If you have started your bakery, you can get started with the marketing tips in this article.
However, if you haven’t, see our article for tips, insights, and the steps you need to take to start your bakery Or see, How to Start an English Muffin Bakery: Key Steps
Tips and Insights For Marketing A Bakery
Before we get to the tips, let’s look at two important points:
One: Setting Up Your Business For Marketing
The way I see it, there are two types of marketing. One is passive, where you set up your business in a way that markets itself.
To do this, you have to find those issues that give you a competitive edge, and once those are set up and successful, your business starts to market itself.
Once that’s completed, you can invest in marketing campaigns to promote those tactics.
Two: Conventional Advertising
The second type of marketing consists of creating marketing and advertising campaigns. These are conventional methods of marketing and advertising.
Let’s start with ideas related to building a competitive edge.
1. Taste Has a Lot To Do With It!
The location may be perfect, the bakery design appealing, the budget excellent, etc. Even if you have all the factors contributing to your success, but your baked goods don’t taste good, you won’t succeed.
It’s one of the most effective things you can do to gain a competitive edge to make healthy products with unique tastes your customers love.
Ensure your customers love your products by paying close attention to the ingredients and recipes you use for your pastries.
Experiment with different ingredients and baking methods to improve your products.
You will need to carefully document each recipe every time you make a change so that you can duplicate the process when you discover a winner.
Don’t change more than one thing at a time. Trying different ingredients will create too many variables, and you won’t figure out what caused the change.
Instead, document every change and only change one thing at a time.
2. Quality Vs. Margins
Profit is a major factor in the success of any business. However, people view it in different ways. From my perspective, customers come first. Quality comes before profits.
Undoubtedly, you wouldn’t have a business without profits. Therefore, you need to strike a balance between quality and profits.
Let’s look at an example. If I had a great-tasting donut that was a best seller, I would never consider increasing my profits by $12,000 per year by using a generic ingredient.
Yet, despite this, it is a common practice to employ this approach.
The new cheaper ingredient now tastes different from your customers’ expectations. You could be after the $12,000 in extra profit.
Still, the donut could lose its rank as a best seller, and your pursuit of this $12,000 results in losing your best seller and $150,000 in yearly revenue.
Cutting quality to improve profits will hurt your competitive edge. Superior quality over the competition is something you can market.
3. Host Events
You may have a bakery that offers a setting such as a cafe or deli-style, an excellent way to promote events.
You could have live music or host events depending on holidays.
For example, having live music appropriate for your crowd is one way of bringing in people during holidays or when business is slow.
For example, Wednesday night could be meet local artist night. During Wednesday night, you could create a special pack of baked goods that people can purchase on their way out. This pack could be exclusive for Wednesday nights.
You will also want to keep up with any holidays and just the big ones. You can create custom treats for any holiday that comes up, whether it’s a holiday recognized by the government or not.
Celebrating holidays can be as simple as creating specific treats themed for each holiday.
4. Become an Expert
Becoming an expert in your field will build customer confidence.
You can achieve this by knowing everything about your business and your products. Then, you can get your name out by branding your products.
Consider naming products after yourself or putting your name on some of them – for example, Chef Julie’s Special Treats of The Day or Julie’s Donut Sprinkles.
You get the idea. You can come up with one way or another to get your name in front of your customers to brand yourself as an expert.
You can also create a brochure with baked goods people can order online. Again, use your name like the examples above.
You can give these to each customer so they have a reference when they order or come into your bakery. Plus, you are branding your bakery by handing these out as a bonus.
You could also write a column in your local paper or become a guest on your local radio show to offer valuable tips for the local lister.
You may need to pay for this advertising initially, but once your name becomes popular and you are perceived as an expert, you may be featured on the radio or as a columnist.
Your tips could include making baked goods or preparing them for a gathering or party, etc.
You can spin the topic any way you see fit, but your main concern is to offer something valuable.
You always mention your bakery and invite people to drop by on the radio or in writing.
Conventional Marketing Techniques
5. Create Your Corporate ID
Your corporate ID is a part of branding your business. It includes your business, sign, business cards, logo, website, letterheads, etc. Therefore, it’s important to have an appealing design.
For example, people will associate your business with your logo when exposed to it for a while.
Therefore, you need to take the time to have a designer create a logo that you’ll use on all your promotional materials, including your business, sign, brochure, website, etc.
6. Newspaper Advertising
Advertising in your local paper is an effective method to get customers through the doors of your bakery. Taking out a display ad is most likely to draw attention.
You’ll want to create a special, a coupon, or something similar to give readers a reason to come to your bakery.
You can also take another approach, using an advertorial such as a column, and at the end, you would advertise your business.
For example, the column may include something about using healthy ingredients in baked goods.
To end your advertorial, you would mention how your bakery uses these ingredients and invite readers to come for a free tasting.
For more, see Newspaper Advertising Tips.
7. Radio Advertising
Using your local radio station is another excellent way to target local customers. One key to effective radio advertising is to air the ad over a long period and at different time slots to reach as many locals as possible.
For example, your ad may run at one pm, but if you only run it once, you won’t reach many people, while spreading out the time slots will reach a wider audience.
An effective way to get customers instead is coming up with a special and advertising it on the radio only
. Then, when customers come in and ask about the special, you’ll know it was because of the radio commercial. You can also create offers for holidays and special events and advertise those on the radio.
For example, you would prepare for Valentine’s day in advance by creating donuts, cupcakes, cakes, and pastries designed for the holiday.
You could also create a special price or bundle and advertise multiple times each day before Valentine’s day.
In addition to generating an influx of business, you are also branding your bakery to the local community.
For example, suppose your radio ad costs you $3,500 and your sales amount to an extra $3,000. In that case, you still win in the long run because more people know about your bakery and your building your client base, even if it doesn’t immediately affect an influx in business.
For more, see Radio Advertising Tips.
8. TV Advertising
Local TV is another option to advertise your bakery. Naturally, you want to create a focused campaign that draws in customers, and you can also brand your business.
For example, you would have different shots of your bakery, your best-selling pastries, how you’re staff adheres to strict food safety policies, and how you only use the best and freshest ingredients.
It’s also beneficial to give the viewer a reason to visit your bakery by offering a special, providing a limited-time bundle, or running a campaign, for example, before Paczki Tuesday.
9. Billboard Advertising
Local billboards are another way to get customers through the door. Creating the message you want to convey is something you want to take your time on. Once it’s up, you can’t change it without starting from scratch.
Billboard advertising can run from a few weeks to a few months; therefore, you want to create a campaign with a good chance of success. You also want to ensure you have an excellent location in the area.
10. Joint Ventures
Joint ventures are a way where two businesses benefit from each other.
For example, if you are close to a tire repair shop, you could make a deal with the owner and tell him instead of your customers waiting around until you replace their tires, you can offer them a voucher for a free coffee where they can wait.
The above example brings awareness to your bakery; many people purchase donuts and pastries while having coffee. The tire shop benefits because they care for their customers, and you benefit from the extra sales and brand awareness.
Brainstorming ideas like the above can bring a win-win situation to your bakery and other local businesses.
For more details on joint ventures, see, How To Create A Joint Venture.
11. Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce
Joining your local chamber of commerce allows you to network with local business people and understand the businesses in the area.
You also have the opportunity to create more joint venture deals, as outlined in the example above.
The chamber of commerce also has other benefits you can learn about from the following link.
For more, see, Joining the Chamber of Commerce.
12. Advertise Your Company Vehicle
Creating a wrap for your company vehicle is an excellent way to bring awareness locally to your bakery.
You’re advertising your business every time you drive in the area. At the same time, when parked in a busy parking lot, your vehicle is advertising for you.
A decent wrap will cost you around $2,500, but it’s a one-time investment and gives you advertising anytime you’re driving or parked.
You also want to take the time needed to work with a talented graphic designer to create the wrap for your vehicle.
You want to convey a clear message with an attractive design along with your contact information and logo.
A talented graphic designer experienced in creating vehicle wraps can guide you to determine what works best for your vehicle and bakery.
Online Marketing Ideas
13. Developing Your Website
Your bakery’s website plays an important role. It can be used for marketing and providing information about your products, contact information, ingredients, food safety processes, and anything else your customers might be interested in.
It’s important to have a quick, mobile-friendly, and attractive website. In addition, a well-designed, attractive site builds customer confidence.
You can also use your site as an e-commerce site, allowing customers to place orders online and even offer delivery if you want.
Your website should be your main point of contact. However, you may also want a Facebook page and other online accounts like Pinterest, Instagram, etc.
It is important to note that you have more control over your website than your social media accounts. For example, you create a system using your Facebook page, and sudden changes are made to Facebook, disrupting your process.
With your website and domain, you own and control it as long as you keep the name registered and keep up with hosting fees. For more, see,
For more, see, How to Build a Website.
14. Create a Google Ads Campaign
You can reach your target audience quickly by creating a Google ads campaign. For example, you can target those in your area who are interested in your products and services with Google ads.
First, you choose the area of your campaign, which might be your city and surrounding towns.
Next, enter the keywords you want, such as chocolate donuts, fresh pastries, bakery, etc., or anything your target audience would be interested in. Your ad is displayed once a user from your area searches for one of your chosen keywords.
With Google Ads, you can also set a daily budget, and your ad for your advertising campaign will run until your daily budget has been used.
Then, once you set up your system and optimize it, it can run on autopilot. It’s an effective way to get customers through the door. For more, see how to advertise on Google.
For more on creating a Google Ads Campaign, see How To Advertise on Google Using These Tips and Insights.
15. FaceBook Advertising
Facebook is another option for advertising your bakery. Facebook, like Google, allows you to target a local audience, and you can set a daily budget for your advertising campaign.
It’s worth noting that sending people to your Facebook page is cheaper than sending traffic to your website from Facebook.
This is because Facebook likes to keep the traffic within its site and offers a cheaper rate for ads leading to Facebook Pages.
For more, see, How to Advertise on Facebook.
16. Videos
Using videos is another way you can advertise your business. For example, creating videos of your products and how they are made can bring awareness to your bakery.
As mentioned in this article, they can also help you brand yourself as an expert.
When you create videos, you can post them on YouTube, and from YouTube, embed them on your website.
You can draw local attention when the videos are embedded in your website. The following example could be placed under your video: If you have seen the video on our website, mention it when you come into our bakery and receive a 10% discount.
17. Set up Google Business Profile
Setting up a Google Business Profile is important to your online presence.
If someone searches for your bakery name on Google, they will see a listing with a blurb about your business, contact information, an image, a phone number, and a link to your website.
Users can connect to a voice call using a mobile device by clicking the call now button.
You should set up a Google Business Profile as part of your online presence. See our article, How to Create a Google Business Profile to get your listing set up.
18. Email Marketing
Email marketing is an effective way to bring awareness to your business.
There are two challenges when it comes to email marketing. The first is building your list of subscribers, and the second is keeping them engaged.
There are a couple of ways to promote your business using email. First, you can provide a newsletter with baking tips and ideas for using baked goods for parties and events.
Another way to use email marketing is to keep your customers updated with new products and items on sale. For example, something like large retail stores offers in their weekly flyer. You can test each or go with the method you prefer.
You must remember that you must offer value so your customers open your email, or you’ll end up with many unsubscribers.
You can build your list by offering customers a free coffee or pastry in exchange for their email.
19. Create A Marketing Plan
It can be difficult to remember all of the tips in this article regarding marketing your bakery. However, a marketing plan can help clarify what you must do and how to get there.
As you created a business plan when you started your business, creating a marketing plan is equally important.
The next step after developing your marketing plan is to determine which marketing tactics are most effective and which ones are not.
Documenting all campaigns, repeating what works, and stopping what doesn’t is important.
For more, see, How to Write a Marketing Plan
Resources
Below you’ll find a few resources to help you expand your knowledge of marketing your bakery.
Most links lead to search results, designed to ensure you always have the most popular and newest results every time you view this page.
Marketing Agencies
You now have a few ideas for marketing your bakery. As you can imagine, it takes time and effort to effectively market a business.
You may not have the time or the desire to do it yourself, which is understandable. Instead, you can hire an agency to market your bakery for you.
You’ll find the latest Google search results from the link below for marketing agencies and those specializing in marketing bakeries.
Something to keep in mind with many marketing agencies is there is no guarantee.
They can guarantee the work, but they can’t guarantee results. So it’s a good idea to do some research and look at reviews of the agency you’re planning to deal with.
You can also start with a small budget; if the campaigns are successful, increase the budget.
Have a look at the latest search results for bakery marketing agencies.
Books
Books are another source of information you can use to improve your knowledge for marketing your bakery.
Many techniques used for conventional marketing don’t change, and you can get many ideas from books.
However, online platforms often change; therefore, you can use a book to gain a strong marketing foundation and keep up-to-date online with the web platforms.
View the most recent books related to bakery marketing on Amazon.
Courses
A course is another option to improve your knowledge of marketing your bakery. You can choose a course specializing in marketing your bakery or courses offering general marketing techniques.
With any course you’re planning to take, I would suggest doing some research and looking at reviews for the course before investing your time and money.
I prefer to take online courses where I can learn at my own pace. Another advantage of this learning type is that you usually get lifetime access to the course and can refer to it anytime you need to review the information.
If you want, check out Google’s search results related to bakery marketing courses.
News
The news is another way to stay up-to-date with the latest marketing trends related to bakeries.
I like using Google News because I can type in my keyword and get an instant list of results related to my search query. In addition to the most recent news stories, I also get a list of archived ones.
With Google News, you can also set up an alert to get a notification whenever something related to marketing a bakery comes up.
See Google’s news search results related to marketing a bakery.
YouTube Videos
YouTube has thousands of tutorial videos. In an hour or so, you can watch quite a few videos. Moreover, many of these are created by people with marketing experience, and I value learning from other people’s experiences.
You can view all the YouTube videos related to marketing your bakery by clicking the link below.
As you watch your video, keep an eye out for topics related to the video you’re watching. They may provide valuable information you hadn’t considered.
If you want, take a few minutes to see videos related to bakery marketing on YouTube.