Ideas for Local Marketing for Small Soap Businesses
Proven Local Marketing for Small Soap Businesses
Local marketing is a powerful tool that can dramatically increase sales for small soap businesses.
Tips that can help you get more people to find out about your side soap business, buy your products, and become loyal customers in your local area.
Creating a successful soap business is one thing and selling enough to maintain that successful business is a different story. Soaps are generally high-quality products. Many small-business owners fail in their soap-making businesses not because their products are poor but because no one outside of their immediate circle of contacts knows them and their products exist. ProvenLocal marketing provides an affordable way to attract potential new customers so you can have consistent sales each month and build a strong customer base in your local community.
This article will provide you with easy-to-implement ideas for local marketing and help you identify practical examples related to small soap businesses so that you can develop your own action plan to implement these ideas today.
Local Marketing is Important for Small Soap Businesses
Local marketing brings your product in contact with a consumer who is in close proximity to you (the manufacturer) and has an increased chance of coming into your shop to purchase your products. Furthermore, the close, personal nature of local marketing helps to build trust and word-of-mouth recommendations for your products, which help to create a strong community presence for your business.
As with any tactile product, soap is an example where customers prefer to see, smell, and touch the product first. That requirement is leveraged through the use of local marketing. According to the Local Marketing Institute, small business marketing experts estimate that consumers are two to four times more likely to purchase from a business they have had face-to-face contact with compared to a business they have only come into contact with through an online advertisement.
In addition to just street fairs, “local” encompasses the geographic area where your target audience shops and resides. It may also include local SEO, partnerships, local events, schools, and community organizations.
1. Be Found Locally: Improve Your Local Search Presence
The most fundamental element to be found is how to be found.
This means you must do the following:
a. Claim and complete your Google My Business page
You want to appear in searches for “handmade soap near me,” “natural soap in Mogadishu,” or any other geographical area where you have brick and mortar customer bases. You will need:
-Clear business name
-Accurate hours
-Quality images for your product lines
-Description with keywords related to your location and your products, such as artisan soap, natural soap, and soap gifts.
-Customer reviews
This builds trust signals that Google uses to help determine rankings.
b. Use Local SEO in your website
You should make a page entitled Handmade Soap in [City] on your website. Your location should appear in the URL, title, meta description and ALT description on all images on the site and should focus on the terms used when people search for your store locally.
c. List Your Business In Local Directories
Use local business directories such as Yelp, Facebook Business, Bing Places, bestbuy.com, etc. to advertise your business as these particular types of directories can be a great resource when someone is looking to make a purchase and is often a major driving force behind making a purchase.
If you don’t do these things you are putting your business at risk because even if the products you sell are fantastic your customers cannot find you using the internet.
Pitfall 1: Posting on Instagram isn’t enough; search engines bring in more reliable traffic and give you credibility.
THE BEST SOLUTION:
Local Partnerships That Produce REAL Sales
Partnering with other local businesses gives you a larger reach and is a very fast way to grow your business.
Examples include:
Boutiques and Gift Shops: Selling your soap either on consignment or wholesale; Many independent shops rely on local, handmade products.
Coffee Shops and Spas: Offering small packs of soap or sample cubes near the cash register.
Florists: Creating a gift set of soap and flowers is an easy way to increase sales.
A Case Study: A soap maker in Portland developed partnerships with three independent gift shops. After a 60-day trials period, the owner sold 30% more soap through the 3 retail sites compared to the same time period on her own website. This was due to consumers physically touching the product at the retailers.
Pitfall 2: You cannot expect every partnership to be successful. Make sure to track the sale of each location and discontinue unsuccessful partnerships quickly.
Pitfall 3: Using local events to sell and educate your consumers.
People like artisanal products the best when they can touch and feel them.
Where to go:
Farmers Markets
Craft Fairs
Community Festivals
Pop-up Shops with other artisans
What works in your booth:
Clear Pricing
Scent Samples
Demonstration of how to use your soap (for example, a lathering station)
QR Codes that will lead to your store and e-mail list
Pro Tip: Educate your staff and/or aid in creating dialogue. Simply asking, “What is your favorite scent?” may result in an opportunity to ‘upsell’.
Expert Insight: Laura Simmons, Retail Marketing Strategist states, “At events that are in-person, make sure to engage with people through experience and not merely product. Allow people to smell, touch and ask questions, this is why they are attending.”
Pitfall 4: Exhibit space is costly; you must rent, transport and spend time in doing so. Look for events with confirmed attendance and that target the same type of audience as you (example – eco-friendly fairs for your natural soap).
4. Loyalty programs and repeat purchases
Retaining a customer is generally much cheaper than acquiring a new one.
Examples of great ideas:
Punch cards – e.g. “buy nine soaps and receive one free”
Subscription boxes on a seasonal basis – receiving 1 unique soap delivered each month with different scents.
Reward Referral – a discount for the customer when their friend purchases through their website link.
According to a study by Small Business Trends Magazine, loyalty programs can increase repeat purchases by 25%.
Pitfall 5: Do not over-discount. Loyalty programs should reward repeat customers without creating an expectation of low-cost products.
5. Local story-telling and content marketing
People purchase not just soap but the reason why you make it.
Tell your story:
Why you started
Where ingredients come from
The benefits of using natural soaps versus commercial soaps.
Here are a few ideas for creating authentic content that engages local customers.
Authenticity builds trust, and trust leads to higher-value purchases, according to the Trust Barometer. In a survey of consumers who said authentic content influences their buying decisions, 73% of them responded positively.
The biggest mistake you can make when posting on social media is just posting random photos without value to your audience. All posts should either be educational, entertaining, or converting.
6. Use your neighborhood networks. Facebook groups, Next-door, and WhatsApp broadcast lists have the ability to drive real local sales.
Here are some suggestions on how to utilize these networks.
- Post in community groups when you have a new product to sell or a shop pop-up event.
- Offer special group member discount codes so they can try your products.
- Encourage your happy customers to take photos of your products and tag your business in their posts.
Neighborhood networks are trusted sources for information and recommendations. Rather than relying only on advertisements, people are more likely to trust the recommendation of their neighbors.
Be careful not to abuse your access to these networks by repeatedly posting sales pitches—that will get you removed from the group. Focus on providing value to the community first and sales pitches second.
7. Partner with local influencers.
Micro-influencers—those with 1k to 10k followers—often have very engaged local followings and can help you grow your local customer base.
- To partner with a local micro-influencer, you can:
- Send them samples of your soaps.
- Ask them to post honest reviews of your soaps in their stories or posts.
- Provide them with a unique discount code that you can track through their sales activity.
Using a methodical approach leads to success: micro-influencers generate more sales (for every follower) than celebrities because they have their followers’ trust.
Potential Problem: Don’t hire influencers without paying attention to how well they perform. Work only with influencers who have followers that fit into your desired customer segment.
8. Teaching Classes & Workshops in the Community
You can hold beginner soap-making classes at:
Local craft shops
Community centres
Many customers want to buy seasonal products, creating urgency in their minds.
Potential Problem: Too many skus can lead to inventory issues. Maintain the base line stable and limit the number of seasonal offerings to the fewest possible.
Schools/universities.
Benefits to You as an Instructor:
You will receive money for teaching.
You will likely gain many of the students as repeat customers.
The students will recommend your courses to others.
Here is an Actual Example of This Concept in Action:
A small soap company located in Denver, Colorado, sold out their quarterly soap-making classes and many of those students have become wholesale customers and referred others to purchase from them.
9. Seasonal and Geographically Inspired Product Lines
Consumers tend to purchase products that are relevant to their culture or geographic area. Here are some best ideas:
Scents created from local plants or traditions
Gift sets based on major holidays (Mother’s Day, Eid, Christmas)
Tiny or limited edition items that reflect unique events around town (fairs, markets)
Many customers want to buy seasonal items, creating urgency in their minds.
Potential Problem: Having too many skuas can lead to inventory issues. Maintain the base line stable and limit the number of seasonal offerings to the fewest possible.
Positive Perspectives:
Great Ways to Market Your Small Soap Business at Home
Awesome Ways to Market a Local Soap Business
Easy, Simple Ways to Grow Your Small Soap Business
Proven Techniques for Creating a Local Soap Marketing Plan
Winning Local Soap Marketing Plans for Small Soap Companies
Negative Perspectives:
Top 5 Mistakes That Small Business Owners Make When Marketing Their Soap Locally
5 Reasons Why Local Soap Marketing Doesn’t Work
How Poorly Designed Local Soap Marketing Plans Could Hurt Your Small Soap Brand
5 Ways to Waste Money on Local Soap Marketing
5 Things Holding Back Successful Local Soap Marketing Efforts
Conclusion:
Create a Sustainable Local Marketing Strategy
There’s no one perfect way to guarantee sales through local marketing, but finding a method to incorporate different ideas will establish a process that gets results.
Make your business easy to find, both online and offline.
Connect with existing customers where they already shop and congregate.
Convert new customers into repeat purchases.
Share your story so that you differentiate your handmade soaps from commercial bars.
This is your powerful offer to take action:
Choose 3 important strategies from below for implementation over 60 consecutive days, then evaluate results, and adjust accordingly. Be sure to use sources (such as event-driven sales, partner referrals, or web search traffic) as a way of tracking customers who convert to cash-generating/productive sales.
