Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪

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Okay fam - here's what separates the marketers from the panic-ers. (is that a word??). 

We're entering a period Corrie Mira and I like to refer to as 🏜 "Dry July" ☀️ - but it encompasses the entire summer months from June - August. 

It's in these months (as reflected by this Google search report for "sugar cookies" - image below) that your orders will likely slow. 📉 This is expected for our industry. 

Things you can do during this time:

• 🚫 Do not panic. Readjust your expectations in terms of ROI (returns on marketing) for this period. Slow = normal.
• ✅ Optimize your admin. Need to schedule posts? Do it now. Website time? Let's get it set up. Want to hire a VA? Let's get interviews scheduled. 
• 🚫 Do not overcorrect. When the market slows, we always see people knee-jerk change course. This is the wrong bandaid for this wound. Stay the course - optimize what's worked last year. 
• ✅ Invest in Yourself. Use slow periods to invest in yourself - you won't have that chance come the holidays - so now is the time (ahem - www.TheCookieCollege.com 👀). Hey - I'm learning a new 3D printer. It'll pay back in dividends.
• 🚫 Do not pout. It may feel like your audience is abandoning you - and your bank account. They're not - they are focused on their family vacations. Good marketing = assisting them in finding fun family things to do. It'll build trust and they'll be back come Halloween. 
• ✅ Cut Costs. There's two ways to make money = make more or spend less. I love slow periods to assess where my money is going and where I can cut costs. If you haven't used it in the last 4 months, cancel it + sell it + downgrade it. 
• 🚫 Do not stop. Marketing return is delayed. 🌱 What you plant in these months will grow in the holidays. 🌿 Don't stop marketing just because your engagement seems too low to make it worth it. It'll pay you back - trust me.
• ✅ Build out your Holiday Campaigns. It seems weird to talk Halloween / Turkey Day / Christmas in the beginning of summer - but this is how you build a campaign. You build it out now, have it dialed in, pick a launch date, and wait. You do not want to wait until the week before 🎃 October to start thinking about this.
• 🚫 Do not quit. Slow periods feel like failure - especially when you've done everything right. Do not quit - this is a season of business. Just like landscapers don't expect to have their highest earning months in winter - baker's big days are comin' - but not right now.
• ✅ Inventory. Perfect time to see what you got, what you need, and where you can put it. As we clear out the old, we can make room for the new. Cutters + packaging + class supplies + tools + that Cricut that's still in the box you know who you are (it's me). Figure out, organize, and optimize. 

🤔 So lemme throw it back to your side of the court: What do you plan to use the next three "dry" months doing? 

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Wanna buy a... car? Today's podcast topic (which is a day late due to CookieCon - no, it's not Wednesday, sorry about that) is about the "cookie car lot" - comparing how automotive brands use pricing tiers to sell more cars... and we'll use it to sell more cookies. 

🏎 Showing off the Flagship 

Every major auto manufacturer has a flagship vehicle - that one car so fast, so cool, and so very, very expensive. 

• 😬 Audi has the R8 ($158,000)
• 😯 Acura has the NSX ($171,000)
• 😲 Mercedes has the AMG GT R ($179,00)
• 😱 Lexus had the LFA ($818,000)  

Why sell a vehicle way too expensive for most of your target market? 💪 It's a flex for the brand. Essentially, the automotive company is sayin', 👀 "Yo - look at what we can do - and all this skill and talent you can't afford? It's incorporated into the vehicle you can afford." 

In your cookie sales - you can flex with your best set. But just like the auto-manufacturers, don't make it your 100% marketing focus. Your "flex set" is a signal to your capabilities incorporated into your work-horse sets - your big sellers. And while your flex-set may be a net loss, 🎠 it'll help prop you up to sell those forever-favorites like unicorns and mermaids. 🧜‍♀

🚙 Have an Economy Offering

Many automakers know that if they can just get you to try the brand, they'll have a car client for life. This is where manufacturers have their economy lines - these aren't the cars in the commercials, but they are cars they keep on the lot. 

• 🚗 Audi has its A Line
• 🚗 Mercedes has its A Class
• 🚗 Toyota has its Corolla
• 🚗 Kia has its Rio

These are the budget-friendly options for folks who want to enter a brand but can't afford the top-of-the-line or even the mid-range. 💸 But these auto companies don't want you walkin' away without a key in hand, so they keep the budget-friendly vehicles ready to package up for the price-conscious. 

Same with your cookies. While you have your flex set ($$$), and your workhorse sets ($$), keeping an economically friendly option in your back pocket can get people "into your brand" while also making the sale. 🤑 Just like car companies, drop out the "extras" until you find a price point that is a win-win for both you and your potential client. Fewer colors? Fewer designs? Smaller sizes? All of these are ways to keep people on your "cookie car lot." 

Market your Work Horse Mid-Range LineUp

You know each car company's mid-range big sellers - why? You see them marketed the most often, and thus likely most seen on the road. 

• 🚖 Kia has its Telluride
• 🚖 Honda has its Accord
• 🚖 Ford has its F150
• 🚖 Acura has its TLX 

These are the cars that sell the most and make the most - while also wow-ing the consumer. The cookie-equivalents? Mermaids, unicorns, kids' birthday sets - the cookies you know how to pump out for a low-cost higher-price profit. This is where your marketing is focused. Sure - flex once in a blue moon - but keep the limelight on these sets. They're guaranteed to pad your pocket without packin' a mental punch.

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Buzzword incoming: scalability. The ability of your business to increase output to lower costs of production and increase profits. Sounds enviable, right? But how do you go about it as an often one-man (or woman)-band? Here are 5 tips we've thought of that may help you scale to higher margins and less work:

🥶 1. Freezing Cookies / Icings

Brrrr - coolin' down your cookies can heat up production. Freezing dough and cookies can allow you to produce when orders are low and when incoming orders pick up, you're teed up for the big thaw. You can thaw cookies with no risk of loss of freshness for up to 4 months - including already iced cookies. 

🧊 Cool-down pro-tip: store them in sealed cello bags in an air-tight container. When ready to thaw, allow the entire unopened container to completely thaw before opening - this will let the condensation form on the outside of the container and not the cellophane wrapping. This means that you can increase production for Christmas cookies in September and allow the economics of scale to pad your fleece-lined pockets come the holidays. 

 2. Get the Gear

When it comes to scalability, increasing production by decreasing production times = more money. A great way to do that? Don't fight your gear. Find tools that help you increase output and decrease time investment. This will let you make more money while making more cookies = a win-win, and you may even be able to binge a Netflix show without being hunched over the countertop decorating late at night (ayo - posture correctors!). Examples of tools that increase scale are:

• 🔧 A projector
•  An airbrush machine
• 🔨 An Eddie food printer
• 🔩 A dehydrator 
• ⛏ A 3D printer

⬆️ If it can increase production or ⬇️ decrease time spent producing, it'll support the economies of cookie scalability. 

🤖 3. Let the Robots Take Over 

I don't know if you're worried about the robot overlord takeover, but for now - letting the internet handle mundane tasks will allow you to increase production while the "always on" internet handles data input, task management, and client outreach. Zapier is one of our favorite "scalability" tools because it lets two apps that can't shake hands, now shake hands. 🤝 Ways we use webhooks to streamline time costs are:

• 🦾 Auto-response messages sent to new signups 
• 🦾 Turning an email into an Asana task
• 🦾 Adding a cookie event to GCal from Eventbrite 
• 🦾 Adding new Cookie College signups to Google Sheets

👨‍💻 4. All Praise the VA!

VAs or "virtual assistants" are like contracted employees without the employee costs because they work on a task basis and not an hourly basis (depending on your contract). Finding a VA who can handle data input, client reminders, email marketing or social media is a great way to scale your business because you're behind the computer less but more is getting done. So start your VA-dating now so you're ready to hire come the hurried holidays.

👀 5. Ads aren't all Bad.

 I love the 24-7-365 salesman that Facebook ads can be - optimized for views, link clicks, or messages, dialing in a solid ad campaign can help you move product without having to make community group posts = you increase production and decrease time (a recipe for a double-dollar win). Using Ads Manager, you can create ad campaign parameters that stretch your ad dollar to the furthest. 

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[This description is auto-generated by AI]

The importance of marketing with the customer in mind. 0:00

• Welcome to the podcast.
• The average chick-fil-a revenue is 8 million for the standalone.

How to work with business partners. 2:33

• Three questions to ask when working with partners.
• The first question, split up tasks.

The four horsemen of a dead relationship. 5:07

• The foundational thing is having a common goal.
• The john gottman series.
• The four horsemen of the dead relationship.
• The four things to avoid in a business partnership.

What’s underneath the ego is ego. 8:19

• Respect the delegation and let the other person think freely.
• The common goal is growth.
• Heather and Cory split up tasks for retention and acquisition.
• Heather is the primary point of contact

If you’re in a business partnership and you feel like you are carrying the majority of the load, there’s two things that 13:00

• Two things that could be going on in a business partnership.
• Stonewalling is dangerous.
• Communication patterns need to be coddled.
• The importance of self-work to improve communication.

What part of this business do you want to be the point of contact for? 16:13

• How Heather and Corrie work together to get things done.
• The importance of respect.
• Passion is key in a community group.
• Give yourself and your business partner an assignment.

How to deal with conflict in business. 19:53

• Going back to the roots of the damaged partnership.
• Be prepared for the business relationship.
• How to deal with conflict now.
• The importance of communication.
• Stress management, space and stress management.
• The benefits of being a self-employed entrepreneur.

If you see that conflict is introduced because of time together, separate the time apart. 27:05

• Finding the root cause of conflict.
• Keeping a list of what is being worked on.
• The monday morning meeting framework.
• The importance of having a game plan.

How do you make business decisions if you both like different ideas? 30:36

• How to make business decisions in Korea.
• The difference between crunchy and smooth people.
• The goal of most businesses is to grow efficiently and profitably.
• Branding with heavy emotion creates weird logos.

If you can go in that the person you’re working with is not you, it’s not you. 33:56

• Compromise with Heather on landing pages.
• Learning how to work with different people.
• Being the lead point of vendee bundy.
• The monday morning meeting in Korea.
• The importance of mutual respect in communication.
• How to deal with bad moods.

Corrie's neighbor’s dining room table splits into two.

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When you likely got started in your cookie biz, "this will be something I'm still doin' in 2 years" wasn't probably top of mind. If you're like us, this was a random idea > turned hobby > turned money pit > turned "I need to make money or my SO will have my head" - fast forward to today, it's a business - but it wasn't an intentional business. 

So likely - again, if you're like us - "branding" wasn't as much the focus as "juggling 17 hats while baking" was 👒🎩🎓⛑️. Which lands us two years later with a poorly chosen brand identity and business name. 

So what do?
 

👀 *rebranding enters stage right*

Ideally, no business would have to rebrand - but, like in the case of Corrie, there are times when it makes long-term sense for short-term growing pains. Such was Corrie's plight - and here are 4 tips and 4 rebranding snafus we've seen while marketing (and rebranding ourselves). 

❤️ Tip 1 - Check What's Available 

Rule of thumb - don't fall in love with someone that's unavailable. Rule of thumb in branding - don't fall in love with a name that's unavailable. So - before you start planning your billion-dollar baking biz, check what's free - social media handles, domains, etc. Here are two websites I like to use that help with the research:

• ✅ Social Media: https://namechk.com/
• ✅ Domains: https://instantdomainsearch.com/

🚫 Snafu 1 - Overcomplicating It

I love the thought and care some y'all put into your brand name - but I don't always love how that reflects your user's experience when typing your name, searching for you, etc. Overcomplicated branding will mean uphill marketing for you. Examples of overcomplication can look like:

• Brand names that include articles like "a" "an" and "the" 
• Brand names that include misspellings like "Cookiez"
• Brand names that include punctuation like dashes "Cookie-z Company" 
• Brand names that are too long "The Best Cookies in America Cookie Company" 

❤️ Tip 2 - Including Brand + Keyword

In "SEO" best practices, including a brand name (who you are) + keyword (what you're selling) can help you get ahead in search results (Google). This is because you're not keyword stuffing (Cookies Cookies by Cookie Lady Cary - too many keywords in this one), but you're also not too vague (Art for your Plate by Cary - no keyword at all in this one). Examples of brand + keyword can be:

• Mixing Bowl Cookie Company (Mixing Bowl = brand, Cookie = keyword)
• Heather's Best Cookies (Heather's Best = brand, Cookies = keyword)
• Cool Cow Cookies and Cakes (Cool Cow = brand, Cookies and Cakes = keyword)

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Meet the Baker Collab is this Friday, March 24th, 2023 at 11:00 AM est - 12:00 PM est. And we want you to participate! Here's how to squeeze the most out of the Meet the Baker Cookie Collab.

• ▶️ Collab: Meet the Baker
• ▶️ Date: March 24 @ 11:00 AM EST
• ▶️ Engage with posts until 12:00 PM EST
• ▶️ Time Zones: https://bit.ly/CookieTimeZonesRHard
• ▶️ Use Hashtag #SugarCookieMarketingCollab
• ▶️ Engage with the others using the hashtag for 1 hour!

If you're not familiar with cookie collabs, no sweat - we're here to help. Nothin' builds trust (and engagement) like your purdy lil' face in front of a lil' camera (horrifying, I know - my selfies are abysmal).

🤳 Meet the Baker collabs are as fun as they are simple! You'll just need to snag a photo of yourself (or - skirt the rules if ya hate selfies as much as I do and make a cookie-selfie of yourself - which would be hilarious). All you gotta do to participate is make the post on March 24th at 11:00 am on Instagram and use the #SugarCookieMarketingCollab in your caption!

🤗 Other folks who joined in on the collab will stop by and show your post some love which will give it a sweet boost in the algos. Plus - humans LOVE seeing other humans - it's a really effective form of marketing - your audience will LOVE it. So - if you're in, awesome! Here are 5 tips to squeeze the most juice out of this collab. 

1️⃣ The Type of Photo to Post

Okay - let's start with the star of the show - the photo you're going to post. These are guidelines - not requirements - to get the most out of this collab. The better the quality of the photo - the more people are going to react to it (and since this is an engagement collab, reactions = better results).

• 👉 Use a high-quality camera or Portrait Mode on smartphones 
• 👉 Take the photo from the waist up (closer to your face = more engagement)
• 👉 Make the photo bright and fun! Even if it means going outside to bask in the sun's rays.
• 👉 Use props that scream "I'm a baker!" A fun apron, a whisk or spatula, or even your Kitchen-Aid mixer are all fun props to tie in the face to the concept.

2️⃣ Keep the Copy Compelling

Copy (the text below an image often used to sell products) or caption is going to allow people and collab participants to better connect with you. Making the copy compelling means makin' it worth reading - so be on the lookout for Corrie's copy template in this group later this week! 

• 👉 Make your copy relatable to your target audience.
• 👉 Stay away from a WALL of text - use line breaks and emojis to draw people in.
• 👉 Pro-tip: make a short list - people love skimming lists rather than reading paragraphs. 
• 👉 Don't write "Hi, I'm Heather! I'm a baker!" - it's too short and doesn't give people enough elbow room to write a response. 

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I made peace with myself a long time ago that I would have to learn everything I wanted to be "pretty okay" at, I wasn't naturally gifted at anything. And I also learned that the likelihood of me being an expert at anything was a pipe dream. 

And that being good enough is often good enough.

And just being good enough? It's often good enough.

Most of what you want lies at the end of "being good enough" for long enough that people end up giving you their money over and over again, while, each time - you get just a little better than you were the last time. 

Very little of the life we want lies at the "perfect" finish line. Perfectionism is a beautiful, delusional lie - but it's such a delicious lie, because "being perfect" sounds noble. But in the same vein, "being perfect" also sounds impossible - and that's because it likely is. 

Waiting to be perfect is the perfect excuse for not executing right now - right when execution probably matters most. Instead, we kick the proverbial "cookie can" down the road to a future date when we hope everything will be perfect - ready for launch.

But that date never comes. Why? We ain't perfect. And we shouldn't pretend that we're trying to be or that we even need to be perfect to accomplish our goals. 

😳 "So, you twins are sayin' we should put out a subpar product?!"

No - I'm sayin' put out a good enough product. Likely that's all your client wants anyways. It's you who thinks you need to star in three seasons of the Food Network Holiday Cookie Challenge before you can bake mermaid cookies for a 6-year-old's birthday party. 

The six-year-old? They just wanted mermaids. Not a famous tv star turned baker.

But boy - does not havin' to launch 'til it's perfect sound so darn good. You get to sit in the pipe dream phase - the planning phase - the ideas phase. And that's fun - because you don't have any problems if you don't do anything. But you also don't have any business if you don't do anything. 

This week's podcast is more subjective than objective - but once you realize that no one required perfection - heck, they never did - you set yourself free to be the best at bein' good enough. And good enough is good enough to get you most places.