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Coaching Episode | How to Shift From Markets to Porch Pickup | Episode 23

Nov 12, 2024
7 min read

Updated: Aug 13

Listen on Apple Podcasts


Farmers markets are the fastest way to get strangers to taste your bread, and they are also the most exhausting way to sell it. You load the car, you stand for four hours, you hope the weather holds, and then you drive home with whatever did not sell.


Porch pickup solves most of that. You bake only what has already been paid for and nothing goes to waste. The catch is that porch pickup only works once enough people know you exist, and the fastest way to get them to know you is the farmers market you are trying to step back from.


That is exactly where Verena Aziz was when we sat down for a coaching call. She runs V's Treats, a home microbakery in Seattle. She named it that because she gets bored making one thing, so she bakes sourdough, jumbo cookies and cinnamon rolls. She started taking orders alongside a day job, paused through COVID, and restarted in 2023 with a clearer focus.


Her question is the one almost every baker reaches. She uses organic flour, organic eggs, good chocolate and good butter, and she puts in a lot of hours. Is what she brings in worth what she puts in?


Your list is the whole business

Verena takes orders on Hotplate. The menu goes up Friday evening or Saturday morning, and pickup is Thursday evening in a two hour window customers narrow down themselves.


A second pickup day each week would mean a second dough day and a second bake day, which is a lot when you are the only baker in the house. So the way to grow revenue is more people seeing each menu when it opens.


Here is the number that makes this concrete. On my Simply Bread app, in a given week, somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of the people on my notification list place an order. If you have 50 people on your list, expect five to seven orders. That percentage holds pretty steady, which means the size of the list is your real lever.


So every single thing you do to market your bakery should end with someone joining that list. Your call to action can be as plain as "never miss an update, join the list in my link in bio."


Instagram is probably reaching the wrong people

Verena has a lovely Instagram for the bakery. She posts sneak peeks of new cookie flavors, reels of stuffed peanut butter cookies, shaping videos. The engagement is there and the orders are not following it.


That is usually a demographic problem. If your regular customers are millennials and older, they are not living on Instagram and they will never see the menu you posted there.


Facebook has been the number one way I have reached my largest number of recurring, regular customers. That and markets. Most areas have a pile of geographically specific groups, and that is where local buyers actually are.


A few things I told Verena that apply to you too:

  • Create a Facebook business page. You can jump straight over from Instagram, and then you can share each Instagram post to Facebook without doing the work twice.

  • Post in local groups from your personal profile and tag your business page, so people click over and follow the page.

  • Hunt for the right groups. Some are strict about when businesses can post and some are relaxed. Some have real conversation and some are wall to wall car detailing ads. Mom groups and neighborhood social groups are usually worth your time.

  • Facebook lets you put the link right in the caption, so you are not stuck sending people to a bio.

  • Pin a post to the top of your page explaining how to get notified when your menu opens, so somebody who misses one story can still find their way in.

Then give it time. Pick something doable, like one post a week through the end of the year, and stay consistent. Consistency is what makes any of this work.


Nextdoor is worth a look too, because it is hyper local and targets the people who live close enough to walk to your porch. I have barely used it, and one post got me a customer who showed up at the market the next week and bought from me!


Choose markets for what they leave behind

Markets do not have to be all or nothing. Judge each one by how many new names it puts on your list, not by what you sell that day.


Verena had done a market 25 minutes from her house that went well on the day and produced almost no porch pickup customers afterward. Nobody drives 25 minutes every week for a loaf of bread. The markets that pay off long term are close enough that the people who taste your bread can become your Thursday regulars.


I lean hard into one-day, local events for the same reason. Holiday markets running two days at six hours a day are a huge lift when you are the only baker, because bread has to be fresh. One day means one dough day and one bake day.


Capture people while you have them. Verena keeps a framed QR code on her market table and the same code on her business cards, both saying "look at menu here." At her last market that brought in seven or eight new signups. When there is a line and you cannot spare the minute to explain, an assistant reminding people as they walk away with their bag will do it for you.


And a market that flops on paper can still be worth it. I had one several months ago that was a dud, and I picked up a single regular customer from it. He orders every week. He picked up his three loaves a minute ago.


Getting into other people's rooms

Verena is not a pushy salesperson and does not want to become one. Walking into a strange business with a bag of cookies and a pitch felt forced to her, and I understand that completely.


The way around it is to make the ask about them. Before you reach out, answer the question "how does having me here help this business?" Maybe you give their customers a reason to linger. Maybe you introduce your people to their space. Go in wanting to partner, and the whole thing stops feeling like a sales pitch.


Places to look:

  • Businesses you already have a relationship with. Verena is friends with the owner and stylists at a local salon, so an evening event there is an easy yes.

  • Sponsorship instead of a booth. Offer your bread for the charcuterie spread at their sip and shop, and let your product do the talking.

  • Breweries, distilleries and shops that host monthly pop-up markets. Once you are on Facebook you can search for vendor events near you.

  • Somewhere you already show up as a person. Verena's gym came up, and the honest fit there is her sourdough, most of which is vegan, rather than the cookies and cinnamon rolls.

Yes, some of this means cold emailing people who do not know you. The worst they can say is no. In my experience they are appreciative and inviting, and more often than not the answer is yes, or "not this month, but next month." Always ask whether you need to bring your own table and tent.


One limit to know first: in a lot of states, cottage food has to be sold directly to the customer, which rules out a shop buying from you and reselling. That is the rule where Verena is and where I am. Check yours before you promise anybody wholesale.


If you are already running at volume

If you are a year or two in with a steady list, run this audit. Write every marketing activity from the last three months next to the number of new list signups it produced. Markets, pop-ups, reels, group posts, all of it. Some of what is eating your weekends is buying you almost nothing.


Then front-load your fall with the events that feed your list, so your Thanksgiving and Christmas porch pickups are already full and you are not standing outside in November weather trying to build an audience from scratch.


And watch your touches. Every time you put your hands on something, you have added work. If a step in your week does not make you money or bring in a customer, take it out.


Final thoughts

Verena's business is not broken. She has good products, real relationships with her customers, and a pickup system that works. What she needs is more people seeing each menu, and that comes from choosing the right rooms and asking everyone she meets to join the list.


Do the same thing. Pick the two or three places your customers already are, show up consistently for a few months, and let the list do the rest.


Cheering you on,


Caroline


Keep going

If you are working out where your sales should come from, start here.


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