A profitable summer for the frozen dessert industry

Ice cream parlors, froyo shops, boba and tea houses rejoice! Summer is here and the frozen dessert industry is brining in the big bucks!

Have your sales increased ever since the warmer weather started rolling through? Because they should have... If you're having trouble staying profitable read some of our helpful tips below.

Why are some stores so much more profitable compared to others? It all boils down to visibility, marketing, and making sure your presence is known.

So how can one tackle the tough task of being seen while also trying to operate a busy and sometimes stressful business? Let's start with the basics. 

Whether you are a food truck, mobile seller, or full blown brick and mortar shop, you need to stand out! Your store needs a color scheme that is recognizable, a great logo, and a decent tagline that helps to sell the brand.

The color scheme and logo are pretty self explanatory, but for the tagline, you want something quick, concise and to the point. For example: Jacobs Ice Cream - "our treats taste like heaven". When someone reads that they immediately know that these desserts are going to be GOOD!

In fact, it might even bring in an extra customer or two... 

You're also going to want proper signage. A popup sign you can stick out front for any people passing by, and window signage. For at least one if not both of these things, you need to have some type of enticing offer or witty piece of sales copy that draws people in.

But remember... Just because you think something is funny, or witty, does not mean the general public will. Make sure to get a few opinions on your signage before taking the plunge to full committal. 

If you go with the option of having an offer, make it something good. Either a discount off of something specific for that day, or a BOGO offer, etc... An example of a good sign would be: 

Craving something sweet? Buy one get one half off for any ice creams! Today Only!

Now that that's out of the way... You'll want to make sure the inside of your store is clean, smells delicious (waffle cones are great for this), and that your employees are friendly to each customer.

This is all pretty straight forward, and you may already have this locked down. If so, good for you! Let's take a quick jump to some digital marketing info.

Things you need to have:

1. A Yelp account

2. Instagram & Facebook

3. TikTok 

4. A DECENT website

We will break these down a little bit here for you. 

First on the list is Yelp. Why? Because it is hands down the number 1 go to for people searching for a specific food. Yelp reviews although a total pain are like gold. And can make a world of difference in terms of who and how many people visit your shop.

So don't be afraid to offer a coupon for a yelp review/checkin. Yelp ads, are also one of the best converting ad platforms for dessert shops. If you need help running them reach out to me: vincent@frozensolutions.com and we can get you setup.

Next is Instagram and Facebook. Having a social media presence is important for many reasons. But one of the driving factors for having it is simply so that your customers can tag you in photos and videos.

If you get down how to work hashtags and target people in your location it can help to drum up some extra business as well. But it is important to have a sign or text somewhere in your shop, on marketing materials etc... That lets people know to tag you in their photos.

Because let's face it, people love to take pictures of delicious looking treats. If they take a picture, tag your shop and then all of their friends see it... There is a chance to get a few extra customers over the next week or two.

You will also need both IG and FB if you want to run paid traffic to your shop. Which can be very profitable if done correctly. Again, if you need help to that reach out to: vincent@frozensolutions.com 

Now this next one might seem a little daunting for some. But TikTok is the fastest growing social platform, and the only platform where anyone anywhere can go virals for a simple video.

There are ice cream shops that have entire TikTok pages dedicated to simply showing them scooping their delicious flavors and they have hundreds of thousands of followers.

If you have a young TikTok savvy employee, it might be worth hooking them up with a bonus to help manage your account.

Websites, websites and more... websites... An often overlooked part of the dessert industry. But guys... It's literally the digital version of your physical store. So why do so many peoples websites look like they were made by someone that... doesn't know how to make a website?

Your site should emulate your store. And if you use any or all of the above digital marketing outlets (which you should), your website need to be up to speed. They will all link to it, and you will get website traffic. 

It's a great place to showcase sales, deals of the day/week/month, new flavors, collect emails to market to etc... Your store looks great, so should your website. 

Again if you need help with this, please reach out.

For now, this is all we are going to cover. Otherwise this will become a book!

if you have question please reach out, and make sure to check out all of our dessert and restaruant supplies.