Marketing your coffee shop
People often open up the doors on the first day and expect customers to walk in automatically. Coffee shops need marketing just as much as any other business. Do not just expect people to walk in, work on it!
There are many ways to advertise coffee shops and the good thing is that the marketing for a coffee shop does not have to expensive.
Word of mouth
Word of mouth is probably the best marketing that you will ever get for your coffee shop. This way of marketing is out of your control and will happen automatically. Word of mouth is very good but can also seriously damage the reputation for your coffee shop. It is therefore extremely important to make sure that every customer is happy.
Happy customers will tell a few people about your coffee shop. Unhappy customers will tell a lot of people about your business.
one free cup
Vouchers are great! They really work. Quickfire Tableware in Yorkshire (www.coffeecups.co.uk) came up with the One Free Cup marketing campaign. It's a simple coin that is branded on one side with your company logo and entitles your customers to a free cup of coffee.
What a great way of marketing. Easy to hand out and great for free marketing strategies and apologies.
Flyers and special offers
Flyering on the street advertising special offers can be a very good and effective way of marketing. The most important thing here to remember is not to affend or disturb anybody. Do not put people out on the street that are too agressive with the way they approach people.
Flyers are often seen as a disturbance so be careful not to offend anyone.
Going out with freebees
Most likely one of the best ways of marketing your coffee shop. Simply grab a tray and hand out free samples of some of your products. Offer free pieces of cakes and confectionary or go out with a flask of filter coffee and give away free coffee.
A good trick is to offer free coffee right outside your coffee shop but leave the sugar and milk inside you shop. It's a brilliant way to get people in your coffee shop and to talk to the local people.
Loyalty cards
Buy 9 coffees and get the 10th for free. This is done by many coffee shops and is a good way of marketing. A good point here is to see what your competition is doing. If the competition offers the 10th coffee for free then why not do it slightly different and offer the 8th coffee for free instead.
Make sure to really advertise the loyalty cards in your coffee shops and you might even add a price draw every month.
Time related special offers
Breakfast, lunch and afternoon offers work really well. An afternoon tea and cake or coffee and scone offer for the morning. Set up a lunch special to attract customers for lunch.
Start a Christmas offer in time and promote your cold drinks in time for the summer.
The most important thing with marketing your coffee shop is to be inventive, creative and be on top of things. Spend money on the right things, usually the best marketing is the most inventive, not the most expensive. Placing a big advert in a newspaper cost a lot of money and might not work out at all for your coffee shop. Be smart and marketing is easier than you think.