Planning and organizing a bake sale can be so much fun. You get to make some of your favorite desserts and sell them. But letting people know that you have a bake sale going on can be a bit difficult, especially if you have no prior experience or reputation as a good baker.
So how do you get people in your neighborhood to come to it? Well, for starters, you make desserts that you know everyone is going to love. Brownies, cupcakes, cookies, banana bread – these are al essentials that never miss.
Once you have your mouth-watering desserts, it’s time to get the word out about them. The thing about desserts is that everyone loves them. So people are definitely going to want to check it out and stop by. As long as you reach enough people with your marketing.
In this blog post, we’ve put together a number of fool-proof strategies to help you promote it effectively in your locale. Read on to find out what they are!
1. Hand out flyers in your neighborhood
A good flyer that advertises your bake sale, lists down everything that will be available, and shares the date, time, and location adequately will greatly help you in your marketing. Make sure to be strategic about where you distribute your flyer. Here are some places you should be at:
- Outside grocery stores
- At college campuses and local high schools
- Outside movie theaters – you can do your research and note down when a movie is ending, then go down to the theater at exactly that time to catch the biggest crowd as they come out of the theater
- At public parks
- In government buildings
- Outside coffee and dessert shops
- Door to door
If you have no idea how to make an effective flyer, don’t worry. PosterMyWall has an incredible flyer maker that you can use to create a great bake sale flyer.
2. Put out a newspaper ad
Local newspapers are read religiously by townspeople, especially older people, many of whom will be interested in your baked goods. You can contact your local newspaper via email or over the phone, and ask them if they’ll run a small ad advertising your bake sale. They may charge a small fee but it’ll be worth it because you’ll get a ton of exposure that you won’t be able to get otherwise.
You can pick out something from these bake sale flyer templates, customize it, and send it to the newspaper to publish. Make sure to include all the necessary information so that people have everything they need.
3. Ask friends and family to spread the word
Since your main target audience is people in your neighborhood, word of mouth can go a long way. Announce it in your friends and family group chats, and let everyone in your circle know when and where it’s happening. Then, ask them to share the information with their friends and people in their network. You can even send them a text template that they can forward to their friends, which gives all the necessary information about the bake sale.
Do this about a week before it happens, to give people enough time to spread the word.
4. Leverage social media promotion
If you don’t have a dedicated page for your bake sale, think about making one. Alternatively, you can also use your private social media accounts to promote your bake sale.
There are so many social media tools that you can use to promote your bake sale online. Here are some tips for social media to consider:
- Use location-based hashtags on Instagram to share pictures of your desserts and information about the bakesale e.g. “#BakesaleInScranton”
- Share photos and videos of your process of preparing the desserts
- Post fun social media graphics advertising your bake sale – hot tip: repurpose your flyer designs and share them on your page
- Go live to show people what you have prepared for the bake sale and to get them hyped up
- Get more engagement on your page by answering people’s DMs and replying to comments
Final thoughts
If you promote your bake sale aggressively both online and offline, you’ll be able to sell out all your desserts pretty quickly. These strategies will not only help you get the word out, but they will also genuinely make people feel excited about your bake sale.
The great thing about these strategies is that once you implement them for one bake sale, they’ll be able to keep your customers engaged and ready for another bake sale so that for the next one, your promotion process will require a lot less effort. So start your promotion today, and you’ll see a great turnout at your bake sale (make sure to prepare enough desserts for everyone!).
