You have been baking for some time. Your cakes are the best in the neighbourhood and you can bake a mean Challah Bread. So you have now decided to take the plunge. You have decided to work from home and that’s fine. You have done all the preparation and it’s time to start. But now you wonder how can you find the right target audience for your baking business? How can you market it well?

The best thing to do is to first narrow down to your target audience. As a small business owner, you do not need to go gung-ho on mass marketing. You will end up wasting time and money. So niche marketing, targeted marketing is the best way to go about it.

Here Are The Ways That You Can Narrow Down To The Right Target Audience For Your Business:

Geographically

You can first and foremost think of your area. Region, climate, and population density. Why population, you may ask. Well, however small a business you may be, getting informed about the population in your area will give you an idea about the number or percentage of potential customers that you can expect. If it’s too small or you think you can manage a slightly bigger percentage or area than what you have, you can then expand your area of service and work on your marketing initiatives likewise.

Demographically

Understanding who constitutes your earmarked population will give you an in-depth idea of working on your products. You need to understand age, gender, family status, income. This will give you almost a certain degree of knowledge about youth, senior citizens, middle-aged groups and thereby help you understand what should be on the menu. Now you can decide if it makes more sense to keep donuts or breads, or pastries over cakes. You could even decide on custom cakes, rolls, breads etc depending on the locality combined with the family status. Your neighbourhood or locality will also determine your pricing strategy.

Lifestyle

This is more niche and will give you exacting information on lifestyle choices like gluten-free or health-conscious people. So this may help you decide if you wish to keep artisanal breads or gluten-free products or high fibre breads and rolls. You could even become popular as a niche upscale bakery, all depending on the lifestyle you cater to.

Other Factors

Also take into consideration factors such as if there are schools or parks nearby, or business parks for that matter. If you have children’s areas nearby, then you can keep milkshakes and fruit juices. Likewise, if there are business parks or offices nearby, then you can also stock up on sandwiches or coffees. Based on the locality, the price point and profit margins will change too.

Peak Hours

Bakeries also have high volume business times. If you are able to tap on those times, then you can target and meet a lot of customer expectations and increase your volume of business. For example, mornings are rush hours and you could have people stopping for freshly baked sausage rolls or buns and coffees before they rush off to work. You could also create a breakfast menu to target the workforce.

See Also: 11 Ways To Attract Potential Customers To Your Storefront|Administrative Tasks Checklist: Bakery Business Edition

Weekends and Holidays

Similar to peak hours, have a special menu for your weekends where you can expect family turnouts and kids. Family brunches can be a thing for the weekends. You can even target and plan for special weekends or holidays such as Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and the likes. You can even use local farmers’ markets, flea markets to hold pop up stalls and get added attention and exposure.

Related: Easy And Healthy Homemade Snacks For Your Road Trip

Partnerships Are Great

You could tie up with local event planners, or event managers and go hand in hand with parties or special occasions. Florists, decorators, event managers are people who can easily refer to you to their customers and you can do the same for them. Work with each other to bolster each other’s business and that changes a lot of the game.

Loyalty Programs

Now who doesn’t want a returning customer? Start a loyalty system going to encourage people to buy more. When people know they stand to gain something from spending a few dollars on your pastries, they’ll keep spending. Give rewards and discount cards too. This can create regular customers. For example, a guest can get every 5th or 10th coffee or croissant for free. Or you can give coupons for the next purchase every time a customer buys pastries for more than $25 or after they spent $100 since they got their discount card.

People Love Samples!

Hand out samples of your products to passers-by. Put it up in your store front. People may actually end up walking into your store for a taste and make  a purchase. Send out sample boxes or complimentary treat boxes to special customers or kids birthdays. Even if they are small treats, gestures go a  long way to build and grow loyalty and create word-of-mouth publicity.

Related: Tips And Tricks To Growing Your Baking Business| What Is The 3 Target Marketing Strategy? Use It To Grow Your Culinary Business| Biggest Learnings And Marketing Tips For A Baking Business

Baking Classes

Run special baking classes, for example before special days and occasions and offer to do kids’ baking sessions. Surely they will be accompanied by their guardians and parents. Now there is a great chance that you will get some customers in the bargain.

In recent times, everyone has moved big time into digital mode. So most businesses today are functioning, promoting and selling from social media. The key is innovation, learning to customize as per your target audience and just trying to be true to yourself.

Read Also: First Step To Baking: Stock Your Kitchen The Right Way| Best Way To Store Baking Ingredients| 8 Best Durable Baking Tools You Need Before You Start Your Business|How To Keep Track Of Expenses In A Baking Business