I am not selling and I am not sure if I ever will, but my husband and I have discussed it and if I do sell, I will be selling a couple of other bath products as well, such as bath salts, bombs and candles. I have been doing candles for years and I sell pine cone fire starters now.
My husband owns a tree service and we deliver firewood, so currently, I am making the pine cone fire starters and I make a bunch of them and put them in bags that a cupcake would fit in nicely, with a business card. When people order firewood or have a tree job done at their house, we give them a bag that I have tied up with some raffia as a thank you for their business and the business card tells them how they can order more fire starters. It seemed like a good idea, since the people are already buying firewood and I have gotten several orders from doing this. My husband even keeps some of the fire starters in a basket in the truck and some people have bought some right then, on the spot. This way, I am not knocking on doors and it isn't unwelcome, since they see it as a thank you gift and we are already there because they called us, doing business with them. It basically gets my foot in the door and I find that I do get a little better than the 100:10 ratio, but I am selling fire starters to people who are already buying firewood so I know I am reaching my target market and not wasting fire starters on people who don't have a fireplace.
If I decide to sell my soaps, I will also make my batches a little larger and do some small samples in a brownie bite silicone baking sheet. I will also make some tea lights and small bath bombs and small bags of bath salts and put them in the little bags as well and keep giving them out to everyone who we do any type of job for. There is a lot of money in tree work and we won't be losing a whole lot by doing it. I also probably won't give the soap samples to areas where I know they won't buy.
I do not answer the door for anyone either and I usually throw away door hangers unless there is something that really catches my eye. Maybe you could find some sturdy door hangers and punch a hole in the bottom corner and tie a nice clear bag to it with a soap sample in it. While I throw away most door hangers, if there were a sample attached, I would probably use the sample and if I liked it, I would buy. I think that if you are door hanging, it is important to give them a reason not to throw it away without looking. My parents had a business the whole time we were growing up and they had my brother and I door hanging and from my experience the 100:10 ratio is spot on if you are doing it blindly and not hitting your target market, like I have been doing with the firewood. But everyone loves to get something for free, no matter how small.
