6 Simple Ways to Get More Instagram Followers

Posted on November 10, 2016 by - , , ,

get your cupcake shop more Instagram followers

Cupcakes are made for Instagram. Fluffy frosting and colorful cake go perfectly with a social app full of hungry people. All you have to do to grow a small following is make great-looking cupcakes. But how do you get your cupcake shop more Instagram followers once all your friends and family have followed?

For top brands, the average Instagram engagement rate in 2015 was more than 10 times higher than Facebook’s. That’s significant. It’s fallen since 2014, but it’s still worth your effort to get your cupcake shop more Instagram followers as you work to draw more eyes – and customers.

Your next step is to figure out how to do that. Take a look at these 6 attention-grabbing ways to gain more followers and increase engagement.

How to Get Your Cupcake Shop More Instagram Followers

1. Promote Your Hashtag Everywhere

You have a #jennyscupcakes hashtag for your shop. But do your customers know to use it when they share pics of their scrumptious afternoon indulgence on Instagram?

Put your hashtag in your profile, on your ads, in the store window, on in-store signage, and even on the receipts.

If you’re not telling customers about your hashtag, they’ll only use it by chance. Make sure they can use it on purpose.

2. Have Fun With Your Captions

Sometimes a picture can stand on its own. But customers love stories. National Geographic’s Instagram feed is a prime example of how pairing incredible images with storytelling can create huge impact. Their engagement and sharing are through the roof.

Now, you’re not a world-wide sensation like NatGeo. But locally, you can stand out.

Tell the story of how you came up with a particular cupcake recipe. Give a snapshot of what your team did this morning. Create a cupcake for a special sale with proceeds benefitting a local charity. And, when you post the image, write about what the charity means to you.

Find your voice, and talk to your followers – not at them.

3. Feature Only the Best Content

Customers will probably post pictures of your cupcakes on Instagram. And, if they’re engaged, they’ll tag you. But some photos are cringe-worthy. And you may get flamed every so often by a dissatisfied customer.

You have the option of hiding unflattering posts so they don’t show on your profile. And it’s a good idea to curate what customers can see. Here’s how:

-Go to your profile

-Open the “Photos of You” tab

-Open the settings in the top right corner

-Select “Hide Photos”

-Choose the ones you want to remove

-Select the crossed-out eye icon in the top right corner

As an alternative, you can change your settings so photos you’re tagged in won’t show on your profile until you approve them.

Just follow the same process as above, but choose “Tagging Options” instead of “Hide Photos.” Then select “Add Manually” and you’ll be all set.

Do it. You won’t regret it.

4. Stick With Your Unique Style

Most of us want to fit in with the crowd. It’s just human nature. But Instagram is for standing out. Find your own unique visual style – and stick with it.

Your followers will sit up and take notice when your posts hit their feeds. And you’ll increase your ability to gain more followers.

5. Stay Active Locally

Since your cupcake shop is a local business, keep your focus on your area. Use hashtags that are gaining attention among local Instagram users. You can easily keep track of what’s going on in your neighborhood by searching Places for the name of your location.

6. Inspire Your Followers to Action

What do you want followers to do when they see your post? Buy a cupcake, of course! Second best would be, “plan to buy a cupcake.”

So tell them to do it!

It’s easy (and common) to write a generic image caption. Instead, write each caption as though people need to be told what to do.

Instead of, “We love these cupcakes,” write “We love these cupcakes – and you will too! Come on in and #treatyourself today.” Make it sound fun, and most people won’t notice you’re selling to them.

The worst that can happen is that you’ll lose the few followers who never would have come in to your shop in the first place. The rest of them will probably want a cupcake.

In fact, now we want a cupcake (or two).

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Get enough Instagram followers, and you’ll see demand like never before! To keep up with the crowd, you may want to invest in a time-saving, work-reducing helper like the EZFrost machine. It’ll help you frost faster – and let you turn even new employees into expert frosters.

4 Ways to Make Your Cupcake Business Efficient

Posted on August 18, 2016 by - , , , ,

It’s easy to make a cupcake. And it can be a pretty efficient process. Since that’s the case, it should be easy to make bring efficiency to your whole cupcake business. Simply follow these 4 practices to make your cupcake business more efficient.

Get Analytical

Because you want to attract customers, you need data. It’s important to understand how people find your business. Do they look online? Is it mainly word of mouth or social media?

Ask them. And keep track of their answers, every time.

To efficiently analyze the data, try setting up a consistent process that reports the amount of traffic. Check twice a week!

TIP: use Shoppers Critique or NextPunch to survey customers at your store by using their receipt or with a tablet signup form.

Work Together

Collaboration is the key to the efficient cupcake business. Empower your employees with knowledge of the processes you’re trying to implement. Then give them the tools to make it happen.

A well-informed team is a happy team. Rely on efficient tools to keep your cupcake shop’s goals visible – and communicate progress towards meeting them.

TIP:  Schedule conference calls if you have several stores in varying locations. You can use Vast Conference or join.me. Make sure you have high-quality audio and video before calling.

Have Fun

Employee happiness is a sure sign of a successful business. Try to make your cupcake store feel more like a family and less like a group of random coworkers. Treat them with the respect they deserve and they’ll do the same.

The happier your employees are at work, the more efficient they will be in their daily responsibilities. And they’ll be more likely to stay with your company, leading to greater efficiency.

TIP: Start a reward program that recognizes employees for outstanding service. Who made the perfect cupcake that month? Who sold the most? Call them out! You can also get into fun activities outside of work. Your team will have more fun and connect on a deeper level in a stress-free setting.

Use Efficient Systems

When you use outdated equipment or make every cupcake by hand, inefficiencies always pop up.

To avoid that, use efficient, money- and time-saving systems like the EZFrost. You’ll end up with delicious, beautifully frosted cupcakes – made on a budget and on time. It saves motion, takes no time to learn, and conserves resources.

TIP: Give EZFrost a try to make your cupcake business more efficient all around. Maximum efficiency equals more happy customers.

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Top 3 Social Media Sites for Your Cupcake Business

Posted on July 11, 2016 by - , , ,

Set Of Different Delicious Cupcakes

One of the easiest ways to stay in touch with your customers is through social media. A cupcake business with an active social media profile gains exposure – especially if its posts are relevant and engaging.

Here are the top 3 social media sites that your

cupcake business should use:

1) Facebook

It’s quick and easy to start a Facebook page for your business. But don’t just put in your info. The internet is littered with neglected business pages.

You need to stay active.

Watch a tutorial video about how to take really attractive food pictures. Unless you’re already a pro at that, of course. High five if you are – it’s a skill you need.

Then post images of your best, most scrumptious cupcakes. Every day.

With each image, include a promotion. “15% off all red velvet cupcakes today – they’re going fast!” Something like that.

You’re looking to sell out of your daily special.

For Facebook to help you promote your cupcake business, people need to know you exist. Put signs on your counter and in your window. Write your page address on your business card. Place a prominent “like us on Facebook” link on your website.

Everywhere you show up, point customers to your Facebook page.

2) Twitter

Twitter is a great place to get involved in what your community cares about. You can do it well – and you can do it poorly. Be careful not to jump on bandwagons. “I like that too! Now come eat a cupcake!” Not cool.

Instead, spend at least half your posts promoting neat events around your community.

Here’s how to do it well.

Let’s say your city’s amateur soccer team is in the championship game. That’s great! Cheer for them on Twitter.

Or, how about the Memorial Day parade? Tell people when and where it is. (And it doesn’t hurt if your business is located near the parade route.)

Twice a day, at the same time every morning and afternoon, post a coupon code for your followers to get a discount on the daily special. They’ll learn to expect it – and even look forward to it.

3) Yelp

Yelp has a scary reputation. One extremely bad review can spoil a whole bunch of good reviews. Here’s why you don’t need to be scared.

Kindness goes a long way.

If you’re consistently kind to your customers (when they’re nice and when they’re nasty), they’ll forgive almost anything. Bad cupcake? Give them a free one. You just eliminated one bad review.

You might even get a great review because your service stands out.

Yelp always shows up near the top of internet search results. So you can promote your cupcake business well by simply filling out your profile.

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Even if you don’t see instant results from social media, keep at it!

And when you do experience higher demand – because you’re marketing yourself so well – it helps to be able to keep up with those orders. If you find yourself getting behind, you may consider investing in tools that save you time and money.

Most people are online for hours every day. If you meet them there, they’ll remember you when they’re craving a good cupcake.

How Can Google My Business Help My Bakery?

Posted on March 18, 2016 by - ,

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Unless you already have more business than you can handle, and you don’t want to grow your bakery any more than you have already – then you have a goal of attracting more customers to come in and buy your cupcakes and treats.

One of the best ways to do that is to make sure that you have set up your Google My Business listing.  Since your bakery has a physical store front, and your ideal customers are local in your area, this free tool from Google can be a huge help!

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ways to Keep Your site from Hurting Your Business

Posted on March 16, 2016 by - ,

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Preventing a website from hurting your business

When you got your first website for your bakery, you probably weren’t sure what you needed to put on it… what went into a good website… and you honestly were more focused on the day-to-day of running your business.

A website is a good thing to have, but you might not have realized that it could potentially hurt your business more than it helps if it’s not set up properly.

Here’s a short list of what to look out for to prevent your website from hurting your business, and why.

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How to Get Your Bakery on Google

Posted on March 16, 2016 by - ,

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How to get your bakery on Google - the simple steps to follow

If you own a bakery, and you are trying to get more customers to come to your shop, then you most definitely need to make sure you have created your “Google My Business” listing.

You might have done this before under Google Places, or Google Local.  Those have been merged into Google My Business now.  They’ve streamlined it all, and made it easy for your customers to connect with you Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+.

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3 Tips To Grow Your Bakery Using Facebook

Posted on March 11, 2016 by - ,

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Marketing your bakery on Facebook can be a real challenge sometimes… especially since the last update that made it harder than ever to get your posts seen by your fans in their newsfeed.

3 tips to grow your bakery using facebookThe trick to surviving the update is to make it work for you.  Facebook’s goal was to get businesses putting out more content that readers would like to see and less “sales-pitch-centric” posts.  If you know how to follow the rules, you can easily pull ahead of your competition and reach more of your fans.

#1 Make Your Posts Easy To Act On

When you post on Facebook, make it easy for a customer to act on your post.  For example… here is a real post from a bakery around Easter time:
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