Send us a text

Send us a text

Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 196 - Words Matter (now watchable on YouTube, don't forget), we were a lil' late - and that's because Heather thought she had a bad night's sleep but was actually 🤢 sick-sick and never left her quarantined room for 3 days and nights.

But better late than never, the show must go on... Friday. The message still stands though - your words matter (even if they're three days late).

✍️ Copy is best summarized as any writing that's meant to help you sell or advertise something. That could be the caption on your Facebook post, the text in your email (hey, like this one!) or the ad you took out in the local kids PTA newsletter.

If it's written to sell = it's copy. 💸 And if it's copy, it has to be intentional. Gone are the days of, "Thanks for your order, Cheryl," and here to stay is compelling copy intended to get a person to part with their cold hard cash.

💊 There's no "magic copy pill" that, if swallowed, moves mounds of money (trust me, if there was, I woulda swallowed 1,000 pills by now 💊💊💊). But there are strategies you can mix and match to serve as a guide 🗺️ to finding copy that compels - meaning copy that when read makes people want what ya got.

🪝 Start with the Hook

Consider the hook - you know, that first part they read before social media companies "truncate" (aka anything behind the ...See more text) the post. The first few words in a post that capture the reader's attention to stay beyond just glancing at that stunning photo.

Examples of hooks could look like:

• 🪝 "My inability to count is your gain! ...I overbaked and have some extra cookies!"
• 🪝 "I'll NEVER do this again! ...This is the LAST time I'll reopen pre-sales for latecomers!"
• 🪝 "I've got bad news... I've only got 1 cookie class ticket left."

Hooks, 🐺 much like the boy who cried wolf, have to be used sparingly, or eventually you'll exhaust your audience. Additionally, hooks don't have to be dramatic. A simple hook like, "Okay guys - let me give it to ya straight" can even capture someone's attention. 🛑 Don't be afraid of using emojis on social to stop that scroll!

📝 Follow a Formula

Copy formulas can help guide your vibes. I use them so often that I don't even realize they've become a natural style of writing for me. AIDA is a great one to start with. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Let's try it out:

"🆓 Get a FREE transfer sheet! How about a free sheet every week? All you have to do is sign up! ✅ Here's the link: [link]"

Let's break that down by the AIDA formula:

• ➡️ Attention: 🆓 Get a FREE transfer sheet!
• ➡️ Interest: How about a free sheet every week?
• ➡️ Desire: All you have to do is sign up!
• ➡️ Action: ✅ Here's the link: [link]

The AIDA formula is a fan-fav because it walks the user through a really short copy funnel with a clear call-to-action. It's a great foundational formula to start with - highly recommended.

📞 End with a Call

End with a Call-to-Action that is (don't worry, I hate calling on phones too). Call-to-actions (also called CTAs in marketing jargon) tell your customer where to go and what to do (like give you their money).

Some CTA examples for bakers would look like:

• ☎️ "Subscribe to our YouTube channel"
• ☎️ "Sign up for class!"
• ☎️ "Click here to learn more."

Copy missing a clear call-to-action doesn't accomplish a goal. So tell your audience what you want them to do next.

Send us a text

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 195 - The TikTok Ban, continuing with last week's theme - ❌ the TikTok ban went into full effect on Saturday night for... ⏰ like a few hours?

It was odd as the platform kinda shut down features over an hour then a pop-up blocked access for some, then others, then it came back, but not. That said - it did happen though, which is the topic of conversation in our podcast (which - ahem - you can now watch on YouTube - heads up, you still won't be able to read these lips unfortunately).

😤 "Never downloaded TikTok and never will..." no - that's not what we're talking about. 👂 And frankly, if you're saying this, you definitely aren't using TikTok as a lead source which means you're even less diversified.

What we're talking about is this: 👋 You don't own any platform from which your business gains leads - and that's evident by this TikTok ban.

📧 Your emails can be blocked, your Facebook page hacked, your YouTube shut down, your Instagram suspended, your TikTok banned, and your best word-of-mouth lead source can move away.

🥚 So what do? 🧺 We diversify is what we do.

📊 First, we need to understand our current marketing landscape. Yours won't look like mine. 🤔 Where are most of your leads coming from? If you don't know, start adding that question to your intake form - the data you get from it is worth its weight in marketing gold.

🔍 Once the data comes in - how diversified are your lead sources? If 90% of people are coming from your Facebook page - 📈 guess what, you're not diversified. I'd like to see at least 5️⃣ 5 channels (3 if you're too busy) bringing you in leads. And note - not all those channels can be owned by the same company (ahem - Meta). 👻 Remember, not only did TikTok play Houdini, but so did CapCut (the editing software folks were using even outside of TikTok but also owned by TikTok's parent company, Bytedance).

💻 We'll also want to focus on a website, an email list, and a Google Business Profile. Yes - again, stuff we don't technically own, but hey - they work a lot different than social media algos, and they're owned by 🗽 American-based companies that aren't just Meta. Remember - it's all about d-i-v-e-r-s-i-f-i-c-a-t-i-o-n.

🥚 The less "single egg basket" our marketing is in, the more likely we are to weather any cybersecurity storm. 🥚🥚🥚🥚🥚🥚

⏰ Email aka a newsletter is an even better backup tool to have in your marketing chest because it's one of few marketing avenues that still work chronologically (meaning the emails are listed in the order they are received) unlike social media which is dictated by fancy hard-to-understand algorithms where only the best content gets the viral win.

If you only have time for one social platform, 2️⃣ try to borrow from the time spent on that sole source of leads to start working on a second social profile - that way if your primary source goes dark, 😢 you're not left in the red (bottom line, 💔 I mean).

As marketers, 🥺 we're merely slaves to the whims of social giants and social issues - and roll with the punches we must. 🪦 The graveyard of social media that "once was" grows every year, and leaves creators and businesses who were too invested in a single lead source in the dust. ⚰️

👂 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 - Episode 195 - The TikTok Ban.

Send us a text

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 194 - Meta Verified, TikTok is about to have a big, public breakup with its avoidant soon-to-be ex, the United States. And whether or not we like this coupling, it comes down to the Supreme Court's decision - who needs reality tv when you've got this?!

As we see content creators scrambling to dust off their Instagram backups, it may be a good time to consider standing out among the masses with Meta Verified.

Meta Verified is that neato 🔵blue check mark that you see next to some pages and profiles (go check out Sugar Cookie Marketing's Page for a real-life example). And it's more than just an icon, actually - which makes it a possible contender for your marketing budget in 2025.

Quick backstory on 🔵blue checks: Back when Twitter was, well still called Twitter, accounts that were verified as professional or famous profiles received a 🔵blue check next to their handles to signify that this was the legitimate profile of the business or creator. It was a manual application process and it was hard to get accepted into. Elon buys the failing Twitter and converts it to X takin' the 🔵blue checks away and offering them as a subscription to anyone who had about twenty bucks.

While verification is still required, the exclusivity is long gone. Meta followed suit a few months later for personal profiles and mid-2024 began offering 🔵blue check subscriptions to business pages.

Meta Verified pages do get some added perks though - so let's take a look at them (we'll focus on the plan I paid for to test this - the Business Plus plan - although all the plans include the 🔵blue check).

But first - let's see the pricing for these Verified tiers:

• ✅ Business Standard - $14.99/mo
• ✅ Business Plus - $44.99/mo
• ✅ Business Premium - $119.99/mo
• ✅ Business Max - $349.99/mo

Yeah - so, like not chump change at all - and this is per profile meaning that yes, Facebook and Instagram are considered two profiles even if the Facebook and Instagram accounts represent the same business and are connected. But the good news - there's a yearly discounted option, a bundle

✅ Meta Verified Business Plus - $44.99

1. ✅ Verified Badge
2. ✅ Impersonation Protection
3. ✅ Meta Verified Support (Priority)
4. ✅ Enhanced Facebook Profile - 3 Linked Accounts / 3 Locations
5. ✅ 2 Links in Reels
6. ✅ Featured Account

You're reading that right - you can actually email or chat with a support rep (for that one profile) if you sign up for Meta Verified. If you upgrade to Premium or Max, you can talk to someone over the phone - a rarity with these social media giants.

But there's more - you also get "enhanced" profiles on Facebook (if you pay for Verified on that platform) or on Instagram. Instagram will give Business Plus subscribers the ability to add pictures to their bio links as well as link 3 additional accounts in the area under the profile bio.

Facebook pages with the 🔵blue check will show up in horizontal scrolls in feeds as "Recommended Meta Verified Businesses." Hey - it's like a free ad included in your not-free subscription. Beggars can't be choosers, right?

Impersonation protection is a neat feature - basically no one can spoof your Business page. Does that mean that past hacked pages have a chance of being reunited with their original owners? Not a clue - but it's worth a shot if you've completely lost access to your Page.

Send us a text

Onesday Thursday? Sorry - ❄️ we had a big snow storm (big for the Washington DC area is anything over 3 inches, and we ended up with 8 - 10 inches, ☃️ so rest assured, my car won't be clean again for 2 months).

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 193 - SMART Baby Goals, 👶 we cover a better baby way to tackle big goals - and that's by not making them big, but making them rather small.

Let me jump right into an example of my own. ✍️ Last year (and for the last 5 years before that), I had the goal to learn Procreate (the iPad app that redefines digital drawing). 🎨 I'd bought the top-of-the-line iPad, the fancy Pencil, and Procreate... and proceeded to say each year, ✏️ "I'm going to learn to draw."

But my goal wasn't S-M-A-R-T. It was too broad. 🤓 S-M-A-R-T stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

My "I wanna draw" was not specific. 🤷‍♀️ Draw what? It wasn't measurable because you can't measure "can I draw yet." And because it wasn't broken down into steps, it thus became unachievable, and "sometime this year" was not a viable option for "time-bound."

My goal was running before it could crawl, and thus it never got any traction. We have to make it small (baby) before we can make it big. 🏃‍♀️💨

🤱 A lot of time, we see bakers say BIG goals - 🤑 "I want to increase sales by 50%," or 🔟 "I want to teach 10 cookie classes this year." Love them - but those are really easy goals to say and really hard goals to beat.

What if we made these goals smaller? 👶 Baby...ier? What if "I want to increase sales by 50%" was, "I'd like to sell 1 more dozen each week this year than I did last year." Still pushing you, but definitely S-M-A-R-T because it's smaller and a lot more specific, we can measure it, we know we can do it (hey, what's 1 more dozen), it's relevant to our business, and it's time-bound (each week).

🎨 That's what I did with my lofty "learn how to draw" goal. Instead of "take 1 Procreate class a week," I switched it to, "Just ✨open✨ the Procreate app once a day." Whatever happens after that - it counts. Because the goal is so small and easy, it's easy to tackle, but it's not impressive.

And therein is the key - 🔑 small goals aren't sexy, but they are attainable, and completing 100 small goals this year will get you so much further than not completing 1 giant goal.

🧠 Small is Smart. 🤏

Here are some small crawling goals that you can use to get your goals to toddler stage.

👶 1. Social Media - Consistent Posting 2x per Week

• 🍼 Focus on 2 times per week - be gradual, you can increase posting once you've learned how to stay consistent with just 2x per week.
• 🍼 Focus on 1 platform - set up up cross-posting if you'd like, but focus on 1 platform for now.
• 🍼 Add in 1 copy formula to work on each *month* - not each post. Learning just 1 copy formula (AIDA) is better than learning them all and using zero.

👶 2. Financial - not "all the money" but rather "1 extra dozen per week"

• 🍼 Ask, "How would I find 1 more sale a week?" - let that question guide your marketing to find just 1 more lead.
• 🍼 Focus on value-adding in community groups - community group admins love valuable content, so become an asset before you make your cash grab.
• 🍼 To help make it achievable - premake dough so you have it ready to go.

Send us a text

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 192 - Workin' Birkin, we're following a pretty funny story taking over TikTok.

You see - 👜 Hermes is a line of really high-end luxury items like purses and belts. And if you have a Birkin bag, you're looking at tens of thousands of dollars alone. But the king of the Birkin bags? The Kelly Bag - a bag that you have to be invited to be able to buy... 💰 for almost a hundred thousand dollars.

But last week, ⏰ a TikTokker discovered that Walmart has launched its own Birkin of sorts... a knockoff the internet how now dubbed the "Workin' Birkin" from "Walmes."

Hilarious doesn't begin to describe it, but what's even more interesting is the marketing lessons we can pull from 🤑 Walmart's mass-produced copycat Kelly.

Is Hermes going to shift its marketing strategy to compete with the behemoth of Walmart? Is Walmart testing its entry into the luxury designer bag market? No and no - here's why.

👛 1. Different Market Segments

Hermes sells to really rich people. Walmart has built a brand on the savvy money-saving shopper. Their market segments never overlap. The person who wants an authentic Kelly bag won't even glance at a Walmart's sliding doors. The price-conscious Walmart shopper ain't gonna be clickin' to Hermes website. Their market segments aren't even in the same parking lots.

And you shouldn't worry when a new baker starts posting in your community groups - they're not sharing your market segment. You're years into this - your skills are honed, your prices are set by your defined costs. You know exactly what it costs to stay in business, and you charge a profit accordingly. The new baker? They can charge a lower rate because they do produce a different product that does attract a different buyer. Don't you worry about them - the market takes care of everything.

👛 2. Supply and Demand

Hermes could ramp up production to compete with Wally World's massive production empire. Scrap the hand-made and sub it out for the mass-produced, right? WRONG. The more supply available of authentic Birkins, the less valuable each Birkin becomes. That's the law of supply and demand. The more supply, the less demand for it. The more demand, the less supply around to fulfill it. It's the invisible hand of the market at work.

👛 3. Costs Covered

You can't work for less than it costs to make, right? You'd be losing per order. So let your costs dictate your pricing. Same with the newbie. They can charge less because their labor rate is lower, they have lower indirect costs, and they don't have as much overhead. You - you can't. You have that Eddie to pay for, that Universal Bosch to keep powered on, and that Heavenly 70 Amerigels to use. You gotta cover your costs + profit - no if, ands, or Birkins.

👛 4. Exclusivity means Money

The higher your prices the more exclusive you're able to make your order inquiries. Hermes hand-makes each bag - taking up to 20 hours to produce. They can charge more for their lack of availability. That translates as "exclusivity" to your marketing. If Birkin can slap a $100k price tag on something that a grocery bag can functionally replace - why are you so worried about pricing lower than your competition? Price HIGH. Get EXCLUSIVE high-paying customers. We aren't selling food - we're selling a luxury edible product.

️👛 5. Perceived Value in Luxury Pricing

Finally - the perception of value creates money. Oreos are cookies. Your custom-decorated dozen is cookies. Why can you charge 20x the price of Oreos?

Send us a text

Send us a text

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 190 - How the Grinch Saved Christmas, ️and we're BACK and Frank is DIZZY. 😿 Heather came back from a 10-hour trip to a sick Frank who turns out had an inner ear infection that led to him gettin' an early start on the kitty somersault Olympic tryouts.

But back to baking - December is a rough time for bakers. On the one hand, with all the marketing work we laid all year, we're finally able to cash in during the "Cookie Super Bowl." On the other hand - my goodness, it's a lot of work.

It's easy to become jaded by our clients during this season. While we're "baking spirits bright," we ourselves are neglected during the holidays. It's the price we pay in the industry we have chosen to be in. But it's important to stay focused on the goal: a really solid business that sustains itself both through slow and busy times.

So how do we stay focused without becoming embittered by the long hours and late nights over the kitchen oven? Here's a few tips from Sugar Cookie Marketing.

🎄 1. Manage Communications

'Tis the season to get behind on emails. When (see: not if) clients send an angry message about something you messed up (or they think you messed up), wait 24 hours to reply. For all other messages, set expectations. "Hey! Thanks for the email - I'm looking at 24-hour response times, but rest assured, I'll get back to you!" goes a long way in quelling the fears of your customers. If you've not replied to January inquiries, make a note to reply before your next "Hey, I'm taking orders" scheduled post goes up to stave off upset would-be clients.

2. "This will be the best experience they will have."

Corrie and I taught a Christmas cookie class last weekend. Factor in the weekend before, we were circa Vendy Blendy, it was easy to have a bad attitude with two overly long working weekends. We took a deep breath and said, "This is our cookie class attendee's Christmas season kick-off. Let's make it the vibe." And the same goes for you - a lot of your clients are excited about their orders. Make it the best gift they've felt that they have ever given by perking up your attitude.

🎄 3. Custumers =/= Therapists.

You're tired. We get it. Customers aren't therapists. It's easy to turn a pick-up into a vent sesh of all the orders from all the difficult people who don't understand all that goes into cookies. Word of caution: don't do that. Corrie and I frequented a delightful local Thai restaurant, except the owner wasn't so delightful. What was one lunch turned into an hour-long vent session about clients who don't tip. Here's a tip: don't do this.

🎄 4. Happy Cappy - Clean, Brushed, Smile

I hate telling people to shower and makeup when frankly, I don't like doing it. But boy does it help paint the picture that we're the happy, hearty bakers our clients expected to open the door. Think about it - would you want to see your mechanic driving in a hoopty with squeaking brakes? Or about how your real estate agent living in a dump? We want to image the folks we hire are what you believe them to be - same with our bakers. We want to think your kitchen is clean, your house smells good, and you're happy to serve every client with the freshest baked cookies ever to come out of an oven.

️🎄 5. Use AI to keep it friendly.

Nothing says, "I'm too busy for much effort" like "sent from iPhone." In the world of AI everywhere, we hardly have an excuse to not let the robot overlords have their way with our curt emails.