How to promote a successful Soap Making Business using Adobe Express.

Soaps have made a big comeback in recent years. They come in a range of fragrant scents and vibrant colours, and contribute to sustainability. Often, soap manufacturers use natural materials to create organic soap bars with unique, nature-inspired scents.

Do you make your own soap and are you considering starting a soap business? Or do you want to improve the marketing plan for your existing soap business? Then this article is for you!

We’ll give you a step-by-step guide on how to develop a business plan for your soap business and what you need to consider. We’ll also provide you with information on how to promote your soap business and speak to the right target group. Learn how Adobe Express can help you take your soap business to the next level and create unique content for your website and social media channels in just a few steps.

Create a business plan for your soap business.

You might want to start producing and promoting your soaps right away. However, before starting a soap making business, you should work out a proper business plan first. It’ll help you make important business decisions and keep your day-to-day efficient. Important key steps to outline when starting your soap business are:

1. Mission: Yes, you want to have a successful soap business but try to formulate the purpose of your business and how you want to create value with it.
2. Vision: Outline what your soap business should achieve in the long term, for example, becoming a leading brand in your region for organic skincare.
3. Target audience: Create a persona of your ideal customers. It helps to know what they expect from soaps and skincare in general in order to understand what your product should look like and, more importantly, how to promote it.
4. Market research: Find your unique selling point by identifying ongoing trends, competitors, and consumers and analysing the soap industry in your region. Define how your product will stand out from other brands in the soap and skincare industry.

These four key steps will help you plan your finances. Make sure to set up a financial plan with startup and ongoing costs, including equipment, ingredients, packaging, and marketing. Define what your revenue should be in order to keep your business running and letting it grow. Find more information on the style and structure of a business plan in our article on “How to write a business plan”.

Develop a branding for your soap business.

Take your business plan as a basis to create the branding for your soap making business. Remember the target audience and the market research you worked on? This will now help you define the branding for your business and create a distinct identity that makes your soaps stand out from all other soaps. Ask yourself one question: What are your brand’s core values? And then shape your brand’s tone and messaging accordingly.

This is the groundwork for your brand name, the logo, and all visual material that should appeal to your target audience. Do you work with natural ingredients? Try earthy tones to appeal to an audience that values sustainability. With well-developed branding, your customers will instantly recognise your products. So, consistency is key. And this is where Adobe Express can help you. Create a branding kit which you can use to make all sorts of marketing materials such as your website, social media posts, or a flyer for your shop.

1. Open Adobe Express.
2. Go to the brands section and create a new brand.
3. Choose fonts from the Adobe Fonts library to have them ready when creating new projects.
4. Create a colour scheme that will fit your core values and your brand. A consistent colour scheme within your marketing materials will help to build your brand identity.
5. In the templates section you can save your favourite templates for your social media posts and banners for example. You won’t have to search for them, which saves you time for the more creative tasks.

Design a logo for your soap business.

The quintessence of your shiny new soap brand is the logo. It’s the visual representation of your brand and serves as a first impression for potential customers. The brand logo helps your customers remember your brand and allows you to build loyalty among your target audience. Using your logo for your products and marketing materials consistently is a clear sign of professionalism and helps to build trust between you and your customers.

With Adobe Express, you can create a logo that perfectly fits your soap business. And the good news: it’s free and you don’t need any design skills to create a professional logo for your business.

1. Open the free logo maker in Adobe Express and click “create now” to get started.
2. Enter the name of your soap business. You can also create logos for product lines or special soap editions.
3. Choose a font that fits your soap brand and your values.
4. Add an icon to your logo and play around with different designs until you find the one that fits with your brand. You can also try different logo templates and customise them, so they match your soap business.
5. Download your new logo as PNG or JPG to share it anywhere. Or you add it to your brand kit in Adobe Express to use it for the rest of your publicity materials, such as flyers, business cards, and social media posts.

Create a brochure for your soap business.

It's time to contact your first customers and let them know about your soap business. Especially if you want to reach a more regional target audience, it can be helpful to spread the word by distributing brochures in popular shops and restaurants in the neighbourhood. Kindly ask the owners if you may leave some brochures for their customers. Many shops and restaurants have a display stand where regional business owners can leave brochures, flyers, and business cards. Getting in touch with other business owners in your neighbourhood can also help you introduce yourself and your business and build your network. They might have some tips for starting a business and maybe share some of their insights with you.

If you want to create a brochure for your soap business and want to present your products to customers, Adobe Express can help you design an appealing brochure in minutes. Here is how you do it:

1. Open Adobe Express.
2. Explore the professionally designed templates for brochures and select your favourite one. Or start from scratch if you already have a clear idea of what you want.
3. Customise your brochure by adding text and images. Use your logo and add contact information. Write about the values of your soap business and present your most popular products. List the ingredients of your soaps and explain their benefits for skincare.
4. If you already have customers, ask them if they’d like to give testimonials for your soap business. If they agree, you can add quotes or short reviews from them, which helps to build brand trust and credibility.
5. Pick small illustrations or product photos of your soaps, so that customers can see what you’re selling.
6. Once you’re happy with the designed brochure, you can download it and print it yourself or send it to a professional print shop.

Develop a marketing plan for your soap business.

Although a brochure will help potential customers find out about your soap business, it pays to have a clear marketing strategy. A marketing plan has several key elements that define how you will reach your target audience, build brand awareness and ultimately increase sales.

Your marketing plan should contain a deeper understanding of who your target audience is. What are their buying habits? Is it a younger audience you want to target? What is their lifestyle? Understand their needs and what they look for when buying soaps and skincare.

With these questions, you can optimise your marketing materials and where to distribute them. Take your brand values into account and stay consistent to underline your brand’s identity across all platforms.

Speaking of platforms: Knowing your target audience helps you know where to reach them best. While social media might be a good guess, your typical customer might be a regular visitor to the local farmers' market or craft fairs. This is where you can meet them in person and promote your soap products. If you want to reach a more global audience, focus on online activities such as your website and social media.

Build a website for your soap making business.

Use a professional website for your soap business to showcase your products to potential customers. In comparison to a local shop, a website has the advantage of being available 24/7. This allows your customers to browse your products at any time from anywhere. You can even consider integrating an online store to offer a direct sales channel to your customers. Optimise your website with keywords that are often used to look for skincare or little presents. It helps you gain visibility in search engines, and you’ll be able to reach a wider audience.

Don’t know how to build a website? With Adobe Express, you don’t need professional design skills to make your website look great. Here’s how Adobe Express can help you:

1. Open Adobe Express to start building your website for your soap business.
2. Click through the professionally designed webpage templates and choose one you like and that fits your soap making business.
3. Customise your website by changing colours and fonts. Make sure you stick to your branding and choose the same colour scheme you’re using for your shop, packaging, or other marketing materials. Consistency is important when building your brand’s identity.
4. Upload product photos and videos to showcase your products.
5. Preview your website before going live to get a glimpse of how the website will appear to customers.
6. Once ready, share your website via URL.

Leverage your soap business with the help of social media.

Creating a social media profile for your soap business is easy. However, there are a few things you should consider before signing up to each platform. There are so many social media platforms out there, so make sure you are on the right ones. Go back through your analysis and look at your defined target audience. Which platform do they use? That's the one you should use to promote your products. You can interact directly with your customers, answer questions and showcase new products.

And lucky you – soaps are a highly visual product! So Instagram, for example, is a platform that perfectly showcases skincare products that come in various shapes, colours, and textures. With professionally shot photos and videos, your products will shine on your Instagram feed! With Adobe Express, you can design stunning Instagram posts in just a few minutes – here’s how:

1. Open Adobe Express.
2. Browse the professionally designed Instagram templates and choose your favourite.
3. Customise it with your photos and videos. Remember the brand kit? This is where it comes in handy. Select your defined brand colours and choose your font to be consistent across all your marketing assets.
4. Add other design elements like small illustrations, backgrounds, shapes, and icons to your social media asset.
5. Happy with the post? Either download it to your device or schedule it for a later publication date. Learn more about the Content Scheduler.

Create videos of the manufacturing of your soap.

Offer your audience a glimpse behind the scenes. While simple and professionally shot product videos may look cool, they can gradually become boring. Why don’t you show your audience what the process of manufacturing soaps looks like? You can include countless details in one video to promote your handmade soaps. Tell the community what ingredients you use and why they’re good for the skin. Show them how the ingredients and materials come together. Explain which equipment is used to produce your soaps. Record all the necessary steps and edit them for an insightful video to share on your social media profile.

With Adobe Express, you have all the necessary tools to edit, trim, and adjust the video:

• Split, trim, and crop videos: Upload your footage and shorten it, combine various clips, and zoom in on scenes.
• Add animated effects: Choose design elements for your video and add animated effects to them to make your video more dynamic.
• Adjust video speed: When showing a longer process, you can speed the footage up to create a fast-forward effect.
• One-click resize options: Use your video as an Instagram Reel or an Instagram Story, or resize it to a square feed post in just one click.

Enhance the product photos for your soap business with Adobe Express.

When taking photos of your products, it’s essential they’re shot professionally. The look and feel impact how customers perceive your brand and your skincare products. High-quality product photos give a strong first impression and are crucial on social media or your website because your customers can’t physically touch or smell your products. Make sure the imagery and the mood of the photos fit your brand’s identity. Highlight the unique qualities of your soap bars like their textures, ingredients, or colours. If you want to enhance your photos, go to Adobe Express and use the free online image editor to make your photos stand out with the following features:

• Remove background: Highlight the soap bars by removing the background and place them before a more neutral background or choose an image from the free Adobe Stock library to use as a new background.
• Scaling and sizing: Resize your photo for different use cases with just a few clicks.
• Presets and filters: Enhance your photos by using presets and filters to add depth and style. Play with sliders for contrast, brightness, saturation, warmth, and sharpening to get just the right look.
• Make photo collages: Put together a series of product photos and create a photo collage to showcase various aspects of one soap bar, for example, the ingredients, the different textures, or colours.

Use the AI features of Adobe Express to create unique content.

Sometimes you have a clear idea of what you want to create, but your graphics skills are limited. With Adobe Express and the built-in AI powered by Firefly Image 3, you simply write down what you want your template to look like, and Adobe Express creates it for you.

1. Text to Template: Generate custom templates by describing what template you’re looking for. Upload an image that should be integrated into the generated template.
2. Text Effects: Customise text styles by describing a texture or an effect and choose from several generated styles.

Try Adobe Express for free now

Good to know.

How do I start a soap business from scratch?

To start a soap business, identify what sets your soap apart from other soaps on the market. Do market research and check out competitors. The most important step is a business plan that defines your mission and vision. Determine your target audience and formulate brand values. Then develop a marketing plan to appeal to the right audience and drive sales.

Is soap a profitable business?

A soap business can be profitable depending on product quality, targeting, and marketing. The basic ingredients for making soap are usually inexpensive, especially if you choose to buy them in bulk. Handmade soaps are very popular and can therefore be sold at a higher price. With increasing demand for natural ingredients in skincare products, a handmade soap business can be profitable.

How do I write a business plan for a soap business?

A business plan for a soap business includes a defined mission and vision. Analyse your target group and develop your unique selling point. You should also define products to start your business and include a pricing strategy. Develop a financial plan and projections to clarify what you want to achieve in a certain period. Go into detail about production processes and your selling strategy.

How can I promote my soap business?

To promote your soap business, showcase your products on social media platforms with organic social media assets and targeted ads. Create a website for more information on your soap business, product lines, and the ingredients you use for your soaps. Attend local markets and fairs to spread the word about your soap business and showcase your products there, as this is a chance for potential customers to smell and touch your soaps.

What does a marketing plan for a soap business look like?

A marketing plan for a soap business includes a strategy of how to promote your products and eventually drive sales. Define your target audience and choose your promotion platform(s) accordingly. This can be Instagram, a website, or a local market. It might also be a combination of several platforms. Set a marketing budget for promotion and track your activities and the effects on brand awareness and sales.

Is Adobe Express free?

Yes, the basic version of Adobe Express is free. It includes basic content creation tools and 155,000+ professionally designed templates for your projects. Choose from a variety of photos, videos, and audio in the Adobe Stock library. Remove backgrounds, caption videos, or write a prompt to generate text effects and AI will help you to design stunning visuals and to edit your videos in just a few clicks. The basic version includes 25 generative credits per month to use the AI features within Adobe Express.