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

Send us Fan Mail

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 237 - The Cookie College Stealios, Corrie and I go through our Vendy Blendy 2025 Cookie College offerings, and... ️🥁️🥁️🥁 drumroll please... they're once-a-year good.

🎓 The Cookie College - $64/mo or $576/yr

The best product we offer is The Cookie College (typically $76/mo, but on sale on Black Friday for $64/mo or $576/yr, which takes it down to $48/mo). It's the best because it gets everything we offer, including its own proprietary content (the marketing courses and private FB group).

• 👉 86 Marketing Courses
• 👉 The Private Facebook Group
• 👉 The Freebie Photos
• 👉 The 2023 Cookie Class Kits ($300)
• 👉 The 2024 Cookie Class Kits ($300) 
• 👉 The 2025 Cookie Class Kits Membership ($63/mo)
• 👉 The Bakers Business Basics Membership ($36/mo)
• 👉 The Digital Downloads Membership ($10/mo)
• 👉 The Two Dollar Transfer Club Membership ($2/mo) 

If you bought these separately, it'd be $187 in membership costs per month, plus the $300 for each year of the Cookie Class Kits. Those are our prices for 50.9 weeks of the year. But for ONE day, you can get all of that for our lowest monthly price - $64/mo.

But wanna save even more?? When you sign up for a yearly membership for $576 on Black Friday (usually $760), you automatically get THREE months free. That takes the monthly equivalent to $48/mo. That's the cheapest you'll ever get the Cookie College.

🎓 The Cookie Class Kits - $44/mo 

The Cookie Class Kit is discounted too - you can get the 2025 Class Kits (there are currently 12 of them that'll archive on January 7th) for just $44/mo (usually $63/mo). Per class, that's just $5.25 a class! 

The class kits are the curriculum you'd need to teach an in-person cookie class. For reference, we taught a private in-home class (listen to last week's podcast Episode 235 and 236 for more on that), and cleared 10 tickets at $85/ea plus a DIY kit for $35/ea. That's gross $885 just from teaching a cookie class.

Those classes included in this membership are:

• 👉 CCK - January Cookie Class - Happy New Year Cookie Class
• 👉 CCK - February Cookie Class - Galentine's Day Cookie Class
• 👉 CCK - March Cookie Class - K9 Cookies Cookie Class
• 👉 CCK - April Cookie Class - Happy Moms Day Cookie Class
• 👉 CCK - May Cookie Class - Cookies de Mayo Cookie Class
• 👉 CCK - June Cookie Class - Frosting Father Cookie Class
• 👉 CCK - July Cookie Class - Patriotic Piping Cookie Class
• 👉 CCK - August Cookie Class - School and Scribes Cookie Class
• 👉 CCK - September Cookie Class - Happy Birthday! Cookie Class
• 👉 CCK - October Cookie Class - BOO!-kie Class Cookie Class
• 👉 CCK - November Cookie Class - Frosting Feast Class Cookie Class
• 👉 CCK - December Cookie Class - Santa's Set Cookie Class 

✅ Each class includes the photography of the class, the video step-by-step tutorials, the social media posts and stories, the Eventbrite cover and listing info, the email copy, the social media copy, the step-by-step PowerPoint, the bake math spreadsheet for planning, the Eddie outline prints, and the supply lists to recreate the class setup yourself. We also throw in printables like a custom piping practice sheet and coloring sheet. 

Send us Fan Mail

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 236 - The Most BORING Podcast Ever Recorded, I paid my nephew (Corrie's son, Archer) $10 to do the podcast intro (and just when you thought no one could talk faster than Heather), and we recapped the private in-home cookie class we taught last week.

Also, (hilariously and probably not totally wrong), someone texted into the podcast that it was boring - ergo the name of this week's episode.

👩‍🏫 The Private Cookie Class - Pt 2

Of course, not everything went according to plan, and I think that's the value of the podcast - listening to what not to do and what to take into consideration. Here's what I'd consider more closely if we did this again:

• 🎟️ Lead acquisition - Turns out, this lead came from a referral that turned into a failed custom order (Corrie was out for that cancer surgery), that, through cross promotion of cookie classes, was reacquired through consistent marketing.
• 🎟️  Room Configuration Issues - Dining rooms mean heavy furniture and carpeting, so there was no ability for attendees to swivel and face, and single direction. This created a bit of frustration since folk had to wait for me to walk the laptop around. There was no room for a TV, and the document camera was a no-go.
• 🎟️ Technical Difficulties - Would it be a cookie class without tech problems?! The IPEVO document camera that was working mere minutes before class suddenly couldn't be read by the laptop on location, so we dropped the concept completely. Thank goodness Corrie had those display cookie stands - they loved referencing those.
• 🎟️ Parking and Logistics -  Private classes mean private driveways - and this one was super tight. I wish we'd considered this before, although I'm not sure there was too much we could do about it.
• 🎟️ Class Flow and Student Engagement - The class was longer than anticipated due to interruptions like serving food and increased chatter among friends versus in a public class where we have a bunch of strangers in a room together (wine, anyone?). We didn't have as much power since we were just the hired teachers in someone else's home - maybe I wish we had something to amplify our voices?
• 🎟️ Financial Aspects - Was it worth it? Yep - we cleared $85/ticket and one $35 take-home kit (I wish we had called these "practice kits" and not DIY kits). Plus, teaching in a private home means no venue fees, and we didn't have to fill the room - Mary did that all on her own (saving us marketing labor costs).
• 🎟️ Piping Practice - Still a huge fan of spending 15 minutes on a piping practice sheet. We do this in all of our classes, and it really sets the students up for success. Remember, a student who liked their results = a potential for a future returning ticket sale.
• 🎟️ Communication Importance - Remember - organization is key for private classes. Staying on top of the host to ensure everyone's on the same page keeps us all on track.

🟠 The Vendy Blendy - Pt 2 

The Vendy Blendy is just 16 (basically no 15) days away, and we've got a really stellar lineup (list below). You can find out everything you need to know here:

• 🟠 https://www.sugarcookiemarketing.com/vendyblendy

If you missed my Facebook Lives - catch the replays here:

• 🧡 Live 1 - Vendy Blendy 101
• 🧡 Live 2 - Pre-Shop the Vendys
• 🧡 Live 3 - Secrets to the Vendy Blendy

Tomorrow, Thursday, 🎓 I'll cover the Vendy Blendy Deals for The Cookie College - it'll be a great sale, and one we've never run before *and probably won't again until next Black Friday. 

Send us Fan Mail

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 227 - Do NOT Teach a Cookie Class (this way), Corrie and I list out the things we wouldn't do if we were getting into cookie classes (yeah, yeah - the title is a bit of a clickbait, but hey, we're marketers, right?).

September in the Sugar Cookie Marketing group is all about Cookie Classes as we try out having a "monthly theme" focused on one topic (you can still post whatever). You can search #SeptemberCookieClassesMonth in the group to see more posts on this topic. 

🚫 That said - today we wanna talk to the "on the fence" baker considering teaching cookie classes this "Cookie Class Money Printing Season" aka the holiday rush. ⛔ Here's the eight things we'd never do if we were teaching a cookie class (again - clickbait, but aren't ya curious??).

🛑 1. Do NOT pay for a venue (if you can play ball)

Okay - so not all venues will let ya use their spaces for free, but before you resign yourself to paying, 🚫 shoot your shot on finding a venue that lets you use it for free in exchange for marketing their shop to your audience.

⚠️ Class teaching baker Brit says she was offered a 60/40 split with her venue, but countered with a 100/0 split in exchange for all the marketing she'd be doing, bringing folks to the winery to buy wine + a cookie class. Guess what? They bit. And now she makes 100% of her sales.

No, not every venue will take the bait, but ask before you cough up commissions. Wineries, breweries, kitchen showrooms, cafes, and shared workspaces may all be interested in a lil' exposure in exchange for monetary compensation. 

🛑 2. Do NOT just list a class each month.

We used to post a class at the beginning of each month. 🚫 Over time, we realized we were working twice as hard as we should be if we just listed our yearly calendar each January. By listing the year up front, we're able to tell each class we teach about the upcoming classes - and that makes for good marketing.

⚠️ The approach has worked so well in fact, our October Halloween and December Christmas classes are already booked, and it's only September 2. 

🛑 3. Do NOT teach intermediate classes.

And if you do, I swear I oughttaaaa... not really care, teach what ya like. BUT if you're just getting started, beginner-level classes will make your class attendees feel so much more successful. ✋ And a happy student = a student who might come back again. 🚫 Teaching intermediate classes limits who will sign up, and also it'll likely raise your ticket prices, yet again limiting who will sign up. 🛑 It's not my favorite recipe for filling up class seats. 

🛑 4. Do NOT use a ton of icing colors/consistencies.

I know when a baker is teaching cookie classes because they all suffer from something I like to call "Cookie Class Icing PTSD" - 🚫 which is to say swinging bags and bags of icing over their heads for an upcoming cookie class. When it comes to classes, everything has to be done at scale. ⚠️ So those 7 icing bags you'd mix for your custom sets? Yeah, that's gonna be SEVENTY bags if you're teaching a class to 10 people. ⛔⛔⛔ Y-i-k-es. 

🛑 5. Do NOT start from scratch.

Shameless plug (but if we don't toot our own horns, who will?) for the Cookie Class Kits membership that takes the "from scratch" out of cookie class planning. We handle everything for you, so you can focus on securing a venue, baking, and presenting. These class kits handle the design, the color choices, the photography, the step-by-step PowerPoint, the copy, and the math (plus printables like piping practice sheets and Eddie outlines), leaving you time and bandwidth to really knock the class out of the park.

Send us Fan Mail

It's the time of yeeeear... when the reach is low and the engagement is even lower. What gives?! I'll tell ya what - the deep pockets of big corporations capitalizing on the "year-end consumer" who is primed to pay. 

It's a fight to the feed death in Q4, and we've got some tips and tricks to help you gain some ground.

🥊 Reset Expectations.

We're in a battle of the business and the newsfeed is the fighting ring. Bigger companies with bigger pockets are paying bigger bills to win Facebook bids. Lots of 🅱️ Bs, but the 💯 A+ will be earned by the page that understands this and uses it to create compelling content to fight through the feed clutter. 

💁‍♂ Listen - it's going to be harder to reach your audience. Your engagement will be lower. And that's okay - because knowing this will help us to create a better campaign to adjust to the deeper pocket punches. 

🥊 Be Annoying.

Corrie is very adept at this (lol). But seriously - no one is being annoyed by your posts because no one is seeing your posts. So 👏 be 👏 annoying! And don't just post the same thing 10 times - yeah, that's not ✨quality✨ annoyance. We need to be ✨creatively✨ annoying. 

• 👊 Use the Stories feature. 
• 👊 Host a Facebook Live. 
• 👊 Post a Reel. 
• 👊 Create a poll. 
• 👊 Make a feed post. 
• 👊 Run an ad. 

All of these are features to sneak into the feed and annoy your audience in a way they don't think is annoying - but it's everywhere all the time. 

🥊 Be Consistent.

Be consistent! It's so easy to get all those holiday orders in, tuck your head between your legs, and head off to the kitchen only to reappear in January wondering if all the sales followed the groundhog back into his burrow. We may get busy - but we can't be too busy to market - unless we're willing to leave the sales to our competition who is willing to be present on their pages. 

🥊 Test. Test. Restest.

Your audience shifts into 🧠 "year-end consumer brain" in Q4, and adjusting your content will be a necessary step in making sure we're still resonating with that audience. How are we gonna do that? Test and retest! Long-form content (example below), short-form content, different creative (aka pictures), videos, Lives, emojis (Corrie thinks I use too many... 🙂😄😆😅😂🤣😊😌). 

Test it - see how they respond. Then retest it again - see how they respond ✨ again ✨. Wash, rinse, and repeat until your audience is primed to react, respond, and reach for their wallets. What works in 1️⃣ Q1 isn't likely going to work the same in 2️⃣ Q4. Adjust accordingly.

🥊 Learn to Pivot. 

📆 Sometimes you hoped your audience would like Advent Calendars and sometimes your audience just happens to 🚫 not like Advent Calendars. 😭 We can't cry over spilled meringue powder - but we can pivot! 

💃 If advents don't sell, swing back by pivoting to DIY kits - test, test, and retest and see if that hits your audience's sweet spot. Test PYOs, test cookie classes, test DIYs, test customs - and keep pivoting until you find the product your target audience flips for.

🥊 Admin Day.

Set aside an admin day - this is a day you are NOT allowed to touch a Bosch, Kitchen-Aid, or oven. On this day, you realign yourself each week to stay on top of posting, follow-up, invoicing, and customer relations. ❌ This day SHALL NOT BE A BAKING DAY ❌ - 🤑 no matter how tempting the rush fee charge may be. 

Send us Fan Mail

You know we preach policies. 👏 Protect your boundaries. 👏 Charge your worth. 👏 Guard your peace. But you may be surprised to know we also say "bend the rules." You see - the policies are the "big bad monsters" we use as our fall guy. 

• 🤷‍♀ "I'm sorry - my policies state no refunds for no-shows."
• 🤷‍♀ "Oh man, I wish I could! But my policies say that payment is due at time of order."
• 🤷‍♀ "Darn it - I would, but the policy states that there's a rush fee for orders placed with less than a 5-day runtime."

💪🏼 The policies are in place to protect us - but that doesn't mean they're written in stone (or rock-hard, stale dough). You see - by bending certain policies, we can snag the bag and come out lookin' like our client's hero (🦸 wearing an apron as a cape in this scenario).

 🚩 The key to effective rule-bending is knowing when there's a win for the baker and the client. A win-lose rule bend is a loss for someone, so might as well just stick with the policies. Let's look at some examples.

🗒️ Rule Bender Example 1: It's a Pick-Up Date.

Let's say you have a set pick-up date on Saturdays, but the client wants to move it to Friday. What do you do? 🦨 Tell them "ain't no way, honey bun - rules are rules and your hiney better be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed come Saturday at 8AM!"? I mean - you could. It's in your policies. BUT - could you snag a sale by bending just a little? ⤴️ For example, a rule bender would say this:

🗒️ Rule Bender Example 2: It's Delivery.

Corrie doesn't offer delivery - ⤴️  that is until she bends the rules a bit. When she got an order from a large department store in our local city center, 🧈 you butter believe she jumped in her car. Why? By bending the delivery rules, she snagged a HUGE sale - and another, and another - from the same store. So when a big account asks for front-door delivery, it may be a good time to do some old-fashioned rule-bending.

🗒️ Rule Bender Example 3: Class Credit.

Corrie and I have some pretty strict class cancelation policies - unless we bend them a bit. Here's the thing - 💳 Eventbrite doesn't tell you this, but if someone does a chargeback, they'll 100% refund them (and not ask you). 🏦 So - if I bend my "no refunds" policy and turn it into a future class credit, I may be able to snag an additional sale for the now-empty seat AND get that future class money from the credited sale. One of those "win-win" scenarios.

🗒️ Rule Bender Example 4: Copyright Copy Cat.

🚫 Corrie does not offer copyright cookies. But she bends the rules with likenesses. (Where that legal line in the sand is between you, your liability policy, and Disney lawyers and is a bit too deep to swim in in today's podcast but I digress). 💃 But the likeness of a copyrighted character can be just enough rule-bending to snag a sale. 

Most rules aren't meant to be broken. But many rules are meant to be bent. Knowing which ones and how far to bend them comes with practice - and keep in mind, bending the rules may be makin' the sale, but it also leads to a bit more liability exposure. So weigh your options and make sure you have a fully funded oopsie budget to stave off bad reviews for bent rules. 

⛔ "No" is only a complete sentence for a bad salesperson. Find the common double-green-flag ground for you and your clients to both win-win while you laugh all the way to the bank.

Send us Fan Mail

and the lessons we're implementing.

Corrie and my mom and sisters all met up on Sunday for a cake class - they had a blast, but they also got to be on the "student" side of a class for once (Corrie specifically). So she made some notes she could take back to our own class drawing board. Here's her "bake down" of her mental notes post-caker crash course.

🎂 1. Remind - Remind - Remind!

"Eventbrite reminds attendees of the basics of their event, but go out of your way to email a personal reminder. Nail down some extraneous details - like to confirm the class has met the minimum attendee requirement. It'll go a long way in establishing a relationship with your students before they get there too. Plus it's nice to cover your butt by emailing your "no show" policies before class start time." 

🎂 2. Start on Time.

"We were in a second class following a prior class that had run over a bit. Since the first class ran over, it put the teacher in "rush mode" and didn't give her or her assistants much time to breathe. A great tip we'll be taking back to our classes is letting the first class know that they have to be out by X time. Also - I'd like Heather to build in a little extra time in between our first and second classes - 30 minutes just isn't enough time if we have students leaving 10 minutes late and new students arriving 15 minutes early." 

🎂 3. Bright Eyed / Bushy Tailed.

"We gotta keep our energy up for all classes - even if our stomachs are growling louder than our Spotify playlist. Folks paid for "bright-eyed" twins, folks better get what they paid for. I think we should bring a snack in between classes - and throw in a few diet cokes to keep us awake and engaged."

🎂 4. Imperfection is Perfect.

"I feel like I'm trying too hard to impress attendees with my skills that I forget that they're trying to learn, not be wow-ed. I gotta introduce more "Here's a common issue and how to address it" rather than "Look, I've been doing this for years and you haven't - be amazed as you try to keep up." I think it'll make the class more relatable if I come down to their level versus them coming up to mine." 

🎂 5. Reference Materials.

"During the cake class, I never really knew what the "end goal" design was, so I felt like we were flying blind a bit. I know that in our cookie classes, we have the PowerPoint but at no point do they really get to see the "end result." I'd like to print out and laminate some pictures of the final product and have them in front of each attendee to look at during the decorating process." 

🎂 6. Drop Zones.

"Mom put her purse so close to the buttercream, she almost had a tasty tote - and I think we don't tell people when they show up where they're allowed to drop their stuff. Moving forward, we should tell them where they can hang their jackets, drop their bags, and let them know more about what to expect. That way they don't feel like they are fumbling with their belongings and can just enjoy the learning process." 

🎂 7. Supplies on Supplies on Supplies.

"I know we learned from this during a few Christmas classes a couple of years ago, but having fresh supplies for each class really cuts down on wait times. We had to wait for clean bowls from the class before us which really slowed the progression of the class. I think having supplies dedicated to each class would really move things along. It may take a cut out of the bottom line initially, but in the long run, it'll really shorten class times and make for an overall more enjoyable experience I think." 

🎂 8. Say Cheese.

"Take pictures and when you think you've taken enough, take more. The more photos you take, the more options people ha

Send us Fan Mail

It’s that tiiiime of year… 😍 when the cookie world falls in love with some STELLAR deals. It's the third-ever Vendy Blendy! (👀 oh and how to win one of two Bambu Baby Carbon X1C 3D printers?! More on that in a minute.)

Get into the holiday spirit by treatin’ YOSELF to some cookie cutters, stencils, tees, and icing tips – oh my! Everything you’ll want to know to squeeze the most from your cookie dough is listed below. But don’t forget to join the Vendy Blendy Facebook Group – that’s where all the money-savin’ magic happens! 

🫐 Here's how to squeeze the most juice from the Vendy Blendy berry.

🎁 1. Inventory what you're missing.

We need to know where we're at before we know where to go. So let's start by spending the next few weeks taking inventory of what you have - supplies, bags, ingredients, tees, classes. We don't want to waste our hard-earned cash buying things we already bought, so start by making a list of "do have" and "do need." 🤔 Ask "what's running low, what's about to break, and what do I already have?" That'll be a great jump point to plan out the Vendy Blendy spendy.

🎁 2. Create a Blendy Spendy budget.

We don't want the Vendy Blendy to be a relationship endy, so come up with a budget and stick to it! As with any solid budget, you'll want to fund your "things I need" line items first. Those are the necessities we were gonna buy anyway - but might as well buy at 20% off. Once that's funded with the fun-ds, budget for the wants - the things you don't need, but it'd be nice to have. Once that's funded, add a max spend limit - a hard line in the "sales sand" where you won't cross. That way the Vendy Blendy won't end in buyer's remorse.


🎁 3. Pre-Shop the Vendors.

We've got 47 confirmed Vendys right now - 3 more that have told me yes, and 2 more that are getting their shops together. That's a LOT of Vendys - so pre-shop them now. I prefer an Excel spreadsheet to track purchase links, but Corrie likes throwing things in her Etsy carts' "save for later" feature. Whatever you do - save time by pre-shopping. I've added the current Vendy's list to the group description. 

1. 👉 See the List: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vendyblendy

Remember - Vendys are running 20% off or more - so your cart's total $ amount will drop by quite a bit come November 24th! 

🎁 4. Set Expectations with Your Family.

🤳 The Vendy Blendy is all of the 24 hours on the 24th, and while I don't expect you guys to be glued to a computer like me and the Vendys are, you will wanna check in throughout the day. ⏰ The best way to be guaranteed some "alone time" with your phone is by letting the family (in their 🦃 turkey comas 😴) know that you'll be checking your phone throughout the day to enter some fun door prizes and get a few deals and steals. 

🎁 5. Treat Yoself! 

There are a lot of new vendors this year, so that means a lot of GREAT baker gift ideas! 👰🏼 We absolutely do not mind you inviting your spouse to join the Vendy, tagging them in the products you'd like 🎅🏻 Santa to bring you, and then crossing your fingers that one of ya wins a door prize. If anything, 🧠 it's a genius idea, you smart baker, you!

🎁 6. "During Vendy Blendy" Best Practices.

️🛒 Try snagging your favorites right at midnight so you're not left with an empty stocking when/if a Vendy sells out of their fan favorites. Check back throughout the day since door prize posts can be posted whenever! 💪 Support the Vendys! Even if you're not shoppin' from them, leave a comment on their products, thank them for paying into the Blendy, and if you've bought from them in the

Send us Fan Mail

Corrie was on a mission this year to enter her ✨corporate girly era✨ - 👨‍💼 a time in her life (and business) where she gets most of her leads from small to medium-sized businesses (and heck - at this point, international businesses). 

Why? 🧦 Because corporate clients rock baker's socks - that's why. Here's the magic of corporate orders:

• 🏢 Single POC likely
• 🏢 Deep business pockets 
• 🏢 Basic Designs (heyo, logo cookies)
• 🏢 Potentially for recurring orders
• 🏢 Large-scale orders typically 
• 🏢 Very little back and forth 

😣 In the world of lots of detailed custom orders with clients breathing down your neck, fighting you on pricing, and showing up late for pickups while asking for discounts - corporate orders can be a breath of fresh air. 

And a really great way to diversify your income streams. 🌊 That way when the summer vacay season comes, your lead sources don't dry up as they head for the waterfront with the kiddos. 

SO - you're in, and you want a slice of this corporate cake. 🍰 But how?  Here's our 6-step workflow to getting into your ✨corporate girly era✨.

💼 1. Your content has to shift.

To attract corporate, you must become corporate - well, at least your content has to feature it. Don't have a corporate order to feature? Make one up! Find a business you can feature and then surprise the business with a logo cookie.

💼 2. Secure the tools.

When we say corporate, we mean quick - and often to a larger scale than customs. We ain't bakin' for baby turnin' 1 no more, we're baking for large events where the "corp client" likely wants to hand 200 folks a cookie with their logo on it. How can you work at scale? Invest in the tools to do so. Here's what we've got:

• ✨ Airbrush machine
• ✨ Cricut for stencil cutting
• ✨ Bosch for big batches
• ✨ Eddie for D2F printing (direct to food - gutter folk)
• ✨ 3D Printer for custom cutters

This stuff ain't cheap. Eddie alone is $3,000. A Bambu Carbon (which we happen to be giving away TWO at this year's 2023 Vendy Blendy) runs $1500. BUT - with these large-scale corporate orders, we are pulling in large-scale corporate checks which is a great way to cover the investment costs of these machines and then some. 

💼 3. Nail down the corporate tech.

💰 Nothing says "small beans and risky at best" than a baker telling a corporate client to pay them PayPal "friends and family" so the baker can skip out on taxes. If we want corporate money, we gotta look corporate ourselves. 📧 Get that custom domain - it's $12 bucks and that custom email while you're at it - it's only $6 and makes a 🌎world🌏 of difference when it comes to looking legit. 

• ✨ Get a Custom Domain / Email
• ✨ Send the invoice from an Invoicing Software
• ✨ Get your government EIN 
• ✨ Set up a Business Bank Account
• ✨ Maybe get a Business Address (UPS sells these)
• ✨ Have your W9 ready to go
• ✨ Setup business Insurance (just in case)

💼 4. Start a corporate outreach campaign.

Well, if stuff sold itself, I'd be out of a job. Fortunately for me, it doesn't - but that means we need to design a marketing campaign to reach our business buddies. Email lists - yes, BUT - segment them out. Make a list for just corporate clients. It'll make a lot more sense to send them team-building packages. Not so much to the baby who just turned 2 who you baked for. 

👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by clickin' here - Episode 133 - Corporate Girly Era.

Send us Fan Mail

As admins of a group of niche cottage home bakers, we get to see a lot of questions about getting sales - and even more people thinking they can compete on price to gain traction in the marketplace. 

But competing on price is a literal race to the bottom - the bottom of your bank account. Ya see, if I lower my price by $1, and you lower yours by $2, and then I counter by lowering my price by $4... well, let's just say pretty soon we'll be able to duke it out standing in the unemployment line. 

You cannot compete on price. So how do we get more sales in a somewhat saturated market if we can't use discounts and deals as incentives? 

Increase everything else. And I'm not saying get your boxes lined with gold leaflets - but rather increase everything but just one percent. 

One percent is pretty easy. I mean - what can you do just a single percentage better than you're already doing? Let's start of with an example - emails. 

Are you using a custom domain? Do you have a quick response time? Do your emails include pertinent information about the client's order confirming their details in each correspondence? Does your email signature look nice? Changing any of these is an example of increasing by 1%.

🤏 One percent sounds... well, piddly if I'm honest. If you told me I'm getting 1% off at the Vendy Blendy - I'd tell you where you can shove it (... which would be in my shopping bag because a deal's a deal, amiright?!). But 1% across a myriad of different aspects of your business can amount to major experience changes! If I changed 30 things by just 1%, I'd have an increase of 30% in customer experience for my small business.

And that is huge. 👐

Other ways you can increase by 1%:

• 1️⃣ Use custom packaging or cute accents like themed bows
• 1️⃣ Include a thank you cookie with your client orders
• 1️⃣ Offer multiple ways to pay to make it easier for clients
• 1️⃣ Have a website that includes all of the information needed to make an informed purchase
• 1️⃣ Have a top-notch communications plan with clients letting them know next steps, followups, and reminders - before they have to ask

You don't need to be the best baker with the best packaging with the best ingredients with the best turnaround times. But you can be the baker who is 1% better at replying to emails. The bakers who as a curb appeal that looks 1% nicer than the next. And a customer refund policy that's 1% more appealing than another's. It adds up. 

🤏  The small things can make big differences in your bottom line.

👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by clickin' here - Episode 132 - The One Percenters.

Send us Fan Mail

🦉 Consistent Crows

Ruth Ann (twin grandmother - my middle name is Ruth, Corrie's is Ann... you see what they did there, don't ya?) has a habit of being consistent. Not just any type of consistency - she's radically consistent. I mean - you could set the atomic clock to her ability to wake up at 6AM on the nose. 

So - last year, 🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉 (I know, these are owls - but there's no crow emoji) when a family of 5 crows shows up at the bottom of the driveway one day and she sprinkles (🍧 see: hundreds-and-thousands) some cinnamon buns for them, a year later she now considers herself the proud parent of "her crows" - who show up every day around the same time for a bun-filled breakfast. 

Ruth Ann (twin grandmother - my middle name is Ruth, Corrie's is Ann... you see what they did there, don't ya?) has a habit of being consistent. Not just any type of consistency - she's radically consistent. I mean - you could set the atomic clock to her ability to wake up at 6AM on the nose. 

🤔 "Why are we talking about crows in a baking podcast?"

🦅 Because crows are the 💣 bomb-diggity, that's why. Kidding - because consistency is the 💣 bomb-diggity when it comes to making sales numbers.

Oftentimes, in the directing world of "what's everyone doing to market their business" that is the SCM group, 😖 we head off in a thousand directions never letting the marketing we just planted have any time to germinate and produce results. 

😕 Our audience is being jerked around from new idea to new product, and our messaging is a muddled mix of marketing campaigns never reaching completion before the next one, the next one, and the next one are launched.

As a result, 🙅‍♀ we're left thinking marketing doesn't work and the twins were lying, and that person in the Wednesday Wins thread was just making up their success, and that other person who taught the pop-up Live must have been selling snake oil because 🚫 marketing doesn't work. 🚫

Marketing - in the way you implemented it - doesn't work. But that doesn't mean it doesn't work. It means you've learned how to tweak and retest is for better results in the next round. 💡 Just call you Edison. 🍞 Breadison? Get it... because baking. 

Anyways. 

⏰ Extend your marketing campaign's run time - then stick with it to the end. Let's get enough data points to be able to better forecast our results. Let's give our audience time to adjust to new products. Let's spend that time finding our target audience for this new product - one's willing to throw their hard-earned cash at you and your cookies, classes, cutters - whatever. 

Marketing takes time. 🗓️ Good marketing takes more time. Set a goal to give a new marketing campaign - classes or DIY kits or drop cookies - 🪦 at least a month of consistent marketing before you call the time o' death on that option. Heck - I'd prefer 2+ months. Corrie and I marketed our first cookie classes for 3 months before it started seeing movement. 

Consistent marketing includes consistency in posting schedules, newsletters, follow-up, and photography. It's the whole gamut of consistency that will consistently bring you in more dollars.

👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or your desktop) by clickin' here - Episode 131 - Consistent Crows.