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Sales Incentives That Keep Microbakery Customers Coming Back | Episode 12

  • Nov 12, 2024
  • 6 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

Listen on Apple Podcasts


You have a bake day coming up, the pre-order form is open, and the orders are trickling in slower than you would like. Or maybe orders are fine, but the same handful of people buy every week and you cannot figure out how to get anyone new through the door.


That is a sales problem, and sales problems have solutions that do not require you to bake more, work more, or shout louder on Instagram.


Sales and incentives are how you get more revenue out of the customers you already have, and how you turn a one time buyer into someone who orders from you every single week. They also do something I love even more than the revenue, which is make people feel cherished and seen and valued. The more of that you do, the more loyal those customers become.


Here is the thing to know before you read another word. You do not need to do all of this. Pick one idea, run it for a season, and see what it does to your numbers.


Know who is actually buying from you

Every offer you build only works if it lands with the person holding the money. So before you design a single bundle, get clear on who your customer is and why they buy.


Are they health conscious parents looking for a nutritious option for their kids? Are they foodies who care about the artisan quality of what you make? Are they crunchy shoppers who want organic and non-GMO?


Those three people respond to completely different offers. The parent wants a lunchbox bundle. The foodie wants first access to the limited seasonal flavor. Knowing which one you are talking to is what makes an incentive feel personal instead of generic.


Build offers people cannot walk past

Once you know who you are talking to, you can build the offer. A few that work well in a microbakery.

  • Bundles. People love a good deal, and a bundle moves more product per transaction. A weekend breakfast bundle with a loaf of sourdough, a jar of jam, and a pack of muffins at a small discount gets you a bigger order and gets them a treat.

  • Bulk discounts. Buy five loaves, get a discount on the sixth. This grows the size of the order and it grows the odds that person comes back, because they know their bigger orders get rewarded.

  • Limited time offers. Put a deadline on it. A discount good only through the weekend, or a seasonal flavor that disappears when the season does. Urgency and scarcity are real, and people will move fast on something they might miss.

Before you set a discount on anything, calculate the cost of your ingredients for that bundle so you know what you are actually giving away. A bundle should still pay you well. If the math is fuzzy, that is your homework before the offer goes live.


Loyalty programs, low tech and high tech

A loyalty program rewards people for coming back, which is exactly what you want. Think of the coffee shop punch card. Ten punches, free drink.


The old school version works and it is charming. Search Canva for punch card templates, adjust one to your branding, and get them printed through Canva. The catch is that it depends on your customer keeping track of the card and remembering to hand it over, so build in a little room for error.


If you would rather it run itself, look at what your systems already do. If you take market orders through Square, Square has a loyalty program built in and it is not hard to turn on. If your pre-orders go through Hotplate, you can create discount codes, though you will be the one deciding who earns one and when.


The point of a rewards program is not the free loaf. It is that you now have a reason to talk to that customer again, and they have a reason to keep choosing you.


Incentives are the little extras

Offers get people to buy. Incentives make them feel like a person instead of an order number. These are the ones that build the kind of loyalty you cannot buy with a discount.

  • A referral reward. Offer something real for every referral that turns into a purchase, like a free loaf. On my order form I kept a blank where people could tell me who sent them, and I would tuck an extra pack of cookies into that referrer's next order. Word of mouth is the most trustworthy marketing there is, and it grows a business in ways paid ads never will.

  • Surprise gifts. Slip a small extra into a regular customer's order with no rhyme or reason. A sample of something new, a recipe card, a couple of cookies. If you happen to know it is their birthday, even better, because now you are telling them you listen.

  • Exclusive access. Let your most loyal customers be the taste testers. Give them the sneak peek at the seasonal menu, the first invitation to a workshop. On Instagram you can set up a Close Friends group and make that the room where the good stuff happens first.


Get a little weird with it

Some of my favorites are the ones that do not fit in a category.


Host a VIP night. Invite your most loyal customers, let them sample everything, treat them like royalty, and then ask them to share it on social so new people get a look at what you do. Or run an invitation only event with a ticketed price and an exclusive menu, something they genuinely could not access any other way.


Flash sales are wonderful for moving product fast. I did one after a market got rained out and I was sitting on inventory. I posted "Flash sale! Message me for the address," set it all on the porch, and let people come take what they wanted. It reached the spontaneous customers who never manage to order on schedule.


And at Christmas, try printing four different coupons, a discount, a free product, a bag of cookies, whatever you like, and slipping them into orders at random. Tell people on social that there is a surprise in the bag. You get the fun of the surprise now and the repeat order later when they come to redeem it.


Let your tools do some of the work

Email and text are still the best ways to tell people about a new product, an offer, or an event, because they land somewhere your customer actually looks. Write them like a person, not a flyer, and invite a reply. Conversation is what makes someone loyal to you and not just to your bread.


Social media is where you can make sharing part of the deal. Offer a small thank you in the next order for anyone who leaves a review. Run a giveaway to mark a milestone, ask people to tag a friend, and pick a commenter to win a loaf. That is how you reach people who would never have found you.


If you are a year or three in

You already have a customer list, which means you have something a brand new baker does not: data.


Pull up your last three months of orders and find your top ten customers by number of orders. Those are the people your VIP night, your Close Friends group, and your surprise cookies are for. Then find the people who ordered twice and disappeared. One limited time offer aimed at exactly that group will tell you more about your business than a month of guessing.


Pick one incentive, run it for a full season, and track what it does to your average order value and your repeat rate. If it moves the number, keep it. If it does not, you have your answer and you try the next one.


Final thoughts

Sales and incentives are a great way to boost revenue when things are slow, to build real urgency around a season, and to reach the customers you would not otherwise reach. But the reason I love them is simpler than that. They are a way to tell the people who keep your business alive that you noticed them.


Start with one. Just one. And if you try something from this list, come tell me about it, because it genuinely makes my day.


Cheering you on,


Caroline


Keep going

If this got some wheels turning, these three go deeper on getting customers and keeping them.


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