Teach Soap

Hi! I'm relatively new to soaping, and a newbie to this board. I suck when it comes to marketing!

I want to strictly market myself on the web via my website. Shows are very expensive to do here and don't bring many buyers. I am on etsy, but can't sell a bar of soap to save my life (or my jewelry), despite repeatedly listing. I want to market to the more affluent, as I make higher-end jewelry, and I hope to market my soap and jewelry together.

My hope for this thread is to be of use to all bath and beauty product entrepreneurs for ways to market their goods. I would appreciate greatly, everyone's ideas small and great, let us help each other become successes!

Thanks in advance,
Donna
Gemoriah.com

I'm going to have to say this is a serious problem for me too. I've been VERY fortunate to have become fairly well known (in a rather short period of time) in the soapmaking community but two years after officially registering my business the "fancy soap buying world" has no idea I exist.

I'm pretty sure how one interacts with fellow soapmakers is key to enjoying a positive profile. I never see other soapmakers as competitors (everyone does and offers their own thing and has their own philosophy about how to do it). To even contemplate a competitive atmosphere would just totally ruin the pleasure I have from seeing something like this and saying "DAMN! How'd she do that!?" and then experimenting, talking, reading, sharing and growing.

So I'm not really primed to "compete" for shelf space either. My prices are higher than most but I still hardly make more than I spend on supplies and I'm not going to buy lower quality stuff to turn a buck so the price won't be going down. What I've been trying to do is work on my packaging, to get it as professional looking as possible (on next to no budget) and then shooting for the moon. If your product is top of the line and your packaging is professional, there is no limit to who you can approach to carry your product IMO.

Though I'm never really satisfied I have a professional looking way to package my soaps now, so I'm really just starting to approach the big guys. Print advertising (in Milwaukee Magazine) did next to nothing for me as far as sales go, but people looking to market the city took note (for whatever that's worth).

I'm trying with top area local bathroom designers. And I'm also trying this thing with local realtor's called the "little black bag" in some cities they call it a "welcome wagon" (we happen to have both). This is a group of business execs and city developers looking to show off the best their city has to offer (they hang a little black bag on the door of the top homes recently sold in the city. To get people out to the shops and become known for its little treasures. In March I'm test marketing this concept I will have a card and a sample in the bag (the only sample). The bag goes to 250 homes a month, each month is a different neighborhood. If I notice nothing from the first test month, I can't afford to participate in further months. But I'm open to just about anything that sounds reasonable. (BTW, these "black bag" people found me because of my ad in Milwaukee Magazine.

After all that rambling the next thing on my list is to investigate who to go to and how to get press releases out.

Good luck and let us know if you get any great ideas!

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PJ,
http://www.pjsoaps.com

I put my soaps in a local salon. The owner also makes jewelry so she does not mind at all putting my soaps out. The problem I am running into is LABELS! I can not make a label with any graphics. I got some avery label making software, and I can make plain text only lables, but thats about it. They end up looking too plain so I don't set lotions or lip balms in the salon.

Thats a great idea to put soaps in a solon like that! I just might steel the idea!! he he...

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Enjoy soaping!!!!

If your labels are too plain, what about using color labels?

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

PJ - thanks for the shoutout for my little martian soaps!!

Regarding marketing, in a nutshell I would suggest sticking with Etsy but keep trying new things. It's such a good way to test the market and see what grabs people. Try new things with photography since that is the biggest impression made on online shoppers, and have a variety of soaps or items so you have a bigger sampling of what sells.

I found a niche (that's an understatement!) with my soapsicles and I keep building on that to keep up the excitement. I am very involved in forums and post new pics in Flickr often. I keep my own site updated and fresh (see my new update as of yesterday - I'm really excited!) so people know I'm still dedicated to my business. I have a blog which is getting decent traffic, and I've shamelessly sent info to other bloggers or ezines to get write ups. 2 years ago I sent a pic to NEET Magazine which they put in a summer issue and I STILL get hits from it!

I send out newsletters to my mailing list (wholesale only) to keep Soapylove in people's minds and am now planning my strategy to keep growing. I'd like to find a couple of reps and participate in some major gift shows. I'm working on improving my packaging, increase my branding (have custom printed sticks), and offer a custom boxed option since my soaps are very gifty.

It doesn't hurt to have a compulsive personality, either! LOL!

Well, so much for a "nutshell!"

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Debbie Chialtas

- [i]

Donna,

I know you're not thrilled about the idea of doing shows. I did shows exclusively for the first two years of Bramble Berry's life (selling soap almost every weekend) because they were such an amazing cash influx.

What I found is that people would buy my soap, be from out of the area, and then use my web site to reorder when they couldn't get back to the show the next year or just wanted more soap during the year.

It was also a great way to build up an email advertising list and a mailing list for little postcards or whatever I happened to dream up as a cheap marketing idea.

Putting your soap in Etsy is a great first step and the next step is to figure out ways to drive traffic to the Etsy site - samples to beauty bloggers are one way to easily drive traffic to your site, newspapers are another good idea since they publish daily, they always need content.

Those are just a few thoughts off the top of my head.

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

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"Daddy, help me with this science project. It will only take a minute."

Bio D, lucky you! That sounds like a great place.

I agree with you about packaging - it doesn't have to cost a fortune to look amazing. What it does need to be is consistent - the same font, the same logo, the same look - on every label and always following general labeling laws (net weight, contact information, no outlandish claims).

Regarding a general marketing thought, samples are a really big part of bringing in new business - both to the general public and also to media to try and get publicity for you and your small company.

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

On the subject of Labels - I keep recieving bottles of my favorite Fragrance oils from a well known company ( that I shall not name ) that do not have a Net Weight or Fluid Ounces or anything on them - is that legal????

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.