If you’re running a suburban bakery, you’re likely to receive plenty of the ‘usual’ orders, and life at the bakery can get entirely predictable. Even if you have piping hot bread or colorful pastries stocked up at your display window, you might not see customers rushing in as you expect. But that can change with some innovative marketing strategies.
The best time to market your baked goods is the holiday season, but with Christmas and New year holidays being over, does it mean you have to wait the entire year to see a busy bakery?
Lucky for you, the lover’s season is closing in! With Valentine’s Day around the corner, you can plan a promotional drive to bolster your sales. Following a few tips, you’ll be able to play cupid between your cakes and customers!
Get creative with flyers and posters
A couple of weeks before the holiday, get busy creating flyers and posters leading potential customers to your bakery. You don’t need to hire a designer to make attractive layouts; instead, you can do it on your own with the help of hundreds of available templates for Valentine’s day flyers.
You need to be careful of the details you add to the flyers because it will lead the public to your store. Make sure to write the correct contact details and the name of your bakery in an attention-grabbing font. Since the flyers and cafe posters will promote Valentine’s Day, add a combination of red and white to your color theme.
Publicize one of your most popular baked items to attract potential customers to your bakery. You can even announce a discount on the first 100 customers or a buy 1 get one free offer for a limited time.
Bake customized goods
A memorable holiday calls for some special cakes or confectionery items. You can sit with your bakers and decide what unique goods best fit the occasion. A red velvet cake or cupcake would be the perfect message of love packed with soft and sweet goodness.
Apart from that, you can offer your customers customizable cakes that could add charm to someone’s surprise party. You could also bake a limited-time batch of fresh Valentine’s cookies.
To upgrade your savory items list, you can add a variety of croissants with chocolate or cream cheese stuffing. You could also introduce a breakfast special for couples with bread rolls, smoked bacon, and sausages.
Make sure to take your customer’s feedback, and if they enjoy what they eat, you can request them to recommend your bakery to their friends and family. Remember, publicity through word of mouth goes a long way!
Launch discounted deals
Everyone loves a discounted deal, especially couples in love. You can offer a flat 20% discount for couples or give out a free cupcake to every customer who brings someone special with them to the bakery.
Perhaps this year, lovers aren’t sure what to gift their special someone on Valentine’s. You can offer the perfect gift of gooey or crisp goodness. To transform your products into a sweet gift, you can upgrade your packaging to something cute yet minimalistic to give out a special message. A red heart or bow at the top of the packaged box would look great with every order.
Offer a personal note service
This year many lovers might muster up the courage to finally share their feelings but may not have the right words to do so. Your bakery can help them articulate their feelings with a special note. For Valentine’s Day, you can set up a special counter with red markers and heart-cut card stocks for your customers to write a special message they can give to their potential love interest.
You can ask your customers who purchase a cake or cookie if they’d want a special note to go with it. You can have your staff share cute quotes with the customers struggling to find the right words that will help them voice their feelings.
Decorate the interior
Every occasion is complete with decorations! You need to show your customers that you aren’t just interested in more sales but genuinely enjoy the holiday. You can decorate the interior of your bakery with red and white balloons and ribbons. You could make cute props available at a corner of your bakery for customers to take Instagrammable pictures.
Remember, an aesthetic background means share-worthy pictures, which would eventually mean publicity for your bakery.
Conclusion
Holidays don’t just bring the spirit of festivities along with them, but also plenty of opportunities for businesses. This Valentine’s day, you can promote your freshly baked goods and resonate with your customers. With a few effective marketing tactics, you can boost your sales and help lovers come closer and express their feelings via your pâtisserie.