Baking It Down With Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪 podcast

#Food #Entrepreneur #Arts #Business #Marketing #Heather and Corrie Miracle #Corrie Miracle #Bakery Marketing #Cottage Food #Sugar Cookie #Bakery #Cottage Home Bakery #Sugar Cookie Decorating #Selling Sugar Cookies

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In the race to adopt AI, how do we avoid creating a sea of sameness and alienating the very customers we're trying to connect with? Today, we're going to talk about the intentional design of our marketing future. We’ll explore how leading brands are moving beyond the hype of AI to build practical, collaborative frameworks between humans and machines, shifting from outdated customer segments to real-time signals, and ultimately, creating experiences that are not only efficient but deeply empathetic and relevant. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek, CMO at Sitecore and Talisha Padgett, GM MArTech, AI & Automation at Microsoft, who will be doing a fireside chat at the upcoming Sitecore Symposium, November 3-5 in Orlando Florida. We’re going to get a sneak preview today of some of the topics they’ll be discussing. About Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek and Talisha Padgett Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellebb/ Talisha Padgett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talishapadgett/ Resources Sitecore: https://www.sitecore.com Register now for Sitecore Symposium, November 3-5 in Orlando, Florida. Use code SYM25-2Media10 to receive 10% off. Go here for more: https://symposium.sitecore.com/ Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Palm Springs, Feb 23-26 in Palm Springs, CA. Go here for more details: https://etailwest.wbresearch.com/ Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.show Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company…

Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

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👋 Hey - Heather and Corrie here with the Baking it Down Podcast with Sugar Cookie Marketing (a group on Facebook full of sugar cookiers turned business owners).
🍪 We're here to help you rise with your reach, flood with new followers, bake up new ideas, and make that all-important dough (while makin' that dough - see the pun there?)
🤑. What’s it about? We’re a Facebook Group turned Podcast, Membership, Book Club, and Baking 101 that’s dedicated to assisting bakers in effectively marketing online to generate more sales and better manage their businesses.
🧠 With free Facebook Live classes, hundreds of resources, and thousands of like-minded bakers, there’s a lot to learn in "SCM" (aka Sugar Cookie Marketing). ️🎧 As an extension of our Facebook group, this podcast is here to let you learn by listening. 📈 We'll cover group topics, marketing trends, and more (leaving this wide open in case Corrie wants to start singing).
💸 We take the sweet art of selling online to the cottage bakery world with marketing methods that move products (and pastries).👂 So open up those glorious ear canals because we have a podcast! Just when you’ve thought you’ve “heard” it all with those marketing "miracle" twins (that's our last name - not a proclamation), we’ve got something just for you each week!
🥣 As a baker, you don't always have the luxury of two hands needed to scroll in Sugar Cookie Marketing Group or crack open a book in Sugar Cookie Bookies, but what you can do is listen (unless you're my kid asking “what’s for dinner” for the millionth time).
👐 Hands full of flour? No problem! 👍 18 dozen iced cookies due tomorrow? Let’s do this. The Baking it Down Podcast by Sugar Cookie Marketing is a weekly podcast geared toward helping you grow your bakery business - dropping (almost) every Tuesday.
📅 We choose a topic each week that's either something new and emerging in the world of social media or something that we saw in "The Group" that was a hot topic and we bake it down... I mean, "break" it down for you. 🗯️ What you can expect in the podcast is about an hour of chit-chat with the meat and potatoes right at the beginning of the episode.
🥔 That’s when we dive into the marketing topic of the week! 📞 Oh yeah, folks can call / text / email in with their questions too - a fun way to hear from other bakers out there.
Our promises to you:
1️⃣ We always make it clean = no cursing. We understand that you are busy and could be around little ones while also trying to get your weekly dose of business growth so we make sure that each episode would make our grandma proud and keep it clean so you can listen while also living your life.
2️⃣ We always make it fun. There’s a lot of negativity in the world so we try and make the podcast an upbeat and fun learning experience for you. I mean, we try to make the Instagram updates and changes as happy as we can, but come on Instagram! Give it a rest! No more changes!
3️⃣ Other than that, we take a positive approach to marketing We are also *not* professional podcasters. I feel like we need to say this because, hey, sometimes we get giggles! We do our best to extend our marketing knowledge to you all free of charge each week at the cost of listening to our higher-than-normal pitched voices and the occasional giggle spree.
4️⃣ You can find the podcast on all the major platforms and you can typically expect a new episode each Tuesday afternoon (unless life happens). We invite everyone to listen.
Either start from the beginning or work backward! The episodes don’t build off themselves so you won’t be confused hearing one before the other. You just might miss new Lives we mention but you can always catch the replay in the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group on Facebook!

238 episoder

Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

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Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

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235. Baking it Down - Private Class + Vendy Blendy pt. 1 1:15:21

for 2 dage siden1:15:21

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Send us a text ☝️ Private Class + VB - Part one of a two-part series. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 235 - Private Class + The Vendy Blendy Pt 1 , we're doing a two-part two-part series (not a typo) so I can check the box that we effectively spammed you with the Vendy Blendy this week while also providing some marketing value. We're teaching an in-home private class. Now, typically, you've heard me state (vehemently) that we don't teach private in-home classes anymore after a wild adventure with a class of 5 - 7 year olds once years ago, but Corrie said, "For the podcast!" so for the podcast, we must. 👩‍🏫 The Private Cookie Class - Pt 1 Mary is the client here, and she found Corrie through her custom cookie Instagram when Corrie had cross-promoted an in-person cookie class we were hosting back in October. Mary DMed asking if we would be open to an in-home private class with her and her friends, so Corrie said if she was willing to play "private class guinea pig," we're in. Mary happily took the bait, and we set these parameters up months before the event. ✅ She had to sell all 10 tickets . ✅ All 10 tickets needed to be sold 2 weeks prior to the event. ✅ Mary had to handle the marketing . ✅ We allowed her to sell individual tickets (versus a lump sum payment) through Eventbrite (yes, we incurred the fees). ✅ We were not offering a discount . 📧 I followed up with Mary via email each week once we sent her the class link (since I was managing the Eventbrite, she didn't have access to attendee lists) with the list of names + a confirmation of her class details. To keep it easy, 🖼 we sent her the photo collage of our Cookie Class Kits membership class offerings (hey, yeah - we like them so much, we teach them ourselves), and she went with "the pie slice Thanksgiving one" - risky click here, because we actually have two pie slice Thanksgiving classes, but I can't get Mary to confirm. That said - I have requested a picture of the event space , and that will be the challenge to overcome this Thursday when we finally teach the class. Next week's podcast will feature a pt. 2 recap on how it all went - stay tuned! 🛍️ The Vendy Blendy - Pt 1 Now back to Vendy Blendy spam - each year, our returning list of Vendys gets shorter and shorter due to turnover in the industry, so to replace the shops that dropped out or disappeared on their marketing, we worked on finding fresh blood that y'all begged for - and let's just say, it's comin' together nicely! ️🛒 If you're new here - the Vendy Blendy is a private Facebook group that opens for only 24 hours on Black Friday (Nov 28th). We gather a bunch of cookie-related shops and get them to offer you all 25% off or more. It's utter mayhem - the deals aren't the only fun part because each shop can make 3 sales pitches to ya 🎁 while also hosting their own door prize giveaways throughout the day. 🤯 Not overwhelming enough? Hold on tight - 🎁🎁🎁 the event also hosts the "BIG Door Prizes" given away all day on Black Friday, too. It's organized mayhem, and folks love it. And we think you'll love it too. Go "Pendy" so you can "Spendy" this "Novemy" at the "Vendy Blendy"! Find all the info you need at https://www.sugarcookiemarketing.com/vendyblendy . 👂 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 235 - Private Class + The Vendy Blendy Pt. 1.…

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234. Baking it Down - Food-tography 1:42:16

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Send us a text 📸 Food-tography - Staging, props, gear, software. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 234 - Food-Tography , we're concluding our "📅 Content Theme " for the month of October, which focused on... well, focusing that camera lens. 💡 Check out #OctoberPhotographyMonth in the Sugar Cookie Marketing (Group) to see more content on staging and gear. 📸 Food photography is a must when it comes to slingin' sugar cookies. Our customers "buy with their eyes," meaning that the photos have a big part in selling our bakes. If your photo quality and staging are poor = your business bank account will soon follow. While we may be able to get around not having a website, posting up lackluster photos will rob you of sales. So investing in quality gear to produce quality product photos is a business-savvy expenditure. 🤑 But we do talk about the cost-conscious approach in this week's Baking it Down podcast episode on cookie photography. 📸 The Power of Photography Good photos sell food! Consistent, high-quality photography can act as a watermark for your brand (especially when you dial in your own photography style), making your products instantly recognizable. Easily recognizable = branding. You're seein' how this all works together, right? When your photos do the talking, you won't have to pitch as hard . Consider your own buying process. When you want a car, you search up "Mercedes" and see glamorous photos of beautiful red cars with big boys and sparkly wheels. What you don't see is the car covered in a layer of dirt and bird poop. Showing the car and our cookies in their best light will increase sales. 📸 Lighting The best option happens to be the cheapest option = ☀️ the sun . Indirect natural sunlight is a phrase you've heard us spout for YEARS on this podcast. Having a mobile setup (backdrops help with this), where you can follow the ever-moving sunlight around your house, will help with "chasing daylight." 🕯️ Otherwise, you may need to consider a lighting system, a diffuser, and/or a light box (harder to use - I always find myself frustrated with them). 📸 Cameras Cell phone cameras have come a long way and can really hold their own next to dedicated cameras. That said, for me, the dedicated camera still adds that extra pizzazz that manufactured blur and digital zoom just can't recreate (yet). If you have an older cell phone, with how quickly technology and built-in cell phone camera abilities have increased, it may be worth the upgrade to the latest model. Otherwise, consider a dedicated camera - specifically with a macro zoom lens - to really capture that cookie. 📸 Stands While 92% of bakers opted for hand-held photography (meaning no stands), when it comes to videography, you may have to consider a stand setup. Moft is a neat stand that uses the cell phone's mag-safe magnet for quick setup. ShopCanvas lamps have a built-in light and a goose-neck clamp, and dedicated tripods can help with heavier cameras. Have an Arkon mount? You can make that work too, although the ball joints don't lend themselves to easy adjustment. 📸 Software If you're not taking your photos through software (cell or desktop), you're leaving money on the table. Post-processing software like Lightroom or Snapseed can make the difference between dull pics and products that pop off the page. I'd wager just about every creator you jealously look at and think, "They take such good photos," is using a post-processing software to level up their photography game. 👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube ) by searching for B…

Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

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233. Baking it Down - Podcast Guest Christina from Boujee Baker Boutique 1:27:37

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Send us a text 🎙️ Podcast Guest - Christina with Boujee Baker Boutique. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 233 - Podcast Guest Christina with Boujee Baker Boutique , we hosted our first-ever remote podcast guest! You all wanted fresh blood (er... dough?), and the people get what they want! Meet Christina Cenera with Boujee Baker Boutique and Stormy Acre Cookies based in Warranton, Virginia. Yep, she juggles both a brick-and-mortar supply shop and a bakery business, all while raising 5 dogs (with alpaca manifestation incoming). ️🛒 Shop Link : https://boujeebakerboutique.com/ Her unique perspective of being both a supplier and a baker makes Episode 233 an interesting listen this week. And yes - she's a Vendy in this year's Vendy Blendy ! 🤔 "What's one thing you would have done differently?" Christina has opened two businesses in the last 5 years, now running both concurrently. What would she have done differently, we asked? She says she would have saved more money before opening the brick-and-mortar storefront while also spending less on remodeling costs. Looking back, Christina said while the customizations were nice, they weren't a necessity in hindsight, and having that extra cash on hand (she estimated $50k in startup costs) would have been a nice padding. 🤔 "How have you been able to wholesale so many brands?" Christina's simple take: don't take no for an answer . As a former saleswoman, she's learned that "no" isn't a rejection of her but rather a challenge to find a better way to pitch. "I heard no way more than I've heard yes," she states. She takes a "boots on the ground" mentality, going to CookieCons, signing up for the Vendy Blendy, landing in Heather's inbox 3 times to ensure she's a shoe-in for the podcast - and it's that level of hustle that is really paying off for her. She's a "No Girl" and proud of it. 🤔 "How do you do it all?" She's found a way to make her businesses fit around her life and not the other way around. The supply shop is open 4 days a week, the bakery is active 2 days a week, and Sundays are reserved for cookie classes. She's consolidated her websites for both companies and did the same for her social profiles. Basically, she's making a hybrid approach to compromise on what's best practice versus what's best for her lifestyle. 🤔 "What tip would you give first-time Vendy Blendy goers?" "Definitely stay up for the final hour." Yesss - what happens after hours, stays in your wallet. Chaos is the theme of the Vendy Blendy, and it doesn't stop until the shoppin' lady sings at midnight. If you're new to the Vendy Blendy, tune in this Thursday at 6:00 PM for our " Intro to the Vendy Blendy " Facebook Live. 👂 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 233 - Podcast Guest Christina with Boujee Baker Boutique.…

Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

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232. Baking it Down - Jury Duty 1:52:59

for 23 dage siden1:52:59

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Send us a text ⚖️ Jury Duty - Hung up on client issues. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 232 - Jury Duty , Corrie gives the people what they wanted! A tell-all on her jury duty trial (that she missed last week's podcast for). Since it's definitely worth the listen to get the full energy, I'll keep this week's newsletter short (and yes , still on Wednesday, even if I'm barely making it before the buzzer goes off). 🏛️ Communication Matters Corrie's takeaway from the courtroom? Communication matters. The defense attorney was likable and it really helped the defendant. Good customer communication can diffuse a bad situation and even turn it into a good one (or heck, maybe a $25 fine). Jokes aside, being able to handle customers in a way that makes them feel seen and listened to - even if you didn't deserve the allegations - is just good business. Figuring out how to put their shoes on for a minute while typing out a response can be the difference between a good review (and a returning client) or a bad one. Takeaway : Just because you won the case doesn't mean you've won at business. 🏛️ Document, Document, Document My takeaway from Corrie's courtroom floor seat? Documentation matters before it matters. Meaning get ahead of mishaps and misunderstandings by overcommunicating. Yes, there's such a thing as too much info, but I'd rather have too much than way too little. The jury in the courtroom let the perp walk because there wasn't enough documentation from law enforcement. And when disputes are circumstantial (ie, the alleged "ant" in the macaron), documentation will save your baking behind. 👂 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 232 - Jury Duty.…

Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

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231. Baking it Down - Intro to the 2025 Vendy Blendy 1:24:32

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Send us a text 🛒 2025 Vendy Blendy - The who, what, where, when, why. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 231 - The 2025 Vendy Blendy , we have VENDY BLENDY on the brain! Each year, 🦃 at the end of November, deals roll around in stores and across your screens, prepping everyone for the Christmas season. From malls to boutiques- the steals are endless! So, what about a day of deals just for bakers? 🫡 The Vendy Blendy answers the call . A deal-lovers' day specifically for the bakers of the world. Let’s cover the who, what, when, where, and why so you can know exactly what to expect for the 5th annual Vendy Blendy come November 28th. 🛒 Date : November 28th, 2025 🛒 Time : 12:01 AM - 11:59 PM (24 hours) 🛒 How to Join : Just request to pendy! 🛍️ What is The Vendy Blendy? The Vendy Blendy’s main location is in a Facebook group called, you’ll never guess, “ The Vendy Blendy (Sugar Cookie Marketing) ”... we aren’t great at creative naming, I’ll tell ya that, BUT it’s a fun spot where chaos goes down for 24 hours on the day after Thanksgiving, on November 28th. Each year, vendors (Vendys) from the baking industry and around the world come together and offer discounts, door prizes, and incentives to get bakers to buy from their shops - things like cookie cutters, baking mats, baker shirts, cookie scribes, STLs, software, takes a deep breath, cake pop molds, recipes, meringue powder, sprinkles, class kits, online courses, transfer sheets, packaging, cookie tags, cookie backers- the list truly does go on and on and on aaaand it’ll all be 25% off or more! 👉 You can access the current list (which is always growing) of vendys at http://www.TheVendys.com Just like most awesome things in life, it’s here for a good time, not a long time, so you’ll be able to shop the deals and steals for just 24 hours, and 💥POOF💥, it’ll be gone. 🤫 We shut down the group and boot everybody out, and we don’t talk about it again until next year. It truly is the best day and only day of the year! 🛍️ Who is The Vendy Blendy for? If you’re just window shoppin’ or if you’re there to stock up on all your 2026 packaging options - this sale is for you. 🚪🎁 The shops all host door prizes, plus the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group, who puts it on, will be giving out free-to-enter BIG Door Prizes all day just for being there- you ain’t gotta purchase one single thing for a chance to win. 🌎 While most of the Vendy's shops are based in the US, we have many that aren’t, and you can score deals from across the world! So don’t think that because you don’t have a US zip code, you can’t win, because you totally can! 🛍️ When is The Vendy Blendy The Vendy Blendy is a 24-hour online event that goes down from midnight on November 27th to midnight on November 28th. It’s exactly 24 hours long . The event is hosted in Eastern Standard Time , so you may need to do some time conversions. The Vendy Blendy group is a private group on Facebook, so you’ll pend until the day of the even t. Admins and Mods are already in there setting up the group and makin’ sure the pinned posts, discounts, and directions are all set up. At midnight on November 27th , we will start letting anyone pending into the group. 🛍️ Where is The Vendy Blendy? This event does take place on Facebook, but the shops will let you check out from their individual websites. The Vendy Blendy Facebook group will be a hub that day where you can snag the discount codes, cheer on your favorite shops, and win door prizes all day long. You’ll access the shops, discount codes, and websites from a pinned Google Sheet within the group on the day of the event.…

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230. Baking it Down - Nothing Old, Nothing New 1:38:59

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Send us a text 🥲 Nothing Old, Nothing New - Why your clients aren't coming back. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 230 - Nothing Old, Nothing New , Corrie wanted to cover returning customers - clients that have ordered from you in the past and then reorder. They're massively valuable to your bottom line because returning leads cost less to acquire. That means you have to spend less time and marketing dollars getting someone to order from you a second time than getting someone to order from you the first time. And this makes sense, right? ✅ A returning client already knows you exist. ✅ A returning client already knows your ordering process. ✅ A returning client has built trust with you when they placed their first order. ✅ A returning client is 15 - 20% more likely to reconvert when reengaged. To drive the point home: 🤯 It can cost 5 - 25 times more to acquire a new customer than to re-engage an existing or returning lead. So for every dollar you spend to reacquire an old lead, you'd be spending $25 to replace them with a new lead. Higher marketing costs = lower profits. If you're a good baker-turned-marketer, you should be asking this question: 🤔 "How can I increase my returning customer base?" 🧠 Smart question - and there may be a few culprits at fault as to why you don't have people re-knocking on your proverbial front door. 🙅‍♂️ 1. If you take big breaks or take the summer off, you're going to lose clients. If you're taking big, inconsistent breaks (like the summer off or January off), you're going to frustrate your current base of clients. They can't return if your doors are never open. If a customer who ordered from you in June returns to place an order in January only to find you've closed up shop until March, they'll need to source another baker - a more reliable one. Hey - put down that pitchfork, if you need to take a break, do so . But remember the cost of taking breaks like this - it will impact your returning customers. 🙅‍♀️ 2. If you're constantly changing your offerings, you're losing clients. If you listened to this week's podcast, I lean into the "hybrid model" - a give and take. No one solution fits everyone, but finding a mix of solutions can still be an effective approach. That applied to a busy menu. Yes, trimming your menu down to the fan favorites (that you also like baking) can prevent analysis paralysis (or choice paralysis), but changing up your menu too often can drive away past customers who lost their favorites during a menu purge. Create a list of your best sellers and stick to it. Sprinkle in some "seasonal drops" and "limited editions," but be consistent in your long-term offerings. 🙅‍♂️ 3. If you're not easily searchable, you're losing returning clients. 🔍 If I can't easily find you on search, socials, and email, you're not easily findable. Imagine a client who only ordered from you a year ago. How likely are they to be able to remember where to find you? Oftentimes, clients go to search engines with a slew of keywords they hope can connect them with past vendors. 🕵️‍♂️ If your website doesn't show up or your maps listing is nonexistent , you're losing any clients looking for you. 🙅‍♀️ 4. If you're not relevant on socials, you're losing returning clients. I get it - ya get busy and posting to social media falls to the back burner. "But I'm busy, so my marketing is good, right?" Yes - however, marketing results are delayed - meaning what you do today you won't see until a month or two from now.…

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229. Baking it Down - Why You Should Do the Reels Collab 1:18:05

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Send us a text 🎥 Do the Reels Collab - And here’s the reasons why you should. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 229 - Do the Reels Collab , we're hypin' up the marketing behind the Blind Baker Reels Collab on September 26. ✅ Register here: https://form.jotform.com/SugarCookieMarketing/blind-baker-collab 🎥 This cookie collab is different from the others we've run this year for 1 simple reason: it's video-based. Instead of posting an image of a logo-turned-cookie for the Main Street Collab or posting a selfie like we did for the Meet the Baker Collab , this Blind Baker Collab has bakers recording themselves. ✍️ Here's the breakdown - participants in this cookie collab with blindfold themselves and hit RECORD as they pipe a jack-o'-lantern onto a white iced circular sugar cookie (I’ll provide an inspo pic). Then, on September 26th at 11:00 AM EST , bakers will post that video to their Instagram using the hashtag #SCMCollab Circle (note the 2 L’s in collab) and spend the next hour engaging with other Reels. 📼 Instagram converts all videos to Reels, so all ya gotta do is upload the video, add the caption, and post. 📉 But this Blind Baker Collab will be the lowest attended cookie collab we host this year . Why? Because folks hate recording themselves on video. But in a video-first social media sphere, this is the piece of content that will push the needle for your post reach. 🤳 It's a Reels world, and we're just livin' in it. Vertical videos are the marketing flavor of the month , and based on TikTok's extreme popularity over the last Covid-confined 5 years, it's not looking like it's going to let go of the limelight anytime soon. Video (all video, not just vertical video) should be a part of your marketing content creation schedule each week because... 📹 Watchability - Our audience prefers to digest content via video versus text on a web page. 📹 Conversions - Adding a marketing video to a landing page can increase conversions by over 80%. 📹 User Generated Content - 84% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand's video. 📹 Search Engine Optimization - Videos can rank separately from web pages and also can help web pages rank higher in search engines. 📱 1. Meta is pushing videos more to compete with TikTok TikTok is growing, and Facebook knows it. Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) has slowed the reach of image-based content to favor video-based Reels instead (Reels = Meta's branding of TikToks). 📱 2. Reels are recommended more than stagnant posts on Instagram. What used to be an image-based platform, Reels paved the way for vertical video content to compete with the ever-popular TikTok. As a result, image content has been pushed aside to favor the reach of videos on Instagram. 📱 3. Reels are a better way to connect YOU to your audience. Statistics aside, your audience wants to connect with you - which is why this Reels collab focuses on you, the baker, rather than your skill set (we don't expect anyone to pipe a perfect pumpkin whilst blind folded). The goal of this collab is to put a face to a name a 📱 4. Our own experience with the taste test series. Anecdotal evidence also supports the "Reel reach" theory. Corrie recently completed a 25-day series on Instagram using Reels to run a "freshness test" on her heat-sealed cookies. Each day, she recorded a minute-long video snackin' on a cookie. As dumb as that sounds, the con…

Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

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228. Baking it Down - Getting Unstuck from the Web...Sites 1:43:01

for 8 weeks siden1:43:01

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Send us a text 🕸️ Stuck in the Websites - What to look for in a website builder. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 228 - Stuck in the Web...Sites , we (remotely - forgive the sound quality this week, kids - it was a learning experience) talk about the sunsetting of the baker-centric website host and builder, Castiron. 📩 Castiron sent this email to current users on Monday night with very little warning that there were problems in "paradise": Consider the implications of losing your website: 🖱️ Loss of URL (meaning all your business cards need to be reprinted) 🖱️ Loss of outstanding order details 🖱️ Loss of unpaid invoices 🖱️ Loss of all product listings / copy / images 🖱️ Loss of all rankings in search engines (lead gen) 🖱️ Loss of business metrics (web traffic / sales yoy / customer data) 🖱️ Loss of time building a new website from scratch See - it can have a massive impact on a small business. So making sure you're not stuck in this predicament is just good business. 💻 1. Is the website host well-established? "Shiny new object" syndrome isn't the best when it comes to websites. Providers that have decades under their belt hosting websites is a good sign that they're here for a long time, not just a good time. When a new company enters the website space, they're trying to gain enough market share to generate the cash flow to stay operational. While they often offer more competitive pricing, there's a reason for that = to build up their user base. While they may offer more perks for less, you also run the risk that they may not remain sustainable for long. 💻 2. Is the host cost-competitive? There's cheap, fast, and good = choose two. But in all seriousness, consider the pricing implications of your hosting platform of choice. If the monthly fee seems low, they may be taking % of sales. Some web hosts provide the basics, but you get nickel-and-dimed with plugins (Shopify and WordPress, for example). Here's the takeaway - cheaper doesn't always mean bad, and expensive doesn't always mean good. What you need to vet is how that specific platform meets your bakery's unique needs. If you're new to market, a platform that takes % of sales may actually be more cost advantageous than a flat fee host. It's dependent on your needs + the math problem. Find what works for you. 💻 3. Are they reaching promised milestones? When a company shows its roadmap, it's a decent metric to see how the company is progressing. If most milestones are missed, it may be an indicator that not all is sunshine and roses. Stay on top of promises and deadlines to better understand how the host is maintaining its tech and thus your website. 💻 4. Does it match your level of "tech savvy"? It could be the best website builder in the world, but if you don't know how to use it, it's worthless . Finding a platform that works with how you work is the winning strategy here, and sometimes that's not always a full website but rather an intake form (like Bakesy, Jotform, or Google Forms). If you're willing to sit with a problem until it's solved, more complex builders will give you more functionality. It's all about finding what works well for you and your current needs.…

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227. Baking it Down - Do NOT Teach a Cookie Class (this way) 1:12:14

for 9 weeks siden1:12:14

1:12:14

Send us a text 🛑 Do Not Teach a Cookie Class! - (If you plan on making these mistakes) In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 227 - Do NOT Teach a Cookie Class (this way) , Corrie and I list out the things we wouldn't do if we were getting into cookie classes (yeah, yeah - the title is a bit of a clickbait, but hey, we're marketers, right?). September in the Sugar Cookie Marketing group is all about Cookie Classes as we try out having a "monthly theme" focused on one topic (you can still post whatever). You can search #SeptemberCookieClassesMonth in the group to see more posts on this topic. 🚫 That said - today we wanna talk to the "on the fence" baker considering teaching cookie classes this "Cookie Class Money Printing Season" aka the holiday rush. ⛔ Here's the eight things we'd never do if we were teaching a cookie class (again - clickbait, but aren't ya curious??). 🛑 1. Do NOT pay for a venue (if you can play ball) Okay - so not all venues will let ya use their spaces for free, but before you resign yourself to paying, 🚫 shoot your shot on finding a venue that lets you use it for free in exchange for marketing their shop to your audience. ⚠️ Class teaching baker Brit says she was offered a 60/40 split with her venue, but countered with a 100/0 split in exchange for all the marketing she'd be doing, bringing folks to the winery to buy wine + a cookie class. Guess what? They bit. And now she makes 100% of her sales. No, not every venue will take the bait, but ask before you cough up commissions. Wineries, breweries, kitchen showrooms, cafes, and shared workspaces may all be interested in a lil' exposure in exchange for monetary compensation. 🛑 2. Do NOT just list a class each month. We used to post a class at the beginning of each month. 🚫 Over time, we realized we were working twice as hard as we should be if we just listed our yearly calendar each January. By listing the year up front, we're able to tell each class we teach about the upcoming classes - and that makes for good marketing. ⚠️ The approach has worked so well in fact, our October Halloween and December Christmas classes are already booked , and it's only September 2. 🛑 3. Do NOT teach intermediate classes. And if you do, I swear I oughttaaaa... not really care, teach what ya like. BUT if you're just getting started, beginner-level classes will make your class attendees feel so much more successful. ✋ And a happy student = a student who might come back again. 🚫 Teaching intermediate classes limits who will sign up, and also it'll likely raise your ticket prices, yet again limiting who will sign up. 🛑 It's not my favorite recipe for filling up class seats. 🛑 4. Do NOT use a ton of icing colors/consistencies. I know when a baker is teaching cookie classes because they all suffer from something I like to call "Cookie Class Icing PTSD" - 🚫 which is to say swinging bags and bags of icing over their heads for an upcoming cookie class. When it comes to classes, everything has to be done at scale. ⚠️ So those 7 icing bags you'd mix for your custom sets? Yeah, that's gonna be SEVENTY bags if you're teaching a class to 10 people. ⛔⛔⛔ Y-i-k-es. 🛑 5. Do NOT start from scratch. Shameless plug (but if we don't toot our own horns, who will?) for the Cookie Class Kits membership that takes the "from scratch" out of cookie class planning. We handle everything for you, so you can focus on securing a venue, baking, and presenting. These class kits handle the design, the color choices, the photography, the step-by-step PowerPoint, the copy, and the math (plus printables like piping practice sheets and Eddie outlines…

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226. Baking it Down - Podcast Guests Heather Brookshire and Kim Sims! 1:27:33

for 10 weeks siden1:27:33

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Send us a text 👭 Podcast Guests! - Meet Heather Brookshire and Kim Sims. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 226 - Podcast Guests Heather and Kim , you asked for less Heather and Corrie, and now you get Heather and Kim! Close enough, right?! Heather and Kim are self-titled "ESBs" - emotional support bakers - and really break down the value of having a baking buddy to partner with, vent to, talk shop with, and have in your corner when Uber steals your order. 👋 Meet Heather Campbell Brookshire of TheCakeWhispererUSA If you've ever come to a CookieCon Sugar Cookie Marketing Happy Hour, you've likely met Heather Campbell Brookshire. She's best known for her 3.5xs debut on The Food Network and her Gingerbread Facebook Live (I don't have the link to this still, but she's workin' on getting me a copy). 📌 Disney Trip Planning - https://www.reachforthemagicdestinations.com/heatherbrookshire 📌 Cookie and Cake Competitions 101 - https://youtu.be/3fIZT96Wdek When she's not slingin' icing across the silver screen, Heather is the embodiment of "A Disney Adult," and 🐭 also doubles as a Disney Trip Planner (free for the hiring for those uninitiated by the Mouses' rewards plan). Heather's been baking more cakes than cookies for 10 years (come this October), and gives us a quick deep dive into how to get featured on the Food Network. The key, she says? Try, try, and try again - and just when you're about to give up, expect an email. 👋 Meet Kim DeMille Sims from Beans and Brews & Wesley's Treats Kim thought cottage baking lacked enough stress (lol), so she dove headfirst into owning her own Beans and Brews franchise in Spring, Texas. Now she's taken her knowledge of allergy-friendly baking into the brick-and-mortar world. 📌 Allergy-Friendly Baking Basics with Kim DeMille Sims - https://youtu.be/2Ll5hN9Mi-c 📌 Beans & Brews - https://www.beansandbrews.com/coffee-shops/spring-rhodes-shopping-center/ Kim's dream of owning her own coffee-infused bakery started when she was 12, and for the last three years, she's earned an entirely new vocabulary, from "FDD" to handling the SBA. She pipes us through her backstory, employee turnover, what her future plans are, and ☕️ how she got to owning her own dream coffee beans in this week's podcast. 👂 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 226 - Podcast Guests Heather Brookshire and Kim Sims .…

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225. Baking it Down - Diamond Demand 1:11:18

for 11 weeks siden1:11:18

1:11:18

Send us a text 💎 Diamond Demand - Sifting through the competition. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 225 - Diamond Demand , we're telling EVERYONE they need DIAMONDS right NOW. 💎💎💎💎 Just kidding - this is just an analogy , so before you make this into something it's not - we're not talkin' about the diamond industry or bl🩸ood diamonds - we're just comparing a not-necessary-for-life luxury good with not-necessary-for-life luxury bakes. And there's somethin' we can all learn from the "very very slightly" interesting podcast comparison. Diamonds are a luxury item, but how can my local Tysons Corner Center mall be home to so many jewelry stores? It's because while they're selling a similar product (diamonds), they've each carved out their niche among the competition. Blue Nile focuses on web-based marketing, Helzberg is a chain, Mervis is a D2C brand, and Lenkersdorf focuses on diamond watches. They're all competitors , but because of their respective niches, they aren't really. 💍 1. Dye-Free Baker = Ethically Sourced Okay, no - I'm not supporting the train that using dyes in your food coloring makes you unethical , but the comparison here is that diamond suppliers who spend more money to focus on ethical sourcing measures tend to charge more. Thus, they incorporate that messaging in the marketing to counter the price gap between their competition. Same with the dye-free bakers. They can use the current climate to market the potential health benefits of a dye-free approach, niching them down a lil' bit further and also still allowing them to charge enough to cover their costs + make a profit (dye-free food coloring is quite a bit more expensive at the time of writing). 💍 2. Luxury Branding = Tiffany's If there's one diamond company known for color, it's "Tiffany Blue." People will regularly overpay for that teal color because they're buying the luxury experience and the branding, and they don't mind payin' the big bucks for it. A baker who wants to niche down can focus on the buyer's experience. Website, branding, check-out, communication, packaging = hit this out of the park and you're in a "name your price" arena. 💍 3. Volume Baking = Wholesale Importers Now this is where you'll find twin2 supporting her shiny habit. Diamond importers that sell wholesale cut out the middlemen, the fancy packaging, and the white glove treatment in exchange for selling you more for (allegedly) less. This is the baker that, like Corrie's not-client requested, "slaps icing on a delicious cookie." Some buyers (like the twin) just want a good deal at the sacrifice of everything else. Bakers who focus on cheaper prices and cheaper production will niche themselves away from the higher-end branded baker. 💍 4. Drop Cookiers = Moissanite Now now, down dog - this isn't to say drop cookies are cheap knock-offs. Rather the point is that they're not even competing with diamonds at all. They're a completely different product snagging some market share that the diamond sellers wouldn't be able to sell to anyway! People who want a giant, delicious drop cookie likely won't love the steep price of a vanilla-only sugar cookie. This is a neat way to niche it up. Talk about a power play, the baker who can sell both sugar cookies and drop cookies. We compare the "lab-grown" baker in the podcast, but I need to go get some meds and some sleep, so give the podcast a listen! 👂 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 225 - Diamond Demand.…

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224. Baking it Down - Main Street Money 1:12:46

for 12 weeks siden1:12:46

1:12:46

Send us a text 💼 Main Street Money - Maximizing the main street cookie collab. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 224 - Main Street Money , the Main Street Cookie Collab is BACK and it's in two weeks on August 28th at 11:00 AM est . This is a fun collab because it incorporates so much "local" than our other collabs do. ⚠️ Keep in mind, this collab is on a Thursday , not our typical Friday - much thanks to my inability to read a calendar. ⚠️ Also, heads up - we've shifted the time an hour later to 11:00 AM est - 12:00 PM est . We did this so our West Coast friends don't have to be up early to participate. 📌 1. What's a cookie collab? A cookie collab is a single-day, single-hour online event where a group of bakers design a cookie (or a picture) based on a specified theme. At that designated time, bakers will post their cookie creations to Instagram using a specific hashtag ( #SCMCollabLocal ). We use a unique hashtag for each collab - ⚠️ meaning don't use the same hashtag as the last collab. During that hour, all the collabers will engage with other bakers' posts by liking and commenting (but not following). It lasts for 1 hour, and it's a great way to increase engagement by hijacking the algorithm to show your post to more of your followers. A win-win-win. Some collabs are invite-only, but this is an open invite. All we ask is that you register to get reminders and help with your captions (not required, but appreciated). 📌 2. Details on this Main Street collab This is one of my favorite collabs because the potential pay-offs are so much higher than our other collabs. The Main Street Collab is just that - you find a local business and turn their logo into a cookie. Yes, it's similar to the "cookie my logo" collab we did last month, but this one ups the ante because we're featuring a local company - more on that in a minute. ➡️ Time : Thursday, 11:00 AM EST ➡️ Date : August 28th, 2025 ➡️ Use Hashtag #SCMCollabLocal ➡️ Register Here : https://form.jotform.com/SugarCookieMarketing/main-street-cookie-collab 📌 3. How to choose a business to feature Don't feel overwhelmed here - the easier this is, the better. But if you're looking for some tips to maximize potential with this collab, here's what we recommend: ✅ Find a hyper-local company. ✅ Consider featuring a restaurant or coffee shop. ✅ Try to pick a business that already has a bit of a following. ✅ Choose a company that's active on social media - specifically on Instagram (bonus if you see they reshare a lot of content). ✅ Find more ways you can squeeze content from this collab-featured business. 📌 4. What you're going to post At 11:00 AM (est), you're going to post the logo cookie on your Instagram. Ideally, the photo of the cookie is taken in front of the business's front door (bonus if you get their logo in the pic too) - you'll likely get more traction that way. Your local audience will think, "Oh hey! I've been there, I love that place!" Your caption is going to feature either facts about the company, your favorite menu items, or why the location means something to ya - make it interesting for your readers (and for the company you featured - they'll be delighted to read about themselves). You're also going to tag the company's Instagram handle to see if we can get their attention (and possibly a reshare). Once you post, you're gonna engage with other bakers who used the same hashtag while they come to your post and engage too! This is a fantastic way to get your start in corporate orders - some bakers will eve…

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223. Baking it Down - Business Victim Mindset 1:23:28

for 13 weeks siden1:23:28

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Send us a text 💀 Business Victim Mindset - Be what happens to your business. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 223 - Business Victim Mindset , we are in the slowest baking month of the YEAR. Yep - last week of July / first week of August = the Google trends report where "sugar cookie" is least searched. Conversely, 📊 the end of the slowest month begins the uptick of our busy season - but that's not the point of today's podcast. We're focusing on the "hanging up of the apron" baker who looks for indicators that the industry is dead. Pack it up, boys, ain't no one want cookies no more! The cows came home, and they didn't bring money with 'em. WRONG . While it feels that way, this has always been our yearly industry ebb and flow. "The J Months" (💸 January, June, and July) make you question if you're good at business at all, and the Q4 months make you feel like you're on top of the world. We are here - August 3 - 9 . 🕵️ In this graph from Google Trends, we see a year in Google search for the term "sugar cookies." That peak is the week before Christmas. That trough? That's us literally this week. 🎄 So if Christmas is 100%, bakers are looking at 14% of our highest order volume (📉 data doesn't exactly mean that, but it can be extrapolated as a decent representation of our calendar year as bakers). Why are we talking about the low point of baking leads? Because it's during this time that bakers let their business happen to them. They are reactive. They let the ebbs and flows control their moods. 😞 Low leads = low mood . The proverbial "hanging up the apron" quitting posts tick up around this time. 😢 It feels like the end is nigh. But here's today's challenge: happen to your business . Something's not working? Try it a different way. Class didn't book out? BoGo tickets until it does. Summer rain watered your sales numbers at that last farmer's market? Lightning flash sale it is. 1. Your farmer's market event gets rained out If there's anything more unpredictable than when Corrie will be on the podcast, it's the weather on the day of a farmer's market. We can't control the weather, but we can control our perspective on it. 🤕 Business happening to you : You baked everything. You had high hopes for sales, now you're sulking because it was a total wash. 💪 You happening to your business : You jump on an impromptu Facebook Live to see if anyone wants to snag a "lightning flash deal" on your bakes. You gain a new audience of last-minute orders, and your product doesn't go to waste - you even recoup some of your costs, maybe even some profit. 2. There was low attendance at your vendor event It happens - the vendor coordinator drops the ball (ahem - wedding vendor expo a la 2024) and no one shows up. But you prepped, spent money on your displays, baked, and even lugged your Eddie there for a photo-booth setup. 🤕 Business happening to you : You pack up early and leave. You then complain about the entire event and coordinator in a local community group - heck, they deserve it for wasting your time. 💪 You happening to your business : You realize attendance is low, but you brought your DSLR camera. You start connecting with other vendors and take a few photos of them in action. You grab their business card and make a connection, thus potentially securing a referral source. 3. There was another baker at your holiday market Nothing's worse than showing up to a Holiday Market full of your competitors, especially when they told you that you'd be the only cookie baker. 🤕 Business happening to you : You complain to management and forever burn that bridge.…

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222. Baking it Down - Return of the Twith 1:19:29

for 14 weeks siden1:19:29

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Send us a text 👀 Reach Ain’t Errythang - Focus on metrics that make money. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 222 - Return of the Twith , the twin is BACK in business, and she means business with this week's topic: reach isn't everything. We played a clip from marketer David Glu , who lists how your audience's interactions might signal what your content isn't doing for them. 📈 Low Likes = Your content isn't relatable 📉 Low Comments = Your content isn't thought-provoking 📈 Low Saves = Your content doesn't add enough value 📉 Low Shares = Your content is not engaging 📈 Low Views = Your content is missing a good hook I like this approach to diagnosing a reach problem because it doesn't allow you to say, "Well, nothing's working, I'm going to quit making content." Instead, it forces you to look at the reach problem as a symptom (🤔 "What do I need to tweak here?" versus a profile problem (😓 "Facebook is limiting my page reach."). 🔨 One of those is in your power to fix, and one of those is not. But also consider how many people you're reaching. 30 per post? 100 per post? 1,000 per post? Seeing other bakers reach hundreds of thousands of people every time they twiddle their fingers across a keyboard can be disheartening. But imagine you were asked to speak to a room of 30 people . Would you be nervous? Of course. How about a room full of 100 people? Talk about a lil' perspiration station under them armpits, right? How about an auditorium of 1,000 people? That'd be a MASSIVE audience. Yet when we see the reach of "30 people" in our Facebook metrics, out the window goes the thought that those people ARE potential buyers. If 30 people placed an order with you tomorrow, would you be booked out for a month or two? Then remember which metrics are guiding your content focus. Your hyper-local followers are your target audience as a local baker, so no - you were never supposed to expect to reach 100,000 people with that post, because if 95% of those people aren't able to place a local order with you, it wasn't the metric to score your content by. Yes, focus on metrics. No, don't let the wrong metric trip you up . Reach isn't as important as conversions (aka people opening their wallets). Yes, they're related, but they're more like second cousins, not twins. When one does well, it's not always indicative of the other doing well. 🎟️ My class kit social media posts get max 3 - 4 likes. My cookie classes? Already booking out in December at $85/ticket with a waitlist. My conversion metric outperformed my engagement metric , and I'm fine with that because, to my business model, conversions are more important than likes. Join the Main Street Cookie Collab on Thursday (ahem), August 28, 2025, at 11:00 AM EST. It's a great way to produce hyper-local content. But then take that content in a few directions. That's what a good marketer would do. 📸 Make the single-image Instagram Main Street Collab post. 📸 Make a carousel post featuring the cookie, the menu, the restaurant's facade, the lunch you ordered there, etc. 📸 Make a Reel outta your trip to turn the business into a cookie. 📸 Post your photo roll-up to a local FB group and write a restaurant review. 📸 Have your FB page audience vote on which business they want you to cookie-fy next.…

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221. Baking it Down - Money Talks with the Miracles 1:33:40

for 15 weeks siden1:33:40

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Send us a text 💵 Money Talks With the (older) Miracles. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 221 - Money Talk with the Miracles , Corrie's still outta commission, so we've got another Miracle sister as a stunt double - meet Ashley with YNAB.com. Ash is the older (and wiser) sister and also an employee of an app that helps folks manage their money. Now, this is not a sales pitch ; that said, I do use the app (and pay full price - what happened to sibling hookups?!), and we're giving away 3 months of it in the Sugar Cookie Marketing group. But we are talkin' about the "YNAB Way" - an approach they take to help business owners and individuals look at the way their money works differently than we're typically told to. The goal of this unique approach is to remove the "ick" of budgeting and replace it with a spending strategy. Basically, they put you and your money on the same side of the war against debt and dollar dread. Here's the "YNAB Way" approach as it applies to bakers: 💵 1. What does this money need to do before I’m paid again? 💵 2. What larger or less frequent spending do I need to prepare for? 💵 3. What can I set aside for next month’s spending? 💵 4. What goals, large or small, do I want to prioritize? 💵 5. What changes do I need to make, if any? The key is giving every dollar a job. That means each month, every dollar you intake gets assigned a role, aka a job. In your "money that came in" line, there will ideally be 0 dollars because all those dollars were moved from the "ready to be given a job" and then were allocated to some line item in your budget. That's where the 5 steps come in. The first "job" your dollars need to tackle is the things that, if not paid, you won't have a business next month . Think website hosting fees, licensure fees, and booth fees. Got those dollars assigned? Cool - we're still in business. Step 2 - The next are those not frequent but very necessary expenses (YNAB calls them sinking funds). These are things like yearly renewals, oven repairs or replacements, insurance policies, heck, maybe your Cookie College yearly renewal you got at a MAJOR discount during the Mid-Summer Membership Sale next week (you smart spender, you) - all things you gotta have, but aren't monthly bills. Step 3 gets your money working ahead . Instead of just funding your bills for this month, imagine a world where next month is already accounted for, too. *Sighs in relief* As wise older sister Ash said, "We're trying to level out the financial roller coasters." Step 4 is my personal favorite . Once the bills are all budgeted for, we can start prioritizing our dream spending. Ash says you can learn a lot about a baker through their budget, especially when it comes to goals and wants. Think buying that Eddie, or going to CookieCon 2026, or spending with (budgeted) reckless abandon at The Vendy Blendy. And we end with Step 5 - the overview and the adjustment. We see what we had to spend, we see what we will spend, and we now see what we want to spend - where can we optimize? Where can we dream bigger? Where can we spend less? Like Ash says, "It's a constant conversation with yourself about how you want your money to work for you." 👂 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 221 - Money Talk with the Miracles.…

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220. Baking it Down - Ope, It's Amy! 1:20:20

for 16 weeks siden1:20:20

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Send us a text 👋 Ope, It's Amy! The mod team meets the mod team. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 220 - Ope, It's Amy! , we continue on our "regular scheduled programming" departure to introduce our first ever podcast guest - 🎂 Amy Russell of CookiesTakeTheCake (https://www.instagram.com/cookiestakethecake)! 💥 Now here's the funny part: Amy has been a part of the Sugar Cookie Marketing moderation team for like almost 5 years, and yet we've never met her before. Attempted to? Yes, many times. But she's 16 hours away in Missouri, and we're dying of heat exhaustion in the Nation's Swamp... I mean, Capitol. But claim that no more, 🚦🚗💨 for Amy went an additional 8 hours outta her way to be the first ever podcast guest as Corrie preps for her hysterectomy surgery (today actually - she'll be under when you're reading this email. 🙏 Healing thoughts, twin #2!). Why give this podcast a listen? Amy's got a unique story - 🥣 like many bakers do, how she found herself on a whisk and a prayer is an interesting story involving starting with gluten-sensitive cakes and migrating into the wild world of sugar cookies due to their ease of freezing - something that comes in handy when you've got 👦👦👦👦👦 5 boys under 17 years of age (🏥 ER visits seem to be their favorite vacation destination). Amy has structured her business in a way that allows her to juggle everything that life throws at their family of 7 - from church missions trips to after-school sports activities. 🔧 Her bakery is a tool to not only add income to the family's bottom line but also the flexibility needed to play Manager Mom - 🔧🛠️🪛🔩 all of which are more tools she uses to increase her brand awareness and network to new potential clients in a pretty neat way (I won't spoil it for ya, you can hear it on this week's episode). 👂 Since I don't have kids and Corrie only has one, it's an interesting listen to see what it all looks like under the hood of a large family. The big takeaway from Amy? She says to find your niche . In her words, "If the market's saturated, ✍️ then call me the ink." And her defining statement is that there's enough work to go around if you're willing to niche for it. And I'm here for this. There's enough cookies to go around when you're the gluten-free, mini-baker serving an area outside a massive city where your unique setup allows you an even more unique marketing opportunity. Tune in next week for Podcast Guest #2 - the older Miracle sister! 👂 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 220 - Ope, It's Amy!…

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219. Baking it Down - C is for Cancer 1:20:49

for 17 weeks siden1:20:49

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Send us a text 🤒 C is for Cancer - A health update. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 219 - C is for Cancer , we pause our typical marketing podcast to talk about health - specifically as it relates to Corrie's cancer diagnosis and her upcoming surgery that'll have her outta commission for a few weeks (yes, you're still stuck with me, Heather). Today's podcast was a departure from our typical marketing content. It's a way to raise awareness that cancer doesn't judge, it doesn't choose favorites, and the best way to beat it is to catch it ahead of time. Ergo, the goal of today's podcast is to raise awareness for cancer screenings. As a self-employed baker, the thought of putting your health in front of all your orders, deadlines, payroll, website updates, social media posts, newsletters, pop-ups... You get the point. Your health can feel like it's the last thing you have time to focus on when it comes to your endless to-do list. But you have to put "health" at the top - your life literally depends on it. 👂 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 219 - C is for Cancer.…

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218. Baking it Down - The First Ever Mid-Summer Membership Sale 1:20:48

for 18 weeks siden1:20:48

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Send us a text 🤑 Mid-Summer Membership Sale - The first-ever mid-year Cookie College sale. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 218 - Mid-Summer Membership Sale , we cover this month's Mid-Summer Membership sale starting July 27 - August 2, 2025 . This 7-day sale is the only one we've ever run before the Vendy Blendy (I cried just typing that - 🥲 how is this year goin' by so fast). 🤑 1. The Details This is our first-ever Mid-Summer Membership Sale - typically, we run a Black Friday sale, but that puts bakers having to take classes right smack dab in the middle of busy season. So I (ahem, Heather... thank me later) convinced Corrie to run a similar sale, but mid-summer so bakers can work on marketing in the slower season (before our "Cookie Super Bowl" holiday season starts). So if you've been on the fence on signing up for these memberships, now is the time to snag 'em while they're cheap. They won't go on sale again until our one-day Black Friday sale. This time, you have 7 whole days to think it over . Mid-Summer Membership Sale Details: 💵 Date : July 27 - Aug 2 💵 Duration : 7 Days 💵 Discounts : 10% - 50% (even 89%) 💵 Location : Online at The Cookie College website 🤑 2. The Discounts So we're runnin' a sale on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g - that means every membership and even the now-archived Class Kits from yesteryear. There's somethin' for everyone in this sale, so fence-sitters, rejoice! Your procrastination has finally paid off for once! The Discounts: 💵 The Cookie College - (was $76) $68/mo or $680/yr 💵 The Cookie Class Kits - (was $63) $31.50/mo or $351/yr 💵 The Bakers Biz Basics - (was $36) $18/mo 💵 The Digital Downloads - (was $10) $5/mo or $100/yr 💵 The Two Dollar Transfer Club - (was $2) $1/mo 💵 The 2023 - 2024 Class Kits - $10/each And if you're already a current member of any of the above, you can STILL switch to the cheaper plan ! Yeah - I gotta take care of my peeps. As always, all sales are offered to current members as well. You'll just log in > settings > scroll all the way down to billing > scroll even further to "change plan" > select the cheaper option. BAM - your bill date doesn't change, and any overpayment is applied as a pro-rated discount for that first payment. Your next invoice will reflect that cheaper plan. 🤑 3. The Roast 'n Toasts To hype up the Mid-Summer Sale, we're hosting THREE Live marketing audits . They're only 30 minutes long , and each will feature 5 bakers who signed up for 5 minutes in the hot seat. We'll burn through their profile finding recs to increase sales, reduce funnel length, or clarify communications. In exchange for sweatin' it out with us, each baker has a 1-in-5 chance to win a month FREE in The Cookie College! 💵 July 10 - Roast 'n Toast - Mid-Summer Marketing Audit #1 🔥🥂 💵 July 17 - Roast 'n Toast - Mid-Summer Marketing Audit #2 🔥🥂 💵 July 24 - Roast 'n Toast - Mid-Summer Marketing Audit #3 🔥🥂 In each of the Roasts, I'll cover a bit about the sale, too. Wanna get roasted then possibly toasted? Sign up here: https://form.jotform.com/SugarCookieMarketing/roast-then-toast…

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217. Baking it Down - Video Marketing for Local Small Bakeries 1:03:52

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Send us a text 📹 Video Marketing - For local, small cottage bakeries. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 217 - Video Marketing for Local Small Bakeries , Corrie wanted to talk about the wild world of Reels. Well, Reels, TikToks, YouTube Shorts - you know, vertical video. A topic made all the more important by Meta's announcement last week that all videos uploaded to the Facebook platform would now be categorized as Reels, thus shutting the door on horizontal videos (* Lives are still Lives, though). It's what's in right now, and as small businesses who want to increase reach, we gotta bite the proverbial bullet and say cheese (trust me, I hate it too). 🎞️ 1. Start with the setup The setup will make or break your quality, but pro-tip : it won't be perfect when you're just getting started. Don't let that stop you! The old adage was right when it stated, "Practice makes perfect." So yes, you may be tripping out of the gate, but the long-term benefits of Nike's "Just Do It" will make the juice worth the squeeze. Products Recs from this Podcast: 🔗 Tripod - Canvas Lamp 🔗 Dummy Phone - iPhone 13 🔗 Editing App - InShot 🔗 Backdrop - The Backers Co in White Matte Finish 🔗 Teleprompter - Search Amazon for one that fits your setup You'll want to find a natural indirect light source - this means the sun, but in a bright room where the sun isn't creating harsh shadows. If you can't get out of the sun because of the positioning of your house, using a silk curtain can diffuse the light enough to make it work. 📐 Most bakers struggle with the positioning of the tripod in relation to the cookie. Don't be afraid to position the camera at an angle - if you pay attention, you'll find most decorating videos are not directly overhead, although Corrie tells ya how to make it work with the Canvas Lamp (heads up - she does not use the lamp's light ring, just the phone mount). 🎞️ 2. Types of videos to record Once you get your setup dialed in, you may be tempted to become a one-dimensional "cookie decorating video ASMR" content machine, but ya gotta mix it up. 🔑 This is the key point to the podcast - small, local businesses need to feature local content . Consider who is watching your videos. ASMR-type decorating videos appeal to a wide audience - 🌎 like, "the whole world" wide. Not the goal if we want to increase our local customer base, but good for impressions (the number of eyes that watch your videos). When we feature hyper-local businesses, farmers markets, and event coverage, we appeal really just to our local demographic. That's the goal. 🪣 Here are some content buckets you could pull from to make a diverse content strategy that covers both broad and narrow targeting: 🎬 Read customer testimonials and give order details 🎬 Local event coverage - farmer's markets, new restaurant opening, town events 🎬 Tell a story or series - "I'm on my journey to open a brick and mortar - I'm taking you with me!" 🎬 Behind the scenes - "I have an order for 30 dz. Let's do it together." 🎬 Presale QVC-style video - "Here's what you'll find at my pop-up next week." 🎬 Baking Tips - "Here's how to make Royal Icing at home!" 🎬 ASMR -type decorating vids 🎞️ 3. Things to include for extra reach Finally, try to include these when recording - it'll help your audience better relate and discover your content. And the more people who see your content, the more likely the algos are to show your content to more people = the endless cog in the marketing wheel.…

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216. Baking it Down - Take a Stab at a Cookie Collab 1:01:16

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Send us a text 🖼️ Take a Stab - At a cookie collab. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 216 - Taking a Stab at a Cookie Collab , and Sugar Cookie Marketing Cookie Collabs are BACK IN BUSINESS. You can check out the details in the event listing for the SCM Cookie Collab: Meet the Baker 2025! here. But allow us to spend this week's podcast and newsletter walking you through the Collab 101 basics so you can get the most from the easy-to-join Instagram cookie collab. Long story... podcast?... short, collabs are an easy breezy marketing collaboration with a handful of other bakers to increase engagement as well as e-network with your coll-e-agues (get it, because we're all online?). 🌊 Let's dive in. 👙 But if you're already "in there like swimwear," go ahead and register here: 🔪 1. What's a cookie collab? A cookie collab is a single-day, single-hour online event where a group of bakers design a cookie (or a picture) based on a specified theme. Each "collaber" will post on a designated social media platform ( Instagram in this case ) using a specific hashtag ( #SCMCollabBaker ). Then all the participants will engage with other participants' posts by liking and commenting (but not following). It lasts for 1 hour, and it's a great way to meet new bakers, put faces to names, and increase engagement by hijacking the algo to show your post to more of your followers. A win-win-win. Some collabs are invite-only, but this is an open invite collab. All we ask is that you register to get reminders (not required, but appreciated). 🔪 2. Why did we stop doing collabs? With Zuck trying to keep up with the Joneses (ahem, TikTok), the platform depreciated hashtags - the main way we connect bakers through collabs. Previously, collabers could search for the most recent posts using a common hashtag (example, our old collab hashtag - #SCMCookiecCollab) during the collab hour and engage away as one big happy baking family. Now, with the removal of the ability to follow hashtags and the ability to filter by most recent , posts from prior collabs would have shown up, they'd have been outta order, and it would have been a giant mess. So we stopped because we needed to rethink the approach (it didn't require a ton of brain power, which you'll see in a second, but hey - we got busy too). 🔪 3. Details on this collab This collab is our simplest concept of the three collabs we'll attempt this year. The "Meet the Baker" collab just requires a picture of you! Personal branding through face photos builds trust and relatability with customers - and bonus, you don't have to bake for this one. Always remember the quote, “people like faces. When in doubt, selfie it out.” ➡️ Time : Friday, 10:00 AM EST ➡️ Date : June 27th, 2025 ➡️ Use Hashtag #SCMCollabBaker ➡️ Register here: https://form.jotform.com/SugarCookieMarketing/scmcollabbaker And it will work - humans love humans, and this collab capitalizes on that. And even better, you get to see the faces of other bakers who are also participating. It's a fun way to kill an hour and do a lil' marketing at the same time. 🔪 4. Tips to get the most from a collab While it's pretty hard to mess up "post a selfie," there are ways to squeeze the most juice from this berry. ✅ Try to have your post up by 10:00 AM EST for maximum exposure. ✅ Use the Hashtag #SCMCollabBaker on Instagram .…

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215. Baking it Down - AI-AI-Oh Yes 1:05:51

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Send us a text 🤖 AI-AI-Oh Yes - Ways bakers are incorporating AI. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 215 - AI-AI-Oh Yes, we read a thread asking bakers how they're using AI in their bakery business. The answers should inspire you - from streamlining workflow to helping write compelling copy on social media, AI has entered stage left, and it won't be leaving anytime soon. If you're a late adopter to this new tech, you're not totally alone, but we predict (hot take) that the bakers who do incorporate AI into their workflow will outperform the bakers who resist the "winds of change." For this newsletter, I'll just list out how bakers are incorporating AI as they incorporate their icing. It's how others use AI that can inspire you to learn ways you can add it yourself. In the podcast, we also listed out how the Harvard Business Review found out how the majority of folks are using AI in their lives. Full disclosure - we recorded this podcast last week, and I'm currently sitting beachside (hopefully not in the rain) right now. So, hello from the past. Also, hello from a huge fan of letting technology help you in business. 🔧 1. Rewriting copy and captions - Ericka - "When I’m brain dead, I’ll have it rewrite my copy to sound like I’m a lively awake human 😂." 🔧 2. Create outline drawings for cookies - Renea - "To make one-line drawings for cookies." 🔧 3. Edit backgrounds on images - Viviana - "Once in a while, I use it to change the background and content. I am involved in networking, and on a few occasions, I have had to give a 10-minute presentation about what I do. I let AI help me put things into words." 🔧 4. Color mixing theory - Kelly - "Copy ideas, and when I’m having trouble with mixing a color, although I haven’t found it as helpful with colors as I had hoped. I’m liking a lot of these other ideas mentioned here, especially when you are stuck on that last design and making the one-line drawings!" 🔧 5. Design ideas - Amie - "Sometimes I need just one more design idea, and I’ll have it make me some ideas." 🔧 6. Website copy - Tina - "Writing first draft of copy for social media, website. Putting in my responses to difficult customer queries and asking it to make it more friendly and sincere. 😁" 🔧 7. Recipe scaling - Daphanee - "Recipe scaling and troubleshooting, writing copy, doing mockups for sets when I have a hard time conceptualizing them." 👂 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 215 - AI-AI-Oh Yes.…

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214. Baking it Down - Pivot Pivot Pivot 1:08:43

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Send us a text 🔄 Pivot Pivot Pivot - What to change when nothing's working. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 214 - Pivot Pivot Pivot , 😖 we talk about what to do when you're doin' it all and all of it doesn't seem to be working. 🛞💨 Nothing is more frustrating than spinning your wheels and making no traction. So what do you do when it's just not working? Here are some things to attempt before you start screaming into the void. See - sometimes we might be doing "all the things," but we're not doing them all right. So touching base with the basics may help you reveal some ways you can pivot and get some fruit from all that labor. 🍎🍊🍋🍌🍉🍑🍓🍒 So - to summarize, yes - you can do everything on the list and still miss the marketing mark. So let's reassess. 🔄 1. Try shifting posting times An easy one, but it may make a difference. If you use Facebook Planner defaults (10:00 AM), you'll find that your content goes up at the same time every time you post. While I love me consistency, sometimes it may be the very thing throwing off your marketing. Corrie has me helping her run her local community group, where the 'most active times' metric is still available. And guess what - the most active time in her area? 8:00 PM on a weekend - definitely not 10:00 AM on a weekday. 🕒🕓🕔 So, try switching it up - see if posting on a weekend late gets more engagement. You'll also need to recognize other players here - content type, copy, time of year, etc. But playing around with posting times can give a lil' boost when nothing else is hittin' home. 🔄 2. Test different copy formulas If you're posting the same caption over and over and over and over - it may be worthwhile to incorporate another format and see if that small adjustment makes a big difference when it comes to your audience. 🧪 We like formulas because they act as guides for your copy - P-A-S, A-I-D-A, before-after-bridge, 4 C's - all examples of formulas designed to help you make copy work for you, not against you. Remember - truncation reigns supreme . 🪝 It may be worth plantin' a hook in your first few words to get people to click... See more. 🔄 3. Switch out photos for Reels It's a Reel's world and we're just livin' in it. Most folks hate the idea of recording video, 🎥 especially when it took us so long to master photos. But if there's one consistent thing about social media = it's that it never stays consistent. To take on the addictive TikTok, 📲 Meta has moved to favor the vertical video both on Instagram and kinda on Facebook? Either way, if your photos aren't resonating, clear them pipes and get to talkin' or, uh, voice-over-in'? Vertical video is in whether or not we like it. 🤮 *opens mouth and takes a big spoonful of phone mount shadows* 🔄 4. Mix in some new content buckets 🪣 Sometimes our consistent content is also stale content , and our audience will let us know by checkin' out. It may be time to mix in some more exciting content buckets. You know the drill = feature local restaurants or markets, share a recommendation for a local business, talk about a charity your clients are involved in, add in some person posts so people can connect. The age-old strategy of just posting 🖼️ baked set after 🖼️ baked set can bore even the most die-hard supporters (thanks, mom), so add in some interest that they can re-engage with. 👂 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 214 - Pivot Pivot Pivot.…

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213. Baking it Down - Hit the Breaks 1:13:43

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Send us a text 🛑 Hit the Breaks - How to take big bakery breaks. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 213 - Hit the Breaks , we cover the fact of life that just sometimes, along your business journey, you need to take a big break. If you've listened to past podcasts, you know we're anti-"big break" when it comes to marketing because it's really hard to stop and start marketing when funnels are long and competition is well, competitive. However, the beauty of being your own boss is that when life requires significant breaks, you're able to take them - with the correctly set expectations that it will impact your marketing and lead generation. With the right setup, that negative effect can be mitigated. And that's what today's podcast is on - the strategy behind big breaks. Note - if you're taking a small break, like something under 2 weeks, disregard this strategy. You likely don't even need to alter your current marketing much, if at all, for a small break. We are talking big breaks, as in 2 months. ⛔ 1. Make an announcement When it comes to big breaks, we need to c-o-m-m-u-n-i-c-a-t-e effectively because nothing is more frustrating than to go place an order with your favorite baker for an event that just happens to fall during that baker's big break. So we need our audience to fully comprehend our break and what it entails. ⛔ Add a defined start and stop date for your big break . I'm talking "July 1, 2025 - August 15, 2025" type specificity. This can help your audience plan around your break without being ambiguous. ⛔ Unpin ALL pinned posts and JUST leave this announcement post pinned. We want to make sure all the attention is brought to a singular point - our break announcement. ⛔ Do NOT put the dates you're out of town . Thieves can use this information to figure out that your house is homeowner-free and rob ya. Again, this podcast is for "taking a break from my bakery" breaks, not "at the beach for the week" breaks. ⛔ 2. Schedule out posting and newsletters Contrary to "taking a break," we don't want to fully ghost our socials and newsletters. We live in an algorithmic world, so fully ghosting can make it really hard to reach our audience when we return. So we make maintenance posts just so Zuck doesn't think we've fully abandoned our baking ship. ⛔ Schedule fewer posts during this absence . While we're not working, we don't want to post at the same frequency as when we were working - it's confusing. Bring your scheduled posts down to once a week - if you're taking off 2 months, that's only 8 posts. ⛔ In each of these posts, you're going to reiterate your break start and end dates . This way, your posts are sending a confusing message of "Wait, I thought she was on break? But she just posted about baking a fun set??" ⛔ The copy should not drive sales . We don't want to have any CTAs in our maintenance posts, because we don't want people to take an action at all. We're on break. So don't ask people to click to your website, place an order, or contact you. With your newsletter - constantly drive folks who caught ya "on your big break," to sign up for your newsletter so they can get the inbox exclusive on your 'big break return." It's a decent way to grow your email list while still staying in touch about your break schedule. You may want to send an email giving folks a heads up about the break (1 month out), the official break announcement, 1 newsletter during your break with a reminder about the return, then a return-day announcement. ⛔ 3. Update all auto-responses Your business has a lot of auto-responders designs for big…

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212. Baking it Down - Admin Hours 1:23:58

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Send us a text ⏰ 1-Hr Admin Tasks - Setting up time blocks for tasks. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 212 - Admin Hour , we break down four different "admin hour" frameworks you could spend each week pluggin' away at to be a better baking business. "Admin Hours" are groupings of tasks that take up an hour spent on one specific aspect of your business - social media, bake prep, customer management, and inbox management - the four frameworks we cover this week. By spending a dedicated few hours a week on these "admin hour" tasks, you'll save yourself a future headache, streamline your workflow, and become a competitive baker in your space (as well as stress less as you forget fewer orders and run out of fewer cookie tags ya already sold). 🕰️ 1. Social Hour Staying consistent on social media will be a great foundational strategy. But to be consistent, we must make time to create content. Here's a social media "admin hour" framework you can build from: ⏰ 20 Mins - Schedule this week's posts (3x/wk minimum) ⏰ 10 Mins - Reply to comments ⏰ 10 Mins - Comment on posts in a few local groups ⏰ 30 Mins - Make a Reel (film / edit / voiceover / post) You can add multiple "social hours" to your week depending on how aggressive your social media marketing focus is. And these hours can ebb and flow throughout your cookier calendar year as needed (for example, when you're fully booked, drop down to 1 hour, when the upcoming month looks light for orders, add in a few more social hours). 🕰️ 2. Inbox Hour If you've not tasted of the sweet nectar that is inbox zero, you're missing out. Walking up to an inbox only full of actionable emails you got in the last few days is a breath of email-fresh air. Once you reach the coveted "Inbox Zero," your inbox-power-hour will look something like this: ⏰ 20 Mins - Reply to all emails / Ping follow-up emails ⏰ 10 Mins - File emails away to reach Inbox Zero again ⏰ 10 Mins - Transpose orders / tasks to Google Calendar ⏰ 10 Mins - CRM - Follow up with orders placed this time last year Getting an inbox hour on your weekly task list puts you in control of your calendar (rather than the stress of being a slave to a calendar missing your dentist appointments and that one order you forgot to write down). 🕰️ 3. Admin tasks Likely the one you don't wanna do but are forced to do, running a business requires admin tasks. Here's how we'd break up that hour spent "behind the scenes" of your bakery biz: ⏰ 10 Mins - QuickBooks Bookkeeping Update ⏰ 10 Mins - Adding new leads to CRM ⏰ 10 Mins - Inbox Zero ⏰ 10 Mins - Inventory Check ⏰ 10 Mins - Weekly Meeting (Asana) ⏰ 10 Mins - Plan Out Week So again - your admin tasks may take longer than this - and that's absolutely fine. The goal is to consistently show up for at least an hour for these recurring tasks, turning you into a consistent working powerhouse. 🕰️ 4. Baking Prep Baking preparations for the week can streamline your baking workflow because you're not stuck running to the cutter corner for every order. I prefer to do this stuff on Mondays and capitalize on the time saving all week. Whichever days you choose for your admin hours is up to you, but sprinkling in a baking power hour is a must for a ballin' baker. ⏰ 10 Mins - Wash Baking Mat and other supplies ⏰ 10 Mins - Wipe down Surfaces / Disinfect ⏰ 20 Mins - Collect Cutters for the Week ⏰ 10 Mins - Dough Ready / Dough Day Planned ⏰ 10…

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211. Baking it Down - Luxury Refunds 1:26:13

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Send us a text ↩️ Luxury Refunds - Refunds are a business strategy. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 211 - Luxury Refunds , Corrie wanted to recap yet another reminder on why luxury bakers should consider luxury refunds. 🤔 What's a luxury refund? It's the baked-into-the-price guarantee that if something goes left, the baker will make it right - and typically that will be through a refund. Per the twin, we can't claim 💰 " luxury brand and thus luxury pricing ," but claim 😭 "I'm just a small business, give me a break" when things go wrong. Luxury price needs to be threaded throughout your entire sales process. Yes, refunds included. 💰 1. Be Refund-Centric When you think about luxury brands, you're likely not picturing a front-desk person telling unhappy clients that that sounds like a them-problem when the client has an issue. Noooo - you picture luxury brands like hotels handling all the gross parts of staying in a hotel = managing luggage, door hops, taxi cab and uber calls, clean rooms and room service - you get the point. Luxury pricing includes making things right for our luxury clients. A refund-centric company will have its happiness guarantee baked into its policies before the client even orders. If there were two bakers equal in every way but only one offered a 100% money-back guarantee, which do you think clients would choose? Be that baker. 💰 2. Take refund culpability Most of the time, it's not a 100/0 split on who is at fault when it comes to client issues. ⚖️ Likely, there's shared culpability. But a luxury brand would still take culpability from the client. 🤨 "But twins! I wasn't wrong, they were!" We know - but you're the business owner, and a luxury business owner at that. Don't be afraid to say, "I'm so sorry - I misunderstood when you wrote XYZ! My apologies - I'd love to make you whole regarding this issue." 🔑 The words " I'm sorry " will unlock more doors than they shut - believe ye we. 💰 3. Offer refunds often Here's the thing - you won't have to refund often if you're willing to refund. Why? You'll find that clients actually aren't trying to get free stuff - they just want their cookies. 🛑 Being gracious to your clients by offering refunds will allow your clients to actually ask you not to. People are more understanding than we give them credit for. We just have to allow them to have the elbow room to exercise that grace - 🥊and they can't when you're threatening them by blaming them for the order issue. 💰 4. Refund swiftly Be quick to refund, as in don't make your clients fight you for it. With every message rejecting the client's issue, you're one step closer to the dreaded, "Well, I also found a hair in the cookie." Pluuuus, when you address the first issue rather than forcing customers to rattle off 10 reasons why they think you should offer them recourse, you get the brownie points of being "that baker" that puts customer service first and foremost. 💰 5. Refund and be generous When it comes to refunding, don't nickel and dime your clients and expect them to appreciate it. 🤕 If you made a booboo, grab the biggest band-aid . 🩹 Rather refund too much than too little and leave the clients hurt (and in your review profiles, finding their written vindication). "But I only messed up a few cookies!" We get it, and we're not necessarily saying a full refund, but a "barely there" refund won't cut it. As an example, maybe a rebake and a partial refund may be the answer to satisfy the client's upsetting experience.…

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210. Baking it Down - How to Sell in Community Groups 1:55:42

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Send us a text 💸 Selling in Community Groups - Turn groups into lead gen powerhouses. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 210 - Selling in Community Groups , we are talking about the same topic we presented this past Tuesday at What's Popping Co n (a convention for Cake Poppers). This content is all available on our website by clicking this button - it's a lot of info and free templates, so click here to snag that stuff while it's still posted. If you're already thinking, "There are no community groups in my area," consider starting your own. In this course, we'll cover some of the group mechanics that can help you form the foundation of your own community groups. Community groups that are valuable resources can be massive lead gen opportunities for the group admins. 🧠 A group is only as good as its management team. High-quality groups require a lot of effort, but they pay out in dividends. https://www.sugarcookiemarketing.com/popping 💸 Snag a Free Tracking Template! We live and die by our spreadsheets - and using one to track community groups allows you to stay on top of specific group rules, posting times, post types, group size - you get the point. This free Google sheet is built out for community group management. Use the dropdown to categorize each aspect of your local community groups. Way too often, users get banned from community groups for breaking the sales rules specifically . It's important to keep track of each group's sales policies so we're not permanently banned from selling there. We're going to look for about 10 local community groups if possible, but we'll take what we can get. The more options you have, the more potential audience you can reach. It's important as a seller to understand how groups can be run within Meta's group options and features as these can affect your posting abilities within groups. ⚠️ An important aspect of selling in a community group: following their rules. Take a minute to join the Example Facebook Group we're using for the rest of this lesson - you can join it by clicking here > answering the membership questions > agree to the group rules. Let's run through some common community group Q&As to help you better understand how to approach groups when making your sales posts. 🔗 Rules can be found for any group by adding /rules to the end of the community group's URL ( example : https://www.facebook.com/groups/sugarcookiemarketing/rules ). 💸 Group Profiles - How to Optimize When you join a community group, you automatically create a group profile separate from your Facebook profile (although still connected). Think of your group profile as a version of you specifically made for that group. Optimizing these group profiles can help increase lead generation in your community groups. Each community group you join creates a unique group profile for that specific group. You can customize: ✍️ Your profile intro (150 character limit) ✍️ The profile cover photo (1640x600 pixel sizing) When other users click on your profile within that group, they are taken to your group profile. Admins can also use your group profile to see admin actions taken against you, your group activity, as well as your profile information. From there, they can also click to your personal Facebook profile. Your group profile is only a part of your overall Facebook persona. Optimize your personal profile as well. You can tag a business page or insert a URL in your personal profile. You can update your cover photo to feature your latest bakes, and you can share content from your baking page to…

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209. Baking it Down - Half It then Half It 54:18

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Send us a text 🤏 Half It then Half It - Make goals small and then smaller. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 209 - Half It Then Half It , we cover a topic Heather saw on the Diary of a CEO podcast with Dr. Alok Kanojia on goal setting. The concept is pretty basic - set a goal. Then take that goal and half it. Then take that half and half it again. You're now left with only 25% of that goal. And guess what? That 25% is much more doable than the big, massive, overly sized goal you couldn't eat whole. Breaking (baking?) goals into edible chunks makes for small bites that we can accomplish to get us to our bigger goal. 25% Goals aren't as fun to tell people about - they get the vibe of, "Okay... and?" And that's what makes them so valuable - because they're not big, they allow us to take small movements forward. Sure - we won't get the accolades for announcing some giant goal like, "THIS YEAR, I PLAN TO OPEN STORE FRONT," but the path to opening a store front is long and lonely - I'd rather claim this year to do the thankless foundation work required to get into a brick and mortar rather than make a big announcement with no execution (remember the " No One Likes a Party Planner " podcast episode). 🤏 1. Example - Facebook Lead Gen Turning Facebook into a lead gen powerhouse is a BIG goal - and one we really like. Facebook can really make some sales for bakers. But let's half that goal: 📏 I want to turn community groups into a referral source. Even better! We narrowed it from "ALL of Facebook," which is a massive task to tackle down to an aspect of Facebook. But per the doc, we can go smaller! Let's half that half. 📏 I want to make this one specific group a resource for my bakery business. There we go - in fact, this will be next week's Podcast topic (turning Local Community Groups into Referral Powerhouses after we teach it at What's Popping Con 2025 on Tuesday). 🤏 2. Example - Brick and Mortar Most bakers dream of seeing their business logo in bright lights on a building they leased . And who wouldn't?! Talk about a HUGE goal that feels all warm and fuzzy! But brick and mortar dreams aren't built overnight, but rather on consistent "half of a half" goals over time. Let's half that B&M goal: 📏 I want to contact a commercial leasing agent to learn more about taking on a B&M lease. Love it - so much more actionable than "I will open a brick and mortar bakery," but can we half it again? 📏 I'm going to reach out to the Sugar Cookie Marketing group and see if any B&M bakers would take a 15-minute call from me to talk about the "first 6 months" of prep needed to get started on potentially opening a bakery in the future. Loooove that so much more. That's a "half of a half" goal that will actually teach you something - whether a brick and mortar bakery business is meant for you. 🤏 3. Example - I want to be a social media expert. As a marketer myself, love this goal - but it's a chunky one. Taking on all of social media is admirable, but that's not going to move a needle because it's too broad. Let's see if we can half it. 📏 I want to focus on making my Facebook page a valuable resource for my business. Just like the community group goal, LOVE this - it'll be a huge boon to your business goals. But can we go smaller on this halved goal? I bet we can. 📏 I will post to my business Facebook page 2x a week to establish a baseline for a posting schedule. There we go!…

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208. Baking it Down - Multi-Holiday Showdown 1:12:33

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Send us a text 🥊 Multi-Holiday Showdown - How to tackle multiple holidays. In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 208 - Multi-Holiday Showdown , we wanted to talk about the scourge of Q2 holiday line-ups. With these non-heavy-hitting baker holidays falling mid-month and/or on top of each other, it makes for a confusing marketing strategy. Do you tackle all of them to maximize sales? Or will that dilute your offerings too much and you'll sell out of nothing but be stuck with materials for a whole 'nother year? Here's our take on a multi-holiday marketing showdown in mid-spring. 🤧 Heads up - I'm slightly under the weather, so forgive any typos (and forgive typos when I'm not sick too lol). 🥊 1. Don't choose every holiday Find a few holidays and focus on them - heck, even focusing on one is probably a better approach than trying to sell out for every holiday in Q2. Mother's Day is a hit or miss with some bakers, Teacher Appreciation seems like a good bet, and Cinco De Mayo seems more like a location-based seller rather than a guaranteed sell-out. Consider that Teacher Appreciation cutters and packaging can also double for graduation sets and the "last day of the school year" teacher gifts. 🥊 2. Past performance = future performance We'd recommend choosing holidays that have been consistent for you in the past. If they sold well then, they'll likely sell well now. Trying out a "new" holiday in the slower part of the cookier's calendar year may cost you more than it brings in, so we'd stick with the consistent seller. 🥊 3. Treat them as separate content buckets Content buckets are a strategy you can use to plan out your social media content (see Episode 182). As such, these competing holidays shouldn't share a bucket, but rather get their own separate content pillars that you'll pull from for the duration of the promotion of each holiday. Tap these buckets frequently until you feel like you've sold enough. Content buckets don't have to be systematically drawn from - you can use more content from a specific bucket as it supports your sales goals. 🥊 4. Increase marketing runtime If you have two holidays fighting for the marketing limelight, you'll want to increase your marketing runtime. Corrie and I always prefer around 6 weeks to include planning + cutter securing + photography + marketing. It's enough time to account for any wild cards like weird weather or slow sales. 🥊 5. Sold out? shut up Once one holiday sells out or you're happy with the sales numbers, drop that content bucket out of your marketing strategy completely and refocus your efforts on the underperforming holiday target. Once "Mother's Day" is sold out, there's no real marketing purpose to keep posting about it when there's another product we need to move more of. 👂 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 208 - Multi-Holiday Showdown…

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207. Baking it Down - Nobody Likes a Party Planner 1:01:25

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Send us a text 💡 No One Likes a - Party planner (ideas without execution). 💩 A forced a play on words from "no one likes a party pooper " - but in this case, we're focusing on 🧠 "ideas guy" who love to plan and fail to launch. These folks talk up "the next great thing," and yet the idea never exits the ol' cranium to make it to market. 🗺️ Having a plan is good - but too much of a good thing, and you've got either a perfectionist or a serial starter , but you definitely 🚫 don't have a viable product. ⚔️ And that's why planning is a double-edged sword. You have to have a plan, but some bakers turn "making a plan" into a never ending excuse as to why they've not launched [that cookie class] or [that new bakery item] or [the vendor event that's now since come and gone] or [that cookie cart]. You get the point. 🚧 They turn planning into roadblocks . 💭 They spend their whole baking lives in the dream stage so that they never have to take the risk to launch and possibly fail. But our challenge is to accept failure and fail forward . Here's some ways to ensure you're not a party pooper... I mean, planner. 💡 1. Determine your mvp MVP = minimum viable product . 🤏 That's the "least amount I need to do to be able to take this concept to market for a v1 release." In simpler terms, what's the simplest thing you can produce from your idea and use to test if your marketing would bite? This "MVP" concept forces the forever-planner's hand by making them launch as soon as something is good enough . They can't wait until it's perfect because it's no longer the minimum viable product. Take Stupid Car Tray (podcast sponsor - use code SUGAR to save 15%). They're on their v3 tray. What if they'd only launched when they felt their product was super refined? 🤑 They would have missed years of sales. Same with you, ya party planner. Stop planning, start pushing out product. See if they bite. If they do, then improve. 🚀 Launch and learn. 💡 2. Two types of "party planners" Okay, maybe "party planner" wasn't my best play on words, but there are two types of "ideas guys" - which camp do you tend to find yourself in? 🏢 The Perfectionist - The perfectionist builds the perfect skyscraper. It's got the best finishes, the best appliances, the most amenities, but they never list the condos for sale. They're in a perpetual state of trying to make everything good, better, best. They never fail because they never open. 🏚️🏚️🏚️🏚️ The Serial Starter - The type of person who lays the foundation for many ideas, but never builds a single house. This planner loves an idea, runs out to source materials, then panics at the thought that they weren't naturally talented at the thing and jumps on the next bandwagon, leaving a trail of partial starts (and budget buster) in their wake (and basement storage closet). 🏡 We need to be the single home builder who lays the foundation, constructs a modest home (aka MVP), sells it, then gets hired to add on to the home later. At all stages, this planner is generating income while improving their craft. 💡 3. Plan = yes | Overplan = hard pass Planning is a business necessity. 🗺️ Venture out without a map and you're bound to get lost. 🧭 But business (and life) exist in the gray areas. Same with planning. ❌ Spending no time planning is just as bad as spending all your time planning. 👎 Plan enough, then take that first step out there. Remember - you can always tweak. ⏳ But you can't time travel , meaning we can't go back and launch when we "coulda - shoulda - woulda." Take the leap of faith, push out the MVP, see what happens, cap'n.…

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206. Baking it Down - Expound then Expand 1:34:39

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