5 Things You Need To Know About Facebook Marketing as a Baker

We recently held a Master-class where we covered the topic of “Facebook Marketing for Bakers”. As always, it was an amazing experience meeting small baking business owners and home bakers who want to start small baking businesses in Kenya.

Over time as we train different individuals on baking and encounter other home bakers in Kenya who are in the process of starting up their small baking businesses; one of the main challenges I have heard from most of these individuals is on Facebook marketing. Most are able to open a business Facebook page; but over time they don’t know how to achieve success marketing their small baking businesses on Facebook. They get overwhelmed and confused on what to post, when to get time to post and many other challenges; so they end up giving up on it.

That is why we held the master-class and we we’re able to show all the attendees how to do most of those things practically in order to be successful in their Facebook marketing. For those who weren’t able to attend; I will highlight 5 points on what we covered; I hope they will be of help to you in your social media marketing efforts.

What is Social Media Marketing and why you shouldn’t ignore it

Social media marketing is the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites in order to build an audience for your business brand. Examples of social media sites you can use are; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, Snapchat, etc. This type of marketing is very important for your small baking business these days because a lot of Kenyans are on Social media these days, and a majority of them are actually on Facebook. This means that most likely; more than half of your target market is on Facebook. This is a large number of people that you cannot ignore.

Just to give you some statistics on the topic; Google collected statistics that showed in most popular activities by smartphone users in Kenya on a weekly basis: Social media dominates with 58%.  Statistics also show that almost 50% of Kenya’s population is now online and these are mostly on mobile.  Other statistics by March 31st, 2017 show the number of internet users in Kenya  are 39,664,377. Facebook Subscribers in Kenya by June 30, 2016  were 5,500,000. These numbers should show you that Facebook is a social media site that you shouldn’t ignore as a small baking business brand. On top of that remember; the baking industry in Kenya is growing exponentially; I’m very sure that your competitors are on Facebook using it in their marketing – you can’t afford to ignore Facebook.

Be prepared for the realities of Facebook Marketing

You have to be ready to put in the work: day in day out – for months before you gain any real traction. You may see as if most popular pages have it easy and copy-paste what they are doing; but they also had to start from scratch in order to reach enough people in a way that makes an impact and brings in sales. The truth is; if you’re not willing to be committed, consistent and put in the work every day – social media marketing is not going to work for you at all. You also have to learn to test and see if what you are doing is working: what happens when you post different types of content? What times are successful for you & your leads (potential clients). Measure and analyze your posting activities and see what works. This reality shouldn’t scare you; it should motivate you. Plan ahead, schedule your posts and be consistent; make sure to connect with your audience as well in order to understand what they like and what they respond to. Be patient as your Facebook reach grows; if you’re consistent, your reach grows slowly, but steadily.

Types of content you can post on your Business Facebook page & resources to use

There are various types of content you can post on your business Facebook page for variety and engagement purposes. Types of content to use are: your cake photos (make sure to take photos of all the cakes you bake), inspirational/motivational quotes (text or image posters), videos (videos of you decorating cakes or maybe of an event where you were a cake provider, etc), Promotional posts (if you’re having sales or discounts, you can announce and share details on your business page) and information/blog links – you can start a blog and share content from the site onto your page to attract traffic to your site. You can also share links to your site pages e.g the pricing/menu page.

When it comes to editing your cake photos, watermarking them and creating quote posters; you can use a free photo editing software site called: www.canva.com – they also have a paid version, but when starting, the free one is enough. They have tutorials on how to use their software to edit photos and create/design photo posters to help you get started, click here for tutorials.

Create a blog for your baking business brand to assist in content creation

One very effective way of making sure you have constant content to share on your Facebook business page is having a business blog. You can share various types of information on the blog e.g. wedding or other event cake projects, tips on baking, simple recipes for cake consumers; updates on sales or other events happening in your baking business and many other topics you can think of. Once you post on your blog; you can share the links on to your Facebook page to gain traffic to your blog. A resourceful website that can help you with shortening links when posting on your social media sites is www.bitly.com Sign up and get an account with them; not only will you not get a way to shorten your very long links – you will be able to get data on whether people will be clicking on the links and the amount of traffic you get from them. Also know that having a blog and constantly posting on it helps you appear on search engines when people search for information pertaining to what you’re sharing or what you’re brand is about. This means that if you blog about baking ‘wedding cakes in Nairobi’ while sharing a wedding cake project you may have done previously ; over time, you’re likely to show up in the top 10 searches by individuals in Nairobi who search for “wedding cakes in Nairobi.”

Facebook Ads will help you grow your audience as well as increase sales over time

If you want to grow your audience exponentially and attract the right type of audience, then Facebook Ads can assist in that area. When you post on your Facebook Business page; only people who have liked your page can see your posts. When you sponsor a post or run a Facebook Ad; other people you have targeted can see the post, even if they haven’t liked your page. A targeted audience can be e.g. Men and Women, ages 18 to 45, living in the Nairobi area with interests in: food, cakes, cooking and baking. This will not only help in growing your audience and reach (increase in Page likes); it will also help promote your products as well and increase sales. This can be especially effective if you’re running a sale or discount on your baked products.

Please note that to run a Facebook ad you need a credit card in order to make payments. Some bank cards also allow online payments as well – please check with your bank. You can also get a pre-paid credit card as well.

I hope all the information above will help you in your Facebook marketing for your small baking business. If you have any questions on social media marketing for your small bakery business – please comment below with your question.

Thanks for reading ^_^ If you found this post really insightful, make sure to share it to your networks – it might help someone else.

If you want to read more about starting a small baking business; you can get my book on the same topic – click here for more details.

If you would like to attend our next Amari Baking Business Masterclass, click here to sign up to our email list and get updates on all our business masterclasses.

 

Thanks and happy baking!