Why Facebook is not enough for a cake shop
Facebook and Instagram are great for a cake shop; you show your everyday work there and the people who already follow you can see what you can do. The problem is everyone else. People who do not know you yet are not looking for you on Facebook. They type “custom cakes Brno” into Google, and what comes up are the people who have a website and a Google profile.
The second thing is being findable. On a social profile your offer is scattered across posts from two years ago. The customer cannot find prices, does not know how far in advance to order, so they write to you, or they do not bother. A website keeps all of that in one place, clearly and permanently. And most of all: the website is yours, while the reach of a social profile can drop overnight.
Step 1: What a cake shop website should contain
Stick to what people actually ask about:
- A gallery of your cakes and pastries. Your best work, not catalogue photos from the internet.
- What you do and what you do not. Wedding cakes, children’s cakes, tiered, gluten free, vegan, savoury cakes and so on. Do write down what you do not make as well, it saves both sides time.
- How to order. A cake order form and a phone number, not just an e-mail hidden in the footer.
- Guide prices. At least a starting price or a price per serving.
- When and where to collect. Address, opening hours, whether you deliver.
- Practical details. How far in advance to order, allergens, how to transport and store a cake.
Step 2: Photos are your shop window
For a cake shop, the first look decides more than anywhere else. You do not have to pay a photographer, a phone and daylight by a window are enough. A few rules that make the biggest difference:
- Shooting in the kitchen under a yellow bulb = grey cakes. By a window = the same cake looks a class better.
- A simple background. A board, a clean cloth, a plain wall, so the cake is the star, not the mess behind it.
- Photograph a slice too. People want to see what is inside.
- Take photos as you go. By the time the website launches you have plenty to choose from.
People choose a cake with their eyes. But they order it based on how easy you are to reach.
Step 3: A cake order without thirty messages
This is the thing that saves a cake shop the most time. Without a form, ordering a custom cake almost always turns into the same conversation: how many people… for when… which flavour… and do you have a photo of what it should look like? Twenty messages for every cake, usually in the evening after work.
A form on the website asks for you, and asks for everything that matters straight away:
- The date they need the cake (and whether they will collect it or want it delivered).
- The number of servings or the size, and the number of tiers if any.
- Sponge and filling flavours, offer a choice so nobody has to invent one.
- The theme or colours, ideally with the option to attach a photo for inspiration.
- Allergies and restrictions (gluten, nuts, lactose).
- A rough budget. An awkward question, but it saves disappointment on both sides.
The result: instead of twenty messages you get one complete order that you only need to answer with “yes, I can do that, the price will be this much”. And you have it in black and white when it later comes to what was agreed.
Step 4: Prices, to publish or not?
The most common worry: “Every cake is different, I cannot possibly give a price in advance.” You do not have to publish a price list down to the last koruna. But with no prices at all two things happen: some people never write to you (they are afraid it will be expensive) and some write with an idea that could never work out.
The answer is the middle road, a price per serving or a “from” figure plus a sentence about what pushes the price up (tiers, hand modelling, edible printing, an unusual shape). The customer knows where they stand and the enquiries you get have a chance of turning into orders. I went into it in the article A price list on your website: yes or no?.
Step 5: So people find you on Google
A website with no visitors is just a nice picture. Three things make the biggest difference:
- A Google Business Profile (the one on Maps), free and the fastest way for people nearby to find you. Put photos of your cakes there, your opening hours and a link to your website.
- A website written around what people search for, “custom cakes [your town]”, “wedding cake”, “children’s cake”. Not a general “welcome to our website”.
- Reviews. With food, a rating from happy customers is the strongest proof you have. Ask for them, right after a cake that went well is usually the best moment.
How to set the profile up and fill it in is written up in the article How to set up your Google Business Profile.
Step 6: Mobile first
Almost everyone sorting out a cake for a party does it on their phone, often in the evening, in bed, in between other things. So the website has to be fast and readable on a phone: photos that load right away, big buttons and an order form you can fill in with your thumb. If the website takes ages to load on a phone or you have to zoom in to read it, the customer leaves before they ever see your best cake.
How to get one without stress
You have two routes. Do it yourself with a website builder (Webnode, Wix), cheaper at the start, but it eats a lot of evenings and you pay every month, forever. Or a custom website, where someone builds it for you. The way I work is that I prepare the copy and the structure, advise on photos, set up the order form and take care of the whole launch, so you bake instead of dealing with technology.
I do not have a public cake shop demo of my own yet, but you can see the principles on my café demo Zrnko café (demo in Czech): the offer right on the page instead of a PDF, photos, contact details and ordering in a few taps. I break down the whole process behind it in the case study.