High school and college graduations are a dependable source of yearly revenue for a lot of bakeries. This year may still be a little different, but high school and college graduates are finding ways to celebrate their success with their friends and families. And what’s a celebration without a graduation cake? Underwhelming—but we might be a little biased.
Other than some of the low-cost marketing tactics we’ve discussed in the past, here are some ideas to promote and streamline graduation season for your bakery.
1. Offer Custom Cakes and Sheet Cakes
Not every grad wants (or can afford) an all-out custom cake for their graduation party. While it’s great to showcase your amazingly decorated cakes, offering graduation sheet cake options with a few simple designs can bring in customers that might otherwise have been priced out of a sale.
2. Portfolio
If you have an e-commerce site, you can add past custom graduation cake designs for people to order as-is or with changes in flavor, colors, etc. If you don’t have an online store (though we think you could really benefit from one!), you can include some pictures of past graduation cakes that have really impressed on a portfolio section of your bakery website.
3. Know Your Colors and Mascots
This might go without saying but make sure you have the basic information for local high schools. If you can showcase graduation cakes that incorporate local mascots and colors then it saves time for those filling out an order form. Side note: it’s also worth knowing some of the colleges close by for the same reason.
4. Think outside the cake
Some customers might not want a cake at all! Graduation cupcakes are gaining popularity and give your bakery the option to create some really cool designs for the single-serve celebratory snack. Get creative with all sorts of graduation sweets! For example, did you know that chocolate squares atop upside-down peanut butter cups look just like graduation caps?
5. Offer a Modified Order Form
Take your normal custom cake order form and alter it to fit the graduation cakes that you offer. Make it as easy as possible for grads or parents to fill out. Include size, flavors, icing, filling, and any pre-designed styles such as mascots, graduation caps, or diplomas.
6. DIY Kits
You might think about selling a small selection of graduation cake or cupcake baking kits for those who’d like to try their hand at baking. Learn more about creating and selling baking kits.
7. Create a Quiz
This may not give you direct sales, but it sure is fun! Plus, people may even share it with others, providing more reach and awareness. Create questions that go along with quizzes such as “how to pick the best graduation cake for you” or even a BuzzFeed-style one that asks visitors to “describe your perfect graduation cake and we’ll tell you about yourself.” Get creative with it and, of course, use pictures of your own cakes in the questions or results.
8. Cake Calculator
Consider including a cake calculator on your website so grads and parents can see how many slices of cake they’ll need to feed family and friends. This is a helpful value-add tool for customers and it may even convince them to purchase a larger cake.
9. Include as a Loyalty Program Reward
As a top-tier award for those using your bakery’s loyalty program, you could include a discount code for a custom cake redeemed for a graduation celebration. You might want to make it clear that wedding cakes are excluded from this reward.
10. Create a Google My Business Post
Publish updates and posts, up to 300 words, on your Google My Business listing page the same way you would on social media. Since these posts show up with your listing, they are free advertising and can call attention to your bakery. Since the posts will stay live for seven days, you could post multiple updates with advertising different designs or types of graduation cakes. Need help creating or optimizing your Google My Business page? We’ve got you covered.
11. Take Good Pictures
As your bakery is cranking out graduation cakes, make sure you’re taking pictures! You’ll be able to use them to market your cakes in the future. What makes a good picture? Check out some photography suggestions for your bakery.
Since most graduations also line up with the bulk of wedding season, your bakery may find itself overwhelmed with orders and production. If you’re looking to streamline production and make your bakery more efficient, check out what BakeSmart can do for you. Schedule a demo with BakeSmart today and conquer the chaos.
