Instagram has stood the test of time as a very reliable marketing tool for businesses as far as online marketing is concerned. If you are into cake making and you are probably operating on a low budget, Instagram would be the ideal place to start promoting your business.
It is no gainsaying that if you want more visibility and exposure for your business brand, you ought to be on Instagram. Of course there is a right way to use Instagram to get great visibility and to allow you sell as much cakes and baked goods as you can. Here is how you can go about it.
How to Sell Cakes and Baked Goods on Instagram
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Convert to a Business Profile
It should be noted that Instagram offers you two options of running your account. You can either go business or personal. It is shocking to know that most individuals running small businesses off Instagram doesn’t know that this option exists.
One thing you should know is that converting your standard Instagram profile to a business profile gives you access to a number of indispensable selling and reporting options. These include;
- Instagram Insights. It’s not as easy on Instagram as it is, say, on Facebook, to look up a follower’s personal and demographic information. It’s even more difficult to compile that data in aggregate. Instagram Insights does the hard work for you.
- CTA button. This appears at the top of your profile under your bio, and it gives people the option to call, email, or get directions to your business.
- Story links. As you may know, Instagram doesn’t allow users to link within posts. It also only allows one website link within a given bio. Being able to add links in your Instagram stories gives you the opportunity to direct your audience to various products and landing pages on your website. Stories are highly visible and steadily becoming a force, so this is a huge plus.
- Facebook alignment. You can now connect to your Facebook business page and start running ads through Business Manager/Ads Manager.
Here’s how to switch your personal account to a business account.
- Log into your account and tap the burger-looking button at the top right of your dashboard.
- Tap Settings at the bottom right.
- Scroll down to “Switch to Business Profile.”
That’s it. If you ever want to switch back (you won’t), just head back to the same spot and tap “Switch Back to Personal Account.”
2. Load up on Hashtags
Hashtags are an important way to promote your business across social platforms by connecting it to searches and discovery relevant to your target audience, in this case, everything cake related.
Hashtags are a great way to attract new customers and grow your online presence as users searching a particular hashtag you’ve used can come across your account and engage with you thereby becoming new followers and potential customers. Switching to a business profile gives you the ability to see, on a post-by-post basis, how many impressions come via hashtags, and how many of the accounts that you reached weren’t following you when they saw your post.
But for you to gain the maximum benefit of hashtags means that you have to Hashtag everything. That is, every single photo and post, must bear some sort of hashtags so that you become search-able through your hashtags.
For example if you post a picture of a red velvet cake, you can use some of these hashtags, #cake, #redvelvetcake #redvelvet #cupcakes and so on.
3. Move Over to the Stories Section
One area on Instagram that really helps bakers show more of their products or allow them make live explanations and connections is the Insta Stories. Here you upload videos or you show a live video covering.
Your stories do not have to involve long videos and if you are shy, you may not even have to appear. You can get someone to take a video of you piping a cake. It has been proven countless times that people engage more with businesses who post videos.
Here is how to create and post an Instagram story:
- Go to your profile page on Instagram and press the round button where your picture is;
- To add a picture, just press the middle round button;
- To add a video, just continually press that same round button;
- Then press the ‘your story’ button;
And that is it, you now have an instagram story.
4. Never Neglect Sponsored IG Ad’s
Sometimes you may need to reach a wider audience aside people on your feed, and to get this done, you will need to pay for a sponsored ad.
This is where you pay Instagram to advertise your cakes and baked products. So when next you want to promote a deal, discount, or sale, try to do an Instagram promotion and watch your followers, inquiries and orders come piling in.
To promote a post, just go to the post in question and press the ‘promote’ button and follow the instructions. You can promote a post for a few days for just $3 which.
To really get the most out of your buck, you’re need to resist the urge to just tap “Promote” within the Instagram app. Your interest and demographic targeting is going to be super limited, and you won’t have access to Custom Audiences, with which you can remarket to Instagram users who have taken specific actions on your website and get them to buy that widget they never bought. You may have to go through Facebook.
5. Get a Show-Stopper Bio
Your Bio is where people will know what you do and what you are about. If you are into cupcakes or any kind of cakes and baked goods, your bio should reflect that. Your Bio doesn’t have to be one long sentence. It can just be a list of what you do.
You can say you are the ‘ultimate cupcake master’ or ‘call me to order your unique cupcakes’. You can even add emoji’s and hashtags to your bio just to make it a little more fun. Underneath your written bio, you can share contact information with viewers, including a business phone number, email, and physical address. Here are tips to write a great Instagram bio;
- Include a description of yourself
- List your interests
- Share your contact information
- Add a call to action
- Add hashtags to your bio
- Provide the important company information
- Use emojis to show personality
- Keep the bio short
- Showcase new promotional offers
Sample Instagram Bios for a Cake Page
Most people only take a few seconds to scan bio and photos before deciding whether or not they should follow you. So you should make your bio short, concise and attention grabbing. Here are two sample Instagram bio for a cake page.
- If you love cakes that are out of the basic, or you want something straight out of the imagination. We got you covered. #CakeArt
- When celebrations call, we are always there to answer with tastefully crafted cakes that can suit any palate. #KateyCakes
6. Add A link
Instagram allows you to post one URL or link in your Bio, so use it well. Post the link you want potential customers to visit so as to know more about your business or to contact you. Also adding a URL is great if you have an opt in page so that you can collect their email address.
If you feel just posting one link is not enough, you can use the Linktree App to post numerous links on your page. This is allowed.
7. Partner with Influencers
Influencer marketing has been on the rise for a while now, but it’s especially prominent on Instagram, and it’s especially prominent as a means of promoting physical goods. Why? Because putting your product in the hands, or in the stomach of an influencer, lends it credibility with an expansive and wholly new audience.
There is a glut of millennial Instagram influencers right now who grew up using the app and have an inherent understanding of how to leverage it to accrue and maintain a loyal following. There are thousands of these tiny pockets of stardom on the app, and for a very reasonable price—most influencers charge by the follower, at $5-$10 per 1,000 followers—you can leverage them to put your product in the limelight.
Top Trending Hashtags for Cakes and Baked Goods
Related hashtags are those words that are most commonly used on Instagram in posts with a searched word. These words easily lead visitors to your page when you put them in a post. The top cake and baked goods related hashtags on Instagram are;
#cookies #desserts #cakelover #cupcake #party #fondant #bolo #weddingcake #sweets #foodstagram #brownies #torta #cakeoftheday #instagram #cakedesigner #coffee #fondantcake #baker #bhfyp #cheesecake #bake #homebaker #confeitaria #foodblogger #patisserie #like #buttercreamcake #cakecakecake #madewithlove #bakeryking #pastrychef #customcakes #dessertaddict
Best Instagram Captions for Cake
Some of the best existing Instagram captions on cake include;
- For goodness sake, eat some cake!
- Forget the calories and just be happy.
- Forget the fork and dig right in!
- Fresh out of the oven.
- Happiness starts here.
- If eating cake is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.
- If I don’t have some cake soon, I might die.
- If I was turned into cake, I would eat myself before anyone else could.
- If we are what we eat, then I’m awfully sweet.
- Just another sweet moment in life.
- Live the sweet life!
- Look upon the world like it’s a gigantic birthday cake. Take a piece, but don’t take too much.
- Love at first bite.
- Made just for me.
- Put “eat cake” on top of your to-do list today and you’re sure to get at least one task done.
- This is just too beautiful to eat!
- Topped with a smile.