Selling and marketing
How to Market a Home Baking Business: 5 Low Cost Moves
Where to put your marketing hours when there is no ad budget and only a phone.
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What to remember
- The customers you already have are your cheapest channel.
- Two channels you feed weekly beat five you abandon.
- Every post needs a price and a pickup day.
- Word of mouth stops when you stop asking for it.
The short version of how to market home baking business is this: say the same thing, in the same two places, until people remember your name. That means a photo, a price, and a pickup day, sent to people who already like your baking. No logo, no ad spend, no new app.
Start with the customers you already have
Your phone contacts are worth more than any ad. The neighbor who bought a pie in September will buy again in November if she remembers you exist. Write down every person who has paid you, and everyone who asked you to tell them when you bake again.
Keep that list in your notes app and add to it at every pickup. Thirty names you can text is a marketing plan you can run in ten minutes on a phone. That list belongs to you, and no app can take it away.
Numbers beat memory. You will forget the woman who ordered two pies in June. Your notes will not.
Pick two channels and ignore the rest
You cannot keep up with five places while you are also baking at 6am. Choose one place where your buyers already look, and one direct channel like a group text or an email list. Two channels you feed weekly beat five you touch once a month.
Photos on a social account do most of the work for home bakers. Our guide to home baking Instagram walks through turning a phone photo into a paid order. Our guide to getting customers for a baking business lists five free moves that cost only time.
A group text is unglamorous and it works, because people read texts. Set it up once, add buyers as they come, and send one message a week with your bake list.
Make one photo do the selling
Light is the whole trick. Put the plate by a window, turn off the overhead light, and shoot at the same time each week so you stop guessing. One photo of the whole item, one cut open, and one with your hand in frame for size.
A cut photo answers the question she is really asking, which is what the inside looks like. A hand answers how big it is. Both take under a minute and both beat a paragraph of description.
Skip the styled set. A clean counter and a plain plate read better on a phone than a backdrop you have to build every week. Save the extra styling for holiday orders when the price is higher.
Put a price and a date in every post
A post with no price gets likes, not orders. Say what it is, what it costs, which day you are baking, and how to claim it. Then say the next step in plain words: reply here, text me, or order from my shop.
Write the caption once and reuse it. The same five lines work for a text, a post, and a sign on the table. Rewriting the words for each place is how you run out of time before you run out of orders.
Write down 20 names
Past buyers, friends who asked, and neighbors who said they wanted to try your baking. Put them in your notes app.
Text five of them
Tell them what you are baking this week, the price, and the pickup day. Five texts, not fifty.
Take three photos in daylight
One whole, one cut open, one in your hand. Same window, same time of day.
Post those photos in your two channels
Same photos, same words, both places. Do not write a second caption.
Ask every buyer for one name
A friend, a sister, a coworker. One name per order grows the list without ads.
Worked example: what a $60 order leaves you
Marketing only pays if the order does. Take a four dozen cookie order at $15 a dozen. That is $60. Now subtract what it actually costs you to fill it.
Ingredients run $12. Boxes and labels run $6. Two hours of your time at $15 an hour is $30. Your shop costs a flat $20 a month, so at ten orders that month it adds $2 to this order. Oven and gas add about $3. You keep $7.
Seven dollars on a $60 order is a margin near 12 percent. A single paid ad would erase it. That is why the free channels come first, and why the price has to carry your time. Run your own numbers with the pricing guide before you accept the order.
Change one number and watch what happens. Get packaging down to $3 and you keep $10. Bake two orders in one session so your time drops to an hour and you keep $22. The order did not change. The way you worked did.
Mistakes that cost home bakers money
The first mistake is posting a lovely photo with no price and no date. It teaches people to admire your work and never buy it.
The second is discounting to win a customer who was never going to pay full price. A discount below your ingredient and packaging cost means you paid to bake.
The third is spending on ads while your free list sits empty. You have thirty names in your phone and you have not texted them. Do that first and the ad question usually answers itself.
The fourth is hiring a designer before you have ten orders. A clean phone photo and the same five caption lines will outsell a logo nobody sees.
What to check before you pay for anything
Before you pay for a booth, a printed sign, or an ad, check that one order covers the cost. If you keep about $7 on a $60 order, a $40 booth fee needs six orders just to pay for itself.
The other check is your calendar. Two channels and one bake day is sustainable. Three channels, two markets, and a full time job is how people quit in month two.
Try the free bake pricing calculator
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Common questions
Do I need to pay for ads to market my baking?
No. Start with the people who already bought from you and post in two places you can keep up with. At small order volumes a paid ad usually costs more than the order is worth. Test the free channels first and only spend money once you have more orders than baking time.
How often should I post?
Two or three times a week is enough when every post has a price and a pickup day. Consistency beats volume. Pick the days you already bake so the photos come from real work, not a separate photo session you will skip once you are tired.
What should I text a past customer?
Name what you are baking, the price, the pickup day, and one clear ask. Keep it to three lines. Send it to people who bought before, not your whole contacts list. One message a week is plenty, and a yes is an order.
How do I get my first order?
Ask one person directly. Tell a neighbor, a coworker, or a school pickup friend exactly what you are making this week and what it costs. One paid order gives you a photo, a happy customer, and a name for your list. The second order usually comes from that first buyer.
Should I discount to get started?
A first order discount is fine if you set an end date. Do not train people to wait for it, and never go below your ingredient and packaging cost. If the price will not cover your time, make the item smaller before you cut the price.
What is the cheapest way to take orders?
A phone number and a notes app cost nothing and work at any size. When orders pick up, a shop with a flat fee keeps more of each sale than one that takes a percentage. Brevl is $20 a month with no commission, and cards go through your own Stripe or Square account.
General information about costs and pricing, not legal or tax advice. Check your own state rules before you sell.