4 Ways To Consistently Market Your Small Bakery Business

I’ve stated the importance of marketing in your small bakery business in a previous post; therefore, I will not repeat again how important it is to do so. It can be quite a challenge however since as a small business bakery owner, you are very busy wearing many different hats in your startup business. You’re most likely the head baker, book keeper, customer service representative, marketer and many other hats a startup entrepreneur has to wear when starting a business. This over a period of time, can make proper and consistent marketing of your small bakery very hard to maintain. As understandable as it is, it’s not a good thing for your bakery business. You should therefore find ways to make it manageable and consistent as your bakery business grows since marketing is an effective way for you to have a higher chance of success in business.

Having passed through the same challenges myself as a Baking Business Owner, I would like to share four ways that will help you market consistently. It’s not easy to start but by adopting some routines and planning ahead, you will be able to keep up with your marketing effectively.

I hope these steps help you and your small bakery business out.

1. Have a content calendar for your marketing activities

Planning out marketing content for your social media platforms and site blog (if you choose to start one) – is very important.

One of the ways I shared earlier on marketing your small bakery business online is by starting a business blog. It can be a challenge posting on your blog consistently; therefore, you should learn how to prepare ahead in order to avoid failing to post on your blog all together. The best way to avoid that is by having a content calendar for your blog & also for your Social media content.

This is simply a calendar where you schedule the topics and when you will post on your blog OR Types of content or captions/copy – you will right for your baking business social media pages.

This will of course depend on your goals/objectives for both your platforms (e.g. sales goals & branding goals) and for your blog as well.

For your Blog: one goal can be the frequency of posting (e.g. once a week or twice a month). You can go to a stationery shop and buy a desktop calendar for the current year. Then sit down a week before the start of every month and plan on the topics of your blog posts for that month and when you want to post them. Write in the dates you want to post and the subject of each blog post. Make sure you plan on when you’ll work on the posts; research, writing, editing and posting. If you can get used to that routine for the first three to four months; it will become a part of your business marketing activities and it will breed consistency for your brand.

Social Media Calendar template example (Courtesy: Wepik)

One effective way we plan for our Social media & content marketing for our baking brands – is by using a digital calendar or sites e.g. Google Calendar and Google Docs or Google Sheets. This helps plan ahead and if you are working with another person e.g. a social media manage or an admin who helps you – you can share the weekly or monthly plan easily for them to see it.

2. Regularly post on social media
Another important aspect of marketing online is posting on social media; your small bakery business pages and on retail or industry-related groups (such as on Facebook). You can also plan about 90% of your social media posting for platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter by scheduling your posts ahead of time. Tools such as Meta Planner (FB Creator Studio), can assist you with scheduling your posts for both your Instagram & Facebook bakery brand pages. Platforms such as TikTok also allow scheduling on Desktop & other planner tools e.g. Later – can help you as well.

New Meta Business Suite Planner

Remember; once you schedule and the posts are live; make sure to check in & engage on Social media on your posts as well – to build your audience.

Scheduling will assist in your marketing activities since you might be very busy most of the times during the day.

3. Give monthly offers and discounts
When I was running my first bakery business; I used to have a ‘Flavor of the Month’ special every month. I would offer a 10% or 20% off discount on any products which were of the flavor of the month, e.g. Vanilla, chocolate, orange etc. That particular offer kept me motivated to sell my baked products of that flavor and to come up with creative ways of marketing to my customers in order to get them to purchase those baked goods. It even helped me create content for my blog on the different types of cake flavors that I offered. Most of my loyal customers would call me to ask me what the flavor of the month was in order to get those discounts.

Chocolate Cupcakes from 2015 (Amari Quickbreads Bakery Brand)

You can apply the same concept to your small bakery business; offer monthly discounts that will give your customers incentive to buy your baked goods. The offers will also motivate you to be creative with your marketing activities and to be consistent as well. You can announce and market those offers on social media, your blog and your website.

4. Join or participate in baking platforms, fairs and/or festivals
As a business owner, it’s important to make sure that you stay relevant and up to date with the latest in the baking industry. You can do this in different ways and it will help you stay consistent in marketing your small bakery business as well as your growth as a startup bakery business owner. One of the ways you can do so is by participating in an annual Cake/Baker Events such as The Cake Festival that is hosted every year by Edumed Trust Kenya. It gives all types of bakers (amateurs and professionals) a platform to showcase their skills, their baked products and any other services they offer.

You can also participate in any other trade show or fair such as The Nairobi International Trade Fair (also known locally as the Nairobi show ^_^); if you’re in another city in Kenya, you can go to your local city trade fair. You can showcase as well as sell your baked products and hand out print marketing material to potential customers.

You can also join a platform of bakers such as the Facebook group – The Bakers Club, where you can interact, learn from and share experiences from other bakers in Kenya.

If you have any other creative and effective ways you use to consistently market your small bakery, please feel free to share below. Thanks for reading! ^_^

If you feel overwhelmed and unsure when it comes to starting to grow & market your baking business on Social media, you can enroll and join our 60-day Online Social media Marketing class for Bakers.

Tons of knowledge shared on how to come up with your brand ‘look’, how to come up with a Marketing Strategy, Plan, how to schedule content and lots more advice. Click here for full details.