Tips for attracting customers to your bakery

A good product is the key to success. For example, chefs say that without good raw material it’s very difficult to create a memorable dish. The same applies even if your field is cafeterias, bakeries and ovens: a really good product makes a major difference and, more than anything, determines how your customers will view the experience.

Buying frozen bread is one of the decisions that contributes to achieving this. Due to their qualities (which are preserved intact), frozen doughs are a safe bet in a business of this type. They allow you to have excellent products and, at the same time, they’re ideal for managing and controlling stock and sales, since they can be ordered and prepared according to demand.

In this regard, frozen doughs for bakery make it very easy to offer the customer anything from savoury pastries to a chocolate croissant, including a range of products where breads also play a leading role. Once the product offered is the right one, what can you do to attract customers to the establishment? The following recommendations will make it a lot easier.

1. Strengthen the aroma

Sensory marketing is that which, through emotional actions, makes people more favourable to purchasing a product or buying a service. It is, of course, intimately related to the senses. In a cafeteria, bakery or oven, it is quite easy to enhance one in particular: the aroma. Whenever time allows, leave your business’s door open and ensure that what you have in the oven gives off a pleasant smell that cause passers-by to stop in front of your door. Baking  frozen croissants  , for example, is key to achieving this.

2. Offer new products and recipes

Sometimes, to attract attention, you have to tempt the customers. How to do so? With new products or recipes they don’t know, and which intrigue them and arouse their curiosity. Nowadays, it is also easier than ever to do so, since there are many products that combine  traditional flavours with new formulas  and which are very attractive. A sobrasada ensaimada with cheese, a half-flute with olives, a cereal bread, or a butter croissant filled with delicious chocolate cream with hazelnuts are not products that you see everywhere all the time, but they’re irresistible. On top of this, it may also be a good idea to include  gluten-free products  or whole grains that fit different types of diet.

3. Invite them to enter with a funny message

Many cafés and bakeries put a blackboard at the entrance to the establishment with a phrase. It’s one of those actions that does not require a lot of investment, but which is very effective. And if the written message is impressive and fun, it will be much simpler for people in the street to pop in.

4. Prepare the products well and explain them

Frozen doughs, which allow you to have delicious products with a blast in the oven, are also perfect so that you can finish the products to taste. For example, pains au chocolat crème and other products can be decorated by being painted with syrup, when with icing sugar, crocanti or chocolate. But, what’s more, this is not enough: you must also tell it. Therefore, using explanatory signs to explain the ingredients or highlight some characteristic of the food may be a good idea.

5. Give free samples

Sometimes, the best enticement to buy a product is simply to try it. Take the chance at some point to bake a delicacy, slice it up, and leave it somewhere at the point of sale so that, when the customers come in, they can taste it while they choose what they’re going to take home. It’s one of those gestures that doesn’t cost a lot and which the customer will definitely appreciate.

6. Manage your social media well

They say that today, if you’re not communicating what you do, you don’t exist. Therefore, it is important your social media are aligned with what, as a brand, you want to offer. That includes keeping them active and including, besides your products, content that is interesting to the people who follow you.

7. Create bespoke merchandising 

Along the same lines as the above, image is key to the brand. As well as looking after the visual identity of your cafeteria, bakery or oven, you can also create products in which it is perfectly integrated. For example, a very fashionable tote bag (a fabric bag with handles) with your business logo, which can be used to go and buy bread, is one of those details that never go out of fashion.

8. Conduct small surveys among your customers

Sometimes you only need to ask to get information about what works and what doesn’t in your business. You can ask regular customers if they liked the last thing they bought, or why they always choose a certain product to find out more about their impressions. If you also give them a gift or product afterwards, they will be delighted to have been able to help you.

9. Be creative with offers

Each season has certain designated dates that can be used to offer discounts that pertain to your products and objectives. In summer, for example, you can combine a cool coffee with a product that goes with it and do some kind of promotion. In autumn, dates like Halloween can lead to talk about “terrifying” discounts and at Christmas you can also use the season to offer food more associated with winter. There are no creative limits.

10. Friendliness is everything

Greeting customers with a smile or asking how they are are polite gestures that are always appreciated. When having a longer conversation, of course, bear in mind whether or not the person wants to talk or isn’t in the mood. Anyway, being friendly, and wishing people a good day after the purchase, may have a very positive effect on the customer’s experience.