Hi Razorburne
For us it was getting our name out there. Definitely doing Farmers Markets is one of our best source of income and exposure. You can quickly build up a loyal following at a market. We tend to bring more organic and all natural soaps for the Farmers Market as I feel its a better fit, but we do still have a selection of fragranced (FO) soaps. I like to keep it simple at the market, we sell naked soap out of apple baskets. And always do a buy 3 special. This makes moving the soap fast and we often sell out.
Wholesale accounts came to us via shows that we do, I like to try and attend events to promote our company such as local showcase events. Spring & garden events, Christmas fairs etc. At these shows I tend to bring more unique soaps, M&P and "gift" ideas.
We have recently started getting into the lucrative wedding market, selling favours and bridal shower gifts. We just did a local wedding show and the response was insane. For this venue, we took up our new Cakery line and made our table look like a sweets table. We were approached by event planners to carry our line.
Facebook has also become a great way to get advertising and its free. We have pick up about 5 accounts just from Facebook
We also do not pay for any advertising, but if anyone else does here, I would love to hear if it works for you. Don't forget to donate free soap or gift baskets to local charities to get your name out there. Its always a win win situation to promote your business and give back at the same time.
Recently we won The Entrepreneur of the Year Award for our City. I think it was awesome that they choose a soap maker!!! Considering we were up against large corporations. This put us over the top with free advertising and has brought us some attention to other businesses that want to carry some of our line.
For those that don't know me here, I also have a store and at the store resell other soaps not made by us. I tried to make my comments reflect the soap we make ourselves and not from our awesome resellers who can speak for themselves. For the wholesale accounts we carry in our store I actively sought them out. We do get soap makers in here from time to time asking us to carry their brand but most offend they don't have the required paperwork or insurance, or cant keep up with the demand.
Hope this helps, I know I went a little bit off track.
When your ready to sell let me know and I will try and help you. Selling is my specialty, soapmaking not so much, I am NO GURU. But shhh don't tell