It is not enough to have a cake recipe or beautifully decorated cake rows. You need customers to make a profit for your baking business. Promoting the business introduces your cakes to potential customers. If your cake business is out of your home, make sure it meets all state licensing requirements before advertising it in any way. Therefore, here is the simple way of How To Get Customers For Cake Business.
#1. Create a Customer Profile
A customer profile is a detailed description of your target audience which is similar to the buyer’s personality. However, it is not a fictional representation of your customers. Therefore, it contains factual information about its demographics, purchasing practices, customer service interactions and much more. And also everything you need to know about a group of customers is captured in this one description.
Therefore, to attract clients, you first need to know who they are, what they like, the cake design they like, the products or services they want, where they are, where they are going and what they are attracted to. Then start research on them.
- Demographics
- Psychographics
- Ethnographic
- Buying habits
Not only that, take the advantage of the customer circumstances to make an idea on how you can make potential customers. Then market to your potential customers. For example, you might want to find a connection to a local high school to see if they can sponsor a party by bringing your cake, or give them a free cake at their next PTA meeting. Therefore, when you are, make contacts, talk to them about your business and give them your business cards.
How to Create a Customer Profile
- Focus on the pain point that your business is trying to resolve
- Review your customer’s moves
- Take the use of demographics
- Collect customer feedback
- Examine contextual details
- Build personas
Customer Profile Examples
- Scorecard– Used to determine if a candidate is entitled to a business
- Segmentation– Each marketing team can work alongside customer service to turnout effective campaigns that resonate with each segment of its customer base.
- Basic Information– This type of profile example lists out all of the fundamental information we need to know about this customer type.
#2. Develop a plan to acquire customers
The secret to creating a successful acquisition plan is knowing who the perfect customer is. If you sell your cakes to other cake shops or cake related businesses, consider which department is most likely to buy your products or services and which person will determine the specific purchase requirements. Decide how long the buying cycle will last. Is buying your product a quick decision for an individual?
Next, think about how the typical customer will usually find products or services like yours. In what circles do they move? Are they active on social media or not? Where can they listen or when they want to buy your product or service? What can you do to get referrals and recommendations from those sources? Write down all this information and look for patterns. Then, in order to get more customers, plan places where you and your information can be found as people in your target market prepare to buy.
The cost of acquiring new customers has increased by more than 50% in the last five years. Marketing is becoming more expensive, customer loyalty to brands is declining. If you are looking for ways to improve your customer acquisition, here are the simple steps. Reducing customer acquisition costs and proving ROIs in marketing efforts are two of the most commonly mentioned marketing priorities among companies.
How to Create Customer Acquisition Plan
- Define your potential customer
- Opt-out your goals
- Define your acquisition funnel
- Know your metrics
- Measure everything
#3. Cold calling
This is telemarketing without a call centre. It’s a blind relationship with a prospective client who does not expect a pitch. Customer leadership can be achieved by focusing on newspaper articles or items, a lead list selected by a third party, or people or businesses moving into your pitch.
- Embrace rejection, do not run away from it.
- Focus on instant learning, not instant sales.
- Find a call schedule that works.
- Do not waste anyone’s time including you.
- Use technology to eliminate tedious tasks.
- Follow your script like an actor, not a robot.
- Make the right request and set the appropriate next steps.
- Live at a crossroads of quality and quantity.
- Learn how to make voicemail effectively and efficient.
#4. ‘Free’ works
All most all people love to have free works. So Free works that mean free cakes just like magic. Giving away some of your products and services for free will do very positive and interesting things for your cake business. It lets outside people know that you exist. And also it offers you a chance to prove the value of your cakes and your services. It provides customers with the satisfaction of your cakes. Consumers love ‘free’ because they have nothing to lose anymore. They sit without risk and enjoy a light service or product. By attracting them to your business, you give them a chance to see and experience something that can be completely hidden from them if you do not open your door.
#5. Offer new customers discounts and promotions
Today customers are still looking for values and deals. Encourage them in your business by offering special discounts such as introductory discounts for the first three purchases or free gift-wrapping or buy 2-get-1-free. Bargaining like this can attract new customers who want to do business with you but need encouragement to change their shopping habits. Then find out what they bought and the offers they redeemed so you can better target them with future marketing messages that prove their credibility.
Offer ideas
- Buy one, Get one free
- Competitions
- Gift Vouchers
- Free delivery
- 10% off discount
- Loyalty cards
- Student discounts
- Free workshops
#6. Ask for referrals
Once you get customer loyalty, they will turn to you and let it work for you. Remember that current customers are one of the best sources of new customers. But you can not be complacent and wait for them to bring colleagues, friends and family to your business. Instead, manage and create a systemic approach to actively soliciting referrals from your satisfied customers. Build a referral generating activities that focus on the sales process. Send follow-up emails to make sure customers are happy with their purchases, then follow another email asking for referrals. If you want to sell the price, consider giving incentives.
The quickest and best way to attract referrals for your business is to please your customers. You want your current clients to be happy with the work you offer and you and all their friends and colleagues will brag about the work you do.
Ways to Ask for a Referral
- Directly ask
- Provide value
- Recognize and thank your referral sources
- Make it personal
- Don’t always be direct
- Be specific
- Make it easy for them to refer
#7. Let Price Reflect the Quality of your cakes
If your cake business wants to have a highly competitive and professional look, the price it charges must always reflect quality in a different way. Consider that when the price is very low, it means that the product is of low quality and therefore people will not expect to pay more for it. Therefore, do not focus on lowering your price too much. If the business uses high-quality raw materials, your website is the same, your service is flawless. In the minds of the rich, there is no reason to lower the price of your cake.
Steps to Pricing your cakes
- Understand why home bakers feel weird and guilty about prices
- Value of your cakes
- Cheap Prices Attract Cheap Clients
- Affordable price ranges for everyone
- Transition From a Freelancer to a BOSS
- use a FREE Pricing Calculator
#8. Pay attention to packaging
Good quality packaging stands out from your product group. Unique packaging not only makes your product memorable but also makes packaging an important part of a customer’s decision to buy a product. Having beautiful packaging usually sets them apart from mass-produced offerings. Therefore, great packaging should be part of your cake business brand and get more attention. Presenting your products in beautiful packaging will direct your bakery products to classic, high quality and extra naira value products.
Things You Should Pay Attention to When It Comes to Packaging
- Design
- Creativity
- Practicality
- Quality
The Benefits of Packaging
- By Conveying Brand Features
- Changing the Buying Behavior of Consumers
- Stimulating the Senses
- Going Eco-Friendly
- Making a Lasting First Impression
- Adapting to Display Requirements
#9. Re-contact old customers
You can renew everything old, including old customers who have not done business with you in a while. Go regularly to your customer contacts and after six months or a year give indifferent customers a special offer via email, mail or phone without any intervention or purchase. They will be happy that you remember them and want to win back.
#10. Be On Social Media
There are several social media platforms across the world. It is changing the way business is done in the modern business world. First and foremost, you need to have a Facebook page for your company, which is a great place to market your business and showcase your cake gallery, create great articles and information about your cake, and any promotion you can. Other social media platforms you should be on are, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and maybe Pinterest.
- Read Ultimate Facebook marketing strategy for small business – 2021
- Read Ultimate Instagram Marketing Strategy For Small Business – 2021
- Read Amazing LinkedIn marketing strategy for small business – 2021
#11. Start a Contest
Everyone wants to win and also love to win. It’s not always about the prize you win, it’s about luck or the joy of attacking other people. For example, you are in the cake business and different types of cakes and related services and products. You can start an interesting contest and the prizes including wedding cakes, birthday cakes, and gift boxes. To enter for this you can apply some interesting plan just like making an attractive poem. To promote the competition, you can talk about it and social media like Facebook will start talking about the potential customer competition and create free attention and buzz for you.
#12. Get Listed on Popular Local Directories
Thanks to the internet, all the businesses included your cake business can be listed for free on local directories. When a business is registered in a local directory, people around the world can find it on the map and view its contact information. Most importantly, you do not have to pay anything to register in these directories. The most popular are Google MyBusiness, Yahoo Local and Bing Places. As you can see, all these directories are run by large global Internet search giants.
#13. Print and Distribute Flyers
The flyers as a simple but very effective way to advertise and promote your business. They generally work best for small businesses like cake business that target customers in a particular area such as university campuses, residential estates, offices and industrial areas. You do not need to invest in expensive flyers to try this advertising method. If you have limited funds, you should focus on the message you want to send, not on pictures, graphics or colours.
How to get customers with Flyers
- Explain your message further
- Flyer distribution is not just a leaflet distribution
- Use shaped flyers for extra impact when delivering a message
- Focus on customer
- Adding a Discount
- Adding a Method of Measurement
- Use a Reputable Resource
#14. Get Involved In Volunteer Work
Volunteering for free advertising is often an overlooked opportunity for gaining customers. What is often needed is your time, effort and encouragement. If you intend to use this advertising method, remember to ensure that all donations, sponsorships and support are in the name of your business and not yours.
How to Find Volunteer Opportunities That Are Right for You
- Look for Opportunities Through Your Employer
- Identify Your Values
- Look to Organizations You Already Give Time To
- Put Your Existing Skills to Good Use
#15. Promote your expertise
Generate interest and new customers by publishing your specialized knowledge of your industry. Industry panel discussions or online websites, industry events or conversations with your target client groups or educational sessions or workshops will attract new customers with a special focus on your subject matter.
Steps to promote your expertise
- Express your thinking
- Write a book
- Claiming your expertise
- Take on leadership roles
- Sharing your expertise
- Build a community
suggestion Strengthen the aroma
Sensory marketing is that which, through emotional actions, makes people more favourable to purchasing a product or buying a service. It is, of course, intimately related to the senses. In a cafeteria, bakery or oven, it is quite easy to enhance one in particular: the aroma. Whenever time allows, leave your business’s door open and ensure that what you have in the oven gives off a pleasant smell that cause passers-by to stop in front of your door. Baking frozen croissants , for example, is key to achieving this.