Social media may be the hottest thing in the digital world right now, but nobody can dispute the fact that websites are forever. Websites are still considered effective online marketing tools and are great for establishing a web presence for many brands. If you have not built a bakery or catering website for your business yet, now is a good time to start taking this activity seriously.
Bakery websites may sound impractical for a business that relies on foot traffic for revenue. After all, your clientele is composed of people who personally visit your physical store. You might think that you are better off allocating your marketing dollars to other marketing strategies such as traditional advertising and referrals. But given the power of the internet to link people to businesses and information, building a bakery site might be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make for your business.
If you’re still on the fence as to whether or not you should take the time to create your own business website, here are a few more reasons to think about.
1. You’re missing out on a massive audience
If you don’t have a website, your market reach is limited to the people in your social media network and those who are located in your general geographic area. Using great bakery website designs and engaging content, you get to tap into a wider audience and potential market for your business. If you optimize your site for search engines, your brand will come upon local directories and relevant search results. Without your website, you are at risk of exhausting your current clientele instead of constantly attracting new customers.
2. A website enables you to expand your business
Adding an online store is a cost-effective way of expanding your business. Taking your services online enables visitors to purchase your baked goods through the internet. People are now more inclined to make purchases online because of the convenience it offers. By accepting online orders, you are making your products more accessible to customers who may not be able to drive down to your store. Creating an online store is really simple with Strikingly. All you need to do is add the Simple Store section to your selected bakery website template and start adding your inventory.
3. Websites provide helpful information to customers
Not all of your patrons know your opening hours, and many of them may end up looking it up online to find out. If you don’t have a website or you didn’t include this vital piece of information in your bakery web designs, you could be turning potential customers away. Ideally, your website should contain the following information:
- Where your bakery is located (including a map and directions)
- Contact details - phone number, email address, and social media pages
- Opening hours
4. Make your business stand out
With the right choice of bakery web template, great content, and a bit of creativity, a website differentiates your business from competitors. Many other similar food businesses may already be online and potentially servicing customers with websites that could still be improved by a whole lot. You can make your brand stand out with a website that takes the best out of these other bakery web designs and addresses key user experience issues that you may have seen in them. Making a better website is a good way to woo customers over to your store.
5. Lower advertising cost
Bakery websites are a cost-effective way of promoting businesses simply because it doesn’t have to cost so much money to build one. In fact, with a website builder like Strikingly, anyone can get a food website up and running in minutes - even without prior experience in web design and development. You can also keep adding and refreshing content on your site depending on what products you want to advertise virtually for free. Having your own website is like booking a lifetime advertising spot at a fraction of the cost of running a traditional ad campaign.
How to Create Your Bakery Website
Before you start building your bakery website, there are several things that you need to do. First and foremost, you need to plan your bakery website: how will your bakery design look? Will you design it alone or will you use bakery website templates? Etc. To help you prepare your website better, follow these simple steps to create your bakery website:
- Plan Your Bakery Website Visuals
The first thing you have to prepare for a bakery website is visuals. The visual of a website consists of several elements: layout, color scheme, and images.
A good layout can make your bakery website user-friendly. A sequence or flow of information will allow users to easily browse the website and find the information they are looking for. Generally, a bakery website starts with a title page showing the bakery name, slogan, and logo. Then followed by the about section, details about the store, such as menu, schedule, and location, then ends with the contact section. Of course, you don't have to do the same. To get more ideas for the layout of your bakery website, you can take a look and learn the best bakery websites.
The next visual element is color. Color is often considered not very important in website creation. As long as the colors are not too flashy or strange, then you can use any color on your website. If you think like this, then you won't be able to get the best from using good color. Color is not something that you can determine carelessly. You must include the brand or image of your bakery when choosing colors for your bakery website. Using a good color scheme can not only help users be more interested in browsing your website but can also build the impression you want your website visitors to have about your bakery. Check out and learn how the best bakery websites use color on their website and apply it to your bakery website.
The final element of this list is an image. When talking about images for a website, you have to pay attention to the quality and size of the images you use. Some websites have specifications for the optimal size of an image that you can use on your website. Make sure to follow the guidelines of the service you use so that you can get the best results from the images you use. You can find guidelines for image sizes in our help center.
- Create a Brand
You must be aware that you are not alone in this business. You compete and fight over customers with other bakeries. What can make your bakery more attractive than others?
Apart from products, perfect services, and other attractive offers, you must have a strong brand.
Other bakeries may be able to imitate the products, services, and other things of your bakery, and you can do the opposite. However, you and your competition cannot imitate each other when it comes to brands.
Brand is the image or feeling that someone gets when they think about your business. You, for example, can build the impression of a simple bakery with strong family values.
You can build your bakery brand through stories. In fact, stories are one of the most important things when speaking through brands. Tell people about the values that your bakery believes in and how you apply them to your business.
- Select a Template
After you prepare the things you need, it's time to start building your bakery website. You can create your bakery website easily using Strikingly. You only need to choose one template from the large collection of templates provided by Strikingly as your bakery website design. You can also view websites that have been created by Strikingly users. This can help you to see and learn how people build their website and apply it to your bakery website.
Image taken from Strikingly website
After you find your bakery website template, you can easily edit the template to your liking.
- Title Page
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
The first thing you should have on your bakery website is the title page. Your title page is what people generally see when they browse your website. This makes the title page very important because a good title page can get people interested in further exploring your website.
The title page generally contains an image related to your business, such as a product or physical store. Furthermore, you also need a catchy logo and/or slogan so people can easily remember your bakery. Make sure you use an image with the right resolution and size on your title page.
- About Us
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Apart from the title page, you need an about section. In the about section, you can tell the story about your bakery which has been prepared in advance. Apart from that, you can also inform the location and operating schedule of your bakery here if you want.
- Contact Section
When running an online bakery, contact is an important thing that you should always include on your bakery website. You can provide contact details such as email, social media, and phone numbers. Besides contact, you also need to tell the location of your bakery. With Strikingly, you can use the Google Maps app to add your store location to your bakery website.
- Additional Features
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Apart from the essentials, your online bakery also needs some features from Strikingly. You can create an online shop and add shipping features to your online store. With an online shop, you can more easily reach more customers and sell more of your products. Coupled with the shipping feature, you can set the shipping costs that must be paid if your bakery customers, for example, order from outside the city or country.
That is that. Having an online bakery can help you to create and grow your business. You can easily create your bakery website using Strikingly. You can find many bakery websites templates that you can choose to start building a bakery website quickly. Strikingly also offers you features, such as shipping, that can help you create and grow your bakery business online.
Are you ready to take your bakery business online? Start your branding today with Strikingly!
