Hannah and Sophie: Bringing calm to women with soulkit

6 Aug

Hannah and Sophie are the creative minds behind the bi-monthly subscription wellness box soulkit.

Launched as a side hustle during lockdown in 2020, they set up to support local businesses and bring women in Kent together through moments of calm and help those in tough times.

Tell us about soulkit. What’s the story behind the product?

We have both been shocked by how many friends have been affected by stress, anxiety and PTSD and wanted to do something to help! What started as a socially-distanced walk in the Ashdown Forest has blossomed into a dreamy little toolkit, aimed to help you find some time for yourself, support your local community and build good habits with us.

We knew we wanted to build a digital community, and launched on Instagram, which is a great tool for reaching our target audience and building engagement. We kicked off with a giveaway, and started building connections with local influencers and other small businesses’ that really inspired us. Gradually, we drifted over to Facebook, which allowed us to dabble in a little paid social too.

Launching in the middle of a lockdown has meant we don’t have as many opportunities as we hoped to physically get our products in front of customers, in local pop-up shops or at art and craft fairs. This has meant we’ve had to embrace the digital world, and it’s been really fun! Over Christmas, we took part in some virtual Christmas markets, and through building connections on Instagram, we’ve been approached by a few online magazines and listing sites. We were featured in the Kent Wellness Lists e-newsletter and saw some really good engagement when they shared our story over on Instagram. We are also really proud to be an official TN Card business partner, joining other amazing independents’ across Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge to offer a little reward for keeping it local.

What was your biggest learning curve in promoting in the digital world?

Sophie is a fashion buyer, and looks after the product side of soulkit, sourcing beautiful hand-picked products across Kent and building connections with local suppliers to curate the perfect toolkit. Hannah is from a digital marketing background, which means she is your girl for story-telling and managing our content-rich digital channels. soulkit is our baby, and something that we are really proud of - and that of course, means that putting yourself out there can feel a little out of our comfort zone when we’re so close to the product and don’t have a big brand to hide behind. We also cover some pretty challenging topics when engaging with our digital community, such as anxiety, self-care and mental health, and it can feel daunting to be the ones starting those conversations, even from behind a screen.

Our biggest learning curve in the digital world? soulkit is still a side-hustle for us, alongside our fast-paced day jobs and investing the time into digital and an “always on” approach is definitely something of a challenge, especially during busier times. We took a step back over the Christmas period and have definitely found a much better balance, reminding ourselves that we set the deadlines and have learnt not to over-think our Instagram grid. It’s the people behind the product that our audience really engage with, and we don’t feel the pressure to publish as regularly, and to keep to such firm deadlines or a set aesthetic on our social feeds.

What has been the "I can't believe that just happened" moment so far?

After bubbles and a Zoom call with our friends and family, we pushed the go button on our Shopify site in December, launching a “Hope” themed box with items from local businesses who inspired us during the UK's first lockdown, from a Rickus Ra homemade rainbow to hang in your window, to a voucher and delicious chocolatey treats from Goupie Chocolate House.

The “pinch me” moment happened on the very first day of sales, with over 10% of our stock selling in the very first hour! We launched in the middle of a pandemic, three weeks before pay-day when everyones’ money was going towards Christmas presents so we were just so amazed and delighted to see so many customers who had been waiting to swoop in and grab one of our limited boxes as soon as we went live. Especially as we kept the contents of our first box a closely-guarded secret! Every time the Shopify app goes off, we do a little happy dance, it never gets old.

How straightforward did you find it setting up shop online?

We had thought about just selling through our social channels, to avoid paying any sort of website and administration fees, but we really like having a digital shop-front, and being able to show off our MJP Multimedia branding and our wonderful product imagery, from local photographer, Mollie Manning.

We did our research into e-commerce sites and settled on Shopify, which is a great fit for us. The platform is really user-friendly, it meant everything was in one place, and we love some of the nifty apps, such as the local delivery tool, which works wonders with Dave, our delivery driver who manages our soulkit drop-offs around Tunbridge Wells. Dave is a taxi-driver by trade for Kellars Kars and the app allows him to export the orders, plan his route and notify the customer when their parcel has been delivered whilst he’s on the move - just like a courier.

We pay a really affordable monthly fee for our Shopify platform, and it also has a built-in email platform which allows us to generate notifications to customers, and even send an abandoned cart email. From experience, this is something we’d have to outsource separately if we were using our own domain and CRM platform. Shopify just keeps it simple.

We’d really recommend having a website if you can - not only for ease for the customer and other stakeholders you work with, but it’s made collaborations with media partners and listing sites a piece of cake when you have a beautiful digital store that you can direct customers to.

What do you find is working well in connecting with, and growing your audience?

It’s really easy to just focus on the numbers when you are trying to grow your audience. At first, we thought hosting an Instagram giveaway would be a really quick fix, and a good way of growing our reach. However, something just wasn’t sitting right - we wanted an audience with a genuine interest in our story, and what soulkit has to offer.

So, we’ve switched tactics in our digital strategy to find a community online. Not just followers, more like kindred spirits! We’ve found engaging with content that aligns with soulkit’s core beliefs really helps and has lead to loads of free marketing opportunities which wouldn’t have been available if we hadn’t reached out. Plus, we’ve made some wonderful Insta friends!

Also, trying to be a bit more authentic and less curated in terms of the content we’re putting out there on our social platforms - Instagram Reels and TikTok are both channels that are new to us, but Sophie recently put together our first Reel and the engagement was amazing! We’ll definitely be looking at including more video content of us packing orders, enjoying our local experience vouchers or unboxing the latest toolkit, as these are the stories that seem to be really resonating right now.

What's next for soulkit?

We have some really exciting up-and-coming collaborations, which have all been made possible through our digital platforms and the wonderful wellness Instagram community. For example, we’ll be featuring on a Bloomin’ Kent live broadcast soon to talk all about our February box, and staying balanced during a lockdown!

What makes soulkit truly unique is that each box contains a voucher for a local experience, offering you some well-deserved me-time, the chance to learn a new skill, or connect with a real person - whether that’s a local instructor, or a friend for coffee. During lockdown, we’ve had to “think outside the box” and we’re excited to continue to grow our virtual experiences. It means that you don't have to be local or able to leave the house to enjoy it!

We always spoke about building soulkit into a physical space, such as a pop-up shop - somewhere where we could host workshops, meet and greets and support other local businesses’ around Kent. But launching in a lockdown has definitely given us some amazing ideas for a virtual space - a wellness app or podcast would be a dream! We want to give others an online community where we can say come over, stay as long as you need - this space has been built just for you.

Are there other organisations, individuals, podcasts, etc that you'd recommend?

One thing we have learnt about mindfulness is that there is no right or wrong way to take a mindful moment. It doesn't have to say mindfulness on the tin and you can be really imaginative with it. For example, Harry Potter audio-books, Space Masks and puzzles helped Hannah get back to herself again after battling illness last year, and she built her own custom toolkit for anxious times.

We both really rate the Jay Shetty podcasts, and Sophie loves the Gabrielle Bernstein app. We’re really lucky that Kent is full of some incredible businesses’ and there’s lots of brands currently offering virtual wellness experiences, such as Mindfulness Yoga Kent, Little Health Bunny and Soulstar Sanctuary which are a great way of introducing a little mindfulness and self-care into your day.