Hello! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It has been a busy time for me but a lot of fun.
I read a few interesting articles over the weekend and thought I would share them with you. Are you ready for the Holidays? Have you done everything you can to get your products out there for buyers to find this season? It’s not too late if you haven’t and these articles will help with links to holiday marketing guides, tips on customer support and info on creating effective “call to action” text and buttons for your web site.
I was clueless when I made my first fragrance and essential oil purchases. I was not able to read a manufacturer supplied description and get any REAL sense of what a fragrance would be like. Top note? Middle? Wha? While I still rely on fragrance samples, understanding fragrance notes guide my decisions on which samples I will order. Notes also guide my decision as to which product types the fragrances will be used in. If you’re new to working with fragrances, the articles listed below will give you a good, basic understanding of fragrance notes and fragrance families.
I know that many of my readers are also chandlers so I’m posting this article for them. 30 Creative and Cool Candle Designs by Zuzu Top will get you thinking outside the box.
I’m thinking these will look great on my patio next summer.
Everyone loves a good mystery and Christy from KBShimmer has used this knowledge to move her discontinued, surplus and less than perfect products. Products that have encountered cutting mishaps or color woes can really pile up and this is a great way to sell them at a discount to recoup some of your costs. Package up a few mystery bags of your own at your next show to see what happens! I took a peek to see how these were selling for Christy and she’s sold three in the past two weeks. Great idea Christy!
Erin of Inner Earth Soaps lives in Bondi Beach, Australia. She has been making handmade soap since 2006. She enjoys the process of designing new soaps and coming up with new and different color/scent combos. She uses a lot of additives such as clays, botanicals, silk fibers, honey and sea salt.
Listed a new Etsy Banner Bundle today…it comes with options – matching Twitter background and/or matching business card designs that you print yourself.
Sonnee posted about this fabulous looking soap on The Dish Forum. Inspiration for “Zebra on the Beach” came from her swimsuit! Just goes to show you that inspiration truly is all around us. Sonnee tells us how she made it using real silk cocoons on her blog: Duffin’s Soap Bakery
Handmadeology University has a nice collection of detailed articles/tutorials on marketing your products online. If you haven’t read the articles yet, read them today and put the info to good use for the holiday rush.
Well the countdown to the Holidays is officially starting with November just a few short days away. Are you ready? Is anyone ever REALLY ready? If you are ready then – well – you’re fabulous and need no help from me. For the rest of us I will be writing a series of posts to get you ready for holiday craft shows and other holiday events. Today’s post is about packaging.
Many soap/candle/handmade crafters do not use special packaging for the holidays. It could be the time and effort involved to design and implement seasonal packaging or it could be the expense. I believe that swapping out simple elements in your current packaging is probably the safest and less time consuming way to go. Here’s a few examples:
Yummy Suds Soap Company has simply wrapped a holiday themed paper around simple soap boxes to give it holiday flair. These soap boxes happen to be made from seeded paper that will grow when planted. you can find and purchase at Of the Earth if your interested. You can find holiday themed paper to use for the cigar band at almost anywhere these days and the cost is minimal.
This technique can be used on anything really. Lotion bars, tins etc. You can tie a ribbon or wrap a cigar band around just about anything.
the following following examples of Kate Spade, Mandel Bros., Marshall Field & Co., and Carson Pirie Scott boxes are pre-printed but you could easily achieve the same effect with stamps.
And if none of that grabs you- just wrap the entire product in holiday paper and tie some ribbon around it. You’ve been wrapping presents since you were a kid. Should be easy enough.
I know that some of you are groaning at the extra work and so do I. Personally, I’m a gift bag gal because I HATE HATE HATE wrapping presents. But going the extra mile for your holiday shows will pay off. Details like these will set you apart from the soapmaker next to you. Think of shoppers like me. I hate wrapping presents and have little time for it. If I have to choose between two products of equal quality – I’m going with the one that’s ready to put under the tree.
Twitter and Facebook Updates to Show in Search Engines — Are You Prepared?
If you use Twitter and Facebook to promote your business, this news can be good or bad. Good – because it can boost your chances of being found in a sea of Bath and Body Web sites. On the flip side – this could be BAD because it can boost your chances of being found for interactions that you’d rather not be found for. How are you representing yourself and your business on Social Media sites? What are others (who can also be found) saying about your products and services? How are you promoting good reviews of your products? How are you dealing with negative comments about them? Are you dealing with them at all? This news makes the first article I posted by EssentialU all the more relative to your online business.
Anyone that uses Etsy knows how labor intensive listing can be and will understand why I was thrilled to find Etsy Hacks for FireFox. Installation is painless and in the end you will be able to do the following and more:
copy listing – create a new listing based on an existing one.
item zoom – adds a zoom icon to images in search and shop listings.
edit this item – edit or delete a listing from the View Listing page.
buyer info – add extra information to the “buyer” box on a receipt page.
forum wrangler – add extra features to the Etsy forum pages.
Thinking of advertising on Twitter? Magpie may be for you. You select the Twitterers, approve/disapprove the tweets and decide how much you want to spend. You can spend as little as $20 on your campaign and you can allocate how the ad dollars are spent: on an entire campaign; per day; and even per keyword, placing the budgetary control entirely in your hands.
