Yesterday I asked you to hit reply with your marketing questions. You did. Here are a few that stood out, along with my honest answers.
Q: We just opened a second location. Do we need a separate Google Business Profile for it, or can we just update the one we have?
Separate profile, always. Google indexes each physical location independently, which means a customer searching "bagel shop near me" in your new neighborhood won't find you if you're trying to do it all from one listing. Each profile needs its own address, phone number, hours, and photos. And yes, that means collecting reviews from scratch for the new spot. It feels like starting over, but a thin new profile outperforms a shared one every time when it comes to local search. Get it claimed and filled out before you open, not after.
Q: What's a good birthday club offer for a mostly takeout bakery, and when should we send it?
Two separate decisions, and both matter. On timing: sending on the exact birthday consistently underperforms. You're asking the customer to choose your shop on one specific day when they might already have plans. A one-to-two week redemption window, or the full birthday month, gives them a real chance to use it. On the offer: the goal isn't the redemption itself, it's the upsell that happens when someone comes in to claim a free item. High perceived value, manageable cost, like a free drink or Funfetti cookie. The customer picks up the freebie and leaves with a coffee for their spouse or a box of donuts for the office. That's where the return is. One thing most shops miss: the campaign only works if you're actually capturing birthdates at sign-up, whether through a loyalty program, a POS prompt, or a website form.
Q: We get a decent amount of foot traffic but almost no one leaves a review. What actually works besides asking at the counter?
Asking at the counter is the hardest way to get a review because it puts the customer on the spot and they forget by the time they get home. Google is also cracking down on any tactics that appear to “pressure” a customer. A few things that work better: a small sign near the pickup window or register with a QR code that goes directly to your Google review page — not your homepage, the Google review section itself. If you have a receipt printer, add the link there too. For shops with any kind of text or email list, a follow-up message sent an hour or two after a transaction converts well because the experience is still fresh. The ask also matters ("Leave us a review" is easy to ignore). "Tell us what you ordered" gives people something specific to say, and those details get pulled into AI search results. Timing and friction are the real problems, not customer willingness.
Q: We mostly sell through Goldbelly and do occasional farmers market pop-ups. Should we be building an email list if we don't have a permanent location?
Absolutely. Goldbelly does share order information with sellers, but only for fulfillment purposes. You can't take that customer data and add it to your Mailchimp list. The relationship still belongs to Goldbelly. A shipment insert with a QR code or a sign-up sheet at your farmers market table is how you convert someone else's customer into your own. The question I’d ask any bakery business in this situation: if Goldbelly disappeared tomorrow, would you still have a way to reach your best customers? If the answer is no, that's worth fixing before putting more energy into the platform. That email list is yours regardless of where you sell next.
If any of these made you think "Okay, but what would I actually do in my situation?" that's exactly what I help with.
The Bakery Growth Audit is where we go through your whole online presence and map out what to fix and in what order. No guessing, no generic advice. Just a clear picture of where customers are losing interest and what to do about it.
If you'd rather skip straight to working through a specific problem, an hourly coaching call might fit better. We pick one thing — your Google Business Profile, your email list, your catering inquiry process — and we work through it together.
Either way, the place to start is here.
— Rory