any time. But we do include our packing list now in the booklet.

Julie (04:33):

So let's talk about what to include on your packing list. I have a list of five basic things that I think should be on every packing list. So get your pen and paper. Are you ready for this? The first thing is going to be your theme or some sort of monthly identifier. And so maybe that theme is just you don't, you just put the theme up there, or maybe you just put like January 2021 on your insert, but I encourage you to also dig a little deeper. So say your theme is Start The New Year Off Right. Maybe add a sentence or two. That explains how your box is going to help them accomplish that, help them start off the new year right. So that first thing is a theme or some sort of monthly identifier.

Julie (05:21):

The second thing you want to put on your packing list is the actual list of items and their descriptions. I recommend that you include one to two sentences, depending on how much space you have on your packing. Insert to explain a little bit about the product or maybe why you put it in there or how you specifically use that product, giving them a little prompt to how they may use that product. So list your items with their name. If there's a well-known brand, be sure to include their brand name and then a short description of what the product is or how it can be used.

Julie (06:00):

Number three, not everyone agrees with me on this and that's okay, but I recommend that you include the retail value. Let me explain why when you get a packing list and you have all the items and you have a box full of goodies, do you want to know that you got your money's worth? Well, sure you do. So a lot of times people are going to run over to the first place they think of which is you guessed it, Amazon, you and I both know that Amazon has discounted prices. Now, oftentimes they will list the retail value with kind of this line, through the retail value to show that you're saving. But wouldn't you rather tell your subscriber upfront what the retail value is. One, it cuts out the time and effort that they have to put in to go look it up and price check it. But two, you are going to get the full retail value instead of them comparing it to the Amazon value. So that's why I recommend that you include the retail value on your packing list.

Julie (07:03):

Number four, you should also include social media handles or hashtags that you want them to use when they're posting their pictures, or if they're doing their unboxing videos. For example, a lot of people have a contest where if you post your picture and you tag them, or you put the correct hashtag, then you're automatically entered to win a free month. It's just a way to encourage people to share. And so if you put that right on your packing list, and you're going to want to put that information in other places too, you can't assume that everyone's going to read that packing list. They may miss it, and it definitely can help you by repeating yourself in follow-up emails, in social media. If you have a Facebook group, tell people what to do, tell them to share their unboxing pictures and videos and tag you on social media, but tell them your social media handle to tag. Or if you have a specific hashtag that way they have all the information they need to participate, make it easy for them, right?

Julie (08:09):

And then the last thing is announcements. If you have any major announcements that you need to share, the packing list is a great place to do so because that is one of the places that most people are going to at least glance over. So do you have any special sales coming up? Do you have any special events coming up? Anything that you want to share with them? The packing list is a great place to add that information and you can train your customers to look for that. At Sparkle Hustle Grow, I do an official unboxing every single month. It gives me an opportunity to train our customers, how to use the product, how I use each of the products in the box, but also the other levels that are included our experience, things like our community and the online training and our partner program. We need to continuously train our customers, how to use our products and how to make the most of it, how to get the most value out of it.

Julie (09:07):

So maybe when you're doing your unboxings, you say, "Hey, as you are doing your unboxing, make sure you check out your packing list. So you can see all the items in the box and any special announcements we have". It's super simple, train them what to do.

Julie (09:20):

So the five things to recap that I want you to include on your packing list are one, some sort of theme or monthly identifier. Two, a list of all the items along with a description and number three, the retail value. Number four, include any social media handles and hashtags and number five include an any special announcements.

Julie (09:44):

So the last thing I want to cover is when and how to create these. As I mentioned earlier, we designed our inserts on Canva. Then we download them and then we print them via Vistaprint. But one little hack that I can tell you right now to help make your life easier is to choose a day every single month. As you guys know what subscription box businesses, your business is cyclical. You're going to do the same things month in, month out. So pick a day every single month and time block it in your calendar and, and create a reminder. So you don't forget to design and order those inserts. Make sure you plan enough time for the printing to get done that you don't have to pay for express printing or to pay for express shipping. Make sure you get these out into the printer's hands in advance. So you have plenty of time. I like to build in an extra seven to 10 days of my need by date. So if I need them by the last day of the month, I want to make sure that those arrive at my warehouse, or if you're in a home office, wherever you're packing from seven days, seven to 10 days before the end of the month.

Julie (10:57):

So keep that in mind. Figure out how long it takes for your order on average to come, um, beyond regular shipping. So you're not paying extra and put that date on your calendar as an appointment with yourself with a reminder. That way you're always on top of it. You're never going to be late and you've kind of created this routine around it, which is going to help your business run more smoothly.

Julie (11:23):

Well, that's it guys. Those are my packing list best practices. I hope it is helpful. If you have any questions, hit me up at my DMs over on Instagram @SubscriptionBoxBootcamp. Otherwise, I encourage you to rate and review this podcast and take some time to head on over to SubscriptionBoxBootcamp.com. You're going to find all kinds of great resources there. You're going to find information about Subscription Box Bootcamp, which we will be doing a launch in the next month or so where you can enroll at a discounted rate. Make sure that you're on our email list to get all of that information and to know when new podcast episodes drop, we drop every Monday, but sometimes it's great to get a little reminder via email.

Julie (12:08):

So over on Subscription Box Bootcamp, be sure to join our email list. Thank you guys for being here with me today for listening to this podcast and I'll see you on the next episode.

Speaker 2 (12:26):

[inaudible].