Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

254. Baking it Down - Good Better Best

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1724302/fan_mail/new] ✅✅✅ Good - Better - Best - A tiered pricing strategy. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 254 - Good Better Best, we explore the Good, Better, Best (GBB) strategy for pricing tiers - the magic being "good" is where it's at. Forgive the lateness of today's Onesday Wednesday... however *checks the clock* - it would seem we've still made the deadline (sorry, had to get today's Bootcamp on Pre-Sales launched). Not all strategies are created equal, and not all strategies will fit your sales approach. I like to compare strategies to a blanket that lies on top of your sales. Find the blanket that's most comfortable for your business approach. Today's blanket = tiered pricing. Specifically, a 3-tier pricing structure designed to drive buyers to the middle tier - the better tier. Benefits of the Good Better Best strategy? It reduces decision fatigue by limiting options to three clear choices, helping customers feel like they are getting a great deal without the baker overextending their time or resources - what baker wants to get burnt out?! And for the baker? Your orders are the ones you want to take, while still making space for the lower budgets and still being open to the budget busters (hey, we can wipe our tiers with hundred-dollar bills, right?). This pricing approach enhances what your clients 🧠 perceive as a good value, especially when you're specific with the better and best tier options. People can see what they are getting (or what they aren't) and justify the higher tier because they can see the difference, but not opt for the highest tier, feeling like they saved some money.  🎯 The goal = move them into the middle tier. This approach to pricing maximizes your audience, too - 🏆🏆🏆 another win-win-win of the GBB. You can now reach people at different price points that you wouldn't normally reach when they have submitted a quote before knowing the price. The cheaper budgets fall in the "good" tier, the ideal clients snag the "better" pricing, and the clients who are gonna be extra actually pay extra. The key is to price your Good Tier in an unappealing way - the price is appealing, but the options within the tier make the client think, "Eh, I'm not sure that's what I want exactly." Corrie says, "Think 2 designs, 3 colors, less than a dozen cookies." We basically want the good tier to be the fall guy. Your Better Tier is your Magic Mike. Within this tier, we've got 6 colors, 4 designs, 5 names on cookies, 2 dozen cookies (made-up numbers, but you get the point). This tier will look like most of the orders you're already taking currently. Your BEST Tier will be over the top - golds, metallics, lettering, endless customization... You get the point. And price like you get three numbers before the decimal point. Make the Best Tier feel slightly outta touch with reality - we don't want people opting for this tier first. This strategy marries price anchoring, popcorn pricing, customer segmentation, and "the compromise effect" to create a really powerful three-in-one sales pitch. Consider whether tiered pricing is a good fit for your bakery this week. 👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 254 - Good Better Best.

253. Baking it Down - SWOT Your Way to Success

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1724302/fan_mail/new] 💪 SWOT 2 SUCCESS - ANALYZING YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 253 - SWOT Your Way to Success, I asked on the Sugar Cookie Marketing Facebook Page how Easter sales were so far (🐰 Easter falls almost two weeks earlier this year than it did in 2025).  And the answers were all over the place - from being completely sold out to selling out of nothing. So what gives? 📍 Is location that big of a factor between selling out and selling a big fat egg (🐣 Easter puns)?  Likely no - while it is a factor, conducting a SWOT analysis will give us a better answer as to what's working for you specifically and what needs to be buried in the backyard grass (🌱🥚 forced Easter puns). The goal of SWOT analysis is to establish what's working, what's working against you, where there's room for growth, and what to watch out for. SWOT is an acronym that stands for: * 💪 Strengths - What the business does better than anyone else.  * 💪 Weaknesses - Areas where the business could improve or lacks resources.  * 💪 Opportunities - External chances to grow or find a new market.  * 💪 Threats - External factors that could cause trouble.  In this week's podcast, ✝️ we run Corrie's Easter Pre-sales through a SWOT Analysis to determine that the cookie she thought would sell the least because of its religious affiliation actually sold the most.  A SWOT Analysis determined that next year, ✅ she should offer more religious cookies, ✅ more exciting designs, ✅ allow for more of a marketing runtime by 2 weeks, and ✅ cross-promote with a cookie class that's not so close to Easter (so she can sell more leading up to Easter). Let's adapt a SWOT Analysis to cottage bakers. When you think of your strengths and weaknesses, those are things that fall within the home - so ❌ your aging equipment (weakness) or ✅️ your automation software (strength), while your opportunities and threats are things that fall outside of the home - so a ✅️ new farmer's market opening (opportunity) or ❌ increased gas prices affecting delivery costs (threat). SWOT for Cottage Bakers: * 👉 Strengths - Low overhead costs or a "secret" family recipe. * 👉 Weaknesses - Limited oven space or being the lowest priced baker (burnout risk). * 👉 Opportunities - A local farmers' market opening up or a trend in gluten-free treats. * 👉 Threats - Rising flour prices or strict new county health labeling laws. Now that we know what a SWOT analysis is and how to look at the four quadrants (S-W-O-T), we need to find an objective.  For the example above, we were conducting a SWOT analysis on how Corrie can increase her pre-sales for Easter 2027. By keeping this analysis in a living Google sheet, she can reference her analysis, take notes, and write future suggestions to herself (🧠 because goodness only knows we won't remember what happened yesterday, let alone what happened 364 days ago). * 💡 How can I increase my Easter Pre-sales next year? * 💡 Could I quit my 9-5? * 💡 Should I expand into a brick-and-mortar? * 💡 Are my sales dropping month over month? Having an objective tells us where to look and guides the analysis. Listen to this week's podcast to hear more about the TOWS matrix of developing three SMART goals from your SWOT analysis (holy acronyms, twins!)  👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 253 - SWOT Your

252. Baking it Down - Piping Positioning

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/1724302/open_sms] 🧠 PIPING POSITIONING - WHAT YOUR CLIENTS THINK ABOUT YOU. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 252 - Piping Positioning, we wanted to talk about a buzzy marketing concept called "product positioning." Think of positioning as the mental real estate your bakery is renting in the heads of your customers. Here's the catch - 🫵 you don't control what they think about you, but rather all the pieces of marketing create an experience they recall when they hear your name. Let me explain. Having recently moved, I've been targeted in a half dozen ads about anything and everything home goods, but one brand keeps rising to the top - of both feeds and word-of-mouth. Quince is an up-and-coming household brand that positions itself as "luxury and quality for less," 💸💸💸💸 going as far as to directly compare their prices against popular brands like West Elm, Pottery Barn, and Williams-Sonoma (⚖️ there's a lawsuit about this, actually). How do they do the same thing at the same quality, but for less? Their approach of "radical transparency" explains it just about everywhere on their website. They source the same materials from the same factories as the higher-priced brands, and then cut out the middleman by selling directly from their website to consumers. Other examples of brands that have done a great job at positioning - try guessing these before you peek (some may be location dependent): * 🧠 Safe Cars = Volvo * 🧠 Customer Service Chicken = Chick-Fil-A * 🧠 Everyday products at a lower cost = Walmart * 🧠 Quick Oil Changes = Jiffy Lube * 🧠 Judge-free Gym = Planet Fitness * 🧠 Gas with Great Convenience Store = Sheetz * 🧠 Quick Burgers = McDonald's  * 🧠 Quality Groceries = Wegmans / Whole Foods  * 🧠 Streaming Service = Netflix  * 🧠 Best Dating App = Hinge  * 🧠 Social Media = Facebook What made us all think of mostly the same brands? That's positioning. If I said "really high-quality burger," you likely wouldn't think of McDonald's, right? “Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect.” - Jack Trout  Positioning can take multiple forms and varies depending on who you're targeting (Volvo positions both as safe and as luxurious, depending on who their target market is for the vehicle). Price-based is the route Quince 🏷️ Price-based positioning is the route Quince is taking, and while we often tell bakers not to compete on price, you can position on price depending on your targets. For example, we're not the most expensive cookie class instructors, so we could compete there if we wanted, without touching our margins at all.  Quality and premium positioning you see with brands like ⌚ Rolex or Apple - brands you know won't be cheap, but that's almost why you want them in the first place. Application / Use-case positioning is a brand that comes to mind when you need to solve a specific problem. Which app would you use for online meetings? Zoom, right? What do you reach for when your nose is running? Kleenex? And then there's the funny backstory to Vecro (a brand so positioned that it's replaced its product name - hook and loop - with its brand).  Take the concept of positioning into your week and see which brands have rented your mental landscape. The positioning formula is this: * For [Target Audience], [Brand Name] is the [Category] that [Point of Differentiation] because [Reason to Believe].

251. Baking it Down - Posting Do and Donuts

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1724302/fan_mail/new] 🍩 Posting Do’s & Do-nots - Coming up with a social strategy. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 251 - Posting Dos and Donuts, the twin2 (sorry for the audio issues on this episode, still figuring out remote podcasts 😭) wanted to talk about posting strategy. If it were as easy as "post every day and you'll be a billionaire," well, you wouldn't be hearing from me right now; I'd be too busy posting once a day (as I'm sure you would, too). But alas - posting and getting reach involves strategy - a formulated plan to reach our audience and cut through the noise of every other business attempting to snag their attention and hog their feeds.   📝 Do: Post frequently In today's podcast, Corrie said, "Post every day," as in that's the goal, but it can't be just posting whatever, whenever. It's gotta be quality content as frequently as you can manage it. Does that mean if you don't post daily, you get a big giant F in marketing? No - that means you get a giant H because you're H-uman. It's estimated that every day, 300 million pieces of content are posted to Facebook - and we need to cut through all of that with our cookie posts. So how do you compete in a flooded feed? You get creative, but you also stay consistent.   🍩 Do-not: Post just to post Content is queen, sure - but quality content will reign supreme. If you posted a cookie set every day, you'd be posting consistently, yes - but your reach will decrease over time. Why? 🥱 It's boring. Just a picture of a decorating cookie and a boring caption? It can only do so much. The algos won't reward you with reach because your content doesn't compel people to stay on the platform. 💡 Remember - content that intrigues, captivates, creates curiosity keeps people on their platforms. If you keep people on their platforms long enough for them to serve an ad, they'll reward you with more reach. Corrie has been pinging her "personal" content bucket. Her Q1 strategy was to see if creating more relationship-centered content would increase her reach. And in February, she saw a 39% increase in reach - and a double bonus, 71% of those were non-followers. 📝 Do: Check insights Your insights (metrics) provided by my social media platforms will help you guide your strategy. Some things your audience will love, some will be only viewed by crickets. 📊 Corrie made an Excel spreadsheet tracking each piece of content she posted in February, the reach, and the engagement. From there, she's able to dial in that strategy for March. She can cut what didn't land, and she can double down on what got more of a response. And that's how you build a strategy that's ever-shifting. 🍩 Do-not: Talk at your audience Social media is a conversation. 🤝 That's why end users are able to like, comment, stitch, and share - because social platforms know that the more people can converse, the longer they stay on the platform, and yep - the more ads they can be served. Remember that relationship, right? 🗣️ By asking a question or making a joke or posting interesting content, you're joining the conversation. When you say, "Buy from me, buy from me, buy from me," there's no conversation happening there. "Do you want to buy from me?" Still not it. What about posting a set of cat-themed cookies and asking people to comment with a photo of their cats in the comments? Guess what - 🐱 they'll comment a pic of their lil orange Garfield and tell you all about how adorable it is when he scratches the seats up. That's a conversation!

250. Baking it Down - 1,000 Word Photography

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1724302/fan_mail/new] 📸 1,000 WORD PICTURES - WHY PHOTOGRAPHY REALLY *REALLY* MATTERS. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 250 - 1,000 Word Pictures, in preparation for this week's Cookie Photography Bootcamp, photography is on the brain of the twins, and that's because a huge part of food sales comes from great photos.  Consider yourself - do you tend to order things off the menu that have pictures? A study shows that restaurants saw a 30% increase in sales when pictures were included on their menu.  "Restaurants with high-quality photos can see up to 30% higher sales on average — showing just how powerful great menu photography can be. In fact, nearly half of Gen Z diners (46%) say food photos influence their decision to try a new restaurant, according to the DoorDash Delivery Trends Report. " 🖼️ Photography's marketing value Better photos, better ingredients, better pizza, Papa John's. Only kidding (Heather can't resist), but better photos do increase the perceived value of a product. Doesn't matter how good the product is, if the photo screams "this was baked in a dark dungeon," you're not going to move product.  And great photos are a great way to flex your skillset. If you live in an area of stiff cookie competition, photography can put you a cut(ter) above the rest. By being able to really dial in on your details with great photos, you can push product faster than the next kitchen.  Corrie adds that investing in your photography skills now can allow you to use current photos for years to come. "I got really good at photography years ago. Now those cookies from 4 years ago? I can use them to sell quickly even today. Good photography pays it forward."  🖼️ Lighten up! In the Bootcamp for Cookie Photography (you can sign up at www.thecookiecollege.com for $13), we focus a lot on lighting. Photography = photon = light. Photography is the capture of light, so good lighting sets the stage for a great photo. Finding good lighting is a must if you want to fall in love with your photography. Light boxes, three-point lighting systems, and overhead lighting are fine in a picture pinch, but bakers should really focus on indirect, natural (sun) light for pictures that pop off the newsfeed. 🖼️ Back up that background Your kitchen's granite countertops are designed to distract (from your husband's inability to clear the crumbs from the toaster). As such, using them as your backdrop is distracting. Investing in a backdrop can clear the clutter and make for some clean product shots. Don't overspend - a matte white finish (or marble if you're feelin' fancy) is all you need to start leveling up your photography game. 🖼️ To the big stage! Referring to the "pyramid" worksheet, build from the bottom up. Pyramid style staging keeps it simple: a backer, a tea towel, a baking tray, a plate, and your cookies. Sprinkle some props in the periphery (and don't be afraid to crop the prop), and you've set the stage for cookies that create a want in your clients. Not sure if you nailed the staging? Take your photo to the nearest unbiased friend (or twin) and ask, "What did your eyes see first when I showed you this photo?" If the answer ain't "them cookies, giiiirl -wooohooo," rethink the set and take it back to basics. 👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 250 - 1,000 Word Pictures.