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📹 Video Marketing - For local, small cottage bakeries.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 217 - Video Marketing for Local Small Bakeries, Corrie wanted to talk about the wild world of Reels. Well, Reels, TikToks, YouTube Shorts - you know, vertical video. A topic made all the more important by Meta's announcement last week that all videos uploaded to the Facebook platform would now be categorized as Reels, thus shutting the door on horizontal videos (* Lives are still Lives, though).
It's what's in right now, and as small businesses who want to increase reach, we gotta bite the proverbial bullet and say cheese (trust me, I hate it too).
🎞️ 1. Start with the setup
The setup will make or break your quality, but pro-tip: it won't be perfect when you're just getting started. Don't let that stop you! The old adage was right when it stated, "Practice makes perfect." So yes, you may be tripping out of the gate, but the long-term benefits of Nike's "Just Do It" will make the juice worth the squeeze.
Products Recs from this Podcast:
🔗 Tripod - Canvas Lamp🔗 Dummy Phone - iPhone 13🔗 Editing App - InShot🔗 Backdrop - The Backers Co in White Matte Finish🔗 Teleprompter - Search Amazon for one that fits your setupYou'll want to find a natural indirect light source - this means the sun, but in a bright room where the sun isn't creating harsh shadows. If you can't get out of the sun because of the positioning of your house, using a silk curtain can diffuse the light enough to make it work.
📐 Most bakers struggle with the positioning of the tripod in relation to the cookie. Don't be afraid to position the camera at an angle - if you pay attention, you'll find most decorating videos are not directly overhead, although Corrie tells ya how to make it work with the Canvas Lamp (heads up - she does not use the lamp's light ring, just the phone mount).
🎞️ 2. Types of videos to record
Once you get your setup dialed in, you may be tempted to become a one-dimensional "cookie decorating video ASMR" content machine, but ya gotta mix it up. 🔑 This is the key point to the podcast - small, local businesses need to feature local content.
Consider who is watching your videos. ASMR-type decorating videos appeal to a wide audience - 🌎 like, "the whole world" wide. Not the goal if we want to increase our local customer base, but good for impressions (the number of eyes that watch your videos). When we feature hyper-local businesses, farmers markets, and event coverage, we appeal really just to our local demographic. That's the goal.
🪣 Here are some content buckets you could pull from to make a diverse content strategy that covers both broad and narrow targeting:
🎬 Read customer testimonials and give order details🎬 Local event coverage - farmer's markets, new restaurant opening, town events🎬 Tell a story or series - "I'm on my journey to open a brick and mortar - I'm taking you with me!"🎬 Behind the scenes - "I have an order for 30 dz. Let's do it together."🎬 Presale QVC-style video - "Here's what you'll find at my pop-up next week."🎬 Baking Tips - "Here's how to make Royal Icing at home!"🎬 ASMR-type decorating vids🎞️ 3. Things to include for extra reach
Finally, try to include these when recording - it'll help your audience better relate and discover your content. And the more people who see your content, the more likely the algos are to show your content to more people = the endless cog in the marketing wheel.
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🖼️ Take a Stab - At a cookie collab.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 216 - Taking a Stab at a Cookie Collab, and Sugar Cookie Marketing Cookie Collabs are BACK IN BUSINESS. You can check out the details in the event listing for the SCM Cookie Collab: Meet the Baker 2025! here.
But allow us to spend this week's podcast and newsletter walking you through the Collab 101 basics so you can get the most from the easy-to-join Instagram cookie collab.
Long story... podcast?... short, collabs are an easy breezy marketing collaboration with a handful of other bakers to increase engagement as well as e-network with your coll-e-agues (get it, because we're all online?). 🌊 Let's dive in. 👙 But if you're already "in there like swimwear," go ahead and register here:
🔪 1. What's a cookie collab?
A cookie collab is a single-day, single-hour online event where a group of bakers design a cookie (or a picture) based on a specified theme. Each "collaber" will post on a designated social media platform (Instagram in this case) using a specific hashtag (#SCMCollabBaker). Then all the participants will engage with other participants' posts by liking and commenting (but not following). It lasts for 1 hour, and it's a great way to meet new bakers, put faces to names, and increase engagement by hijacking the algo to show your post to more of your followers. A win-win-win. Some collabs are invite-only, but this is an open invite collab. All we ask is that you register to get reminders (not required, but appreciated).
🔪 2. Why did we stop doing collabs?
With Zuck trying to keep up with the Joneses (ahem, TikTok), the platform depreciated hashtags - the main way we connect bakers through collabs. Previously, collabers could search for the most recent posts using a common hashtag (example, our old collab hashtag - #SCMCookiecCollab) during the collab hour and engage away as one big happy baking family. Now, with the removal of the ability to follow hashtags and the ability to filter by most recent, posts from prior collabs would have shown up, they'd have been outta order, and it would have been a giant mess.
So we stopped because we needed to rethink the approach (it didn't require a ton of brain power, which you'll see in a second, but hey - we got busy too).🔪 3. Details on this collab
This collab is our simplest concept of the three collabs we'll attempt this year. The "Meet the Baker" collab just requires a picture of you! Personal branding through face photos builds trust and relatability with customers - and bonus, you don't have to bake for this one. Always remember the quote, “people like faces. When in doubt, selfie it out.”
➡️ Time: Friday, 10:00 AM EST➡️ Date: June 27th, 2025➡️ Use Hashtag #SCMCollabBaker➡️ Register here: https://form.jotform.com/SugarCookieMarketing/scmcollabbakerAnd it will work - humans love humans, and this collab capitalizes on that. And even better, you get to see the faces of other bakers who are also participating. It's a fun way to kill an hour and do a lil' marketing at the same time.
🔪 4. Tips to get the most from a collab
While it's pretty hard to mess up "post a selfie," there are ways to squeeze the most juice from this berry.
✅ Try to have your post up by 10:00 AM EST for maximum exposure.✅ Use the Hashtag #SCMCollabBaker on Instagram. -
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🤖 AI-AI-Oh Yes - Ways bakers are incorporating AI.
In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 215 - AI-AI-Oh Yes, we read a thread asking bakers how they're using AI in their bakery business. The answers should inspire you - from streamlining workflow to helping write compelling copy on social media, AI has entered stage left, and it won't be leaving anytime soon.
If you're a late adopter to this new tech, you're not totally alone, but we predict (hot take) that the bakers who do incorporate AI into their workflow will outperform the bakers who resist the "winds of change."
For this newsletter, I'll just list out how bakers are incorporating AI as they incorporate their icing. It's how others use AI that can inspire you to learn ways you can add it yourself. In the podcast, we also listed out how the Harvard Business Review found out how the majority of folks are using AI in their lives.
Full disclosure - we recorded this podcast last week, and I'm currently sitting beachside (hopefully not in the rain) right now. So, hello from the past. Also, hello from a huge fan of letting technology help you in business.
🔧 1. Rewriting copy and captions - Ericka - "When I’m brain dead, I’ll have it rewrite my copy to sound like I’m a lively awake human 😂." 🔧 2. Create outline drawings for cookies - Renea - "To make one-line drawings for cookies."🔧 3. Edit backgrounds on images - Viviana - "Once in a while, I use it to change the background and content. I am involved in networking, and on a few occasions, I have had to give a 10-minute presentation about what I do. I let AI help me put things into words."🔧 4. Color mixing theory - Kelly - "Copy ideas, and when I’m having trouble with mixing a color, although I haven’t found it as helpful with colors as I had hoped. I’m liking a lot of these other ideas mentioned here, especially when you are stuck on that last design and making the one-line drawings!"🔧 5. Design ideas - Amie - "Sometimes I need just one more design idea, and I’ll have it make me some ideas."🔧 6. Website copy - Tina - "Writing first draft of copy for social media, website. Putting in my responses to difficult customer queries and asking it to make it more friendly and sincere. 😁"🔧 7. Recipe scaling - Daphanee - "Recipe scaling and troubleshooting, writing copy, doing mockups for sets when I have a hard time conceptualizing them."👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 215 - AI-AI-Oh Yes.
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🔄 Pivot Pivot Pivot - What to change when nothing's working.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 214 - Pivot Pivot Pivot, 😖 we talk about what to do when you're doin' it all and all of it doesn't seem to be working.
🛞💨 Nothing is more frustrating than spinning your wheels and making no traction. So what do you do when it's just not working? Here are some things to attempt before you start screaming into the void.
See - sometimes we might be doing "all the things," but we're not doing them all right. So touching base with the basics may help you reveal some ways you can pivot and get some fruit from all that labor. 🍎🍊🍋🍌🍉🍑🍓🍒 So - to summarize, yes - you can do everything on the list and still miss the marketing mark. So let's reassess.
🔄 1. Try shifting posting times
An easy one, but it may make a difference. If you use Facebook Planner defaults (10:00 AM), you'll find that your content goes up at the same time every time you post. While I love me consistency, sometimes it may be the very thing throwing off your marketing. Corrie has me helping her run her local community group, where the 'most active times' metric is still available. And guess what - the most active time in her area? 8:00 PM on a weekend - definitely not 10:00 AM on a weekday.
🕒🕓🕔 So, try switching it up - see if posting on a weekend late gets more engagement. You'll also need to recognize other players here - content type, copy, time of year, etc. But playing around with posting times can give a lil' boost when nothing else is hittin' home.
🔄 2. Test different copy formulas
If you're posting the same caption over and over and over and over - it may be worthwhile to incorporate another format and see if that small adjustment makes a big difference when it comes to your audience. 🧪 We like formulas because they act as guides for your copy - P-A-S, A-I-D-A, before-after-bridge, 4 C's - all examples of formulas designed to help you make copy work for you, not against you.
Remember - truncation reigns supreme. 🪝 It may be worth plantin' a hook in your first few words to get people to click... See more.
🔄 3. Switch out photos for Reels
It's a Reel's world and we're just livin' in it. Most folks hate the idea of recording video, 🎥 especially when it took us so long to master photos. But if there's one consistent thing about social media = it's that it never stays consistent. To take on the addictive TikTok, 📲 Meta has moved to favor the vertical video both on Instagram and kinda on Facebook? Either way, if your photos aren't resonating, clear them pipes and get to talkin' or, uh, voice-over-in'? Vertical video is in whether or not we like it.
🤮 *opens mouth and takes a big spoonful of phone mount shadows*
🔄 4. Mix in some new content buckets
🪣 Sometimes our consistent content is also stale content, and our audience will let us know by checkin' out. It may be time to mix in some more exciting content buckets. You know the drill = feature local restaurants or markets, share a recommendation for a local business, talk about a charity your clients are involved in, add in some person posts so people can connect. The age-old strategy of just posting 🖼️ baked set after 🖼️ baked set can bore even the most die-hard supporters (thanks, mom), so add in some interest that they can re-engage with.
👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 214 - Pivot Pivot Pivot.
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🛑 Hit the Breaks - How to take big bakery breaks.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 213 - Hit the Breaks, we cover the fact of life that just sometimes, along your business journey, you need to take a big break.
If you've listened to past podcasts, you know we're anti-"big break" when it comes to marketing because it's really hard to stop and start marketing when funnels are long and competition is well, competitive.
However, the beauty of being your own boss is that when life requires significant breaks, you're able to take them - with the correctly set expectations that it will impact your marketing and lead generation. With the right setup, that negative effect can be mitigated. And that's what today's podcast is on - the strategy behind big breaks.
Note - if you're taking a small break, like something under 2 weeks, disregard this strategy. You likely don't even need to alter your current marketing much, if at all, for a small break. We are talking big breaks, as in 2 months.
⛔ 1. Make an announcement
When it comes to big breaks, we need to c-o-m-m-u-n-i-c-a-t-e effectively because nothing is more frustrating than to go place an order with your favorite baker for an event that just happens to fall during that baker's big break. So we need our audience to fully comprehend our break and what it entails.
⛔ Add a defined start and stop date for your big break. I'm talking "July 1, 2025 - August 15, 2025" type specificity. This can help your audience plan around your break without being ambiguous. ⛔ Unpin ALL pinned posts and JUST leave this announcement post pinned. We want to make sure all the attention is brought to a singular point - our break announcement. ⛔ Do NOT put the dates you're out of town. Thieves can use this information to figure out that your house is homeowner-free and rob ya. Again, this podcast is for "taking a break from my bakery" breaks, not "at the beach for the week" breaks.
⛔ 2. Schedule out posting and newslettersContrary to "taking a break," we don't want to fully ghost our socials and newsletters. We live in an algorithmic world, so fully ghosting can make it really hard to reach our audience when we return. So we make maintenance posts just so Zuck doesn't think we've fully abandoned our baking ship.
⛔ Schedule fewer posts during this absence. While we're not working, we don't want to post at the same frequency as when we were working - it's confusing. Bring your scheduled posts down to once a week - if you're taking off 2 months, that's only 8 posts.⛔ In each of these posts, you're going to reiterate your break start and end dates. This way, your posts are sending a confusing message of "Wait, I thought she was on break? But she just posted about baking a fun set??"⛔ The copy should not drive sales. We don't want to have any CTAs in our maintenance posts, because we don't want people to take an action at all. We're on break. So don't ask people to click to your website, place an order, or contact you.With your newsletter - constantly drive folks who caught ya "on your big break," to sign up for your newsletter so they can get the inbox exclusive on your 'big break return." It's a decent way to grow your email list while still staying in touch about your break schedule. You may want to send an email giving folks a heads up about the break (1 month out), the official break announcement, 1 newsletter during your break with a reminder about the return, then a return-day announcement.
⛔ 3. Update all auto-responses
Your business has a lot of auto-responders designs for big
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⏰ 1-Hr Admin Tasks - Setting up time blocks for tasks.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 212 - Admin Hour, we break down four different "admin hour" frameworks you could spend each week pluggin' away at to be a better baking business.
"Admin Hours" are groupings of tasks that take up an hour spent on one specific aspect of your business - social media, bake prep, customer management, and inbox management - the four frameworks we cover this week.
By spending a dedicated few hours a week on these "admin hour" tasks, you'll save yourself a future headache, streamline your workflow, and become a competitive baker in your space (as well as stress less as you forget fewer orders and run out of fewer cookie tags ya already sold).
🕰️ 1. Social Hour
Staying consistent on social media will be a great foundational strategy. But to be consistent, we must make time to create content. Here's a social media "admin hour" framework you can build from:
⏰ 20 Mins - Schedule this week's posts (3x/wk minimum)⏰ 10 Mins - Reply to comments⏰ 10 Mins - Comment on posts in a few local groups⏰ 30 Mins - Make a Reel (film / edit / voiceover / post)You can add multiple "social hours" to your week depending on how aggressive your social media marketing focus is. And these hours can ebb and flow throughout your cookier calendar year as needed (for example, when you're fully booked, drop down to 1 hour, when the upcoming month looks light for orders, add in a few more social hours).
🕰️ 2. Inbox Hour
If you've not tasted of the sweet nectar that is inbox zero, you're missing out. Walking up to an inbox only full of actionable emails you got in the last few days is a breath of email-fresh air. Once you reach the coveted "Inbox Zero," your inbox-power-hour will look something like this:
⏰ 20 Mins - Reply to all emails / Ping follow-up emails⏰ 10 Mins - File emails away to reach Inbox Zero again⏰ 10 Mins - Transpose orders / tasks to Google Calendar⏰ 10 Mins - CRM - Follow up with orders placed this time last yearGetting an inbox hour on your weekly task list puts you in control of your calendar (rather than the stress of being a slave to a calendar missing your dentist appointments and that one order you forgot to write down).
🕰️ 3. Admin tasks
Likely the one you don't wanna do but are forced to do, running a business requires admin tasks. Here's how we'd break up that hour spent "behind the scenes" of your bakery biz:
⏰ 10 Mins - QuickBooks Bookkeeping Update⏰ 10 Mins - Adding new leads to CRM⏰ 10 Mins - Inbox Zero⏰ 10 Mins - Inventory Check⏰ 10 Mins - Weekly Meeting (Asana)⏰ 10 Mins - Plan Out WeekSo again - your admin tasks may take longer than this - and that's absolutely fine. The goal is to consistently show up for at least an hour for these recurring tasks, turning you into a consistent working powerhouse.
🕰️ 4. Baking Prep
Baking preparations for the week can streamline your baking workflow because you're not stuck running to the cutter corner for every order. I prefer to do this stuff on Mondays and capitalize on the time saving all week. Whichever days you choose for your admin hours is up to you, but sprinkling in a baking power hour is a must for a ballin' baker.
⏰ 10 Mins - Wash Baking Mat and other supplies⏰ 10 Mins - Wipe down Surfaces / Disinfect ⏰ 20 Mins - Collect Cutters for the Week⏰ 10 Mins - Dough Ready / Dough Day Planned⏰ 10 -
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↩️ Luxury Refunds - Refunds are a business strategy.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 211 - Luxury Refunds, Corrie wanted to recap yet another reminder on why luxury bakers should consider luxury refunds.
🤔 What's a luxury refund? It's the baked-into-the-price guarantee that if something goes left, the baker will make it right - and typically that will be through a refund.
Per the twin, we can't claim 💰 "luxury brand and thus luxury pricing," but claim 😭 "I'm just a small business, give me a break" when things go wrong. Luxury price needs to be threaded throughout your entire sales process. Yes, refunds included.
💰 1. Be Refund-Centric
When you think about luxury brands, you're likely not picturing a front-desk person telling unhappy clients that that sounds like a them-problem when the client has an issue. Noooo - you picture luxury brands like hotels handling all the gross parts of staying in a hotel = managing luggage, door hops, taxi cab and uber calls, clean rooms and room service - you get the point. Luxury pricing includes making things right for our luxury clients.
A refund-centric company will have its happiness guarantee baked into its policies before the client even orders. If there were two bakers equal in every way but only one offered a 100% money-back guarantee, which do you think clients would choose? Be that baker.
💰 2. Take refund culpability
Most of the time, it's not a 100/0 split on who is at fault when it comes to client issues. ⚖️ Likely, there's shared culpability. But a luxury brand would still take culpability from the client. 🤨 "But twins! I wasn't wrong, they were!" We know - but you're the business owner, and a luxury business owner at that. Don't be afraid to say, "I'm so sorry - I misunderstood when you wrote XYZ! My apologies - I'd love to make you whole regarding this issue."
🔑 The words "I'm sorry" will unlock more doors than they shut - believe ye we.
💰 3. Offer refunds often
Here's the thing - you won't have to refund often if you're willing to refund. Why? You'll find that clients actually aren't trying to get free stuff - they just want their cookies. 🛑 Being gracious to your clients by offering refunds will allow your clients to actually ask you not to. People are more understanding than we give them credit for. We just have to allow them to have the elbow room to exercise that grace - 🥊and they can't when you're threatening them by blaming them for the order issue.
💰 4. Refund swiftly
Be quick to refund, as in don't make your clients fight you for it. With every message rejecting the client's issue, you're one step closer to the dreaded, "Well, I also found a hair in the cookie." Pluuuus, when you address the first issue rather than forcing customers to rattle off 10 reasons why they think you should offer them recourse, you get the brownie points of being "that baker" that puts customer service first and foremost.
💰 5. Refund and be generous
When it comes to refunding, don't nickel and dime your clients and expect them to appreciate it. 🤕 If you made a booboo, grab the biggest band-aid. 🩹 Rather refund too much than too little and leave the clients hurt (and in your review profiles, finding their written vindication). "But I only messed up a few cookies!" We get it, and we're not necessarily saying a full refund, but a "barely there" refund won't cut it. As an example, maybe a rebake and a partial refund may be the answer to satisfy the client's upsetting experience.
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💸 Selling in Community Groups - Turn groups into lead gen powerhouses.
In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 210 - Selling in Community Groups, we are talking about the same topic we presented this past Tuesday at What's Popping Con (a convention for Cake Poppers). This content is all available on our website by clicking this button - it's a lot of info and free templates, so click here to snag that stuff while it's still posted.If you're already thinking, "There are no community groups in my area," consider starting your own. In this course, we'll cover some of the group mechanics that can help you form the foundation of your own community groups. Community groups that are valuable resources can be massive lead gen opportunities for the group admins.
🧠 A group is only as good as its management team. High-quality groups require a lot of effort, but they pay out in dividends.
https://www.sugarcookiemarketing.com/popping💸 Snag a Free Tracking Template!
We live and die by our spreadsheets - and using one to track community groups allows you to stay on top of specific group rules, posting times, post types, group size - you get the point. This free Google sheet is built out for community group management. Use the dropdown to categorize each aspect of your local community groups.
Way too often, users get banned from community groups for breaking the sales rules specifically. It's important to keep track of each group's sales policies so we're not permanently banned from selling there.
We're going to look for about 10 local community groups if possible, but we'll take what we can get. The more options you have, the more potential audience you can reach.
It's important as a seller to understand how groups can be run within Meta's group options and features as these can affect your posting abilities within groups.
⚠️ An important aspect of selling in a community group: following their rules. Take a minute to join the Example Facebook Group we're using for the rest of this lesson - you can join it by clicking here > answering the membership questions > agree to the group rules. Let's run through some common community group Q&As to help you better understand how to approach groups when making your sales posts.
🔗 Rules can be found for any group by adding /rules to the end of the community group's URL (example: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sugarcookiemarketing/rules).
💸 Group Profiles - How to Optimize
When you join a community group, you automatically create a group profile separate from your Facebook profile (although still connected). Think of your group profile as a version of you specifically made for that group. Optimizing these group profiles can help increase lead generation in your community groups. Each community group you join creates a unique group profile for that specific group.
You can customize:
✍️ Your profile intro (150 character limit)✍️ The profile cover photo (1640x600 pixel sizing)When other users click on your profile within that group, they are taken to your group profile. Admins can also use your group profile to see admin actions taken against you, your group activity, as well as your profile information. From there, they can also click to your personal Facebook profile.
Your group profile is only a part of your overall Facebook persona. Optimize your personal profile as well. You can tag a business page or insert a URL in your personal profile. You can update your cover photo to feature your latest bakes, and you can share content from your baking page to
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🤏 Half It then Half It - Make goals small and then smaller.
In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 209 - Half It Then Half It, we cover a topic Heather saw on the Diary of a CEO podcast with Dr. Alok Kanojia on goal setting.The concept is pretty basic - set a goal. Then take that goal and half it. Then take that half and half it again. You're now left with only 25% of that goal. And guess what? That 25% is much more doable than the big, massive, overly sized goal you couldn't eat whole.
Breaking (baking?) goals into edible chunks makes for small bites that we can accomplish to get us to our bigger goal. 25% Goals aren't as fun to tell people about - they get the vibe of, "Okay... and?" And that's what makes them so valuable - because they're not big, they allow us to take small movements forward.
Sure - we won't get the accolades for announcing some giant goal like, "THIS YEAR, I PLAN TO OPEN STORE FRONT," but the path to opening a store front is long and lonely - I'd rather claim this year to do the thankless foundation work required to get into a brick and mortar rather than make a big announcement with no execution (remember the "No One Likes a Party Planner" podcast episode).
🤏 1. Example - Facebook Lead Gen
Turning Facebook into a lead gen powerhouse is a BIG goal - and one we really like. Facebook can really make some sales for bakers. But let's half that goal:
📏 I want to turn community groups into a referral source.Even better! We narrowed it from "ALL of Facebook," which is a massive task to tackle down to an aspect of Facebook. But per the doc, we can go smaller! Let's half that half.
📏 I want to make this one specific group a resource for my bakery business.There we go - in fact, this will be next week's Podcast topic (turning Local Community Groups into Referral Powerhouses after we teach it at What's Popping Con 2025 on Tuesday).
🤏 2. Example - Brick and Mortar
Most bakers dream of seeing their business logo in bright lights on a building they leased. And who wouldn't?! Talk about a HUGE goal that feels all warm and fuzzy! But brick and mortar dreams aren't built overnight, but rather on consistent "half of a half" goals over time. Let's half that B&M goal:
📏 I want to contact a commercial leasing agent to learn more about taking on a B&M lease.Love it - so much more actionable than "I will open a brick and mortar bakery," but can we half it again?
📏 I'm going to reach out to the Sugar Cookie Marketing group and see if any B&M bakers would take a 15-minute call from me to talk about the "first 6 months" of prep needed to get started on potentially opening a bakery in the future.Loooove that so much more. That's a "half of a half" goal that will actually teach you something - whether a brick and mortar bakery business is meant for you.
🤏 3. Example - I want to be a social media expert.
As a marketer myself, love this goal - but it's a chunky one. Taking on all of social media is admirable, but that's not going to move a needle because it's too broad. Let's see if we can half it.
📏 I want to focus on making my Facebook page a valuable resource for my business.Just like the community group goal, LOVE this - it'll be a huge boon to your business goals. But can we go smaller on this halved goal? I bet we can.
📏 I will post to my business Facebook page 2x a week to establish a baseline for a posting schedule.There we go!
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🥊 Multi-Holiday Showdown - How to tackle multiple holidays.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 208 - Multi-Holiday Showdown, we wanted to talk about the scourge of Q2 holiday line-ups. With these non-heavy-hitting baker holidays falling mid-month and/or on top of each other, it makes for a confusing marketing strategy. Do you tackle all of them to maximize sales? Or will that dilute your offerings too much and you'll sell out of nothing but be stuck with materials for a whole 'nother year?
Here's our take on a multi-holiday marketing showdown in mid-spring. 🤧 Heads up - I'm slightly under the weather, so forgive any typos (and forgive typos when I'm not sick too lol).
🥊 1. Don't choose every holiday
Find a few holidays and focus on them - heck, even focusing on one is probably a better approach than trying to sell out for every holiday in Q2. Mother's Day is a hit or miss with some bakers, Teacher Appreciation seems like a good bet, and Cinco De Mayo seems more like a location-based seller rather than a guaranteed sell-out. Consider that Teacher Appreciation cutters and packaging can also double for graduation sets and the "last day of the school year" teacher gifts.
🥊 2. Past performance = future performance
We'd recommend choosing holidays that have been consistent for you in the past. If they sold well then, they'll likely sell well now. Trying out a "new" holiday in the slower part of the cookier's calendar year may cost you more than it brings in, so we'd stick with the consistent seller.
🥊 3. Treat them as separate content buckets
Content buckets are a strategy you can use to plan out your social media content (see Episode 182). As such, these competing holidays shouldn't share a bucket, but rather get their own separate content pillars that you'll pull from for the duration of the promotion of each holiday. Tap these buckets frequently until you feel like you've sold enough. Content buckets don't have to be systematically drawn from - you can use more content from a specific bucket as it supports your sales goals.
🥊 4. Increase marketing runtime
If you have two holidays fighting for the marketing limelight, you'll want to increase your marketing runtime. Corrie and I always prefer around 6 weeks to include planning + cutter securing + photography + marketing. It's enough time to account for any wild cards like weird weather or slow sales.
🥊 5. Sold out? shut up
Once one holiday sells out or you're happy with the sales numbers, drop that content bucket out of your marketing strategy completely and refocus your efforts on the underperforming holiday target. Once "Mother's Day" is sold out, there's no real marketing purpose to keep posting about it when there's another product we need to move more of.
👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 208 - Multi-Holiday Showdown
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💡 No One Likes a - Party planner (ideas without execution).💩 A forced a play on words from "no one likes a party pooper" - but in this case, we're focusing on 🧠 "ideas guy" who love to plan and fail to launch. These folks talk up "the next great thing," and yet the idea never exits the ol' cranium to make it to market.
🗺️ Having a plan is good - but too much of a good thing, and you've got either a perfectionist or a serial starter, but you definitely 🚫 don't have a viable product. ⚔️ And that's why planning is a double-edged sword. You have to have a plan, but some bakers turn "making a plan" into a never ending excuse as to why they've not launched [that cookie class] or [that new bakery item] or [the vendor event that's now since come and gone] or [that cookie cart]. You get the point. 🚧 They turn planning into roadblocks.
💭 They spend their whole baking lives in the dream stage so that they never have to take the risk to launch and possibly fail. But our challenge is to accept failure and fail forward. Here's some ways to ensure you're not a party pooper... I mean, planner.
💡 1. Determine your mvp
MVP = minimum viable product. 🤏 That's the "least amount I need to do to be able to take this concept to market for a v1 release." In simpler terms, what's the simplest thing you can produce from your idea and use to test if your marketing would bite?
This "MVP" concept forces the forever-planner's hand by making them launch as soon as something is good enough. They can't wait until it's perfect because it's no longer the minimum viable product. Take Stupid Car Tray (podcast sponsor - use code SUGAR to save 15%). They're on their v3 tray. What if they'd only launched when they felt their product was super refined? 🤑 They would have missed years of sales. Same with you, ya party planner. Stop planning, start pushing out product. See if they bite. If they do, then improve. 🚀 Launch and learn.
💡 2. Two types of "party planners"
Okay, maybe "party planner" wasn't my best play on words, but there are two types of "ideas guys" - which camp do you tend to find yourself in?
🏢 The Perfectionist - The perfectionist builds the perfect skyscraper. It's got the best finishes, the best appliances, the most amenities, but they never list the condos for sale. They're in a perpetual state of trying to make everything good, better, best. They never fail because they never open.🏚️🏚️🏚️🏚️ The Serial Starter - The type of person who lays the foundation for many ideas, but never builds a single house. This planner loves an idea, runs out to source materials, then panics at the thought that they weren't naturally talented at the thing and jumps on the next bandwagon, leaving a trail of partial starts (and budget buster) in their wake (and basement storage closet).🏡 We need to be the single home builder who lays the foundation, constructs a modest home (aka MVP), sells it, then gets hired to add on to the home later. At all stages, this planner is generating income while improving their craft.💡 3. Plan = yes | Overplan = hard pass
Planning is a business necessity. 🗺️ Venture out without a map and you're bound to get lost. 🧭 But business (and life) exist in the gray areas. Same with planning. ❌ Spending no time planning is just as bad as spending all your time planning. 👎 Plan enough, then take that first step out there. Remember - you can always tweak. ⏳ But you can't time travel, meaning we can't go back and launch when we "coulda - shoulda - woulda." Take the leap of faith, push out the MVP, see what happens, cap'n.
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💳 Expound then Expand - Plan before your purchase.
In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 206 - Expound then Expand, Corrie wanted to come to the altar with her confession of packaging purchases. Yeah - we're talkin' to the "overconsumption cookier" this week, 👣💥 and it'll step on some toesies (starting with Twin2's... er... TwinToes?).It's easy to get ✨shiny object✨ syndrome when you check out the Best Bakes threads in the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group thinking, "Well, if that sold well for them, it might sell well for me! Let me buy these supplies."
Here's the thing - that's not a guarantee, and it can actually be a distraction, not a sound business decision. And guaranteed it's going to impact your financials. Even worse is if you do get the supplies and never get around to selling that adorable Easter Egg PYO carton - 🥚🥚🥚🥚 you're now stuck with colorful cartons for an entire year - and that's bad for business and your bottom line.
💰 1. Start with 1 versatile backdrop
White matte finish (use code SUGARCOOKIE on thebackersco.com to save 25% - they're one of the podcast sponsors that keeps this content f-r-e-e for y'all) is the most used backdrop Corrie has, citing that it's the one she reaches for 85% of the time. 📸 Know what that means? That's likely the only backer you'll need to get started. Yes, in time, snag a few more options, but when you're just getting started, "one and done" it until you've maxed out your photography skills on that backdrop. Then expand.
💰 2. Learn from the Target trays
If you were in the SCM groups around 2021 - 2022, you lived through the fun (funky) Target trays - 🪵 a wooden tray Target sold in its dollar spot that took the craft world by storm. Specifically, cookiers gravitated to this tray since it made for a high-quality package for about 20 cookies for Christmas - 🎄 talk about a best seller! But such is panic buying, some stocked up on these trays and were left with an unfoldable storage nightmare when they didn't sell out.
The lesson? Find out if your audience wants the product first - then purchase. ️🎯 Overbuying for your clients who never wanted the product in the first place is a bad investment. What's the value of 50 wooden trays if no one will buy them? Hint: it's a negative number.
💰 3. Purchase plain packaging to start
🎀 Cute packaging is a great way to up your customer benefits packaging and set you apart from the competition, but not if it sets you apart from your profitability. There's a sweet spot between really high-end custom packaging unique for every holiday and packaging that's on the plain side but works for any occasion.
🏳️ I'm not saying "cheap white Amazon boxes or bust," but I am saying if you're getting started or you're in "packaging purchasing purgatory" rehab, go back to the basics. Add in fancy when necessary (and buy an appropriate amount - so like, not 50 units when you likely only have time to bake 10), but have the cheaper fallback as your go-to.
💰 4. Cut out overbuying cutters
Have your steel-toe boots ready, but here it comes. Overbuying cutters can cut your profit margins down to nothing. 🔲⚫ Plaques to get started and basic shapes are likely fine in a lot of cases. Client wants something super custom? Offer to bill them that cost or source a cutter you already have in your stash that's super close to their design and can save them a few bucks. Likely, your clients won't care, and you'll be able to stay away from cutter overconsumption.
(🖨 And you 3D printer folks can learn a lesson here too - cutter takes up storage, and just because it was cheaper to print doesn't mean it doesn't have
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🪄 Top Marketing Tips - Submitted by group members in March.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 205 - Top User Submitted Marketing Tips, we challenged the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group in March to make more posts - and 4 winners would be chosen to join The Cookie College on our tab (I'll announce those soon). But the marketing tips were so good, we thought we'd feature a few on this week's podcast!
The layout of this newsletter will look a little different since I'll include the 📸 screenshots from the authors (gotta give credit where credit's due). I read them in no particular order, but they're all great tips. If you want to see the screenshots, snag our blog at www.sugarcookiemarketing.com/blog this week once I've updated it.
🎧 The rest of this post will be those marketing tips - but snag this week's podcast episode to hear our take on 'em.
✨ 1. Reach back out to corporate clients
"My marketing tip is don't be afraid to reach out to past corporate clients about ordering again. I just received two orders (one for 300 and one for 1000 cookies) just by reaching out and basically saying, "Hey, you ordered this time last year, would you like to order again?" Sometimes they just need a reminder that they want your cookies." - Tammy
✨ 2. Use “for sale” homes for headshots
"Want to do a branding photoshoot, but thinking your kitchen ain't fancy enough? Why not use a nearby model home? I haven't met the homebuilder yet or the sales person for them, who didn't appreciate the shout-out when you post your pics. Guess what? It's free. I called to ask when their slowest times were & I made plans for an hour. I left them all the baked cookies I had for the shoot." - Sharon
✨ 3. Incentives through discounts
"Every cookie class I've hosted, each attendee gets a little take home gift. I'd love to see what ever one else does! Here’s a sample of mine: I make a mini 3D printed cookie cutter and provide a coupon for either custom orders, or it may sometimes be $5-$10 dollars off the next upcoming cookie class. I find it’s been working very well to get those to return to classes or place orders for customs." - Jennifer
✨ 4. Seek out strategic local businesses
"Local. Businesses. My husband and I have made a list of local businesses in our area, from mom and pop shops to large warehouses, and we've been strategically picking some to take boxes of samples and business cards to.
Would this business employ my target clientele?Would bringing samples to this business get my business name in places it isn't currently known?Does this business openly support other small businesses?...are a few of the questions we've been considering.
We've gone to car dealerships, furniture stores, medical offices, boutiques, salons, coffee shops, YMCAs, and we have more on the list.
Doing this has greatly increased my following; and shortly after beginning this, the owner of the local Harley Davidson reached out!" - Alayna
✨ 5. Be your #1 fan and believe it
"Start actually thinking of yourself as a business owner! I'm a stay-at-home mom, so when people ask me what I do, that’s what I reply with. I've been listening to the podcast and it's empowered me - and at the dentist the other day the hygienist asked what I did and I said 'I own a custom sugar cookie business' By the time I'd left the office I handed out 5 business cards and have already gotten an order from them." - Tara
✨ 6. Save for samples
"Marketing tip - Have extra cookies left over? Great, cut them in quarters and freeze them. Save them as samples to give out at the next market or event. Always only offer one flavor of a sample otherwise, people will want to try
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🥦 In the Market for Markets - How to scope out the ideal vendor setup.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 204 - In the Market for Markets, Corrie wanted to talk about the 5 tips to help you source a strategic farmer's market (or recurring vendor event) relationship that bolsters that bottom line.
🥕 1. Is the market marketing itself?
Markets are businesses too - and as a marketing podcast, what would we be if we didn't say the ideal market is well... marketing. Markets live and die by the efforts of their organizers, so if the organization isn't promoting the event - guess what? Foot traffic won't follow.
🕵️ Finding a market that's doing its job of marketing is a recipe for market success. While it'd be nice if all the vendors did their share of the marketing heavy lifting too (more on that later), finding a market that has social media profiles posted to and updated frequently, a website with all the info necessary for attendees to find their way, and event listings on Facebook and event listing websites are signals that market means business. And business = selling more bakes.
🥕 2. Do your "market" research
Research your potential market match before you sign any contracts. Not all markets are created equally, so understanding the implications of this seasonal relationship can make a sales difference if you get stuck with a low performer.
🤔 How long has the market been around? 🤔 How often do you see it recommended when people in community groups ask for local market recs?🤔 Is the market growing or shrinking?🤔 Is there diversity in vendor types - think pickle booth, honey booth, etc.?Using community groups to get these questions answered is a great way to get authentic feedback (and maybe market your
🥕 3. Question the organizers
Once we get outside feedback, it's time to go all in - by that we mean contact the organizers. Now - yes, the organizers are biased in their favor, so we need to keep the questions more "information gather-y" and less "how great are you-y" (we get it, they're great). Here are some ideas:
🤔 Can I get a list of vendors?🤔 How much does it cost per week? Month? Season?🤔 What are your weather policies?🤔 What insurances do you require? 🤔 Do I need to supply the table / tent / chairs?🤔 Do you have a drop-in rate? 🤔 What are your cancellation policies?🥕 4. Contact past vendors
Contacting past vendors is another great way to get insider info. You might be able to source this by scrolling back through the farmer's market's social media posts from years ago, but another great way is by asking in community groups, "Has anyone been a vendor at the [Farmers Market]? I'd love to ask you a few questions!" Keep in mind, squeaky wheels tend to complain the loudest, so get a few different vendors to give you feedback - one that used to vendor there, one that still vendors there, and maybe one that is considering it. We'd ask them these more open-ended questions to get more authentic responses:
🤔 How do you feel about how the organizers manage the event?🤔 How many years have you vended here? Do you plan on returning long-term?🤔 What 2 factors bring you back here year after year?🤔 If you could change one thing about this market, what would it be?🥕 5. Prep for the market
Once you've found your perfect market match, it's time to really dig in. Treat this market like you would a cookie class - market the market.
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✍️ Reasons 2 Start a Blog - The SEO, content, and reach benefits.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 203 - Reasons to Start a Blog, continuing on with our "lessons in websites," I wanted to talk about blogs. I know - we're all about websites when it comes to online sales - but does your website have a blog?
😅 "Uh, twins - what could I possibly blog about? Reasons people should give me their money in exchange for cookies??"
Well - kinda, yeah. You see - websites are pretty stagnant. I mean, you got the 4 main pages - home, about, service or products, contact, and then maybe one extraneous page - for cookiers, it could be a page on your cookie classes or your booking process for example.
But blogs allow websites to be dynamic since blogs are always being updated. ✍️ This fresh content allows more potential for your website to be found in search engines (Google is a search engine). That means it could be a whole new lead source that never sleeps - and a blog can help your website accomplish that.
🤔 "Okay girls... maaaybe you're onto something, but what could I possibly blog about??"
Great question - and that's what we talked about in today's podcast.
Blog posts don't have to be overly complicated, but they do have to stay on topic. And what's your topic? Local and baker - this should help you narrow down your content topics. Now - who are we trying to reach with our blog posts? Local non-baker clients. See where this is headed?
Don't worry - we'll give you some topic ideas below. Hint: you're overthinking it.
✍️ 1. Website SEO benefits
Because we can add keywords related to our product and associate those product keywords with our location, blog posts have a direct benefit to getting our websites to rank in search engines for "baker near me" type queries (aka searches). Consider this, when a local potential client googles something like, "sugar cookie classes in [Your City]," how can Google associate you with that? Through a blog post you wrote on "everything you need to know before taking a cookie class." You see the connection there? It creates... buzzword incoming... topical relevancy for Google's lil' robot crawlers.
✍️ 2. More diverse social media content
If you find yourself always sharing photos, photos, and more photos to social media, blog post content can benefit two-fold here. You can add a link to an article on "Best Date Ideas in [CITY]" (make one of those ideas attending a cookie class), and share that to your page. It's heck of a lot more interesting than just a photo of a set you baked PLUS it drives traffic to your website (traffic = people). And guess what's also on your website? Your CTAs directing that traffic to place an order. Again - you see how this is all working together?
✍️ 3. Reference topics
You can't bog down your homepage with a ton of text - that would make for a bad UX (user experience aka how real people navigate through your website). So where do we put content that's kinda important, but not important enough to be on our home page menu? Blog posts. You can add "how to defrost cookies" as a blog post and link it to any clients who need to... well, know how to dethaw a set. You can keep that concept going with, "How to store a DIY kit," or "How to use a scribe" and "What to bring to a Cookie Class" - the ideas are endless when the topics can be used as a knowledge base for customers.
✍️ 4. Local topics ripe for reshares
Okay - what did we say earlier? Both content about baking and location - this is where things can get fun. Feature a local business - sta
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🔊 Calling All Actions - What are CTA’s and how to use them.In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 202 - Calling All Actions, we wanted to talk about a digital marketing buzzword that'll increase your bottom line - and it's stupid simple.
📞 CTAs - otherwise known as Call To Actions - typically seen as buttons on a website's home page. These lil' buttons tell your users what you want them to do. And they're direct too - no beatin' about the bush when you've got next to no room for additional characters.
And you know them because you have been clickin' on these little commands for years. They're the buttons that say:
📣 Order Here📣 Add to Cart📣 Buy Now📣 Get 15% Off📣 Play Now📣 Subscribe☎ Yep - those are CTA's - 🤏 small, concise phrases typically displayed on website buttons telling you the next action to take in the buying process. And you should have them on your website, social media, bios, and print materials = because they work.
Creating a solid CTA is both simple and complex - because while we don't have a ton of space to work with, we still need to find the optimal command to get our web traffic to take an action. While it may be tempting to make all your CTAs "BUY FROM ME," there's a bit of strategy (and testing) that goes into them.
📣 1. Be concise and directCTA's are concise and tell the user what to do. "Stream here," "Join here," "Sign up here" - it's very clear what the next actions to take are. We want to keep that concept in all of our CTA's. Wish-washy, too long, and mumbled messaging is a CTA-killer. "Maybe if you want to join the newsletter I send out sometimes, you can click here... if you want." 🥺👉👈
Yeah - that's not going to cut it for a solid CTA. Short. Clear. To the Point. The next step. That's the goal with the CTA.
📣 2. Use action-oriented verbs
Do this. Stop that. Click here. Subscribe there. Buy this. Add that to cart. Each CTA should include a verb - because we're calling people to do an action. That's how they work. They command people to take an action. And we, the sheeple, love to be told what to do next. We're conditioned to look for CTA's to guide us through a website's user experience.
📣 3. Highlight benefits
If you look at our revamped sugarcookiemarketing.com website, you can see I marry each of our CTAs with a reason why it's worth clicking the button. "Join the community... to get free bakery marketing help." "Stream the podcast... to learn one marketing tip each Tuesday." The CTA tells them what to do - the supporting text tells them why they'd be stupid not to do it.
📣 4. Make them visually appealing
CTAs are typically associated with buttons - so make them buttons POP, baby girl! If you look at the SCM (sugar cookie marketing) website, you'll see I opted for bright pink buttons in our brand colors + white bolded text. I even added emojis where possible to further draw attention to my money-maker buttons.
📣 5. Keep it simple
CTA's should be single-step commands. "Sign up here" takes them to your newsletter registration form. "Book now" should take them to your booking page. "Add to cart" should immediately add the baked item to carts. Now is not the time to increase your funnel. CTA's are intended to decrease funnel length, and that means a shorter buying process (and less time to second guess whether they should splurge on custom cookies or not).
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💰 Value over Price - How to stand out in saturation.
In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 201 - Value Over Price, Corrie happened upon a "bomb pop Facebook Live" - and from a marketing standpoint, it's a fascinating business model.It's a multi-level business model - but that's not what the podcast is focused on. The concept is this: the seller pre-sells 5 bath bombs for $20 a piece - bundle price of $100. Once purchased, she reveals what the bath bomb hides - a piece of jewelry.
After the reveal of each piece of jewelry, the seller exclaims, "Wow - a ring valued at $350! What a steal - you got it for just $20!" And therein lies the key - value. Because we all know that the costume jewelry wasn't worth $350, but value is relative to the perception of the buyer and seller.
In the words of the ever-successful Warren Buffett, "Price is what you pay; value is what you get." The same applies to cookies.
Instead of competing on price (an unwinnable negotiation when Oreos are in play), compete instead on value. By increasing perceived value, we can maintain and even increase price.
Increasing value can be done in many ways - just being readily available or responding quicker than the next baker can increase the perceived value of your clients. It sharpens the industry as competition strives to increase their perceived value over the next baker. The consumer wins, the sellers don't get complacent, and the invisible hand of the economy keeps the wheels turning.
It's increasing value across your brand that makes the big difference between you and your competitor - so always be looking for ways to "up the ante."
But if you'd like a list (because you know the twins like them a list), we've got one for you. Here's the big takeaway though: move every chess piece in "value added" before you move the "price adjustment" piece. Your price is your profitability - messing with that is a recipe for a bad bakery.
💰 1. Increased value through photography.
We buy with our eyes - and our eyes see good photography. By changing nothing but increasing the quality of your product photos, you can increase value without having to decrease price. With high quality standing, images, and backdrops - you can nearly have your cookies jump off the newsfeed and into the hearts ( and wallets) of your customers.
💰 2. Increase value through customer service.
My favorite way to increase value is by increasing the value of your customer service. Answering emails faster, having better ordering guidelines, handing refunds quickly and without opposition, heck - replying to Facebook comments in groups and keeping your branding updated on your page all signal to the client that you're putting a value on customer services (and thus you can charge accordingly).
💰 3. Increase value through decorating skills.
If communication ain't your thang, you can always work on increasing value by increasing your skill set. A better product is a part of perceived value. Couple a stunning product with stunning photography and you've got a match made in value heaven. Being able to accommodate more requests because you possess those skills is a way to carve out your place in a crowded market.
💰 4. Increase value through ease-of-ordering.
A better website, a better organization of products, better website copy, better check-out options, better order confirmation - all of these are methods you can use to increase your value perception within your market.
💰 5. Increase value through customer reviews.
Easy one - have enough other people proclaim your value that other potential clients can't help but increase their perception of you.
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🦫 Buc-ee's - A beaver’s marketing lessons.
In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 200 - Buc-ee's, Corrie and I took in all that the beaver gas station had to offer in our quick trip down to Nashville, TN this weekend.If you've not been to the roadside bathroom stalls of your dreams yet (aka Buc-ee's Fuel Stops), you're missing out - it's... I don't know that words adequately describe what a Buc-ee's truly is - but I'll say it's fantastic and overwhelmingly so.
Which is why twin2 and I stood in awe for a solid 10 minutes soaking in all that is Buc-ee's - which makes it so talked about and thus an adequate topic for today's podcast. So yes - instead of "marketing nuggets," this week we're gettin' "beaver nuggets."
Now if you've been to a Buc-ee's, you likely know what I'm going to point out - but we're extrapolating the beaver's marketing to bakeries so pay attention (no - stop looking at the man dressed as a beaver - f-o-c-u-s).
🦫 1. Efficiency - endless fuel pumps (and potties)
If there's one takeaway from the land of to-go, it's the efficiency. If you've not witnessed a Buc-ee's endless line of fuel pumps - their goal is 0 wait times, and boy do they have it mastered. You pull in, get gas, find a spot to park in front of what feels like 3 main entrances, and then you walk into the land of "over-optimized" with endless bathroom stalls, endless soda dispensers, endless selection, and endless check-out lanes.
Much like "the buc," the baker can sharpen up efficiency with a more streamlined ordering process, a well-thought-out website, a great CRM, and a nice pick-up reminder campaign - the more you optimize, the better your client's experiences, the more competitive you are in your space.
🦫 2. Optimized - NO TRUCKS
Buc-ee's knows that by cutting out catering to semi-trucks, it can keep the flow goin' thus all Buc-ee's entrances have large NO TRUCK signage. Just like Buc-ee's, we can limit our offerings to the products we know generate cashflow. Yes - you'll be turning down orders, but in the long run, like the beaver, you'll be optimized for the products that bring a profit without bringing analysis paralysis to your client base.
🦫 3. Clean and Organized
Ever year, we do a "spring cleaning" curb appeal episode of the podcast (coming soon), but man does the beaver understand what clean floors and cleaner displays do for the buyer's mind. When I see clean restrooms I automatically assume the kitchen is clean. We can borrow from the Buc-ee's here too - keep your front stoop clean, do your hair and makeup on pick-up days (I struggle with this one), and light that vanilla-scented candle for when that customer pops their head inside.
You can organize your digital stoop as well - refreshed social media pages and a clean website have the same "I feel safe here" effect as a bathroom stall with plenty of TP.
🦫 4. Merchandising - refreshed product displays
This is geared more towards the vendor and farmer's market baker, but walking down the Buc-ee's chip aisle, all the products had been moved to the front of the stand. When I snagged a bag (who doesn't like a Ranch Dorito from time to time, amiright?) a Buc-ee's employee was right behind me to refresh again.
🦫 5. Welcoming - WELCOME TO BUCEES
And can we say that Buc-ee's employees are SUPER friendly!? I know it's likely a part of their job description, but every time I walked through the front doors (of which there felt like more than one), a very busy check-out clerk welcomed us each and every time. And bakers can do that too - be super welcoming in your emails, your social posts, your messenger responses, your reminder texts, and your in-person pick-ups. It makes a HUGE difference in how your customer
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🧐 Are Your Sales Slow? - Here’s how to shift that mindset.
For this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 199 - Are Your Sales Slow Right Now?, we wanted to cover the question that pops up every post-Valentine's Day rush... the nagging feeling that your business feels slow and leads are down.What gives? 😢 Why does that one baker post that this was their best Vday yet and yet you're nowhere near their "units sold" number? 😓 Is your business dying? 😖 Are you losing your edge? 😩 Is it market saturation? 😭 Is it... time to throw in the proverbial tea towel prop? 🧣
Here's the thing - feelings don't matter. 📉 Metrics do. Are you actually slow? And if yes, what did you water with your marketing efforts?
💦 Corrie pointed out that marketing is like a garden - and we tend to water certain goals. 🌱 If you wanted to teach your first Valentine's Day cookie class, guess what - 📉 your customs are probably down - 📈 because your classes are up.
I posted this in the Sugar Cookie Marketing group this week:
😭 If you read that a baker sold 60 units for Valentine's Day THIS year, and you only sold 50 units - you'll feel like you're business is shrinking by 16%😀 But if you sold 30 units for Valentine's Day LAST year, and this year, you sold 50 units - your business is actually growing, and you're 66% ahead of last year.
🔍 Perspective is everything. Focus on the right metrics. That's what today's podcast is focused on - focusing on numbers that actually have meaning instead of your feelings which can switch depending on the weather, what's for lunch, and if your spouse was nice to you this morning.📈 1. Compare your "this year" to your "last year."
Comparing your "this year" to a random baker's "this year" is a recipe for disappointment. You all have nothing in common other than selling cookies. Comparing your market in rural Iowa to my Washington DC market makes 0 business sense. What does make sense? Comparing how your sales were this time last year to the same time this year. You'll be able to truly see if you grew that bottom line.
👉 Remember - your biggest competition is yourself yesterday - beat that baker!
📈 2. Compare $$ to $$.
Instead of comparing "how many customs did I sell," consider comparing, "how much money did I make." The secret is this: if you raised your prices, you may have actually sold less but made more. That means an increase in your bottom line and a decrease in labor costs = a business win. Money matters!
📈 3. Consider where you focused your marketing efforts.
I had someone reply to the thread I posted saying, "My sales are down from last year to this year, what gives!" Fortunately, I'd seen their posts that prior month. They had started teaching cookie classes! So yeah - their customs were down (another reason to compare bottom lines) but their class tickets were up. In fact, they'd sold out three Valentine's Day classes - THREE! So where they watered = where it grew. And of course, the counterpoint to that is if you focus on something new, something old may not be in the limelight as much.
📈 4. Look at metrics, not feelings.
A lot of times I see bakers "feel" that sales are slow. Feelings are unreliable - heck, they say if you need to appear before a judge, do so right after lunch because judges with full bellies tend to be more lenient than judges who have grumbling tummies. Focus on metrics. Meta gives us a ton of free, easy-to-use metrics. Google Analytics also allows us to gauge without the grump meaning we know exactly what happened and why instead of goin' on an unreliable hunch.
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❄️ Weather with Heather (and Corrie) - Weather policies 101.This week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 198 - Weather with Heather (and Corrie), we talk about the very reason why the Baking it Down Podcast was a day late this week - ❄️ bad weather.
🌪️ They say the only job you can guess wrong every time and still be employed is being a weatherman - 😭 and that's what makes weather events and cookie pick-ups a match made in refund hell.
So - how to predict the unpredictable? 🌧️ Here are our hot takes on cold weather in this week's podcast (🌡️ also yes, I (Heather) wanted to be a weather person because I thought it would be a neat radio tag like to say, "Weather with Heather on the 8's."
❄️ 1. You need a weather policy right now.
Your best friend when it comes to handling bad weather is a weather policy - 📝 a simple page on your website (ideal), a post on your Facebook Page (okay), or even a Google Doc (easy) that states what your plans are in the event of inclement weather can help you set expectations before the flurries fall. If you wait to enact a weather disclaimer after the bad weather hits, 😠 you've got a recipe for a bunch of angry reviews falling from the fingers of unhappy clients.
While you're at it - have a separate policy for both 🍪 pick-ups and 🎟️ classes since both can be different enough that one policy won't necessarily apply to both a pick-up order and a class attendee.
❄️ 2. No one reads - so repeat, repeat, repeat.
Making a single post to your Facebook page about a class cancelation for weather isn't going to cut it. 👓 No one reads (and even if they did, the algos don't let posts reach them anyways), so make sure the weather communication is across the board.
I'm talkin' r-e-p-e-t-i-t-i-v-e as in:
❄️ Facebook Page Post - 7 days out, 4 days out, day of❄️ Website banner / pop-up❄️ Newsletter Email - 7 days out❄️ Individual Emails - 7 days out, 4 days out, day before, day of❄️ Individual Texts - 7 days out, 4 days out, day before, day ofIn the world of communication, less is never more - more is more.
❄️ 3. Get in front of weather events.
🥶 When weather is in the forecast, start messaging clients before it starts precipitating. 🧊 You'll know you've not beat the storm communication when it's your clients asking you what the plan is. Don't be that baker - get to them before they start to panic. It'll show that you've got this handled and aren't panicked yourself.
❄️ 4. Offer Refunds / Credits for Classes | Freezing for Pick-Ups
When it comes to cookie class cancelations, I like to offer a full refund or an incentivized option to roll into the next class (and save on their Eventbrite fees). Here's our take - if you signed up for a class that got canceled and you couldn't get your money back, how would you feel? "Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you" - the Bible (🙏 and these bakers).
Now more tricky - 🧊 communicating to the custom cookie order client that freezing a cookie is actually an effective way to keep it fresh. And you'll be able to accomplish this by stating that in your "weather cookie pick-up policy." 🥶🔥 The thought of "frozen thawed" for the average user signals a lack of freshness, so the words you use here to sell them on a delayed pick-up are important.
❄️ 5. Take their orders to them & have insurance.
🚫 Your homeowner's insurance policy will deny that claim made by the lady who slipped on your front porch picking up her cookie order so fast, it'll make yo
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