bliss Bake Shop

bliss Bake Shop:

Background…A Local Cupcake Bakery originally approached Authentic Marketing for advice with print ad creation, as well as brochure & menu card design.

The Problem… On Valentine’s Day, less than a month before approaching us, bliss bakeshop had just opened their doors.   As to be expected the first couple weekends of being open went pretty well. The shop is in a fairly high foot traffic shopping area. However, the owner knew she needed to think ahead and start marketing the business. Her first couple ideas were to place a few ads in the local Clipper, Weekly Church Bulletin, and local neighborhood coupon booklet; the other idea was to print up a bunch of brochures and hand them out to local businesses.

The Solution…  During the discovery process we determined that there were only two main competitors in the surrounding metropolitan area.  Therefore, there was a huge opportunity to reach beyond the neighborhood of the shop location.  Since cupcakes are a “Fan Based” consumable product it would be important to increase her number of “fans” as fast as possible in order to facilitate strong word of mouth marketing of her new cupcake shop.

Element one is to grow her “fan base” or “the list”.    In order to quickly build her fan base we needed to grab their attention, separate her from the competitors and then make them an offer they couldn’t refuse.  To grab their attention we implemented a technology that instantly asks visitors to the website to sign up for their VIP program (go to www.blisscupcakeshop.com to see).  Once we had their attention we now used a VIP program to separate her from the competitors.  This VIP program gives members flavor updates, discounts, info on special events, and more.  They simply sign up to receive these benefits by providing their first name and email address to join.  After joining they were automatically emailed offer that is hard to resist (if you’re a cupcake fan)…we surprised them with a $5 off coupon as thank you for joining the VIP program.  What better way to get them as “raving fans” than to get them to come in and taste the product.

This is a snapshot of the technology we used to entice people to sign up for bliss’s VIP program.

The second element was the strategy of getting people to the website.  This task was implemented in a four prong approach: (1) Every time someone came into the store they were invited to join the VIP program (2) We designed a customer-centric brochure that directed them to the store or website for more information. (3) A customized Social Media Strategy was also implemented using Twitter™ and Facebook™. (4) Optimization of Local Listings on Google™, Yahoo™, MSN™ (now bing™).  Combining all these elements increased bliss’s ability to attract a variety of different market segments.  People were tweeting and posting on Facebook™ about how great the cupcakes are at bliss.  This created a mini-viral effect that is working very well.

            Copy of the brochures designed for the store.

The third element was constant communication with the “fan Base”.  Now that she has a growing list of raving fans it is crucial to continue to educate them on what is going on at the shop, provide them with opportunities to come back, get their feedback so the store could enhance their services.  A custom HTML Email was created to grab attention of the “fan base” when an email was sent out.  In addition, we implemented some “secret” copywriting strategies that we share for our clients, in order to increase email open rate.

The Results… In 30 days bliss’s “Fan Base” grew from roughly 32 fans to 411, after 90 days the “Fan Base” was 801.  Now every time bliss sends an email (substantially less expensive than placing a print ad in the Clipper or anywhere else for that matter) bliss makes between $300 & $1000 in sales [with a little testing we quickly determined the “sweet spot” (no pun intended) regarding the optimal number of emails she can send out every month in order to maximize orders without irritating her fan base].  In addition to the great results on the list building strategies, using the “secret” copywriting strategies has resulted in bliss’s emails experiencing an average email open rate of 77%!  This is huge!  We continue to work with bliss to drive traffic to her store and website while she does what she does best…add a little bliss to her customers lives!