If you are giving iut cookis for free like agents, I wpulx say your best source of advertising is packaging instead of having them lay on a plate and having people walk around and pick-off one or two… instead, you should package those cookies in a custom made box that looks quite beautiful (not necessarily expensive) and have those boxes given out by agents to people just before they leave… this way the people get a free box of cookies that has all your details on it and if they really like it, they can easily find your business because they got the box. If you make the cookie box like the Danish Butter Cookie box (where a sewing kit usually goes after the cookies are done) then prospects will have a very difficult time getting rid of it… ALSO include a 1 to 3 page lettet inside those cookie boxes so that you have some way of communicating with those prospects and you can include upsells or other offers in that letter.

Someone mentioned daycares and old folk homes and I disagree with them because like they said that those places will only buy in bulk and for cheap (unless you find really prestigious ones) which is really bad business (although its a good alternative source of income and you may want to do it later on). Sure children and Old folk will probably be your highest consumers, but majority of children arent the primary buyers but the parents are and as for old folk, they are pretty valid customers.

You can also provide your cookie boxes for free to people who are hosting seminars and whatnot. Do the same as from above, get the cookie boxes with a 1 to 3 page sales letter inside distributed to attendees.

Inside your letter make sure to give 1 to 2 paragraphs telling people how the cookies are made, explain the process as this will give people a reason to buy your cookies over anyone else.

Since Christmas is coming up, if you have the ability to create “themed” cookies then you ought to make a few boxes with cookies oriented towards Christmas and then approach churches where you basically set up the same deal. Make sure that inside the letter you dont say anything bad about the religion or if you are an atheist or whatever, dont mention it, however if you are Christian or you came from a christian home, then do mention it because it creates a feeling of familiarity and a way to form a connection with those folk.

There is a story of a guy who would open up laundry and dry cleaning shops every year or two and would have those shops run profitably in less than 3 months amd he did this by “buying” peoples habits and I imagine the best way to sell cookies would probably be if you can make it a part of their everyday thing so here is what the dry cleaner guy did and hopefully you can draw inspiration from that and apply the same methods to your business with great results.

1. First thing he would do is run a “Just Opened” event where people basically got their stuff cleaned for free up to 50$…

2. Every customer that attended received a coupon that said “whatever you can fit into a black bin bag gets cleaned for free”

3. After that every person who attended then received a final coupon that said “25$ free cleaning”.

4. Finally, he would send out coupons that stated “gather the things you need cleaned, put them in a bag, and we will collect them and get them cleaned, and return them.”

Using all 4 of these tactics, in a month or two time he would successfully create a “habit” for people to visit and deal with his shop.

Anyway, I hope some of these ideas helped.