Promotional Give Away

Make sure to check our blog frequently because we are going to be doing more give aways next week.  You never know when, why, or how we are going to do a promo!  We are spontaneous and crazy!

Santa Candy Cane Foot Soak

My brains are in overdrive because Christmas is coming upon me like a bulldozer.  Seeing as how my Santa's Coal Soap does really well and will be featured in "Real Simple Magazine", in December's issue.  It got me thinking what else can we bring out to compliment this already popular item and give relief to tired shoppers?  So "Santa's Candy Cane Foot Soak" was born.  I smell a minty gift pack in the works people!  This product will come packaged in the same cute Santa sack we use for the Coal Soap.  It will be an all natural product with sea salts and peppermint essential oils.  All you organic loving green people are going to love this!

Recycled Decor

After watching Terra Cycle on Nat Geo, and learning about their story I started thinking how can I do something similar?  How could I make use of the tools I have in my arsenal/soap factory to turn something trash into treasure?  I think the silver lining in the cloud of our financial devastation this year is that we as a human race have been forced to think about our lifestyles.  It's no coincidence that the green revolution rolled up on us during this time.  Life is handing us lemons and now we need to make that organic lemonade and turn a profit! 

I have literally hundreds of molds for so many different themes.  What you see on my website or blog is a fraction of what we have to offer.  I started thinking what could I recycle and pour into a mold, creating something in the area of home decor to compliment my soap line?  So naturally I took old newspaper, shredded it, put it in a blender with water.  I whipped it until it was a slimy pulpy mess.  Squeezed out the excess water, mixed it with a water based glue.  Then pressed the mixture into a mold as a wall hanging.  When it was dry it was very light and seriously unbreakable. This is important for shipping costs and possible damages.  I left it the grey but it can also be painted any color.  It has a natural stone appearance and texture. It has great applications for large scale wall sculpture because it is so lightweight. 

Ghost Poop Soap

Today is October 1 and it is time for some Halloween fun!  This is my very first time ever creating a Halloween soap.  Once again someone on Twitter asked for this theme so I always try to make a customer happy and Ghost Poop Soap was born. You can only purchase it on Etsy now as it is a last minute test item.  Let me explain this idea before you dismiss me as crazy because this fact has already been established.

The bag reads "You've been naughty so here's the scoop, all you get for Halloween is ghostly poop!"  It is a spin off idea of our snowman poop with minor tweaking.  The soap is clear for OBVIOUS reasons!  The fragrance is candy, WHAT ELSE?  I personally welcome something that is not candy at halloween for my own kids.  I know the top button on my pants would be relieved if I had less candy too.


http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31314241&ref=em

Bacon Live

I was very surprised to find out from Aaron, http://www.iheartbaconsalt.com/  that I was on "Bacon Live" a Ustream.com show http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2257603 .  Thanks for including my Bacon Soap and I have no idea who sent you the picture of my soap.  Thanks to whomever submitted it!  This is what I love about the Internet, birds of a feather flocking together.  You can see my Bacon Soap at about minute 42.  You also need to know that @meatmanmike on twitter is putting together an ALL BACON art show in Phillie Nov. 7th.  I will be submitting my artist interpretation of bacon Soap in the Shape of a giant fat pig made of soap called, "This one went to market".  Pictures will be added when it is complete.  Contact him if you have any submissions mikegeno@gmail.com .

Bringing in New Business Using Twitter-Part 2

Here is my new logo in a bar of my soap, designed for me by http://www.verticalprinting.com/ Laura is the genius behind this creation.(of course I met Laura on twitter @vpg_printing)  I am going to share with you a twitter move I use for bringing in new business. I offered one free bar of Logo Soap to anyone who wanted it on twitter.  The rules were you had to email me your JPEG logo by 5 pm est.  So I made the bars shipped them each for about $2.00.  After a couple of days, the e mails and phone calls come rolling in as they are received.  Why?  This is because to appreciate how awesome my logo soap is you need to see it as YOURS!  It is special in their hands because it is no longer about ME it's about THEM.  Personalizing is so key to bringing your customers to their knees.  Of course price point is an issue for promos so that is why you must have a variety.  Once this door is open 90% of the time I get the sale.  Check back because I am going to tell you about a second business I created from learning to tweet, engage, and market products for other people. 100% truth!

Twitter Translating Into $ - Part I

I must admit my first reaction to the twitter home page was "what kind of narcissistic loser would tweet about their daily events?"  Well I had to find out so I signed up using my business name @sweetsoaps.  The hard part at first is understanding the lingo and the fact that following people does not mean they follow you back.  So if you have no followers and you are tweeting to no one guess what happens..nothing!  I got very frustrated trying to figure out why anyone would do this.  It is actually comical thinking back on it as I sat there saying to myself what is this!!!!!!!  Well many hours and months later by osmosis I started to "get it".  Like anything worthwhile it requires time and an open mind.  Twitter is like life, you get out of it what you put into it. Relationship building takes time in business just like life.

The flow of information that comes through twitter is like nothing I have ever seen.  People openly tweeting helpful free information that theoretically should be coveted like a golden goose egg.  Why would strangers help one another when clearly there was nothing "in it" for them?  I will tell you why, for the "RT" BABY!  Yes that right "retweeting" when you post something valuable it is like a viral marketing bonanza! When you share something really great people think you are a twitter God and they retweet your information, therefor exposing your clickable name to ALL of their followers.  It's like an awesome pyramid of twitter love.  The more people that follow you, the more people know about you or your business.  In your profile you have a direct link to your site that people can click on and viola traffic to your website, OMG!!! Yes that's right home grown website traffic without a price tag.  It is more than sales, it is also about branding your business.  Twitter gives you a voice and allows people to know the person behind the brand.

The winners on Twitter are mostly small business people because we want to reach out to our customers.  I am watching how big business is handling Twitter all I have to say is #fail (twitter humor.)  Putting free summer interns on Twitter to talk about your company is as exciting as watching a home shopping channel. (snore)  I have so much to tell you so check back and learn about the amazing ways I have connected with people and how I am building my business one tweet at a time!