Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪 – Details, episodes & analysis

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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 175 - Wedding Vendor Recap, Corrie signed us up for a Wedding Expo - and here's our tell-all - what we did right, what we did okay, and what we wouldn't do ever again. 

The event was complex, to say the least. Conceptually - it's genius. Execution - it's lacking. ✌️ The event was two days consisting of two "faux wedding receptions" - one upstairs (🪵 earthy forest theme) and one downstairs (🛼 retro theme). 

So both themes had completely different vendor groups - meaning there were two photographers, two event planners, two florists, two bakers, two couple models... you get the point. All vendors were assigned a theme - the vendors didn't decide it. 

1️⃣ Day 1 was a photo shoot. All the vendors set up the two themes and the photographers and models got to work. This is where they got the photos of the faux receptions (one upstairs in the venue and one downstairs outside).

2️⃣ Day 2 was a vendor expo, fashion runway, and after-party. This day was open to attendees - there was some ticketed component, but we never really figured out what that was exactly? More on that confusion later. But you get the idea of what this event looked like. 

1. 👰 Marketing Prep - Build the Funnel

So we needed to start the marketing prep to get Corrie's "funnel" dialed in. 🖼️ Here's what she did in the week leading up to the Wedding Expo. Keep in mind - this is a wedding expo, 🤵‍♂ so she'd want her content to be wedding-specific if we drove traffic to her socials during the event. Always think in terms of funneling people to a desired action (aka purchasing for their weddings).

• 💒 Getting socials ready (reposted / pin for new timestamp)
• 💒 Posting wedding sets daily leading up to the event
• 💒 All comments / reviews responded to
• 💒 Matched energy on Instagram
• 💒 Updated forms / website 

We decided we'd take Eddie - the edible direct-to-food printer from Primera (also a podcast sponsor). 🤔 I asked myself, "What would get someone to stop at a cookie booth" and 🖨 the answer was "print them on a cookie - live - as they watch." So this meant we needed some specific supplies to make Eddie work.

2. 👰 Source Your Supplies

We haven't done a vendor expo for Corrie's company before, so I had to order all the custom printed things - which meant the start-up costs for this were high (ideally you'd repeat these events and bring the cost-per-use down considerably). 🪑 I needed a custom Tablecloth (TableCoversNow for $216.60), a Step and Repeat as a photo backdrop (VistaPrint for $338.14), and an A-frame sign (Best of Signs for $128.43). We borrowed a 6'x2.5' table from my mom. I had a Sony A7C mirrorless camera with a 24mm lens. Corrie brought her Dell XPS computer, and then we had Eddie (all already purchased a few years ago). 

• 💒 Ordered custom tablecloth, custom circle a-frame sign, custom step & repeat
• 💒 Purchased add-on carrying cases for easier transport
• 💒 Pre-baked 45 Eddie blank cookies + 1 sleeve of Mom Pop pre-dipped cookies (for backup)
• 💒 50 QR Code printed cookies + business cards

3. 👰 Do a Setup Dry Run

I'm a planner - so a dry run for setup and workflow was a must if I wanted to get any sleep the night before. I build out the dimensions in an app called Whimsical. We were limited to a 6x6 event space, so lemme just say - it was gonna be tight. 

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📧 Know Newsletters - What to send to who and how often.

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 174 - Know Newsletters, we talk everything you need to know about newsletters. These powerhouses in digital marketing are some of the most untouched real estate in the cottage world - and why? We're not sure - but if you capitalize on it now, you'll be cookin' (baking?) with fire come the busy season.

Jumping straight into it - in the Onesday Wednesday newsletter, I included the 90-day line chart of our weekly newsletter (this is a Sendgrid report). It's sent on Wednesdays, and you can see I missed a Wednesday a few months ago (the dead zone where there's no peak) and again last week (fam stuff). 

The big takeaway in this chart isn't the number of people receiving our emails. It's the consistency at which the newsletters are sent, how many emails reach an inbox (deliverability), how many get opened (open rate), and what gets clicked on (click-through rate).

So let's break down the making of solid bones for a newsletter. Before we jump into the content, we gotta actually have a list. So let's start there and build.

📨 1. Creating an Email List

You've got to generate a list. Review the CAN-SPAM laws, but my take - you can email people who have purchased cookies from you in the past as long as you follow all the other rules. Ideally, your list is compromised of opt-in emails (people who intentionally signed up for your list). Newsletter senders often include free landing pages and sign-up forms to grow your list as well. Giveaways are a great incentive for quick sign-ups.

📨  2. Selecting a Sender.

You won't want to use your personal email to send out newsletters (CAN-SPAM laws require an unsubscribe button and an address), so selecting a newsletter sender is integral to a healthy newsletter campaign. Big names in the biz are Mailchimp, Flodesk, Square, Sendgrid, Constant Contact - there's about a million to choose from so find one that fits your needs, your budget, and your workflow.

📨 3. Preview Content

When you go to write your email - the preview content (the "from," the subject line, the preview text) will help you get that ever-coveted opened email. In the preview content, I like to attract attention with the subject line then draw them in with the supporting preview text. Imagine my Halloween email's subject line reading: "👻 I've Got Something SCARY To Tell You" and the preview line is "🎃The 10 closest pumpkin patches to Fairfax".  Preview text isn't available in all inboxes, but always think about drawing folks to the "email open." That subject line is a lot more eye-catching than "September Offerings." 

📨 4. Body-yody-yody-yody

The body of your newsletter - the meat and potatoes - is the content your readers are clicking to read. Corrie came up with a cute poem to guide you, "something for me, something for you, but no more than two." Basically - keep it short, sweet, and skim-able. Header tags, bolded fonts, and bulleted lists are your buddies here. Pictures are worth the thousand words you don't have to type out. An example of the "something for me, something for you" is a list of local cideries in your area + your back-to-school offerings. Another example is your January "Build a Snowman" cookie class + a list of local sledding hills the kids love. You get the point. Don't jam-pack a newsletter with a million different offerings, 4 CTAs (call-to-actions), and a billion photos - you're making that poor newsletter do too many things and thus it does nothing really. FOCUS on one initiative per email. 

We cover more tips in this week's podcast like templates, how nested header tags work, an ideal schedule for someone getting

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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 165 - Stab at Collabs, Corrie took one for the team and signed up for a local vendor collab on Monday so she can give us the bake-down this week. And I think you'll like what she has to share with the classroom.

Okay, so what's a local collab? If you're familiar with our cookie collabs on Instagram - it's not that exactly. Our digitally-based SCM collabs get a bunch of bakers together and engaging with each other on a single day for 1 hour to help boost the alg'rims. 

👉 1. What's a Local Collab?

Similarly, a local collab gathers local vendors together and helps them create a referral network + content generation. The collab that Corrie' participated in was spearheaded by a local picnic planner (these are all the rage in our area now) who sourced a florist, her own picnic setup, a baker, a photographer, and 5 models to create a staged bridal shower.

We'll break down the pros and cons of these local collabs based on Corrie's "on the ground" experience this week + how to plan your own in the event you don't have your own local dreamy picnic planner.

👉 2. Pros and Cons

Rarely in marketing is anything a 100% free and clear win - there's always the give and take (we just hope the give exceeds the take, amiright?!). Same with these local collabs - they're front-loaded effort followed by repurcussion results - thus it's hard to track the value proposition until after services have already been rendered. 

• ❌ Con: free work (you're likely not getting paid for this)
• ✅ Pro: Referral network + connections
• ❌ Con: No guarantees of leads
• ✅ Pro: Passive long-term lead gen (referral list)
• ❌ Con: It's only as good as the camera equipment 
• ✅ Pro: Social Content + social sharing with other vendors
• ❌ Con: Lots of moving parts and people
• ✅ Pro: Most versatile baker wins

👉 3. Setting up / Joining a Collab

Corrie got lucky and caught a community group "call for vendors" posted by the picnic lady. I know in our area, there are dedicated Facebook groups for local area vendor calls. In the event that you don't have an event planner creating these collabs, you can set one up yourself. Sure, more footwork, but also - more power (muhahaha). What I mean is people tend to respect the hostest with the mostest, so use that to your advantage. 

• ️🎈 If you want more wedding work, partner with the picnic / event planners
• ️🎈 If you want more birthday work, partner with the balloon garland people / face painters
• ️🎈 Joining a collab is harder to find - search community groups for leads

👉 4. Breakdown of This Collab 

I'm not going to type this out - but in this week's podcast, Corrie does a verbal walkthrough of how it started, how it went down, what she expected vs what happened, and how she'd approach creating your own if this sounds like a lead generator you want in on. Regardless - it's a great way to get good content.

👉 5. Recap: Things You Wish You Knew

Rare in life do things go off without a hitch - and this local collab with so many moving pieces and people was not exempt. Being a baker, you'd have to be flexible with events that are outside or involve a lot of folks with ever-changing plans.

• 💧 "I wish I knew that there was potential for this to get rescheduled multiple times - rain dates."
• 💧 "I wish I could have known the color palette beforehand and frozen my set so I was more flexible for the rain potential."
• 💧"I wish I knew that the distance is very far from my home and thus my target audience since we can't ship in Virginia." 

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What?! Two podcasts in one week?! 

Well - sorta. This is an audio-outtake from a Facebook Live I taught in The Cookie College yesterday launching the 3x3x3(x3) Challenge for Instagram! And to celebrate a year of the Cookie College, I'm inviting you podcasters to get it on this challenge - by listening to it!

If you like what you hear - jump in! This challenge is a fun one and really works! If you'd like to learn more about The Cookie College, you can check it out here: https://www.thecookiecollege.com/

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🏠  It All Starts at the Foundation

Ever built a house? Well - probably most of us would say no, but we've all probably lived in a house - and what's under your feet? A foundation. Now - how good that foundation depends on who laid it. A sandy foundation is going to lead to future cracks and a headache in repairs. A strong foundation could have that house standing for a century. 

It depends on the foundation. The foundation is everything when it comes to building a strong house that'll stand the test of time and weather.

Your marketing? No different. 

I can nearly guarantee that when someone runs to the group and says "Marketing on Instagram doesn't work!" that it actually does, but this person is missing some of their foundation. 

You may have tried something, but you didn't try everything. How do I speak so confidently? Because I'm able to monitor a group of 36,000 bakers makin' what you just said doesn't work, work. 

And that is awesome news. Why? Because that means you can make it work - you just need to spend a little time repairing your foundation.  

1️⃣ Get on Facebook and Instagram.

😭 "Yeah, Heather, but I don't use Instagram." 

Okay cool - then acknowledge you're leaving leads on the table over on Instagram. Why? Because a lot of people are making sales on Instagram. So it works. And whether you choose to use it or not is up to you - but as such, not using it means you don't want Instagram leads. 

There's your leads. 

2️⃣ Join Local Community Groups or NextDoor Neighborhoods.

😭 "But my local groups don't allow sales posts." 

Cool. Then figure out how to sell without selling. Add enough value to this group that people stalk your group profile and see that, guess what, you sell baked goods. And if you sell baked goods that are half as good as that play-by-play you gave of that over-crowded pumpkin patch, people will order from you.

There's your leads. 

3️⃣ Create an Email List.

😭 "But I don't have an email list." 

Yeah, you do - everyone you've ever sold anything to. Gather their emails. Put them in a list, and make a free Mailchimp account. Then get to sendin' because goodness knows emails convert, and even more, goodness knows a warm lead is a great lead. 

There's your leads. 

4️⃣ Utilize a GMB / GBP Listing.

😭 "But I don't know how."

Join the Cookie College for a month. I'll teach you how. And then you'll start seeing more cold audience leads (people who haven't ordered from you before). Can't join the College yet? Just Google "how to create a GBP" and get to gettin'.

There's your leads.

5️⃣ Get a Website.

Websites convert more leads. 

😭  "But I don't have a website, and I get leads." 

Yeah - but could you imagine how many more leads you could get? Websites provide buyer confidence. Nothing screams "you're safe here" like amazing product photography, a return policy easy to find, product descriptions that answer questions, and a beautiful baker bio that makes you seem like a bestie to each client who reads it. Get a website. Get a website optimized. Get a website with great photography. Get a website with e-comm integration. Get a website that sells why you sleep. 

There's your leads. 

Getting the foundations dialed in will result in more leads, better leads, and higher margins = which all added up together means a better business. Stop falling into marketing fad traps until you get that foundation built and those cracks filled. With the right foundation, your bakery buildin' will stand for years to come.

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1️⃣ Treat yourself like an employee.

Remember back to that last job you had in retail -  🤔 when the clock hit quittin' time, you were outta there. You should have the same boundary with your "boss self" - when it's time to close up shop, do it. Tell your boss, "Hey, sorry! You only had me scheduled until 5 o'clock! I'm out. But see ya tomorrow." If employee-you didn't feel the need to work overtime, why are you doing it now? Remember - there will always be work to do - and even if you do all of it, there will still be more. 

Work will eat whatever you feed it. So put it on a "work-life" diet and only give it what you're willing and wanting to. 🤤 Stop feeding an insatiable beast.

2️⃣ Protect your Fridays.

Now this is a new one I've been trying out. No, it's not the whole "4-day work week," but instead an overage day - a day I allocate for any work that wasn't done the four working days prior. I don't schedule anything on Friday, but I reserve it for those inevitable tasks that have a nasty way of sneaking into an already packed schedule.  

If you don't work a Monday - Friday schedule like I do, guess what! You can choose your weekends. If you do pick-ups on Saturday, make your weekends Sunday and Monday, then your overage day could be Monday. It's your schedule, boss, and you get to set it.

3️⃣ Smart-ify your Work Schedule. 

I found these smart plugs on Amazon that work with Alexa and Google. Basically, any device you plug into these suddenly becomes "smart" meaning I can now control it from an app. I use these to help me stay on balance by:

• Having my office lights turn off at closing time.
• Having my bedroom lights turn on a bedtime. 
• Schedule to turn my 3-D printer off after the print is finished.
• Turn my crock-pot on in the morning.
• Turn my pet's lights on and off depending on the day.

These small hacks can help you stick to your work-life regimen of closing down at a certain time (trust me - working by computer light in the pitch dark makes you wanna run for the covers!). 

4️⃣ Budget for a Solid Sleep Schedule. 

I'll take this one to my comforter-lined grave - get a good sleep schedule and stick to it. EIGHT HOURS - you read that right. Don't believe me? Snag the book Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker (PhD). If you're operating at a sleep deficit, your mind is operating in a fog.  

5️⃣ Batch Your Week.

Reverse calendaring (thanks Jessica Gensel for that Facebook Live), weekend pre-planning, and batch baking can all save you work time leading to a better work-life balance. 

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🌄  Death-Ground Strategy in Business

Yeah, so that title is violent - but the concept behind Robert Greene's 33 Strategies of War is actually pretty solid, and it's the focus of our Baking it Down Podcast this week.

You see - when there's a mountain behind an army blocking their only way of retreat, and their only option is to "do or die," they'll fight 3x harder to win.

Why? Because failure isn't an option. And when you can't afford to lose, you'll do just about anything to win. The same could apply to your business goals. If you had to sell 10 custom orders - because not selling them meant you were on the streets tomorrow, what would you do to make it happen?? I'd wager you'd do an awful lot to ensure you had a roof over your head.

🤔  "but Heather, I'm not a violent person."

Me either. Think of it this way...

If I paid you $1,000,000 to teach a cookie class, what would you do to make it happen?
Well, you better believe I'll be knocking on every door from here to Timbucktu to fill a seat, come heck or high water.

👣 Warning - this newsletter may cause some feet injuries because I might step on a few toes. But I have good reason. 👣  

🛌 But oftentimes in our businesses, we put a pillow fort behind us ready to catch us and all of our glorious excuses. 

• 🛌  I couldn't teach the class because the only venue I reached out to didn't reply.
• 🛌 I couldn't sell watercolor cookies because the one time I tried to learn it, it didn't look very good.
• 🛌 I didn't sign up for The Cookie College because I'm too busy to take a class. 
• 🛌 I can't post Reels, I don't know how to find trending music.

Those excuses look comfy, don't they? Definitely not a mountain behind your back forcing your hand of excuses and making you "do or die" try, I'd say.

They say spending 100 hours practicing something will allow you to be considered "very good" at that thing. One hundred hours sounds like an insanely long amount of time (unless you're scrolling on TikTok, then I think it translates to about 1.5 earth hours). 

But lemme break this down for you:

• 10 Minutes a Day for 600 Days = 100 Hours
• 20 Minutes a Day for 300 Days = 100 Hours
• 30 Minutes a Day for 200 Days = 100 Hours
• 40 Minutes a Day for 150 Days = 100 Hours
• 50 Minutes a Day for 120 Days = 100 Hours
• 60 Minutes a Day for 100 Days = 100 Hours 

If you sleep the recommended 8 hours a day, spend another 8 hours a day working, that leaves you eight hours to spend how you want to. Can you take one of those hours and allocate it to a new decorating skill? Planning a cookie class? Taking a Cookie College course?

You're not on a Death-Ground strategy and the only person who stands to lose here is you. I don't care. I mean, don't get me wrong - I love you, your ideas, and your business. But if you don't reach your goals - I don't care. You care. It's your life. It's your future. Not mine. 

So act like you're on a Death-Ground to reach your goals. Or at least acknowledge that your pillow fort has the finest Egyptian-sourced cotton you could spend your 10-minutes a day finding.

🌄 Find your mountain and put it behind you, then fight like heck for your future. 

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🎯 What are Target Audiences?

If you thought this newsletter was about the Dollar Section at Target, you're probably not alone *trembles in plastic apple containers* - but much like beloved Target, we need to target our audience. And unlike Target, we can't appeal to everybody.

🤔 "Heather, you're off here. Listen - if I appeal to everyone = more people will buy from me. I ain't no Einstein, but the more people I reach, the more sales I can make."

You're not wrong - in theory. The more people who do know about you, yes, can order from you. But what you can't see is how many people who know about you still don't order from you because your brand messaging is fuzzy.

🤔  "Fuzzy? What mean you?" 

Let's say I wanted to start a group to talk about marketing and selling sugar cookies. But - sugar cookies. That's so limiting! Let's instead create a group that talks about selling all baked goods. 😬 Yeah, that'll get us access to a much larger audience! 

But just baked goods? 😬 What about hot sauce people and kombucha bros?! Okay - you're right. Let's create a group that features tips to sell things you create under cottage laws. Wonderful idea! 

Hold up - why limit ourselves to cottage laws? Maybe throw in brick-and-mortar bakeries, bottling companies, and breweries too. 😬  Good idea. Storefront audiences - they're pining for tips to make more sales to cover leases.

Waaaaidaminute. You know what - the same concepts we use to sell edible goods, we could actually use to sell candles and other products as well. 😬 Awesome - let's call the group, "Selling Things You Make (Group)," wide open to a huge target audience who will love to learn from us.

But what about importers and resellers? 😬 There's a huge market for those people too - and if we add them to our audience - well, heck! The Cookie College will be bursting with new signups! But we won't be able to call it The Cookie College anymore, huh? We'll call it "How to Sell Absolutely Anything Ever!" 

My point is a bit long in the tooth, but it can be summarized in this quote:

"When your messaging speaks to everyone, it speaks to no one."

🎯 Okay - I see your point. So who is my target audience?

Think of your target audience as a really tight-knit group of people. We want to keep our targets small - the smaller the better. A great way to start off determining who your current target is is by taking an average of who purchased from you in the past 1 year. 

Think narrow thoughts - speak almost about a single individual. What's that person's age? Male or female? Kids or child-free? Empty nesters or elementary school? Dinks or single-income? Home schooled or public schooled? Be specific. 

🎯 Okay - I've got the person narrowed down. Now what?

Now begin crafting your messaging to speak to that person. If that person has kids, talk to people with kids. "But what if some people don't have kids." They're not your target - remember, you just came up with your target person in the step above. "But won't they feel left out?" No - they'll find someone whose targeting they fall into. You need to focus on people who fall within your target audience.

🎯  Hey - what's the worst that could happen? 🎯 

Odds are if you haven't determined your brand voice, your messaging is already pretty generic and slightly fuzzy. The worst that could happen? You find a true tribe of customers who are more loyal to you than Corrie to a Target parking lot. 

Go forth. Find your target. And laser focus on what they want, like, and hate. Then speak to them about those topics. You're going to find that customers can connect with you on a deeper level (and end up reaching deeper into their pockets).

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🏃 Run, Forest, Run!

You always hear us refer to marketing in terms of "run-times" - but what are we saying when we sub in track days for calendar weeks? Don't worry - no gym routines here. 

Run times refer to the number of days / weeks / months designated for a marketing campaign.

So - let's apply it to BTS (for some reason, I thought people were making Korean boy band cookies this whole time, but I digress). How can we use a marketing lifecycle to prep our audience for the upcoming back-to-school offerings?

Quick poll before we do - in a poll of about 300 SCM group members, the results on BTS offerings and run-times is interesting:

• 🏃 6 Weeks Out - 0%
• 🏃 5 Weeks Out - 1%
• 🏃 4 Weeks Out - 12%
• 🏃 3 Weeks Out - 32%
• 🏃 2 Weeks Out - 18%
• 🏃 1 Week Out - 3%
• 🏃 Not Offering BTS - 31%

Three weeks is the most popular run-time for back-to-school sets.

*  I would make a disclaimer that BTS is unlike any "cookie holiday" in that it typically sneaks up on our target audience at a time when a majority of bakers have taken the summer off. I'd assume Halloween will be a bit different.

🏃 So how can we build out a "marketing lifecycle" for back to school?

Your run-times will be different than my run-times depending on your location, back-to-school date, target audience, and how prepared you are. There's no wrong answer, but if you're looking for an answer of some sort - here's mine: we start with a 6-week marketing cycle. So if your BTS date is August 29th, guess what - you're getting your BTS cycle going this week.

🏃  1. Awareness - getting your audience prepped

First stage in this 6-stage / 6-week cycle is awareness. You're not expecting to make any sales now, but your form is probably ready just in case. You're basically introducing your audience to your offerings. Kinda like the "Hey girl heeeey" posts. This is the top of your back-to-school funnel.

🏃  2. Engagement - getting your audience to react / post / like

This is the fun stage. Asking for your audience's opinions on your offerings, posting their kiddos' last first-day-of-school photos, or hosting a contest for last year's report card grades. You're still not asking for the sale here, but you are getting people excited!

🏃  3. Evaluation - getting your audience to pick you

This is where you set yourself up as the "best in the business" - whether in cute packaging, customer support (more on that later), and featuring great past client reviews. You're also telling them your pricing options, informing them of pick-up dates, and last calls. Make it *easy* to pick you, or they'll pick someone else.

🏃  4. Purchase - getting your audience to give you money

And BOOM goes the dynamite. At this stage, you ask for the sale. Make buying *so* easy. Communicate effectively. How to order. Ease of ordering. Confirmation of order. What to expect after the order. Do NOT make it hard for people to give you their money. (ps - you could also up-sell add-ons here)

🏃 5. Support - getting your audience to trust that they made the right decision

Listen - once money exchanges hands, you can't ghost to the kitchen for 2 weeks. You can have these emails already written and ready to go - even before you made the first sale. Email clients the minute they order (auto-responder), then use a mailmerge app or bcc your list to follow up a week out from pick-up, the day before pick-up, day-of pick-up, and heck, even after pick-up! Make these clients your clients for life.

🏃  6. Loyalty - getting your audience to shout you from the mountain tops