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.

Top 3 Social Media Sites for Your Cupcake Business

Posted on July 11, 2016 by - , , ,

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.

7 Easy Ways to Promote Your Cupcake Business

Posted on May 31, 2016 by - ,

promote your cupcake business

You’re looking for ways to promote your cupcake business.

And we get that. It’s your baby. Your dream. You really know how to make a delicious cupcake. You speak the language.

But it can be hard to know how to market yourself. Learning to promote your cupcake business can be a full time job in itself unless you know where to focus your energy.

1) Advertise Quick Fulfillment for Large Orders

The faster you can fill an emergency “Oh no, I forgot!” order, the better. You’ll become the go-to cupcake shop – even when it’s not an emergency.

 Only promote this service if you’re able to turn around quickly.

It helps if you have superhuman cupcake frosting skills (or a time-saving cupcake frosting machine like the EZ Frost).

2) Get Word-of-Mouth On Your Side

Your cupcakes taste awesome. And your customers know it.

But only some of them tell other people about your cupcake business. Now it’s time to work on those who don’t.

You can add an extra cupcake to every dozen. You may become known for it and the extra sales will make up for the (slightly) higher costs.

Try networking with area businesses. Keep their business cards on your counter – and place yours on theirs. You can also become a member of area business networks. They can provide valuable referrals.

Finally, find a way to ask your customers to tell their friends. Every time you can tell a customer is happy, go ahead and ask. Be cheerful, and be yourself.

3) Promote Your Cupcake Business Through Another Company

Any non-food area business can make a great partner. Hand out their coupons with every order. In return, they can offer cupcake coupons for you.

4) Diversify Your Menu

If you only sell cupcakes, you’re more vulnerable to highs and lows in demand.

That’s why you’re smart to add small secondary items to your menu board.

Good-quality drip coffee, cupcake shakes, and specialty iced drinks are good choices because they don’t require much overhead.

If you can bring people in when they don’t want a cupcake, they’ll come back when the craving hits.

5) Donate to a Local Fundraiser

Your daughter’s softball team is doing a fundraiser for new uniforms. That means an opportunity to promote your cupcake business.

People are more likely to buy raffle tickets when they’re guaranteed to get something in return.

Capitalize on that by partnering with the team to offer a 10-15% discount to everyone who buys a ticket. 1 ticket = 1 cupcake at 15% off. 2 tickets = 2 cupcakes at 15% off. And so on.

You can easily afford to do this if you have cost-saving processes in place.

A frosting machine that saves time and ingredients costs, for instance.

6) Get on Social Media

“Promotion” basically means, “spreading the word.” And we live in a digital world. Most people are online for hours every day. And if you’re not meeting your customers there, you’re missing the boat.

Social media warrants a whole article of its own – so that’s what we’ve done.

7) Keep Your Cupcake Game On Point

Make perfect cupcakes, and they’ll sell themselves.

You need to keep your size consistent, your frosting effortless, and your flavors delectable.

If you have an employee who isn’t skilled at frosting, take out that inconsistency by installing an EZ Frost. It turns newbies into pros … pronto.

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No matter how you choose to promote your cupcake business, one thing is clear. Your best advantage is an excellent product.

Focus on making deliciously consistent cupcakes, spend the time you can on external promotion, and treat your customers well.

Now go for it. You’ve got this.

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4 Things Your Website Should Have

Posted on March 11, 2016 by - ,


Diving into setting up your website can be an intimidating process.  You have to think about the design of the site.  You have to try to figure out what pages you need – and what info should even be on those pages.  Let’s take the fear factor out of it – and look at the basic stuff you should definitely have.

4-things-website

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5 Very Important a Bakery Facebook Page Needs

Posted on March 10, 2016 by - ,


Social media can be a great tool to reach your customers and grow your bakery.  It’s easy (ish)… free (ish)… and your customers are already using it and expect you to be there.  If you’re like most businesses, you probably started with Facebook since it’s one ofthe most popular social platformsthere is.

To get the biggest bang for your buck while using it, you need to make sure that you have your page completely set up with all of the information that people will be looking for.  So let’s take a look at what that is and how you get in to fill it out.
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