Promoting Your Cake Decorating Business - Part 1

When you are starting out in your cake decorating business, you will probably not have much – if any – money available for advertising and promotion. This does not need to be a problem – in fact it could be seen as an advantage – because the best advertising you can do is to make and decorate good quality cakes, and to provide top rate customer service. Word of mouth will then do most of the promotional work for you. All you need to do is to maintain quality at all times, and look for and capitalise on all the opportunities that will present themselves to you in this exciting industry. Here are a few ideas to consider (and a couple of videos showing you how to cover cakes with fondant - with all this talk of legalities and advertising, it's easy to overlook the reason we're here in the first place - beautiful cakes made by people who are passionate about their craft. Enjoy!)

Word of Mouth This is undoubtedly the most important form of advertising for cake decorating, or any business, but be warned – it is a double edged sword. People will talk about your cakes and recommend your service if they are impressed with what they see, but if you deliver an inferior product or lousy service, they will talk about this even more, and you will have done serious damage to your reputation and jeopardised the viability of your business. Put simply – the cake is its own best advertising. The guests at any celebration which features your cake as the centrepiece are a captive audience – they all watch the cutting ceremony or blowing out of candles, and many of them will photograph it (see an upcoming post on the photography of cakes). If they like what they see, they will talk about it, and this is marketing gold. Make sure they know who made the cake – leave copies of your business card with a reliable person – a bridesmaid, best man, caterer – someone who will be happy to give them to anyone who enquires about the cake. Your aim is to pick up at least one more client from every function you supply to.



Keep a note of dates Use a wallchart or computer based diary to record all dates of local anniversaries, upcoming public occasions, jubilees of clubs and societies and other organisations in your area, and of course birthdays of people you know – particularly those for whom you have done cakes previously – and contact the appropriate people in advance to offer your services. Local knowledge is a great asset in this business.

Get yourself known within the trade Attend wedding or bridal expos, business forums, trade shows – anything relevant to your cake decorating niche area, and participate in these with promotional material, demonstrations, and giveaways. This not only gets your name before the general public, but also gets it known among other professionals in your chosen niche. Networking is an important part of any business, and these kinds of events are a great way to do this. Do remember though, that when you get to the point of becoming known in the trade, you will also be getting noticed by tax and health authorities. See yesterday's post for some information on how to keep your business legal.



Photograph your cakes Digital photography is one of the best inventions ever for people who want to promote a creative service like cake decorating. If used properly, it is like a visual version of word of mouth advertising. Think about it – how often have you seen photos of someone's wedding that feature the cake? Every wedding album in the world has them, but not just the official album belonging to the bride and groom – lots of people take photos at weddings, and now that modern technology allows these to be quite literally shared all around the world within a few seconds, the numbers who will see your cake (and quickly!) has increased exponentially. Of course it would be a bit much to write your advertising on the cake (very handy though!), so people who see it in photos won't necessarily know who made it – but the important thing is that they will see the cake, and when they are in the market for one themselves, they will be able to find out. They have already seen your best advertising – a cake that has grabbed their attention.

See tomorrow's post for part 2 of this 3 part series.