Q & A with Batty: What do you do on those days that you feel like you should quit?

battysbath says:

When I feel discouraged, down and out, or just plain frustrated, I take a break! I take a break until I feel ready to get back to the grind. A break is a great way to recharge, re-evaluate, and rework things. Actually, I decided to move my first etsy shop (shesbattydesigns.etsy.com) to the back burner after a break when I realized I had lost my passion for paper - I enjoyed it as a hobby still, but not as a "job". That was the best break I could have ever taken because it was during that time that my family encouraged me to turn my love of creating bath & body goodies into more than a hobby. I haven't looked back since :)

See how other people from the Etsy community asnwered this question in the original form thread found here.

Interview with the Unofficial Etsy Featured Seller Blog

I got the chance to be interviewed by the lovely Lauren who manages the Unofficial Etsy Featured Seller Blog! The interview was posted yesterday and can be found here. Thanks so much to Lauren for the great questions and for this great opportunity!

The questions I answered included:

• Give us some basic info about you: name, where you live, kids/pets, favorite ice cream flavor, etc.
• Describe an average day in life of "you".
• Were you creative growing up/what did you enjoy doing?
• What made you want to start selling on etsy?
• How long did it take for you to get your first sale on etsy?
• Top 5 favorite foods, tv shows, and bands?
• Is there anything you'd like to try your hand at doing? Knitting, baking, soap making, wood working, an instrument, etc.
• What would you suggest to new etsy sellers to promote their shops?
• 3 etsy shops you just LOVE?
• One year from now, I hope...

To see all my answers check out the full blog post here.

Q & A with Batty: Contests

Q: "I was wondering what your philosophy was about offering giveaways and "contests" as an effective means of online promotion" - Weezi

A: Well I can't say I necessarily have a philosophy that's set in stone about any online promotional strategies. I always give things a go and see where I'm at when the dust settles. With that being said, I don't just jump on the band wagon without some research first. Some of the key questions I ask myself are:

- Will this promotion reach my target audience?

- Is it presented in a way that they will understand and respond to?

- What do I hope to get out of this? (sales? views? networking connections?)

- How much will this promotion cost me? Can I afford it?

- Is there risk involved? Is it worth the risk?

When it comes to giveaways and contests these questions are a great place to start. If you're hosting it on your own blog, you can be pretty sure you're reaching your target audience if you've already built up a loyal following of your customers. If you're hosting it on someone else's blog it gets a bit trickier. Not only do you need to make sure this blog is targeting YOUR audience, you also need to make sure they are targeting A LOT of them to make it worth while. If your blog only has a following of a few hundred people, a giveaway or contest can still work really well if those followers are CORE customers that are generally interested in your products, are repeat customers, and you're bringing something new and exciting to the table for them. On the other hand, many blogs that regularly host giveaways for other people usually don't have core following. They have people who have signed up to follow the blog just to get an extra entry in a contest or two. These "followers" may never return to that sign again even though they are still counted in the thousands of followers. The lesson here is that blog follower numbers can be deceiving (this also goes for twitter followers, facebook fans, and the like). A good way to screen out the blogs who have REAL buzz from the blogs that aren't all their cracked up to be is to check out the amount of interaction that's going on. I don't mean all the comments under the giveaway posts. I mean the comments on their regular posts. Do people care what they have to say? Are people retweeting and blogging about their content? It can be tricky to find blogs that REALLY have buzz AND have zeroed in on your target audience.

When it comes down to purely a numbers game - contest and giveaways usually (from my experience and from what I've heard from others) don't bring in sales. Why would anyone run over to your shop and fill up their shopping cart if you're giving things away for free? Even if they are inclined to buy from you, they will probably wait until the contest or giveaway is over just in case they win.

Contests & giveaways do have their place though! Not only are they fun, they help you show off your generous side, AND can be a great way to get your name out there when you're looking to further your reach on the world wide web. When I first launched Batty's Bath I did a few giveaways and I had a contest to win a years worth of lip balm. These types of promotions were a great way to get the word out about my new shop FAST. It also got my products into the hands of potential customers quickly. This worked well for my business because I sell products that are consumable - meaning that people will run out of them and if they liked them, they may just come back for more. They aren't a one time, one of a kind purchase like jewelry or pottery. Which brings me to my next point - not all products & services are contest & giveaway friendly. People are offered so many things for free these days that it's nothing new to them - it usually isn't "news worth" (meaning they probably wont blog or tweet about it).

So the bottom line is that if you're strictly after sales, I would pass on the contest & giveaways... although one could argue that the promotion you get from these strategies could end up in sales down the road, you're probably better off to focus on pampering your current customers first. If you're after some "internet buzz" and something fun to get your name out to a few more people, a contest or giveaway could be the way to go.

Q & A with Batty

Q: Do You Work On Etsy Full Time From Home? And if so how do you cope with working from home?

A: I'm working from home on my biz full time. I sleep during the day, and work all night long. It works a lot better for me. I wake up when my fiance gets home from work around 5 or 6pm. We have supper together and hang out for a bit - it's a great way to start the day. I check my email during this time and reply to anything urgent and leave the rest for later. When he goes to bed (any time between 8-11pm), I start working. I find it very peaceful here at night so it's a lot easier to work without being distracted... it also helps that before starting to work for the day I've already had my social time for the day and have done laundry or other chores with my fiance. I have a craft show or home show every weekend so the next day I take the day off and recover. Usually my "day off" isn't completely a day off because I still check emails, make deliveries, and fill any special orders I received during the show the day before, but these few little things during don't take me too long so it still feels like a day off :)

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Do you have a question for me? I'm now on formspring so you can submit your questions! Feel free to use the submission tool in the right hand column of the blog (it's at the bottom of the right column).

Batty's Answer to The Etsy Forum Question: How Do You Get Sales?

battysbath says: I spend a lot of time in 3 different areas (outside of creating that is)

1 - promoting/networking/chatting/advertising - i use facebook, twitter, plurk, thumblr, blogger, flickr, stumble upon, project wonderful, yammi, craft juice, craft gawker, mailing list, etsy forums, and a few off etsy forums

2 - tweaking! i'm consistently tweaking my tags, photos, and descriptions. this involves researching SEO, retaking pictures, and looking up keywords in google analytics

3 - offline - i learned from my first etsy shop that putting all your eggs in the etsy basket isn't always the best idea. i'm working on booking a craft show or home show each and every weekend. right now i have almost every weekend for the next 9 weeks booked.


.. i hope that helps :)

(originally answered in this forum post)

Batty's Bath Packaging

Batty's Bath packaging has been made and is ready to go (Thanks Mom)! In fact, a few have already been giving out with offline orders! Check out the picture below to see some of the awesome fabrics we found for these bags! Mom made a few different sizes and has been a busy bee making these handmade gems!

All my products (except single lip balm orders) are packaged in these reusable, eco-friendly, cloth drawstrings bag! I like to use these bags to store make-up, craft supplies, hair ties, and any other loose ends around the house that need a home. These bags also work perfectly when giving my products as a gift - no more wrapping paper required!

The Story Behind the Bags:

My Grandmother used to make drawstring cloth bags every year for all of us at Christmas. They are what she wrapped all our gifts in. Now that my Grandmother has passed, my mom has taken up the tradition! I knew this family tradition was too special not to share with my new Batty's Bath customers. I hope all of my customers enjoy these bags as much as my family does! The tradition is that the receiver uses the bag they receive to wrap gifts in the next year so the bag gets passed on to someone else. There's always a good circulation of these bags going around in my family. Grandma, and now my Mom, keeps adding a few new bags to the pool every year so we never run out and always get a surprise fabric each year.

Another Productive Week!

The holiday break has been great! We've spent lots of time with family, got lots of super (fun and practical) gifts, relaxed and I've also had another productive week for Batty's Bath.

Here's some of the highlights from another productive week:

1. Sending all those Health Canada forms out!

Look at that stack of forms! A lot of work went into them and I'm so glad to have them totally completed and on their way to Health Canada :)

2. Organizing the Studio!

We brought two additional bookcases up from the basement AND I got new awesome shelves for Christmas from Drew. The studio is packed with all the She's Batty Designs stuff so we needed to bring up the additional bookcases and figure out some more shelving options to make room for the Batty's Bath stuff! Hopefully within the next week or so the new shelves will up on the wall and not blocking those red drawers :) For more pictures of the studio, have a look here.

3. I'm continuing to get stellar reviews from friends and family!

Over the holidays I let my friends and family try out my body butter and they are totally in love with it! They are already asking me when they can buy it! Things seem to be off to a really good start and hopefully this is a sign of things to come :)

Marketing Strategies Interview with Dennis of Anderson Soap Company

This was originally posted on HMN back in September, but I was found this interview with one of the top soapers on Etsy inspiring so I'm posting it again :)

Can you wrap your head around the thought of having over 19,940 sales?! Well, Dennis of Anderson Soap Company has! Making soap is his full time job and he has had great success with it! He loves what he does and is so thankful that he can do something he loves as a full time job. Today, Dennis shares the marketing strategies he's used that have resulted in so many sales!

What “online” marketing strategies are you currently using?
The top online marketing strategy I use is my mailing list. I feel that a mailing list is the fastest, easiest way to get specific information regarding sales or upcoming news and events out there to a base market who specifically signed up for it out of general interest. Twitter and Facebook are pretty good as well to use, just to post here and there when you are having a sale or just to chat it up with buddies.

What “offline” marketing strategies are you currently using?
Right now I dont have too much offline time due to a high volume of online and wholesale orders. I try to participate and be involved with local craft fairs and to hand out my business cards to alot of people. I also offer coupons and discounts to the people I meet at craft shows to purchase from me in person the next time or online.

What do you find (on or offline) to be the most effective?
I think its a combination of alot of factors that will make a marketing strategy effective. Being present at craft fairs, sending mailing lists out monthly, getting out there in forums or social networks....they all can bring customers to you or your website. The best promotion is word of month because people trust other people and its a free way to brand yourself and your company.

Are there strategies that you have found didn’t work well for your business?
I have tried many different places to advertise. Some worked, some didn't. I am the type of person that doesn't base decisions on what I see right in front of me, I try to read between the lines. Its a process of elimination, but I have found some places that are not for me and didn't work after trying a few months and some that work fantastically.

How do you figure out what’s working and what’s not?
I guess you just have to wait and see. What is good for one business is not good for another. Some businesses whats good for one is good for the other. I keep a deatiled record of when and where I advertise, how many referrals generate traffic to me, and then determine if it will work or not.

How do you decide what marketing strategies to try and when to try them?
I am open to try just about anything as long as its feesible to do so. I come up with alot of ideas.... so much that I have to keep a journal so I wont forget them all.

Do you have a few marketing initiatives in mind that you would like to implement in the future?
I actually just started one a few months ago. I changed all of my olive oil soaps to start using some organic oils, eventually my plan is to have my soaps USDA Certified Organic.

For someone who is just starting their “at-home craft business”, where would you recommend they start in terms of marketing?
I would try to research as much information that you can about your trade and how things are dealt with online or specifically on an online market place like Etsy or Artfire. The forums are worth their weight in gold with the wealth of information in them, and for the most part, people are very friendly and willing to help. If you plan to sell online, I would make sure you have a pretty good camera that can take clear pictures and only need a little editing to make them perfect.

Anything else you would like to add?
When I started selling online, I didn't have a great job... it was decent paying and hard work but I had dreams of being a small business owner to be my own boss. I had 50 dollars to start out with supplies to get me started and have turned that 50 dollars into over 20,000 dollars in inventory and supplies after my salary. All I can say is keep working at it, keep promoting yourself(even if your better half thinks the promotion is getting a bit obnoxious) keep doing it. The only way to get yourself out there is to promote and market your products. Then after that, word of mouth spreads and you get known.

Image Credits: dennisanderson.etsy.com

Forms and Legal Stuff

I've had another productive few days! I'm trying to do at least one thing every day to push Batty's Bath closer to being able to officially open. The past few days I've been creating more new formulas (I'm really happy with the shea butter one we're currently testing), and have started tackling some of the legal and declaration type forms that need to be done. I'm happy to say that my official application for a new business registration has been completed and I've made a lot of head way with the Health Canada cosmetic notification forms. All this and studying for psychological stats too! My stats mid-year exam is on Monday and I'm totally confused with all the content! At least Batty's Bath is coming along smoothly! I wish I could say the same for stats. Unfortunately stats is beyond my level of mathematical thinking which could make it tricky to pull of a pass! Eep! Wish my luck!

Some Exciting News

A few exciting things have happened this week!

1) Samples are already to send out to my "testers". I can't wait to get their feedback. We've been "testers" at my place and so far so good with the shampoo, conditioner, body butter, body wash and glycerin soap. As those run out we'll be testing new formulas and tweaking as we go. I love being about to tweak the bath and beauty products we're using now!

2) I designed the "Batty's Bath" logo! You'll see I added it to the blog banner! I still plan on prettying up the blog but I'm so happy to have the logo designed. What do you think?

3) I registered "BattysBath.com" last night! Woohoo! Right now it directs to my profile under battysbath.etsy.com.