For bakeries ยท Marketing planning
A marketing plan for a bakery.
Most bakeries are three businesses sharing one oven: the daily counter, custom orders and wholesale. A plan starts by deciding which one the marketing is actually for.
Or text (508) 546-9942
Slide it
You vs. Jane Doe Bakes.
Left is your website today. Right is the one Jane Doe Bakes has. Drag the line, then hit the button.
Crickets on the left. That is the problem.
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Illustration. Joe is made up. Your competitor is not.
What you are paying for
Marketing planning.
Before anybody designs anything, I figure out what you are selling, to whom, and what has to happen every week.
- A written position: what you sell, to whom, and why you over the alternative
- The offer, defined tightly enough to put a price on
- Which channels get effort and which get ignored
- A weekly rhythm somebody can actually keep
- What gets measured, and the threshold that triggers a decision
Next step
Book thirty minutes and I will tell you exactly what it would take.
What I would build
For a bakery.
What you make, who it is for, and why someone drives past other bakeries to get it. Short enough that a new hire can repeat it when a customer asks what you are known for.
Sizes, starting prices, lead time and what counts as a custom design versus a menu cake. Defined tightly enough that you stop quoting from scratch every time someone sends a screenshot.
When preorders open, when they close and which channels announce them. Built from your real kitchen capacity, so you plan to sell out on purpose instead of by accident.
Custom inquiries per week, preorders against your cap, wholesale accounts added. Each one gets a threshold that tells you when to push harder or pull back, written down so the call is not made in a panic.
The bakery version
Why it matters.
The counter runs on foot traffic and habit. Custom cakes run on search, photos and word of mouth around birthdays and weddings. Wholesale to cafes and restaurants runs on relationships and a sample box. Each needs different marketing, and an owner trying to push all three every week ends up posting pastry photos and hoping. The plan picks which business gets the effort this season.
It also puts the calendar on paper. Holiday preorders, graduation season, the wedding run and the slow weeks after New Year arrive at the same time every year. Writing down when each campaign opens, when the deadline hits and what gets measured turns the yearly scramble into a routine somebody besides you can run.
The mistake I see
Discounting leftovers instead of planning the bake
When the case is still full at closing, the reflex is a discount post. Do it often and regulars learn to wait for it. The fix is a planning problem more than a marketing one: bake to the demand you can see in preorders and past weeks, and treat leftover product as a signal, not a promotion.
How it goes
For a bakery, step by step.
→ Keep scrolling. It moves sideways.
One long conversation
Your numbers, your best customers, the jobs you wish you had more of.
Narrow it
Most plans fail from doing six things badly. I pick two.
Write it down
One page. If it needs ten, it will not survive a busy month.
Set the review
A date to look at it honestly and change it.
Step five is you.
The free Receipt shows what your bakery should fix first. Free, no card.
Print my Receipt →
Questions
What bakeries ask.
Should I chase wholesale accounts or focus on retail?
It depends on your margins and your mornings. Wholesale is steady volume at a lower price and it eats early production hours. Retail pays more per item but swings with weather and season. The plan looks at what you earn from each and how much of the oven each one takes, then picks a direction you can sustain.
How far ahead should holiday marketing start?
Earlier than feels natural, because your planning customers are early. People lock in Thanksgiving pies and holiday trays well before the week itself. Open preorders with enough runway to fill your cap without a last-minute push, and set the deadline by what the kitchen can produce, not by what feels generous.
Is a marketing plan overkill for a single-location bakery?
A long one is. One page is not. A single shop mostly needs a few decisions written down: which part of the business to grow, which two channels get attention, and what the holiday calendar looks like. That is a short document, and it usually costs less than another round of design done without direction.
Same service
Marketing planning for other businesses.
Where I work
Southeastern MA, Worcester County, Cape Cod, RI and NH.
Start here
See what your customers see.
The Receipt looks your bakery up the way a customer would and itemizes what is costing you calls. It is free. Or skip it and book fifteen minutes with me.
Or text (508) 546-9942