Since I have a new business, I am exploring ideas on spreading word about my products. I was thinking of making Halloween-themed cake pops and wrapping them individually, attaching a tag with my info and handing 2 cake pops to each trick-and-treater that comes to my house.

I am thinking this is a great opportunity to give out unique treats instead of the usual candy and also spreading word about my business... or is this going too far?? Any thoughts? TIA!

I think the kids would eat them really fast and toss the tags. I would do that if I was a kid.

I agree. I think it's a great idea to use your cake pops as a marketing venture, but the kids are going to shove them in their mouths so fast the parents won't even see them! I think you'd be better off giving the cake pops to businesses in your area with your cards

Thanks for the replies How about giving the cake pops to the little kids that come with their parents??

And what kind of businesses in my area do you suggest giving the cake pops to? Thanks for the suggestions!

I would give candy to the kids, and the cake pops to the parents who come with them.

Take them to your bank, your doctor office, insurance office, etc... Considering how fragile cake pops can be, they might look like a smooshed, smashed mess by the time they bounce around in a treat bag.

I would never have let my kids eat homemade treats unless I knew the people who gave them, too worried about something being wrong with them. I'd give them to the parents or follow lorieleann's advice.

Our local Subways do 'business appreciation week' and they give cookies along with their call-in order sheets to local businesses once a year. They go from strip mall to strip mall thanking people.

You could do something like that. Not sure what kind of budget you have, but since you are a new business, maybe you could do a little flier explaining who you are and what you can do along with your business cards. I would also state that you are local in your flier. That's attractive to some people, keeping their money in the community. The more people know about you and can relate to you the more interested they will be.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the great ideas! I'll probably give them to the parents... the appreciation week idea sounds good too... but I don't understand what you mean by "call-in order sheets"?

Call in order sheets have ALL the choices for your sandwich. You know how you have to pick your bread, then your meat, then your cheese, veggies, spices, dressing.

So when you have 4 people from the office all wanting a sandwich they fill the order form out and either fax it in or someone from the office brings it to the store.

You can't just order a number 1 at Subway So to help the ordering process go smoother they have the forms.

Make sense?

nextdayfliers.com have great prices from fliers to coupons and some no traditional stuff like bookmarks you can use.

When my boys went out on Hallowe'en, we always checked their candy before they could eat any.

All homemade treats, unwrapped fruit, or opened packages were thrown away.

Rae

If you had a store front, I think thats a good idea. Being home based, I would put a car magnet on a vehicle parked by the house or an inconspicious sign in a window.

I think you got a lot of great ideas...and I whole heartedly agree with the Moms who do not let their kids eat any unwrapped or homemade treats unless they know them!

An Idea...My husband and I ran our own business and one year I made up flyers with a special coupon attached ESP for the kids of my students class and I either put them in their treat bags or their cubbies and it is a treat if you include a coupon for goods or services...that can be a good way to start in your own neighborhood nothing is worse then seeing a neighbor getting a store bought cake from their car when u live right next door...also a drawing is good sometimes team up with a local business and put a drawing box out and award a cake of choice in a price range you decide! That helps you get a client base to contact and people are reading about your business...great luck to you!

I give homemade Halloween stuff to the neighbors who I know, I just do it during the day on Halloween or on the weekend before. On Halloween night all I hand out are store-bought candies.

Truthfully, I think it's a bit tacky to try to use trick-or-treating to advertise your business. If I looked through my kids' trick-or-treat bags and saw business cards or tags with coupons, really anything with an advertisement or something like that, I'd be rolling my eyes as I tossed it in the trash. Just my opinion. The method you use to advertise is as equally important as the advertisement itself.

All homemade treats are usually thrown away. There are too many crazy people in this world to trust that a homemade treat wasn't tampered with. I would hate for you to go through all that time and effort just to have the pops thrown away.

I think this would be huge waste of time and money. All homemade treats go right into the trash with our kids. I don't even look at tags.

As far as handing them right to the parents...not sure how trick or treating works in your neighborhood, but for us once the kids turned about 4 we let them go up to the door by themselves (we have 3 kids so they all went together) while we waited in the driveway. You wouldn't even be able to hand it directly to the parent.

I'd look at other ways of getting your name out.

I didn't read all the responses because of time constraints, but I would never let my child eat anything homemade passed out of the house I don't know. It will be tossed immediately. If you tried to offer it to me as a parent, I would respectfully decline and probably make a joke about you not having any kids since you are not aware of the biggest safety rule of Halloween trick or treating. We would also avoid your house in the future due to that. I would think it would also put you at higher risk for someone reporting you if you are operating out of unlicensed kitchen (sorry if you already adressed that : ) )
It is different, if my child tricks or treats downtown and gets something like that from a bakery. Someone's home...never. Sorry to be a downer. If you really wanted to do that consider taking pops to your church on Sunday morning, your doc's office, any offices you frequent, etc.
Good Luck, P

ITA with all the other parents who said they pitch homemade treats. My kids got some really cool homemade popcorn balls one year. They had decorated them like pumpkins. My dd REALLY wanted it but I didn't have any idea if it was safe so we threw it away. I'm sure those folks went through a lot of work to make them and I'm sure most people probably threw them out. Don't hand out cake pops, it will be a waste of your time and money.

One of our favorite treat bag finds is a coupon to Wendy's for a free frosty or McDonald's for a free happy meal. We always save those and use them. If you want to hand out a coupon for a free cupcake or cake pops the kids can pick up in the future (with an exp. date) that might snag you some new customers. But then you'll have all those single cuppie/cake pop orders floating around out there.

Try taking some to the schools your children attend. I brought some cupcakes to the teachers lounge and ended up getting 4 cake orders. Any business you frequent would appreciate freebies. Be wise and bring them right before lunch or just before closing when employees are getting hungry

Thanks so much for the helpful suggestions... I knew I could get some great advice here! As ramona said, the "tacky" thing is what I had in mind when posting this... like would it look bad as going too far to get my name out.

I'll stick with samples to businesses. The coupons in school kids' bags/cubbies is also a great idea! And I will take some to the teachers' lounge in the local schools. Thanks so much! I really appreciate it! =)

From experience, when giving out as a Halloween treat, like the first response poster said, the kids toss the tag/biz card.

The first year we opened our dance studio the local businesses did the trick or treat thing. We passed out close to 2000 treats with a free trial class coupon attached. Not even ONE coupon was redeemed. We spent a fortune in candy and not even one return.

Also, most parents will not allow their child to eat a home made treat. They will only trust something that they know came from a store and is machine sealed.