advertising and customers

[Emilee]

for those of you who sell your soap and have done for a while....

what has been the advertising that has helped you get the most customers

is it a website, word of mouth/samples, flyers, markets, magazine/newspaper ads/.....?????????????

i've been making gmcp for approx 2 years, and giving away to friends and family. i've got a few repeat buyers in both sections, and have only just made my own website, and got my first major ad going in a major mag in June, and I've done one market, which I got one good feedback from but they didn't buy any more....

and do you think its the product thats the most important, or the packaging or are they of equal importance in selling and getting repeat custom?

i've realised that 50% of my soap is geared especially towards eczema and psoriasis etc, but most of my advertising covers parents and children, and i don't know how to specifically market people with skin problems as most of these people go to the doctor or chemist to get their stuff, unless they are really looking for something natural online......

I often read about how some of you have orders on your soap before you've even made it. How did you find people who wanted to do this?

I wish it would all happen faster and I would get 100 people on my customer base just like that..... but thats not exactly realistic.

How long did it take you all to build up a good base of people who love your soap and continue to buy it over supermarket products?
anyone with any help on these topics... info much appreciated.

Emilee

 

[SoapMedic]

Emilee sounds like you are covering your bases. It can take time to build up customers. They usually buy more around holidays, etc. I've found that unless they have special gift needs, most of them will wait til they are just about out of soap before they get more. Word of mouth is very important, as well as taking care of your good customers. I do a once-a-year craft fair at a local business where I have lots of repeat customers. I make sure that they get a special discount coupon as customer appreciation, and periodically I add a freebie into the bag of returning customers.
I think consistent, accurate packaging is important. It doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to be consistent---they may not be able to remember the name of the soap but they associate the label with you. Be sure your contact information is on the label.

Something that works for many people is establishing a mailing list or email list. So at a market, put out a sign up list for people to get advance notification of sales or 'customer only specials', maybe buy 3 get one free. Then you can use the contact list to periodically send out updates, reminders that Mothers Day or whatever is coming up and here's what you have available. And you can let them know you will be at a particular market on such and such date. That gets them thinking and they know where to find you. The best part about that is, email is easy, and for the price of a postcard you can get in touch with the other people. Just don't do it too often or they won't even read it. You can also do a blog and send them the link, Make sure your blog is professionally neutral...you will turn off some customers if you put in political opinions or other non-soap items. But if you keep it llght, add pix of what soaps you are making and products you are thinking about, some folks will read it. One warning, keep up with it, so don't start it and push it unless you can committ to making at least one entry a week. I lost momentum on my old blog and people stopped checking in. Lesson learned.

If you are going to pay for advertising, you really first need to decide your target market, otherwise the wrong people are seeing your expensive ad. Take advantage of anyplace you can put up free information, like business card exchange boards, etc. If your business card and flyer have your website address, you'll start getting hits and eventually start selling off the website.

One other thing I wanted to remind you of. Be very careful when targeting soap products to people with skin problems. You can get into trouble easily by making claims about your soap. When you make claims that your soap relieves or improves skin conditions, you are no longer selling soap, you are selling a medical product and that can become a problem.
Good luck, enjoy and be patient.

 

[topcat]

Thanks for posting this thread Emilee and thanks for the great information SoapMedic!

Tanya

 

[Emilee]

yes, thank you, very helpful info.

on my website i say that some of my soap is 'beneficial' for eczema and psoriasis

but i certainly don't claim that it heals it or anything like that, and in my about us page, i state that it hasn't cleared my husbands psoriasis, only alleviated it somewhat, and i also have good feedback about my soap on the feedback page.

do you think the word 'beneficial' is still too bold and could i get into trouble with it? maybe i should change the wording to 'could be beneficial' or 'may be beneficial' or 'often beneficial' or sometimes beneficial???

www.goatsmilksoap.co.nz if you wanted to have a look at what i'm saying.

thanks again

Emilee

 

[topcat]

Emilee, IMHO 'may be beneficial' should keep you out of trouble :wink: . Using other peoples feedback will help a new customer make up their minds, so that is good.

Tanya

 

[Emilee]

thanks Tanya.

i have changed it to has been found to be beneficial, or something like that.

hopefully that works.

 

[Lindy]

Emilee I would word it even softer than that - you really don't want to step into the "drug" or "therapeutic" area. Even though I know that my GM&H soap is being recommended to people by Home Care staff I don't put that anywhere on my website. I do however tell people in person that this has occurred and that herbalists recommend this style of soap for skin problems because the ingredients have been found to help relieve the symptoms. I just figure I need to stay as far away as possible from my product being considered drug related. That's just my opinion of course....plus I'm not in the USA.

As for advertising you need to determine what works best in your area. For instance newspaper advertising in my area is a waste of money for me however the local free monthly magazine publication does me a lot of good! Word of mouth and referrals are really important to the growth of any business. I am finding that my packaging is important for the initial attraction to kiosk - after that it's the quality of the soap that keeps them coming back and telling their friends.

Although I have only "officially" been in business since March I am already seeing these trends and I am utilizing that information as I move forward.

HTH

 

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[rupertspal42]

Yeah this is a really sticky situation because wording is everything... I PMed Soapmedic for some advice and got some great pointers. But like we discussed.. it's really hard to say this can help and not get attacked by the FDA wolves!!

 

[topcat]

Psoriasis is something many people are born with it seems - my DH being one of them. Stress plays a strong role in how healthy his skin is. Using my handmade soap has definitely benefited him....it certainly does not irritate it and make it worse, and seems to sooth the dryness and itching. After re-reading this thread I cannot see anywhere that Emilee says she offers a cure for this condition.

It is also worth noting that Emilee lives in New Zealand with quite different laws to the US :wink:

Tanya

 

[rupertspal42]

oh yes that's cool different laws haha Yeah FDA is a lil crazy.. but as long as you don't make claims that it will heal you or it's proven to you think that you'd be alright :?:

 

[heartsong]

x

i live in the south and every other person seems to have a skin problem!

once people start using natural soaps, i'd say at least half of the one's with skin problems clear up.

that's testimony to it's effectiveness right there. a free sample is some of my best advertising!

in a brochure i'll add that my soaps contain "premium quality skin friendly ingredients" but that is as far as i will go.

people are so sue-happy nowadays that you don't dare make any claims or promises-even if you know them to be true. also, FDA has very strict guidelines regarding anything that isn't "just soap".

 

[rupertspal42]

Brochures eh? I thought about that but I wasn't for sure what i'd put into it though haha like information about the ingriediants I use? :shock:

 

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[rupertspal42]

<<<<<<< Has asthma

 

[topcat]

With Psoriasis, eczema and asthma some people's skin reacts to one/some of the ingredients in commercial soap. So by not using that product...it is the same as not touching the poison ivy for the person in the example above. The handmade soap isn't curing anything, it is just not triggering the underlying disease.

Sue

That makes a lot of sense! My nephew has eczema (he is 5 years old now) and his mum uses oatmeal in an old stocking to wash him so he won't react. She can use my GM soap on him now too with no irritation....so that is because it is not irritating his current skin sensitivity - is that right?

Emilee - perhaps you should be saying something like "My handmade soap has been shown (by anecdotal evidence) to not irritate skin suffering with symptoms of eczema or psoriasis".....words to that effect anyway.

Tanya

 

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[carebear]

Eczema and psoriasis are serious diseases of the elimination and respiratory systems of the body that cannot be benefitted by topical treatments...period.

Sue

nonsense

 

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[Lindy]

Okay I really do need to jump in here as respectfully as I possibly can.

First let's start with a true definition of Eczema:

"The term eczema refers to a set of clinical characteristics. Classification of the underlying diseases has been haphazard and unsystematic, with many synonyms used to describe the same condition. A type of eczema may be described by location (e.g. hand eczema), by specific appearance (eczema craquele or discoid), or by possible cause (varicose eczema). Further adding to the confusion, many sources use the term eczema and the term for the most common type of eczema (atopic eczema) interchangeably."

It is really, really important that we each respect each person's experience in life and let's not use a wide brush to describe something that we personally only have limited experience in - our own. I too suffer from eczema - we don't know the underlying cause, we do know that stress increases the likelihood of me having a flare-up and I have scars from this condition. I do not have a respitory problem or COPD. I do know that handmade Goat's Milk Soap soothes my skin during a flare-up. Soothing is not curing, soothing is making it feel better, that is not a medical claim.

Personally, I think we need to use discretion and common sense when we promote our products and we also need to understand what the defining lines are in our regulatory system be it American, Canadian, European or Australian. If we claim something will help a condition we could be making a medical claim, if we say our product may make something feel better then we're not claiming to cure anything and we're not even claiming it will make it feel better we're saying it might.

Having said all that - I personally don't make those claims in writing, I will tell people in person what MY experience is and that it MAY help.

I apologize for this being such a long post.

Cheers
Lindy