If you’ve ever stood in your kitchen with a box cake mix and thought, “This is fine… but it could be better,” welcome to marketing.

Most small business owners are sitting on perfectly fine “cake mix” offers: solid services, proven skills, and decent products. But the way they present those offers? Bland. Forgettable. Easy to scroll past.

In reality, you don’t need a brand-new recipe. You need better flavor.

Let’s break down three marketing lessons hidden in that simple act of leveling up a boxed cake mix and how to use them to grow your business in 2025 without reinventing everything from scratch.

Your Flavor is the Differentiator, not the Recipe

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: your competitors probably offer something very similar to what you do. Same “recipe”:

• Tax prep
• Therapy
• Coaching
• Cleaning
• Design
• Consulting

Just like every cake mix starts with flour, sugar, fat, and leavening, most industries share the same base ingredients. What actually stands out is your flavor profile:

• How you deliver the service
• How you make people feel while they work with you
• How you talk about the transformation, not just the task

That’s why emotionally resonant brands win. Research published in Harvard Business Review found that emotionally connected customers are significantly more valuable over time than those who are simply “satisfied.” They buy more, stay longer, and care more.

Your job is to figure out:

“What do people feel when they interact with my brand? Is that feeling memorable?”

If you’re not sure where to start, I walk through these questions in detail in my post on How to Find Your Yellow Tux. It’s all about finding that visible, memorable expression of what makes you different.

Translate this approach to marketing today:

• Stop selling tasks (“we do bookkeeping”).
• Start selling flavor (“we turn your chaos into calm and give you back your weekends”).
• Make your content feel like something only you could have created.

Same cake mix. Completely different experience.

You Don’t Have to Start From Scratch

Some of you are exhausting yourselves trying to invent an entirely new business model, a new marketing channel, and a new offer all at once.

You don’t need to.

Most successful brands don't begin with a blank canvas. They start with a solid base and layer something unique on top. That’s true in product development, content marketing, and service businesses.

Even major players like HubSpot build from proven foundations. Their content strategy framework is a structured way to repurpose, refine, and scale what already works, not burn it all down and start over every quarter.

For small business owners, especially ADHD brains who need quick wins, that matters.

Instead of trying to be “the first ever” at everything, ask:

• What’s already working in my industry that I can improve or reframe?
• Where can I bring in my unique lens (ADHD-friendly systems, trauma-informed care, neurodiversity-aware leadership, etc.)?
• What can I borrow as the “cake mix” so I can focus my creativity on the flavor and decoration?

If you want a grounded view of how marketing supports the whole business rather than acting as a magic trick, take a look at What Good Marketing Actually Does for Small Businesses. It’ll help you stop chasing shiny objects and use marketing as a lever instead.

Your Marketing Needs Smaller Bites

A full-sized cake is impressive… but it’s also

• Harder to transport
• Messier to serve
• A bigger commitment

Cupcakes? Easy. Portable. Testable. You can try three flavors without needing a nap.

Your marketing content works the same way.

In 2025, attention spans are even more fragmented, and feeds are even more crowded. The brands that win are the ones that break big ideas into small, high-impact bites:

• One clear lesson per post or reel
• One simple call-to-action
• One specific problem addressed at a time

Recent content research shows that most marketers are increasing their investment in content but focusing on creating more focused, strategic pieces instead of long, dense walls of text that no one finishes.

Think of it like this:

• A 90-minute webinar is the whole cake.
• A 60-second reel answering one sharp question is the cupcake.
• A single email with one story and one tip? Another cupcake.

Smaller bites mean:

• Faster feedback
• Faster iteration
• Less overwhelm for both you and your audience

If you want some data on why emotional, bite-sized experiences matter, check out this breakdown on the science behind emotional connections in customer engagement. It explains how memorable moments (not just information dumps) drive loyalty.

Apply This to Your Marketing This Week

Let’s make this tangible.

1. Audit your “recipe” vs “flavor.”

Look at your last 5–10 posts, videos, or emails and ask:

• Am I just stating what I do… or am I showing what it feels like to work with me?
• Would someone be able to recognize this as my content if my logo was removed?

If not, you’ve got some flavor to add.

2. Stop trying to invent everything

Pick one existing structure to keep:

• A weekly newsletter
• A monthly workshop
• A standard service package

Then ask: How can I make this 20% more “me” and 20% more valuable to my audience? Not 200% different. Just 20%.

3. Turn one “cake” into six “cupcakes.”

Take a long piece of content (maybe a blog, video, or training you’ve already created) and split it into 3–5 short social posts, 1 email, and 1 short-form video, for example. And Each should stand alone and focus on a single idea.

Ready to Turn Your “Cake Mix” into Something People Crave?

You don’t need a bigger budget, a fancier funnel, or a brand-new offer. You need a differentiated flavor, a strong foundation you don’t keep rebuilding, and bite-sized content that people can actually consume and remember.

That’s where your marketing starts to feel less like shouting into the void and more like serving something people are excited to taste.

If you’re tired of generic strategy and want marketing that actually feels like you (and works for ADHD brains, not against them), this is exactly the kind of work I love doing.

👉 Learn more about my done-for-you and done-with-you marketing support here: Marketing Services with Stephanie Scheller

Let’s stop obsessing over the recipe and start building a brand with real flavor.