Be Active On Social Media Platforms
Social media marketing can help coffee shops establish an audience and promote their brands at a reasonable cost. The Facebook page for your coffee shop should always be up-to-date because it is one of the first things potential customers see about your business. Make sure your Facebook page includes your shops contact information, operating hours, menu, website link, and a keyword-rich description.
You can also use Instagram to promote your food and drinks and re-share customer posts and stories. Your online coffee shop promotion ideas should include sharing your best latte art and discussing the perfect macchiato.
You can celebrate National Coffee Day and National Espresso Day with your followers every year and use the occasion to encourage them to buy from you. Collaboration with local social media influencers may also help you attract new customers.
A Strong Digital Presence Opens Doors
There are many ways to market your coffee shop. But perhaps you dont need paid ads and discount coupons. Strengthening your digital presence is an achievable and affordable way to market your café.
So identify your brand, start honing your photography skills, and consider reaching out to influencers. It will likely pay off.
Feature photo: Shoreditch Grind, London. Feature photo credit: Caroline Claassen
Perfect Daily Grind
Always Listen To Customers
You will develop a fiercely loyal following if you take the time to listen to your customers. By listening to your customers, youll develop your most effective and personal marketers.
In person marketing by your customers is one of the most effective things to nurture. You can nurture this type of marketing by listening to your customers.
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Take Advantage Of Mobile Order
Building an online customer base is a good way to increase revenue and market your coffee shop. A branded mobile app gives you direct access to customers through communication tools and notifications.
An app also lets you stay ahead of the curve with features such as mobile order-ahead. This allows customers to make and pay for orders on their phone before they arrive at your business. You then prepare the order before they arrive.
This is a great marketing tactic for coffee shops in areas with a lot of workers who may want large orders for meetings. Its also useful for those with many customers who buy coffee on their commute and dont have time to wait.
This method of ordering is becoming increasingly common in the industry, and Starbucks says it now receives 17% of all its U.S. orders in this way.
AppInstitute makes it easy for coffee shops to offer mobile order-ahead functionality within an app. Customers can browse through your entire menu and then purchase what they want from wherever they are.
The apps support multiple payment options, including cards and pay on arrival. When an order goes through, your servers are notified and can begin to prepare the order.
You Dont Need a Big Budget to Implement Effective Marketing Strategies
As youll have seen from this list, many coffee shop marketing ideas can be done cheaply, or even for free.
For more information on how to build a coffee shop app quickly and cost-effectively, get in touch here.
Get Your Coffee From Joes Garage Coffee
To further your online coffee business, make sure you have a high-quality and consistent coffee supplier. For a quick response and short lead times, partner with Joes Garage Coffee. We perform many services to offer your e-commerce company exceptional customer service and flexibility from packaging coffee to creating unique flavors and roasting our beans or yours.
Contact us today to tell us about your online coffee business and learn more about our services.
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Sponsor Your Local School
A school community can be a great way to build your profile with a loyal, local audience.
If youre located near a school, find out what options they have for sponsorships & donations .
Sometimes it can be as simple as donating a hamper or gift vouchers for a fundraising event.
Aside from the obvious benefit of supporting your local community, it also puts your brand in front of a large group of parents, teachers & students who live right near you.
Not only that, but they usually make multiple trips a week to and from school a perfect opportunity for a coffee break
Reel Them In With Free Samples
Choose your most confident and positive member of staff, load them up with a tray of espresso-sized paper cups, and place them outside the front of your shop where they can accost passers-by with free products.
Offer samples of your staple coffee products, but dont forget to include a few samples of things that could set you apart from your competitors. Gluten-free cakes, frozen yoghurts, exotic syrup flavours anything thats different enough to get you noticed.
Unless someone was already looking for a coffee shop at that moment, theyll probably just keep on walking after theyve had a taste. So make sure youve armed your perky employee with some business cards, loyalty cards or flyers so that people who are interested can walk away with a hard copy of your address and your special offers.
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Cafe Marketing Ideas And Tips For 2022
- Have Fancy Coffee Cup Sleeves
- Appealing Store Fronts
- Get Serious About Loyalty Cards
- Create Seasonal Drink Specials
- Cover Your Venue in Art
- Host Tasty Giveaways
- Stay Awake
If you just stumbled across this post and stopped to read it, its most likely you already know a harsh truth.
A coffee shop isnt going to succeed by itself.
Yes, were a nation obsessed with coffee, 81% of Brits visit a cafe regularly. But the fact you just opened a new vegan coffee store doesnt mean customers are going to start coming in. If only it were that easy. Thats why you need a marketing strategy. To attract customers to your cafe.
But, you may be wondering, how do I market my cafe business?
Its not something done overnight, but with a good amount of effort and diligence, youll start seeing results. And your cafe will surely stay open.
In this post, youll learn some actionable ideas and tips that you can start implementing today. So, serve yourself a cup of your best coffee to get into the topic and lets get going.
Show You Appreciate Your Customers Loyalty
If you own or run a coffee shop, having a digital loyalty program is a must.
However, you dont just have to use it to retain and reward your existing customers. You can also use a loyalty program like Loopy Loyalty to show your new customers how much youll appreciate them.
Customer loyalty marketing is powerful because people relate to other people.
And if strangers see you appreciate people just like them, theyll be more likely to drop by and grab a cup.
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You Dont Need A Super Bowl Ad To Find New Customers
Which mix of marketing strategies is best for your shop? We canât say. We do know that earning new customers comes down to quality coffee and customer service. No marketing tactics will be able to save your coffee shop without these fundamentals.
Customers are happy to help spread the word about a shop that makes great coffee and treats customers exceptionally well. The strategies we mentioned above will only enhance these efforts by a coffee shop, but they cannot replace them.
With the fundamentals of quality and customer service in place, coffee shops can easily earn new customers while spending less than $100 per month. How will you use your money?
Speaking Of Hashtags Dont Forget About Geotagging
Since most people dont use general hashtags, you shouldnt do it, either.
Instead, you can use local hashtags and location tags.
If you add your location to every post, people looking for your coffee shop will find you because youre nearby. If you dont say where you are, Instagram cant show your café to the people looking for a cool new place.
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Give Half Priced Refills
From the creators of the bottomless smug, here comes the half-price refill.
As its name suggests, you charge your standard price for a cup of coffee. And if your customers want a refill, they just have to pay half of the standard price. You can select a specific drink for this tactic, a day, an event, or a month. Whatever works for you.
This tactic gives your customers the feeling that theyre saving and youre giving them a nice advantage. Which will drive them to keep visiting you.
But you dont need to focus only on the half-priced refills. Expand your reach with other deals like Sunrise coffee does:
Its a little discount that matters in some of your customers wallets and in all their hearts. Reducing waste and helping the planet, like in this case, can go a long way in branding for positioning yourself as an eco-friendly cafe.
Try something new.
Offer An Incentive To Visit
Whether its a freebie, discount or deal, an attention-grabbing voucher works well for both drawing in new customers and rewarding loyal regulars.
You can add them to your existing leaflet designs by adding a perforated edging to them, featuring your offer.
Once your offer is in place, hand them out in the streets to encourage recipients to visit your coffee shop. Or, drop them through the surrounding neighbourhoods letterboxes so they have a reason to visit later.
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Take Advantage Of User
People love posting about their favorite brands and the companies they support. Foresight Factory has found that Instagram posts featuring coffee have increased 4,500% since 2015 and these coffee posts are a trend that is common around the world. Fortunately, that means your online coffee store can benefit from your customers coffee posts. Website visitors trust the opinions of real people and view these recommendations as reliable.
Designate a place on your website for customer images on various social media sites. Promote a hashtag that organizes all the posts in one area so you can easily highlight them on your website. Customers will be thrilled to find their picture contributes to your company. You can prompt your customers through email to keep adding the hashtag or tagging your online business account in their pictures.
Give them even more incentives to add photos of your brand of coffee by running contests for the best pictures or captions and by reposting their pictures on your business social media profile. Reviews and testimonials from customers also bolster your companys reputation with new customers. User-generated content builds confidence in your brand by simply sharing existing customer reviews and posts.
Undoubtedly Use Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories are very brief, 15-second snippets of video content or still images shot vertically that vanish 24 hours after you post them.
So whats the advantage?
Instagram Stories are posted on a special spot at the top of users screens rather than the traditional feed.
Why?
Simply because this gives them a little more spotlight and can help grow traffic organically, especially among the public.
Due to their short length and lifespan, its best to create a lot of Instagram Stories or even a new one every day.
Instagram Stories should focus on the day-to-day routine of your coffee shop, its atmosphere, the kinds of drinks or snacks you provide, and anything else you can think of.
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Join Food Delivery Apps To Increase Your Reach
Gloria Food’s ordering statistics reports that 86% of US adults get food delivered to their front door at least once a month. Let’s be honest as much as you love coffee, and you don’t always want to walk to your local coffee shop for their favorite pick me up.
Expand your reach by joining food delivery apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and more. People now expect food brands to offer delivery or be listed on food delivery apps. Offering delivery opens your business to not only locals nearby but those around the community who may not be willing to make the journey to your coffee shop each day.
Word Of Mouth Marketing
Every customer that walks into a coffee shop is a marketing opportunity. This is because people talk, and people tend to trust friends and family more than they trust businesses.
When we asked customers about visiting a new coffee shop, the second most popular way they discovered it was by a friend recommendation. Coffee shop professionals agreed with customers on the importance of friend recommendations, with 34% saying that word of mouth marketing was an important part of earning new customers.
âCreating a really great customer experience is key to everything because they are by far our best marketing tool,â said James Yoder, of Not Just Coffee. âEveryone wants to be the one to tell their friends about a great spot they go to and we have so many customers who were referred by friends.â
Generating word of mouth marketing starts and ends with the customer experience. Average things doesnât inspire many people to talk, but people love telling others about an exceptionally good–or bad– coffee shop experience. Thatâs why going above and beyond customer expectations is the key to generating positive buzz.
Coffee shops have discovered a number of ways to exceed customer expectations and get them spreading the word to friends:
Offer free drinks for friend recommendations
âBring a friend in for their first time and you get a free small coffee!â -L. Powers, Nomadic Barista, ID, USA
Make the customer happy
– Avocado Cafe, California, USA
Reach out to local bloggers
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Social Media Marketing For Your Coffee Shop
Social media marketing is an excellent low-cost way for coffee shops to build an audience and promote their brand. Once you have a following, you can use it to boost your other marketing efforts.
The two leading social media platforms used by restaurants are Instagram and Facebook. Each has different uses.
The visual focus of Instagram makes it the perfect platform for coffee shops. There are several ways you can use Instagram, including:
- Showing off your menu by taking high-quality photos of your dishes and drinks and sharing them on the platform.
- Connecting with customers by replying to comments or direct messages.
- Sharing customer posts or stories taken at your business to help build relationships.
- Creating and sharing video content is another great way to show off your coffee shop on social media. This gives customers a peek into your business and the customer experience they can expect before they decide to visit your coffee shop. Therefore, use video content to show the coffee drinkers around and introduce them to your baristas.
- Partnering up with local social media influencers to attract new customers. In case you dont know, influencers are social media users with large followings and often advertise businesses and products. You can invite social media influencers to your coffee shop and ask them to post videos or photos of your offerings in exchange for free lunches or coffee.
Offer Bounce Back Receipt Treats
Bounce back receipt promotions get customers to visit your shop a second time in the same day. This is wonderful for coffee shops where this rarely happens naturally.
The concept is quite simple. During the morning rush, customers receive a coupon on their receipt that is only valid later that afternoon. The offer could be for a BOGO deal, or half off a beverage. Customers who want to take advantage of this, must return that day.
You can use gamification to create some buzz. For example, you could purchase scratch-off style cards to hand out. Customers could play to find what they had won.
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The Top 6 Clever And Unique Ideas For The Promotion Of Your Coffee Shop
Youre no Starbucks. Youre a cute little coffee shop that offers a welcoming atmosphere to go with a delicious handmade cappuccino. And youve got a marketing budget to match.
So with limited funds to play with, youll need to outsmart those big multinationals by using promotions that are as unique and memorable as they are cheap. Were not talking newspaper ads or sidewalk signage here were talking the sort of promotion that no other coffee shop in your area is offering.
Here are six promotional ideas that fit the bill.
1. Reach out to local bloggers
A new sort of celebrity has come from the rise of the World Wide Web one that you wont recognise if you pass them in the street. Bloggers are movers, shakers and tastemakers, and can be incredibly influential in directing traffic to certain establishments.
Do a Google search of coffee blog or even food blog . If there are a few results its certainly worth reaching out to them. Offer a free meal and coffee in return for a quick shout-out the worst they can say is no. Be sure to check that they have a decent following before bothering to hit them up.
2. Introduce a friend for a free cup
Word of mouth marketing is the most effective form of marketing there is, but it can be difficult to influence over and above offering great service and great coffee. One way to encourage your clientele to spread the good news about your coffee shop is to offer them an incentive to do so.
3. Run free coffee classes
Build Excitement With A Rotating Menu
No matter how great your coffee is, people can get bored with your product. Having a rotating menu is an easy way to stop this from happening, making it an effective coffee shop marketing strategy.
People enjoy trying new things, and loyal customers are more likely to try new menu offerings.
Starbucks has long been famed for the way it keeps its menu fresh, always giving its customers a reason to keep visiting.
Some of the items are products they sell each year during a different season, some are introduced to keep up with new trends, and others are one-off specials.
There are plenty of ways independent coffee shops can add variety to their menu. Consider adding new types of speciality coffee beans, fresh drinks, or food items. You could choose these based on the season, broader trends within the industry, or your relationships with businesses in the area.
The most important thing to consider is what your customer is most likely to want. A trendy coffee shop in a city centre may focus on speciality beans, like Box Kite NYC does in the image below, while a quieter shop with an older clientele may offer a rotating selection of cakes.
Be sure to promote your new products. Add posts about them on social media and advertise them within your venue.
If you can build a reputation as a place that is always innovating, people will be more likely to keep checking in to see what you have on offer.
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