Create the Perfect Unboxing Experience

You spend hours or even days crafting your products. Your precious free time is used developing engaging social media posts, sending insightful emails, and getting direct mail postcards. And with all that, as an entrepreneur, you never know exactly what may work and what will fall flat. But there is one thing you can know for sure. It’s the only marketing channel with 100% open rate: your customer unboxing their order.

So how much effort do you put into taking advantage of this one event? The event you put all your efforts toward, and are absolutely sure will happen?

This is the first physical impression of your company to your customer. If it’s not clear at the first glance who the package is from, you will lose a lot of that initial drama and anticipation that you can leverage. Consider the following, for example?

• Does your box stand out? Or does it blend in with the 10 Amazon boxes on the porch? 
• Does your customer even remember what they ordered? 
• After the excitement of the unboxing happens, have you done anything to further your relationship? Or was this one-and-done, wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am? 
• Does the customer feel any better about you after the unboxing? Or do they feel so good, they need to tell the world?

While YouTube is littered with videos of customers anxiously opening their purchase, an unboxing video doesn’t need to be viral to be successful. The social proof each one provides can live on in your social media and your website.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

So how do we encourage the video documentation of your customer’s unboxing? Well, it starts with the customer knowing it’s your box, and maybe a friendly reminder to video this event. Here’s 3 tips to encourage your customers to record the unboxing of their orders:

Tip #1: Begin with identifiable branded packaging.

• At a minimum, your package can feature your branded sticker. 
• An upgraded option is to have your logo printed on the box, or on the packaging tape.
• Consider a box in a different color from the standard brown.

Tip #2: Ensure your package looks professionally packed, taped and labeled.

• You don’t want your box to stand out for the wrong reasons!
• A clean, well-packed box immediately increases perceived value of the contents, and is a reflection of your story and your standards. 
• Make it a story of great design, attention to detail, value, cohesiveness, and sustainability. 

Tip #3:Offer an obvious reminder. Consider a small sticker that says “Hey, you’ll wanna film this!”

• It never hurts to plant the idea as soon as possible!

Including with their charcuterie board purchase as a care-and-use card, a free board oil sample, and a company sticker, shows your customer you care about their long term satisfaction.

FURTHER THE RELATIONSHIP

So, by now, the customer has identified your company's box, excitedly opened the contents, and revealed the order they placed with you. At this moment, how are you thanking them and reminding your customer why they originally purchased from you?

The contents of your box don’t have to just be the order and some packing peanuts. In fact, it shouldn’t just be the order and packing peanuts. To continue developing your relationships with customers, try including the following inserts:

At a minimum, including a thank you letter from the owner, repeating how much their business is appreciated. At best, this could be a personalized handwritten notecard! Or a professionally printed card featuring a sincere thank you message and a brief company story would work well too! A typed personalized note featuring your letterhead, information regarding questions and concerns, however, and more is appropriate.

This is a common industry practice. It gets your logo in front of your customer, and if they stick it to something, all the better!

Include instructions on how to properly care for your product to ensure its longevity, how to store it safely, and how to use it correctly.

Throw in a free sample of a complimentary item in the box as well! Ideally, it would be something the customer can use immediately and with the product they bought. You could be encouraging their next purchase with you!

Your business card should feature the contact information for your company, including your website, email address, and social channels.

You have already found a customer who is willing to peruse your shop, select an item, fill out their payment information, and click “order”. Help them do it again by offering a coupon or discount code for another product! Use a discount with a short timeframe for your customer to act, so they act on their current excitement and order away!

CONSIDER SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING

What about the sustainability of your packaging? Using materials that are not recyclable could cause your brand to be regarded as ‘wasteful’, and customers may share their unboxing experience for the wrong reasons.

• In the reverse, using sustainable products will go a long way to helping your brand to cultivate an image of strong ethics and social responsibility.
• Keep in mind, keeping a packaging material you received, and reusing it for one of your shipments, keeping it out of the landfill, could also work to your advantage. Include a small note or sticker stating:
• “While this packing material does not meet our ideal sustainability standards, we received it in an order, and are reusing it for your order, in hopes you will in turn pass it on, and keep it out of our landfills.”

CONCLUSION

Compared to the time you spend painstakingly crafting your product, how much time and effort do you put into making sure it’s delivered with the same love and attention to detail?

Investing in a sincere thank you message to your customer that reflects your company’s style and professionalism is critical. But there is so much more you can do, to take advantage of the customer’s excitement when they open your package.

Will this be a memorable enough event to capture on video, to live on in your social media feed forever? You can do a lot to encourage recording of the customer’s happy face and excitement in their voice!

Have other questions about building your maker brand and business? Subscribe to the Business for Makers Blog and Business for Makers Podcast for insights and tips. Tune to Sawdust Talk on IGTV Live on Wednesdays at 10 pm CST to hear from makers about their projects and business and meet some great members of the maker community.

By the way, once you get your business name, you’ll need T-shirts to show it off! Check out georgesupplyco.com to get your maker business’s name and logo on a shirt, hoodie, or hat.

Scott Chervitz is owner of George Supply Company, dedicated to helping woodshops build their brand. See more at GeorgeSupplyCo.com. You can reach him at Scott@GeorgeSupplyCo.com, on Instagram at @GeorgeSupplyCompany or Twitter @ScottChervitz

Brian Chervitz, M.S., is an Associate Instructional Designer at the University of Wisconsin Extended Campus