Baking cupcakes could be a great niche market if baking cakes is your thing. Remember in my last post I wrote about specializing to zero in on a target market. How do I know that? I did a bit of research, and I want to encourage all of you to approach your business plan in the same way. Start by doing your homework when you are choosing your niche. So using the cupcake example, I did some keyword research and found out that there were 9,140,000 searches globally last month, and 5,000,000 local monthly searches. I would have to draw the conclusion there is a lot of interest in cupcakes.
If I were thinking about starting a cupcake business, I would be really excited about now. I want to encourage you to realize that yes, there is a lot of interest, but how can you get your share of that “pie ” or cupcake as the case may be. You realize that they are readily available, every grocery store has them, and they are priced extremely competitively. Let me say this loud and clear, if you have been reading my blog on a regular basis this will not be news. You can not compete on price!
My intent is not to take the wind out of your sails. Instead, I want to teach you how to dig deeper into the research to see what you can learn. Here is an example of the cursory research I did to write this blog.
Just the word cupcake has over 9,000000 searches. If you are just going to generalize, although there are a ton of searches for that particular term, do you think that all those people are going to buy your cupcakes? Of course not, and even if they were, you could not possibly make that many cupcakes. Instead, let’s look at some more specific searches. Did you know that brides might fall into your target market? Well, 110,000 of them searched for a specialized wedding cupcake. Do you think that you might be able to develop a product line especially for weddings? Then you could focus your marketing directly to people who are interested in what you have to sell. Don’t forget to look at the second number, it represents local searches, in this case 49,500.
Now look at the next example. Mini cupcakes-wow, first we came up with small versions of cakes, now we come up with smaller versions of the small versions. But look at the numbers, 90,500 searches – 49,500 locally. Do you think you could jump into that market? Apparently there is some interest in it. Maybe you could market them to dieters who just need to satisfy their cravings with a little taste, just a thought.
Moving on to the last example, we see cupcake delivery. Hmmm, it seems there are people out there wanting not only to have their cupcake, but they want it delivered too. I see a possibility here for someone who has a car and doesn’t mind spending the time running around to deliver their product. Who would pay for that? One possible target market would be business meetings.
Dress Your Cupcakes for Success
So how can you set yourself apart from the rest? First you chose your specific target market. Now you have to make sure your product is a step above the rest. One thing you can do is emphasize the theme of your market, and not only the cupcake itself, but it’s presentation can be key. You can decorate the cupcake, but there is another thing you might want to consider. You can really give it a unique look by using special cupcake wrappers like this.
Cupcake Boxes Can Seal the Deal
Okay, you have used your family secret recipe, done your best decorating, & dressed it in high quality cupcake sleeves. The last thing you would want to use is a high quality box. If you are taking my advice, you are targeting the upper end of the market. Remember, you can’t compete on price, so you have to strive to do better than your competition. I have a couple of examples to show you.
I just had a discussion with a customer who said something you need to know. She was commenting on the quality of my cinnamon rolls. She said that she really can’t find a good bakery, that everything she buys tastes just like what is available at the next place. There is a reason for that, many of the retail places simply shop at the same large bakery supplier. Lots of bakeries simply bake the same frozen product in their stores.
So if you are different, people are willing to pay for the difference. Will everyone pay more, of course not, but if you charge the right price for your exquisite products, you will work less and still make the money. Think about it. I would love to hear your thoughts. Please use your comments.
