Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

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"A$$uming makes a butt outta you and me" - words have been changed to protect the innocent, but the stance stands true. Assuming client expectations rather than communicating them steals your business a$$ets and leaves you with an empty bank account and an angry customer. 

But I get it - communication is hard, we're busy, the clients are vague, there's more dough than hours in a day. But assuming our clients ✨should just know✨ is leaving a lot up to interpretation - and that includes our profit margin. 

👍 Rule of thumb - if you don't communicate effectively, you better have a well-funded "Oopsie" budget for refunds. 👎

But why refund when you can just recall an email that spelled the entire client quote out - down to delivery date, set details, invoice total, and pick-up location? We're not sayin' over-communicate - but oftentimes, what we think is too much communication is actually probably the right amount of communication. 

Examples of places where we can firm up the vocabulary include:

• 🗣️ Quoting - it's awkward to quote a price because we assume that our clients either don't know our worth or that we priced too high. That's over assumption and it's costing you cold hard cash.
• 🗣️ Order Details - confirm, confirm, and reconfirm order details. I like to end each email with a summary of the quoted services - that way nothing is up in the air except the smell of sugar cookies in the oven. Use a "quote recap" as a templated part of your email signature to force the habit. 
• 🗣️ Refunds - I like this one. It was someone else's comment in the group that I really liked. If a client is upset, ask them what you can do to make this right. It directly acknowledges (ahem communicates) that something missed the mark, and you ask (ahem communicates) with them to find a mutual resolution. 
• 🗣️ Pretails - (made up word for pre-details) Communicate the details that may dissuade a client right off the bat. Location, minimum price, availability. Do this before you get into the quote nuances which will eat up time but won't equal money if you're out of their budget. 
• 🗣️ Threat of Viol💀ence - we talked about this in another podcast, but add a communicated escape pod. "Hey - this invoice is due by Monday at 5PM, and if I don't see payment come through by then, no sweat at all! I'll assume you took your delicious desserts in another direction, and I'll release the date to another client. Consider me for future events - I'd love to work with you!"

Communication makes the world go 'round and your bottom line go up. Snag more tips and tricks and learn which beige flags Heather and Corrie are waiving in this week's Podcast - Episode 122 - Asset Assumptions. 

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Heather - still carless - has been bumming rides, but "get a pre-purchase inspection" isn't the only lesson learned here. Her derelict car had the option to go to a shop up north or another shop down south - both highly recommended.

• 😍 Heather: "Hey [mechanic]! Was wondering if I could get my car shipped to ya! You come highly recommended, and frankly - your pricing does too."
• 😬 Mechanic: "Yeah - you sure can. I'd be happy to work on your car ✨and✨ for a fair price too! I'll be able to get started on it... uh... sometime in December." 

😳😳😳 Yiiiiikes. Obviously Corrie's "free rides" have a punch card limit, so the world-renown mechanic lost a sale because the man's good and cheap - but he ain't fast. 

✌️ Cheap and Fast (not Good) 

This is my "Panera" baker - they know that their clients are forgetful and ballin' on a budget - and they ✨thrive✨ here. Hey, it may not win any design awards, but it'll be fast enough to make it to your party in two days and cheap enough so that you can still afford the bubbly. 🥂 These bakers work on economies of scale - they need many orders to operate at their below-market margins, but they can still produce a profit and invest less than other bakers to keep their pockets lined. 🤑

✌️ Good and Cheap (not Fast)

Like my macho mechanic from the intro story, good and cheap bakers are ✨booked✨ bakers. They'll never run out of work, but you'll likely never be able to book them either. I find that most of these bakers are true hobbyist spending time leisurely taking orders as they see fit. 📆 They're able to make a profit because they spend very little time and effort on marketing (an indirect cost factored into your price point). 

✌️ Good and Fast (not Cheap) 

This baker is likely listening to this week's podcast and reading this Onesday Wednesday newsletter. Bakers who want to make ✨money✨ need to be good and fast, but they'll not be cheap. They invest in tools to increase production - an Eddie, airbrushes, stencils, and 3D printers - and they're definitely going to pass those costs right along to the consumer. These bakers are aggressive in marketing and reinvest that in even more marketing - because each sale equals a paid-for Disney vacation.

There are no wrong "pick twos" - but you cannot pick three without being burnt out faster than Panera sells out of those lemon-flavored flip-flops. 🩴 Listen to this week's (rather giggly) Episode 121 - Good. Fast. Cheap.

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🛍️ We may not be Bezos Billionaires, but we can learn a thing or two from the e-comm king. Jeffy has us in a headlock with his annual Prime Day Deals - and as we sit here refreshing the feed to lightning deals, 🕯 the twins wax old on both how to melt candle wax and how to implement some of the FOMO magic into our cookie businesses.

💳 Nine Ways to Prime Your Audience to Spend

🤑 1. Prime Day is annual = you know it's coming! 

📦 Amazon Prime Day started in 2015 and has continued each year on dates in July since - it's consistent. 📅 And in marketing, consistency helps maintain your primed audience's expectations on how, where, and when to spend their money. In some cases, even if you're not as advanced as your competition, you can beat them simply by being consistent - it's ✨that✨ important. 

🤑 2. It rewards paid members with additional discounts.

Amazon already has our money - Prime Day deals are for Prime members. So why water where the grass is already green? Because people who ✨already✨ trusted us with their money are likely to trust us with more of their money. By Prime giving Prime members exclusive deals, we feel like we're extra special - that we got something no one else did (*ahem* 300 million products were sold on Prime Day last year, but we can pretend we're super special). 

🤑 3. It incentivizes new people to join Amazon Prime.

Speaking of exclusivity - peer pressure is real. And watching all the cookie groups post up their Prime packages makes you feel FOMO. FOMO = fear of missing out on some great (perceived) deals, so it means we're more likely to join Prime ✨during✨ Prime Day than any other day of the year. Prime Day is a great lead gen (generation) tool for Prime's program. 

🤑 4. It uses the seller network to advertise even more.

Prime's use of third-party sellers means their entire network of online entrepreneurs can push this big Prime Day collection of deals. Just like Amazon, you can harness your network to cross-promote. 🍷 Teaching a cookie class at a winery? Send the winery a graphic to post. 👕 Use a local t-shirt printing company? Ask them to hand out your business cards. 

🤑 5. It's limited to two days.

FOMO = back to the good ol' fear of missing out. Did you know humans are more loss averse than they are gain driven? It means we'd rather not lose what we have over getting more of what we don't. Hearing "Prime Day is ONLY July 11 - 12" keeps our fingies on the refresh button. ☝️🖱 When you're hosting your next pre-sale, instead of thinking "more days to buy = more days to sell," think "fewer days to buy = more reason to buy more." 🤏

Prime Day has us in a chokehold (and my credit cards aren't exempt). While we snag some lightning deals, don't forget to tune into this week's podcast Episode 120 - Primed for Prime to hear the four additional ways to Prime your Audience!

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My dad used to make us stay after church and help clean up the nursery rooms, classrooms - whatever needed cleaning. When he'd change out the wastebins, he'd throw in an extra liner. I asked him why. "Because today I know I have enough liners, but next week, I might not." 

This is the concept behind "Tomorrow Me" - taking very small actions today when you know you have the time that'll save you potential future stress. 

Tomorrow Me isn't a big concept - in fact, "tomorrow me-ing" is a culmination very small things that don't make a huge difference, but over time lead to lower stress and a better overall experience - for both you and your clients. 

Examples of "Tomorrow Me-ing" your Life:

🗓️ Having your cutters set out at the beginning of the week.

Likely, you know what orders you gotta tackle this week. Take an hour to set them aside. Bonus if it's in the bins where you'll store the baked cookies - that'll make for easy access come fulfillment time.

🗓️ Scheduling 2 more posts than usual.

"Tomorrow Me-ing" doesn't have to batch schedule 2 months of post. You can just sprinkle an extra one or two at the end of your weekly posting schedule - lookin' out juuust in case somethin' pops up and Tomorrow You can't make it to a keyboard.

🗓️ Batch making and freezing dough when you're bored.

Got some time to slay? Throw some dough into the Kitchen-Aid (or batch in a Bosch) and mix up some future time space for Tomorrow Me. Batch-making dough means future you may be pressed for time, but doesn't have to worry about turnin' on a thing! 

🗓️ Creating email templates whenever you write a good generic response. 

You can create email templates in Google Workspace - I mean you already had to write that generic email - why not save it for a quick click reuse for Tomorrow You? One very small action can mean hundreds of saved minutes over the course of the year.

🗓️ Ordering supplies in twos.

Like those piping bags you're about to run out of? Order then add one. Ordering supplies in doubles means future you ain't gotta sweat a thang. Know you really like those boxes on Amazon? Snag them now - who knows if they'll be outta stock when you need 'em most.

🗓️ Scheduling a reminder email.

In both paid and free Gmail, you can schedule emails - I love to do this when an order is finalized - send the confirmation and right after, use your scheduling abilities to write up the reminder and have it ready to send - so Tomorrow you can completely absolve themselves of having to remember to remind.

You see - "Tomorrow Me" is a chill approach to "Today Me" doin' just a little summin' summin' extra to relieve the pressure tomorrow. It's a simply delicious concept and easy to implement. Listen to the rest of our list (and I'm so sorry - there's WAY too much giggling on this podcast episode) on Episode 118 - Tomorrow Me.

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We're NEVER going back to the Olive Garden! 

Kidding - I am absolutely going back - every Tuesday before the podcast actually. BUT... we noticed something crazy at the "OG" that we don't often witness at other restaurants - the sheer entitlement. But what causes the OG crowd to feel like they're owed more than bottomless bread baskets and endless salads? 

Here's our theory: pricing, freebies, and exclusivity. 

Weird parallel incoming: Hermes bags are the opposite of Olive Garden. The lowest prices Hermes bag is $10,000. Yeah - no, that wasn't a typo surprisingly. And when Hermes calls you to buy a bag you hate? You say "absolutely - let me just take an entire day off of work and a second mortgage." 

So why does Olive Garden get crazy clients and screaming kids when they don't charge an arm, leg, and left kidney in exchange for leather? Well - let's dive into the endless breadsticks and talk about it.

🤑 Highest End of a Low Budget vs Lowest End of a Higher Budget

Darden Restaurant Group owns both Olive Garden and Seasons 52 (think: OG's cooler, older cousin who doesn't visit often because they're living in Europe building an art studio). Seasons 52 is on average $15 higher per plate than Olive Garden. For those with more well-rounded wallets, Seasons 52 is on the cheaper side compared to the likes of Ruth Chris Steakhouse, Mortons, and Fogo de Chao (shoe? chow?).

But the Garden Olives appeals to a more budget-conscious buyer (ahem - the twins) and thus likely falls at the top of that person's budget. Meaning - they have high expectations for our bread basket bastion. And why wouldn't they - these folks want the royal treatment for this budget buster and only endless bread, buckets of salad, free butter, and bottomless diet cokes will suffice!

🆓 Those Freebies Will Cost Ya

🎁 "If I give my client more for free they'll likely love me forever!" Helloooo recipe for codependency! Listen - giving something for free once may build good vibes. But giving something free three times builds expectations. Giving something for free 5 times? Builds dependence. And then charging the sixth time? Recipe for resentment. 

😡 Because the OG gives so much for free, folks would suddenly be APPALLED if we were charged for the breadsticks. Why? We don't think "Wow Olive Garden, you're so nice for giving us so much for nothing" but rather, 😠 "How rude - you're charging for something that you have for FREE before!? I'M MAD!"  

🧺 Endless is the End

You can't sustain free unless you work off of scale ⚖ - something a global chain of 893 Olive Gardens can accomplish - one baker in their home kitchen? Not so much. Giving things for free or competing on price = the quick end to any cottage home business. 

We only have 24 hours in the day. Might as well spend those hours getting the highest ticket sales rather than budget-busting tire kickers. 👟🛞 Cookies are a luxury - they're the Hermes of the boutique food world. Folks aren't trying to give people food to live on - no, they want to impress their friends with a fancy edible gift that embodies how much they love and cherish that person. 

🦖 Why else would you get a purple dinosaur iris flower set?! 🌷

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🤔 Heather: "I feel like we're forgetting something."

🙃 Corrie: "Yeah - I'm getting that vibe too."

🤔 Heather: "Whatever it is, it's big." 

😬 Corrie: "Oh most definitely."

So - full confession: Corrie and I completely forgot the icing (and one tub of PME sprinkle eyeballs) at this weekend's 🐠 Under the Sea 🐠 sugar cookie decorating class. 😨 Imagine my horror as we enter the venue, 30+ minutes from the "icing fridge" only to realize my frosting aphasia.

🚙🚓 With the power of Acura, Corrie managed to snag the icing and valiantly return right before class started (and to fix the "eye" issue, we turned the seahorse into the not-so-seeing-horse to source some PME sprinkles). 

Needless to say, this weekend was not our A-Game. 

So what gives? How could we have taught this many cookie classes and forgotten the most important thing (next to my award-winning one-liners)?! 

We technically had a process in place, but blame laziness (or Heather's unreliable car), we didn't follow protocol, and we paid the price. 👀 So - we figure we'd review our Cookie Class Kits checklist now so we don't have a repeat of Saturday (my Botox bill can't handle that stress level again anytime soon).

Every good class starts with a promotional schedule. People can't buy what they don't know is for sale - so we want to start with a promo checklist. I'd likely recommend repeating this entire list three times total depending on how registration and run-times look (we shoot for a 6-week promotional schedule for classes).

Class Promo Checklist

• ✅ Create Event Listing
• ✅ Schedule Social Posts – Instagram 1
• ✅ Schedule Social Posts – Facebook 1
• ✅ Post to Nextdoor 1
• ✅ Post to Community Group X 1
• ✅ Post to Community Group X 1
• ✅ Post to Community Group X 1
• ✅ Send out Newsletter 1
• ✅ Post to VIP Group / Email Best Clients

Next up - the Class Prep list - this is the list you'll likely want to start around the same time you start promotions - so for us (when we check our checklists), that'd be again around the 6-week-out mark. Think: class supplies.

Class Prep Checklist

• ✅ Order Cookie Cutters / Print STLs
• ✅ Order Piping Bags / Bag Ties
• ✅ Dough Prep and Freeze
• ✅ Icing Prep – Order Meringue Powder
• ✅ Order Storage Containers 
• ✅ Plan Gift Cookie (sample cookie – optional)
• ✅ Order Sprinkles – Black Peals

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It's the upcoming Sugar My State Cookie Collab and we want YOU to participate (and get the most out of your participation). So here's a brief breakdown of what Cookie Collabs are and how to get the most bang for your bakin' buck from them! Listen to this episode on your favorite podcast player! 

🍪 What is a Collab

Before we jump into the why, let's cover the what. Cookie Collabs aren't unique to Sugar Cookie Marketing Group - but they've likely only been around as long as Instagram has been due to how they work using hashtags. 

The concept is pretty simple:

• 📸 A group of bakers get together and decided on a theme, date, time, and hashtag.
• 📸 The bakers prep their bakes, photograph them, and write up a compelling caption.
• 📸 On the designated date and time, the bakers upload their themed bakes using the designated collab hashtag.
• 📸 The other participants in the collab will engage with the posts made by bakers in their collab through likes, comments, and even store reshares. 

That's the gist of it! Pretty simple right? It's mostly management that's time-consuming - and then, depending on the size of the collab (some can be as small as 5 participants or as large as hundreds of participants), the engagement with posts can take some time.

🍪 How do they Work?

They work on forced engagement - by requiring that all participants pay back into the collab by engaging with other participants' posts, the posts then get more engagement which, if we understand how the algorithms work, breeds more engagement and reach - and most of the time that reach is to our target, local audience - the ones who can actually pay us. 🤑

When Meta (ahem - Instagram in this case) sees that people on its platform are engaging with a piece of content, Meta (er - Instagram) then turns around and shows that content to more people = thus is the engagement increased through collab participation. 

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Okay - I'm not really sorry - but I'm sorry you think you can't be sorry, and I'm here to help you learn how to be sorry as a business owner - sorry if you were hoping for a sorry. 

We see it posted often in the groups: NEVER APOLOGIZE - it shows WEAKNESS. It also makes you 100% RESPONSIBLE and AT FAULT. 

And those comments are not wrong. There are types of apologies that do more harm than good for the apologizer - and that's what I think they're talking about. Apologies that break down your own boundaries and signal to folks that you're a doormat waiting to be walked on are the types of apologies we do want to irradicate from our vocabularies. 

Examples of "poor apology form" in business look like this:

• 😓 "I'm sorry you're mad at me."
• 😓 "I'm sorry I forgot - please don't be angry."
• 😓 "I'm sorry that I didn't understand what you were saying." 
• 😓 "I'm sorry - what do you want me to do to make you happy?" 

Now - these are general, so put ya pitchforks down - there are times and places where these apologies may be a valid response - but we're talkin' broad strokes for this podcast. 

But never apologizing? Imagine being in a relationship with a spouse who never apologized. Yeah - that'd be... tough. Every time they felt wronged or offended, they never got the emotional release that an apology gives. 

👉 Here's what a therapist told me once: "Every emotion is valid even if you don't agree with it." 

So - when our clients have an experience we don't necessarily agree with - that emotion they're feeling is valid. We're not apologizing for "messing up," but rather we are apologizing for their unfortunate experience. 

It's the intention of the apology that makes all the difference. Are you apologizing because it's a trauma response from a childhood wound? Or are you apologizing to empathize with the client and work towards a resolution? We want to get to the latter and work on abandoning the prior.

Examples of "poor apology form" in business look like this:

• 😊 "I'm sorry that you weren't happy with the moisture content in those cupcakes, what can I do to make this right?" 
• 😊 "I'm sorry you didn't make the pick-up window - can I leave it out for a porch pickup for you?"
• 😊 "I'm sorry that there's a bit of confusion with the ordering process - I do require pre-payment to ensure I have the funds to get supplies for your order. Would you still like to move forward?"
• 😊 "I'm sorry that your experience wasn't what you'd hoped, and I'll take the feedback back to the kitchen with me. I appreciate you letting me know." 

🧠 This week's podcast is a little more cognitive than usual - but understanding the art of apologizing is one of the sharpest tools in the business owner's toolbelt, and we thought it'd make for a good conversation. I'm sorry if you don't agree 😂.

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We've talked "SEO" on previous podcasts, but it's always great to revisit the cold audience maker by touching on four points we think will help you reach more search engine traffic. 

(Search engines = placed where you can look up words and find results. Google is currently the biggest search engine in the world.)

This is SEO in a Google Search Engine Results Page (also known as a S-E-R-P) - see those white arrows? Those are all places where SEO can drive you more leads. But SEO is more than just Google - and in this week's podcast, we cover this topic to better explain this business branding buzzword.

What is SEO?

• 🍕 Definition: let's say you want pizza but you're out of town. What do you do? Search "Pizza Places Near Me." The results that your phone shows you? Yeah - that's SEO. Ever wonder how Google chooses which business shows up first? 
• 🍕 How it Works: You optimize your website so that the "robot" (called crawlers) can better understand the content and, when someone googles something that your website has the answer to, Google will pull up your website first! 
• 🍕 How it can Benefit You: keywords are the phrases you type into Google. The intent behind those keywords determines if people are planning to spend their money. If someone searched "how to bake sugar cookies," they probably aren't looking to pay you to bake them. But if someone searches for "sugar cookie bakery near me," often this results in an online lead - these are called money keywords because people who search for this word will likely spend that cold, hard casheesh.

Places to Consider SEO 

• 🕸 Website: while you can't own the internet, having your own website is about as close as you can get. And search engines love personal websites! If you ever consider hiring an SEO (they are kind of expensive - heads up), they'll likely start by asking you if you have a website - yes, it's that important. 
• 🕸  TikTok: TikTok (as long as it isn't banned) is one of the fastest-growing search engines because of its recent addition of SEO-optimized captions that are searchable. With a quick search, you can find hundreds of videos walking you through how to check your oil, change a tire, or install an under-sink p-trap. You can also find a baker offering local fun things to do (hint hint).
• 🕸  Reviews: Did you know that Google now crawls user reviews in Google Maps? Yep - reviews and websites can now help your GBP (Google Business Profile) show up in maps - just because it contains the right keyword (even if you're a service-area and not a brick-and-mortar).
• 🕸  Google My Business: Google Business Profiles (or GMBs) can also be search engine optimized - often by filling out the many options for text, adding photos, and posting regular updates. More content = king when it comes to GBPs.
• 🕸  Eventbrite (Directories):

Rebranding SEO Considerations

• 👍 Google Search: ranking in Google takes a multi-faceted approach. Ranking a website, getting a Google Business Profile, securing social profiles, and writing quality content (more on that in a second).
• 👍 Social Media: Social can be optimized too (remember - if you can search on it you can optimize for it). Filling out your Facebook page's about section, connecting social media accounts, and writing content that contains keywords are all ways to SEO your social profiles.
• 👍 Caching / Browser History: Do a dirty check on your SEO efforts by either clearing your browsing history and cache or by searching in an Incognito Bro