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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 217 - Video Marketing for Local Small Bakeries, Corrie wanted to talk about the wild world of Reels. Well, Reels, TikToks, YouTube Shorts - you know, vertical video. A topic made all the more important by Meta's announcement last week that all videos uploaded to the Facebook platform would now be categorized as Reels, thus shutting the door on horizontal videos (* Lives are still Lives, though).

It's what's in right now, and as small businesses who want to increase reach, we gotta bite the proverbial bullet and say cheese (trust me, I hate it too).

🎞️ 1. Start with the setup

The setup will make or break your quality, but pro-tip: it won't be perfect when you're just getting started. Don't let that stop you! The old adage was right when it stated, "Practice makes perfect." So yes, you may be tripping out of the gate, but the long-term benefits of Nike's "Just Do It" will make the juice worth the squeeze.

Products Recs from this Podcast:

• 🔗 Tripod - Canvas Lamp
• 🔗 Dummy Phone - iPhone 13
• 🔗 Editing App - InShot
• 🔗 Backdrop - The Backers Co in White Matte Finish
• 🔗 Teleprompter - Search Amazon for one that fits your setup

You'll want to find a natural indirect light source - this means the sun, but in a bright room where the sun isn't creating harsh shadows. If you can't get out of the sun because of the positioning of your house, using a silk curtain can diffuse the light enough to make it work.

📐 Most bakers struggle with the positioning of the tripod in relation to the cookie. Don't be afraid to position the camera at an angle - if you pay attention, you'll find most decorating videos are not directly overhead, although Corrie tells ya how to make it work with the Canvas Lamp (heads up - she does not use the lamp's light ring, just the phone mount).

🎞️ 2. Types of videos to record

Once you get your setup dialed in, you may be tempted to become a one-dimensional "cookie decorating video ASMR" content machine, but ya gotta mix it up. 🔑 This is the key point to the podcast - small, local businesses need to feature local content.

Consider who is watching your videos. ASMR-type decorating videos appeal to a wide audience - 🌎 like, "the whole world" wide. Not the goal if we want to increase our local customer base, but good for impressions (the number of eyes that watch your videos). When we feature hyper-local businesses, farmers markets, and event coverage, we appeal really just to our local demographic. That's the goal.

🪣 Here are some content buckets you could pull from to make a diverse content strategy that covers both broad and narrow targeting:

• 🎬 Read customer testimonials and give order details
• 🎬 Local event coverage - farmer's markets, new restaurant opening, town events
• 🎬 Tell a story or series - "I'm on my journey to open a brick and mortar - I'm taking you with me!"
• 🎬 Behind the scenes - "I have an order for 30 dz. Let's do it together."
• 🎬 Presale QVC-style video - "Here's what you'll find at my pop-up next week."
• 🎬 Baking Tips - "Here's how to make Royal Icing at home!"
• 🎬 ASMR-type decorating vids

🎞️ 3. Things to include for extra reach

Finally, try to include these when recording - it'll help your audience better relate and discover your content. And the more people who see your content, the more likely the algos are to show your content to more people = the endless cog in the marketing wheel.

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In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 216 - Taking a Stab at a Cookie Collab, and Sugar Cookie Marketing Cookie Collabs are BACK IN BUSINESS. You can check out the details in the event listing for the SCM Cookie Collab: Meet the Baker 2025! here.

But allow us to spend this week's podcast and newsletter walking you through the Collab 101 basics so you can get the most from the easy-to-join Instagram cookie collab.

Long story... podcast?... short, collabs are an easy breezy marketing collaboration with a handful of other bakers to increase engagement as well as e-network with your coll-e-agues (get it, because we're all online?). 🌊 Let's dive in. 👙 But if you're already "in there like swimwear," go ahead and register here:

🔪 1. What's a cookie collab?

A cookie collab is a single-day, single-hour online event where a group of bakers design a cookie (or a picture) based on a specified theme. Each "collaber" will post on a designated social media platform (Instagram in this case) using a specific hashtag (#SCMCollabBaker). Then all the participants will engage with other participants' posts by liking and commenting (but not following). It lasts for 1 hour, and it's a great way to meet new bakers, put faces to names, and increase engagement by hijacking the algo to show your post to more of your followers. A win-win-win. Some collabs are invite-only, but this is an open invite collab. All we ask is that you register to get reminders (not required, but appreciated).

🔪 2. Why did we stop doing collabs?

With Zuck trying to keep up with the Joneses (ahem, TikTok), the platform depreciated hashtags - the main way we connect bakers through collabs. Previously, collabers could search for the most recent posts using a common hashtag (example, our old collab hashtag - #SCMCookiecCollab) during the collab hour and engage away as one big happy baking family. Now, with the removal of the ability to follow hashtags and the ability to filter by most recent, posts from prior collabs would have shown up, they'd have been outta order, and it would have been a giant mess.

So we stopped because we needed to rethink the approach (it didn't require a ton of brain power, which you'll see in a second, but hey - we got busy too).

🔪 3. Details on this collab

This collab is our simplest concept of the three collabs we'll attempt this year. The "Meet the Baker" collab just requires a picture of you! Personal branding through face photos builds trust and relatability with customers - and bonus, you don't have to bake for this one. Always remember the quote, “people like faces. When in doubt, selfie it out.”

• ➡️ Time: Friday, 10:00 AM EST
• ➡️ Date: June 27th, 2025
• ➡️ Use Hashtag #SCMCollabBaker
• ➡️ Register here: https://form.jotform.com/SugarCookieMarketing/scmcollabbaker

And it will work - humans love humans, and this collab capitalizes on that. And even better, you get to see the faces of other bakers who are also participating. It's a fun way to kill an hour and do a lil' marketing at the same time.

🔪 4. Tips to get the most from a collab

While it's pretty hard to mess up "post a selfie," there are ways to squeeze the most juice from this berry.

• ✅ Try to have your post up by 10:00 AM EST for maximum exposure.
• ✅ Use the Hashtag #SCMCollabBaker on Instagram.

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🤖 AI-AI-Oh Yes - Ways bakers are incorporating AI.

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 215 - AI-AI-Oh Yes, we read a thread asking bakers how they're using AI in their bakery business. The answers should inspire you - from streamlining workflow to helping write compelling copy on social media, AI has entered stage left, and it won't be leaving anytime soon.

If you're a late adopter to this new tech, you're not totally alone, but we predict (hot take) that the bakers who do incorporate AI into their workflow will outperform the bakers who resist the "winds of change."

For this newsletter, I'll just list out how bakers are incorporating AI as they incorporate their icing. It's how others use AI that can inspire you to learn ways you can add it yourself. In the podcast, we also listed out how the Harvard Business Review found out how the majority of folks are using AI in their lives.

Full disclosure - we recorded this podcast last week, and I'm currently sitting beachside (hopefully not in the rain) right now. So, hello from the past. Also, hello from a huge fan of letting technology help you in business.

• 🔧 1. Rewriting copy and captions - Ericka - "When I’m brain dead, I’ll have it rewrite my copy to sound like I’m a lively awake human 😂."
• 🔧 2. Create outline drawings for cookies - Renea - "To make one-line drawings for cookies."
• 🔧 3. Edit backgrounds on images - Viviana - "Once in a while, I use it to change the background and content. I am involved in networking, and on a few occasions, I have had to give a 10-minute presentation about what I do. I let AI help me put things into words."
• 🔧 4. Color mixing theory - Kelly - "Copy ideas, and when I’m having trouble with mixing a color, although I haven’t found it as helpful with colors as I had hoped. I’m liking a lot of these other ideas mentioned here, especially when you are stuck on that last design and making the one-line drawings!"
• 🔧 5. Design ideas - Amie - "Sometimes I need just one more design idea, and I’ll have it make me some ideas."
• 🔧 6. Website copy - Tina - "Writing first draft of copy for social media, website. Putting in my responses to difficult customer queries and asking it to make it more friendly and sincere. 😁"
• 🔧 7. Recipe scaling - Daphanee - "Recipe scaling and troubleshooting, writing copy, doing mockups for sets when I have a hard time conceptualizing them."

👂 Snag this podcast on any major podcast player (Spotify, Apple Music, Audible, Amazon Music, or watch it on YouTube) by searching for Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 215 - AI-AI-Oh Yes.