There are three essentials that I like to see on all bakery websites, whether you are a home baking business or have your own shop. These elements will help your customers to learn exactly what you do and how they can order from you and they will also increase your likelihood of being found in an online search.

Branding your business will really help you when it comes to marketing your bakery, it will give you direction and will help guide the language you use, the style of your marketing design…all the way down to how to package your orders.

This week I had the pleasure of guest posting on my friend Aurelia’s website Philosophy of Yum. She is a home baking business owner, based in South Africa, and she bakes the most wonderful goodies. She also shares brilliant baking business tips on her blog, so you should go and have a read!

Every page on your baking business website is a place to attract new cake orders, and the about page is a great opportunity to connect with your customers by giving them a chance to get to know you.  It’s important that you don’t cram your website full of text and information as it can overwhelm potential customers and they may leave the website before they even see what you have on offer. 

Portions of this post are taken from my DIY Your Baking Business Website course.  For more information about that, click here.

Before you dive into building your cake decorating or baking business website, you need to take some time to plan out what you are going to create.  A website without a purpose, or clear function, will not be worth the time you’ll take to create it.

Likewise, a website than has good content, but doesn’t align with your business and brand style, will not help you attract the right kind of customers and will leave those who do visit confused about your message.

The two keys to a good website are CONTENT & STYLING.

Rebekah Allan from Angel Foods has the best job in the world, talking about cakes! She believes anyone can make great cakes + anyone can make great money from cakes! Helping food lovers with positive support and a little bit of business know-how to help unlock the passion. Through high quality, easy to understand, actionable, fun tutorials, teaching others how to build the sweet business of their dreams. With a free Cake Business Toolkit on how to go from a HOBBY caker to making a KILLING in 3 days flat!

 Chances are, one of the first bits of marketing  you will get yourself once you start up your baking business, is a business card.  They are easy to carry around with you wherever you go, you can hand them out to friends and family, pin them on notice boards, leave them in local shops or even use them in your packaging by attaching them to your cake boxes.  They also have the benefit of being affordable and there are many sites out there that make it easy to design your own or use a template.

Last week I talked about the importance of branding your baking business, and all the different areas where branding extended to.  As I mentioned, if it’s not the most important part of your brand, your logo is certainly what most people will come into contact with first, be it on your Facebook page, website or business card.  That’s why it’s important to have a professional looking logo right from the start.  Unfortunately though, when you’re new to business you might not have the spare money to spend on hiring a graphic designer, so what do you do?  Well, you can do it yourself!

The key to success for any cake or baking business is making the most delicious and beautiful products around.  That is definitely true.  However, it can make things a lot easier if your business ‘brand’ makes the task of selling your cakes, a whole lot easier.

Today I’m asking you to consider how you are presenting your business to your customers.  This covers many different aspects of your business, but is basically anywhere that your customers get an impression of you and your bakery.  

You've heard that having a blog is a good way to market your cake business. You've seen that lots of websites and businesses now include one, but you don't know what to post or where to start. You don't even know if it would make a difference for your cake business.

Deciding on your baking businesses brand and logo can be one of the most painstaking tasks of setting up your business.  There are so many options and ideas it can be hard to even know where to start.  Not to mention how indecisive you become when making decisions for yourself...or maybe that's just me!