11NovOf cupcakes and marketing.

I spent yesterday morning at a workshop on Social Media: how it works and how to use it to promote your business.  It was very interesting and potentially useful. 

One of the speakers was the co-owner of The Scarlet Bakery, who uses Facebook for all their marketing.  They have no website, have never spent a bean on ads of any sort, have never distributed fliers or used any of the other “normal” ways of finding customers, and they’ve gone from start-up in June 2010 to selling 4,000 cupcakes a week by November 2010.    All the cakes are pre-ordered online so there’s absolutely no wastage.   (You can find them at http://www.facebook.com/?sk=apps&ap=1#!/pages/Dundee-United-Kingdom/The-Scarlet-Bakery/122153114489088).  I thought that was brilliant.

Immediately after the workshop I met a potential client to talk about promoting her health-drink business.  She wanted some press releases written in the short term and her website updated later, when she had the money.  Press releases aren’t really my forte, but I was able to give her the details of a specialist.  Then I told her The Scarlet Bakery’s story and she lit up: I’d just given her the ideal no-cost answer for her marketing.  No need to update the website; possibly no need to pay the press release specialist.  Certainly no need to pay me – though she did buy me lunch (she said it was the best £10 she’d ever spent).

I do hope this isn’t “the future” for all small businesses, or mine will go down the tubes

Mind you, my halo’s shining that wee bit brighter….