Coffee & chocolate. Did that combination just make your mouth water? For most people, those 2 words represent relief from stress, sleeplessness & even a lack of creativity.
Now imagine receiving a box in the mail every month that contains both, including instructions on how to make unique gourmet chocolate creations at home—plus all the ingredients to do it.
And if you own a hotel, restaurant, cafe or other establishment, it gets even better. You can order these delicious concoctions for yourself to share with your guests & customers.
This is the genius behind Soul Chocolate, a Shopify store that connects with the niche of chocolate-loving foodies everywhere with a wholesale & subscription marketing strategy.
And no matter what audience you reach or what your product or service might be, their techniques for connecting with customers could become a key ingredient of your own success.
How A Subscription Marketing Strategy Works
A subscription marketing strategy is a great tool for continuing the interest of existing customers in your product or service—& creating repeat buyers.
By this point in their Customer Value Journey, customers have not only made a purchase, but have experienced real value from using it.
They’re excited about what your brand has to offer & they are ready to buy more.
Which means it’s time to create a return path.
This is where your customers not only buy your core offer, but are committed to making additional purchases, which means they become more valuable to your business.
A subscription marketing strategy works by setting up a monthly delivery of your product & automatically charging for each delivery. Many companies also offer a discount or special deal on subscriptions.
The trick is this: people forget to place regular orders. Subscriptions offer the convenience of not having to remember to do it as well as a discount for signing up.
It also ensures that every month, you will have more repeat buyers.
Subscriptions aren’t just for ecommerce, though.
If your business offers a regular service, such as lawn care, car washes, auto repairs, hair care, or medical services, you can offer a subscription program with reduced rates as well.
In addition…customers continue to experience real value from your product or service. That means they’ll be more likely to write a review of your business or refer new customers.
As a result, it automatically expands your customer’s Value Journey, continues to build their relationship with your brand & increases your revenue.
So, what does it look like in action?
Getting back to chocolate & coffee, check out how this business’s subscription marketing strategy fed their customers’ sweet tooths & caffeine addictions with great results.
Soul Chocolate’s Delicious Strategy
Soul Chocolate takes a different attitude toward chocolate & coffee than most similar companies: their products are designed to be a unique culinary experience, not something to devour in handfuls while watching Netflix.
In fact, it wasn’t until founders Kyle Wilson & Katie Bartlett took a trip to New Zealand & visited a gourmet chocolate & coffee shop that they discovered what these common products are really supposed to taste like.
Real chocolate is not a $1 Hershey bar. It’s more diverse than that, with different flavors, textures & creations from all around the world.
It was this diversity that inspired Katie & Kyle to create a business that celebrates all the different forms chocolate & coffee can take & just how delectable it can be.
The beans come directly from farmers in countries such as Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Ecuador & Madagascar. The chocolate is then manufactured in Soul Chocolate’s Toronto-based kitchen according to specific processes that match each country.
This creates an experience that not only brings out the unique flavors of each variety of chocolate, much like the nuances of different types of wine, but also showcases the distinctiveness of each country.
In addition to making their own chocolate to sell, their shop also features different varieties of coffee, as well as gourmet hot chocolate—the real stuff, not a packet of chocolate flavoring dissolved in water.
Soul Chocolate deals in ecommerce through two different avenues. The first is their wholesale clients, which include bars, restaurants, other coffee shops & even one of Toronto’s biggest hotels.
In total, their Shopify store has allowed them to acquire 130 wholesale clients online.
The other ingredient in their success is their Bake This! subscription service. Their subscription marketing strategy allows people to order a monthly box of dry ingredients to make a one of a kind chocolate dessert at home.
The ingredients, like everything else at their store, are all directly from the countries & regions they originate from.
Boxes are shipped once a month & the company even sends out an email to subscribers detailing what the recipe will be & what tools & additional ingredients they’ll need.
What makes their subscription marketing strategy even better integrated with the rest of their marketing is their website. Their Shopify store is built to not only handle individual & subscription orders, but their wholesale clients as well.
Their website is set up to automatically tag wholesale clients, then links with Zapier, a business automation program, to send an email for the client to review their application.
By offering different paths & processes for different types of customers, their online store makes it easier to fulfill orders, create excitement among chocolate lovers & keep customers coming back.
Marketing Lessons From Chocolate
Soul Chocolate’s success teaches business owners a few things about marketing. First, having a website that doesn’t just work, but makes money is key.
Their online store makes it possible for them to appeal to different customers with different interests & purchases.
The rest of their success comes from sheer creativity. Kyle & Katie are passionate about chocolate & spreading their delicious recipes & unique experiences to customers.
If you infuse your enthusiasm for your product or service into what you do, it will be easier for customers to become excited as well.
Want to learn how to create your own subscription marketing strategy or find out how to develop a website that meets multiple customers’ needs? It all starts with knowing the journey your customer is on toward becoming an evangelist for your brand.
Rank your Customer Adventure Score to learn the strongest & weakest stages of the Customer Value Journey for your business so you can build a better journey.
Plus, you’ll get tools & resources at the end to help you improve your score.
Click here to get started!