Gem's Secrets & Gifts Research on Competitors
- cogden207
- Nov 1
- 4 min read
Hi to all who come to my website Ogdenmtn Stories & Ideas. I started this website to share stories with others and then I was diagnosed with cancer and haven’t done anything with my site. Now fast forward and I need to do a blog for a class for my digital marketing class that I’m taking at Yavapai College. I’m going to be perfectly honest, when I started to set up my website, I thought I’d be back to get it to a point where I would publish and who knows what would happen. Since my diagnosis and after going back to the website to add this blog, I don’t remember how to do anything (brain fog from cancer treatments.) I can’t remember how to add pictures, the blog, nothing, so the website isn’t going to be where I think it should be but at least it’s a new start.
We’ve been tasked to create a fictitious business if we didn’t own a business. I’ve chosen to create a company by the name of Gem’s Secrets & Gifts, which sells artisan soaps, scrubs, whipped body butters & bath salts that are made with all natural ingredients. Gem’s as that is the name that my granddaughters have named me because my name is Crystal. Once we’ve created the company we needed to research who our customers would be, make a SWOT analysis on our competition, what value we could provide that our competitors aren’t, create digital marketing goals and then know how to measure those results.
Now we are moving on to looking up keywords that our competition is using to drive traffic to their websites and to learn how to compete with these other companies. I’ve chosen to use google keyword planner and the words I started with were artisan soaps near me, sugar scrubs, coffee scrubs, body butters, whipped body butters, bath salts, natural homemade bath products, mom and pop soap companies, soap companies. There are over 9,000 keyword ideas. Then I took them all out and did Prescott artisan soaps and there was nothing. So this tells me I shouldn’t use the city where I reside. Some of the other ideas listed the types of ingredients like epsom salt for the scrubs and shea butter for the whipped body butters. I think putting this information in the content of the descriptions would help drive traffic. But I’m new at this and not sure I’m doing it correctly. If you are reading this and have any ideas, please do not hesitate to leave a comment, which you can’t do until I figure out how to put a comment link on my page. (I think)
I do wish google keyword planner would rank websites so I would know if the competition is going to be a type of soap you would find at Target or something you would find through Etsy. I think I know the answer to that question but it would be nice to see where other website soap companies within the state of Arizona ranks. I’ve also noticed reading others discussion posts this week, that some are using more than one site to do their research. I might want to look into that as well.
There is a store in downtown Prescott that I didn’t know about but found doing in-depth research. It’s called Refill ‘n’ Refresh. From what I can figure out on their website, it's not really clear if their products are all natural or ½ & ½ as they aren’t listing ingredients. It doesn’t look like they make their own products but purchase from other companies and put them in their store. They carry more than just body products such as laundry soap and softener. They have a filling station, so you fill your own bottles which is a very unique idea. I’d like to come up with an eco-friendly packaging for my products and this might be an idea I can incorporate. Their website has labels but no links so you can’t see what they actually carry? Very strange, there is a part of me that wants to go in and ask them if they need help getting their website up and running. But then, if I do open this business, I’ve helped the competition. Is that a smart idea? Here is a link to the website https://refillnrefresh.com/ and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
When it comes to blogs and videos there is one competitor I’ve been watching for the past few years on YouTube. I’ve watched this woman as she’s from the UK and watching her make soaps was incredible. This is her YouTube channel and she was a true inspiration that lost her battle to cancer this year. She was very successful, closed her brick and mortor and worked out of her home shipping products globally. Her channels https://www.youtube.com/@EdensSecret1
My heart breaks for her family as she had a teenage son.
The owner of Soap Queen does an excellent job on her blog as she gives instructions along with recipes on different types of techniques she uses in her soaps. She is the founder and owner of Brambleberry. “In 2006, Anne-Marie started the Soap Queen blog. What started as a personal blog turned into a source with hundreds of DIY bath and body tutorials, tips, and small business advice. Find that information In the Studio. The team is constantly experimenting to find the best formula and sharing what they learned with customers. That’s also why Bramble Berry started a YouTube channel in 2009 called Soap Queen TV. It now has hundreds of videos and more than 350,000 subscribers.” (Brambleberry “n.d.”) Brambleberry sells fragrances, colorants, molds, anything one might need to start making beauty products.
I think it’s interesting when researching companies some don’t have addresses or even tell what city, state, they are in. I don’t understand why these companies wouldn’t want to be found.
“Cite”
Brambleberry (n.d.) Our Founder and CEO https://www.brambleberry.com/bramble-berry-updates/founder-ceo.html#:~:texCt=In%202006%2C%20Anne-Marie%20started,and%20more%20than%20350%2C000%20subscribers.
Refill ‘n’ Refresh - https://refillnrefresh.com/
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