Emerald Frog Marketing has recently has it’s first birthday!!!

As we were eating our birthday cake with our party hats on we thought we just ask our first customer, Alex Golding from cake makers Cakes2Party4 in Cambridge how our marketing services have helped her business over the past year.

Since your website re-design in July 2010, have you changed the way you communicate with customers?

Since the re-design of my website, I have totally changed the way I communicate with my customers. I went into cake making from a personal point of view. I felt it was time to tidy up the business side, looking for different ways to communicate with my customers and being able to take on the admin side of a website myself.

Having more control over the pictures I loaded up was highly important to me at the time, being able to send e newsletters, and blog all from one site was also relevant to the change of website.
Being a work from home mum and not too technical minded I needed a new website design, that tied in my logo and ethos, and that I could have as user friendly.

Have you been able to reach new customers through social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter)?

I have reached new customers through Facebook, I use this mainly to communicate with my customers, but have it linked to Twitter and then that is forwarded to LinkedIn. This saves time. As a cake maker I spend quite a lot of time reading emails, paper work etc…. as well as prep work and baking.

Have your sales increased in the last year? How many cakes were you making per week then compared to now?

My sales have increased highly since last year, I was making around 3 orders per week.  Bearing in mind an order can be 100’s of cupcakes, a three tier wedding cake, a castle type design. So, I now have perhaps 5 or more orders.

How does your new website differ from the old one?

It is brilliant, as said I can mail shot from it, blog, change my photos, adapt my terms and conditions, actually I am still learning.
I love the fact I can tweak the website around, especially with the pictures. I have added new pages, which is more important than I realised when it was built as I can keep up with the trends and take off the older style of cakes. Cupcakes have been very popular, I managed to make a whole new page for them. This, in turn, makes it easier and more interesting for my customers to find what they are looking for.

I have found a new programme so I can make collages which also means I have more pictures on the website, less uploads and no trawling, so the cakes have different angles and close ups. So, on the galleries you may see the thumbnail, but on the newer pictures you get a collage. Although this isn’t through the website, being able to upload and make the thumbnails etc… means I can happily do this.

What do you think has worked for you, in terms of marketing over the past year?

The website is more professional, it ties in my logo and makes my business a brand. It also gives my customers a more personal feel to their cake order!

To have a look at Alex’s website and fantastic cakes (we can assure you they are delicious! We were lucky enough to be treated to platefuls in meetings!) then go to www.cakes2party4.co.uk