About this module
You’ve made it to the final stretch of our learning module! Marketing is a key way of getting your brand out to consumers, especially in today’s digitally-driven landscape. This module touches on the important channels you should focus on, and the many strategies and techniques you can employ to promote your delicious bakes.
Narration
In a digital world, there are two kinds of traffic – organic or paid. Organic traffic or visits are those that are acquired without paying. For example, followers who found you on search or through other people’s feeds and followed you on their own accord.
Paid traffic are usually gained from ads or sponsored posts. You set aside a certain amount of ad spend to have your posts or ads, promoted to targeted or likely users, even when they are not aware of your presence yet. From these, you may also generate ‘earned’ promotion, where users share information about your business on their own free will.
Advertising online can be easily achieved through Google ads or through Facebook boosts. You may also target specific and relevant audiences around your neighbourhood so that your services would show up to the customers near you.
Decide on a reasonable amount to begin and trial and adjust your amount and targeting as you gain experience. The key to performance ads is to leverage on the algorithms built in that optimises your ad campaigns, based on the interaction that it received from the targeted audiences. Set campaigns with longer duration, for example above seven days and allow the ad algorithm to perform its job whilst considering the geographic, demographic and interest goals that you have set.
Apart from paid marketing, you may want to consider complementing these with natural organic ways of deriving traffic to your business as well.
One of these other ways is to ensure that you are listed in local directories that are used in your community. Much like how yellow pages were previously used to list physical businesses, local directories online map businesses around the area and narrows down information for the people searching for goods and services.
Search for local directories that have been specially developed to catalogue offerings for baked goods and by listing there, you may be easily found by communities in your neighbourhood. As part of the Start Up programme, you may also find a link to the new Local Directory, ‘The Batter Place’ that Kuali by Star Media Group has built, and do make sure that you are featured there!
After you have acquired a reasonable amount of followers, it’s time to think about how you are engaging with your followers and how you manage your orders to facilitate repeat purchases. Don’t be too distracted in acquiring new customers and consider the things that you need to do to keep them. As Pareto’s principle goes, it is likely that around eighty percent of your business, is contributed by the top twenty percent of your customers!
Orders are likely to be sent to you through whatsapp or direct messaging. Subscribe to a service like Whatsapp business to organize quick replies, create labels, menu talogues and manage your away messages.
Another free tool, Google Forms can be a good way to taking orders, where orders are catalogued neatly based on your menu. The selections from customers are organised into columns such as name, address, email, phone numbers and where past purchases can be referred to, as and when needed.
You would also have the opportunity to reengage your repeat customers, by sending them emails or whatsapp on promotional bakes. Whilst standard Whatsapp is free at the moment, Whatsapp Business is being enhanced to cater better to businesses.
With this overview and digital marketing tips shared, we hope that you would be able to elevate your business to another level.
Remember, your customers are enamoured by your baked products and by delivering these consistently and efficiently, even in your marketing efforts, these are what makes your customers, come back for more.
