how to increase exposure of a new business
 

Hi there

My friend is going to open a cake shop in Vancouver. May I know besides Face Book, Web site, Yelp, Urbanspoon, what else I can suggest my friend to use for increasing internet presence ?

Please kindly advice.

what's the customer base like? what's the business model - just cakes or does the shop offer pastries or coffee as well? where is the shop?

all these things will affect the type of 'exposure' you go for.
oh and the most important - what's the budget :P

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For internet presence, just good SEO on the website and social media presence. However, with a new site launch it really won't get onto google's pages until a few months when it gets out of the sandbox and into the actual search listings. Until then, there is always pay-per-click.

For offline marketing, doing an unaddressed drop piece is fairly affordable for the number of households you can reach (15 cents per piece), as long as you have the flyer designed and printed.

Maybe send sample coupons to local bloggers to try, or make a few cupcakes for friends to bring into their offices (if they are close to the shop) along with some brochures and spread the word. Just spitballing.

groupon!

Think about it -- your business name sent right to the inbox of thousands of people

Groupon sucks shit.

Their pitch is you spend money you'd otherwise spend on marketing.

Here's the math:

50% off retail. Groupon gets half. Instantly, your goods are devalued.

Next, you'll have a rush of cheap assed customers who expect the world for half off which your company will have problems serving, especially if you're new and just getting operations running. You'll probably also need more staff to handle that rush.

Of course, since the customers are so entitled, they will go bitch about every little thing and you'll quickly find yourself with more negative reviews than positive ones.

There's a reason it's mostly shitty businesses on Groupon now.

Sonick's ideas are cheaper and will be more effective. I'd argue against Adwords for a brick and mortar business because it's tough to measure results and intention doesn't always lead to buying.

what kind of cake? wedding cake birthday cake specialty cake?
anything else besides cake? pastries cupcakes fruit tarts macaroons

I didn't think of it like that. I'm eventually launching a business of my own and I thought groupon would be brilliant since no one else in that field has ever done a groupon .. now I see why :heckno:

Yeah, Groupon will just result in a bunch of deal-seekers and complainers. But it CAN have its use. Just not for profit or "exposure" or whatever. You can use it to build up your email and SMS lists.

I remember seeing some businesses repeatedly (not sure if they still do) putting up Groupons and would consistently sell thousands of them every time. Assuming they're profiting on them, they could've built up their own mailing list and send their own specials/deals/whatever, cutting out Groupon and increasing revenue by 50% on the deals they were going to send anyway. Won't work for all businesses though.

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I suggest starting with local SEO, social media (but actually use it like the social media platform it was meant to be, not like a billboard to spam stuff about your store), and reaching out to food bloggers. There are tons of them. Make sure the cake is good.. lol

Theres tons of food bloggers in Vancouver- why not shoot them an email and invite them to sample some of your friend's offerings and have them write a blog posts? Tons of positive exposure that way

If you were considering Groupon try working something out with VANEATS.ca instead? Similar to groupon except they sell 'dining packages.' They have a great social media presence and have bloggers promoting their stuff too.

Also if you decide to invite bloggers to your place to get some exposure, make sure they're good ones! So many of the food bloggers I've read aren't any good in terms of photography/writing. They only have high rankings on Urbanspoon because of the sheer number of posts they put out. If you wanna get good exposure choose some bloggers who's style you like so that it represents your product well.

Another thing to do is go to some work offices nearby and offer free samples.

I remembered a restaurant invited us to come to their new restaurant nearby to sample their food. Of course they said drinks wont be provided.

It was an awesome experience, we basically sampled the best of what they had to offer free of charge (in terms of the food). Most of us are not cheapskates so we ordered one or two drinks each. They also gave us a tour of the kitchen and showed off how they used organic and local produce etc. In the end, we paid for the drinks individually and our manager ended up leaving a decent side tip for the samples. I think the restaurant still probably lost a little bit of money as they gave a good amount of samples from their menu.

I thought it was a good marketing tactic.

It worked because we do go back there and added it to one of our routine spots when we go out.

if its cakes in general, find a facility that operates birthday parties often and see if they'd be happy to sponsor. one birthday party could get your friend a lot of exposure

You can also try radio stations for a quick, live interview in exchange for baked goods for the staff. A friend of mine did it on the Jeff O'Neil show on 99.3 and didn't pay for anything.