As someone who walks by a bakery every morning, I know just how tempting the industry’s offerings are.
And we are not alone: in the India, bakery products account for almost $ 7.60 billion last year in 2020.
That’s a lot of bread and cupcakes.
But how much dough is your bakery currently raking in? If you knead to get more customers into your bakery, it’s time to roll out these 11 essential bakery marketing methods:
We will see 5 essential bakery marketing methods today
1. Run a sweet giveaway
If you want to generate buzz about your bakery online, running a giveaway is one of the best options.
Why? Because many times, simply by entering the giveaway, your social followers are promoting your bakery online to all of their followers and friends.
To enter the giveaway, you can ask your followers to:
- Post a picture of themselves at your bakery
- Comment on one of your pictures with a clever caption
- Tag someone they want to share their next pastry with
- Answer a trivia question
- Share their favorite treat from your bakery
The more people enter the giveaway, the further the news about your bakery will spread.
As a reward, you can offer a free treat for the winner from your selection of baked goods, or another kind of prize.
2. Satisfy people’s hunger for on-trend goodies
Food trends come and go, but some are quite a bit stronger than others. For example, the gluten-free fad has continued to grow. In fact, the total gluten-free food market is projected to grow from $3.7 billion to over $6.4 billion by 2025.
So, one way you can stay on-trend is by offering gluten-free products.
To keep up-to-date with what’s currently on trend, use a social listening tool like Buzzsumo and check out what food-related conversations are getting the most reach. Then, you can adapt some of your products to fit that trend.
Another way to find out what’s popular is by asking people directly. For example, you could run a survey through a tool like SurveyMonkey to your email subscribers, and find out what kind of pastries or foods they’d be interested in seeing. Find out what’s important to them, whether it’s gluten-free, vegan, organic, sustainable, or anything else!
By staying on-trend with their vegan offerings, this local bakery has amassed a social following of over 18,000 people!
3. Use delicious videos to draw them in
No one can deny that a quality video of delicious pastries can make your mouth water.
If you want to give people a hankering for your bakery’s best treats, draw them in with videos of what you offer.
For example, check out this video from Magnolia Bakery:
Seriously, who can resist that?
If you want to get creative, here are some video ideas for your bakery marketing scheme:
- How it’s made: Videos that show the process of making your pastries
- Before and after: Show your products before they go into the oven, and after they’re done
- Tour of the store: Give new visitors a view of what your bakery looks like, from the inside and on the outside
- Baking tips and tricks: Give your audience some insider advice on how to bake better
This kind of content establishes your authority as a baking expert, and builds anticipation in your audience for that delicious food.
4. Get your followers involved in new creations
People love to feel included in what their favorite brands are doing. So, why not run a poll on social media and see what people think?
For example, let’s say you have two different design ideas for a seasonally-themed cupcake. Post a picture of both of them, and ask your audience which one they like better.
This feeling of inclusivity is very powerful. Once you start selling the product that your audience had a part in producing, they’ll feel much more motivated to go out and buy one for themselves!
5. Make reviews more visible
According to one survey, 86% of consumers will read reviews for local businesses, and 68% said that reading positive reviews about a business will directly influence whether or not they use that business.
That’s why one of the best bakery marketing methods involves making those good reviews more visible to those searching for them.
There are a few different ways to do this:
Create a Google My Business Page
A Google My Business page not only puts your bakery on the map: you’ll also be able to collect and respond to reviews from your happy customers.
By taking responsibility for this page, you’ll make it easier for customers to find your reviews. Also, when they search for bakeries near them, they’ll be able to see the best bakeries, along with their star ratings.
Claim and update your Yelp profile
Yelp is a powerful place, especially for food-related businesses.
More importantly, your business may already have a page on Yelp. If left unclaimed, that page could promote inaccurate information about your business.
Once you claim your Yelp business page, you can respond to reviews, add photos and your website, and keep track of how many views and leads are coming in from your Yelp page.
Feature your best reviews on social media
To leverage the power of your best reviews, let’s take this one step further.
Sure, people can find your reviews online: but why not feature them on your social media accounts?
For example, you can take one line from a great review, and place it as text on your Facebook ads.
Part 2 with other 6 methods of bakery marketing coming soon. Stay tuned !
Ultimately, you’ll have happier customers who keep coming back for more. That’s the whip topping on the cake!