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. 

Going out with freebies

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 confectionery or go out with a flask of filter coffee and give away free coffee. 

You could also give away vouchers for free coffees.

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. 

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. 

Loyalty cards

Buy nine 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. 

Social networking

Definitely a big promotional tool for marketing your business is social networking such as Twitter and Facebook. Ensure that you have regular interesting post and do not just promote your products. Make it fun to be followed and just tell the world through social networking what you are doing. 

Social networking should be used for networking, not for advertising your products and services only. When used properly, it can be a great method to stay in touch with your customers.

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 offend or disturb anybody. Do not put people out on the street that are too aggressive with the way they approach people. Flyers are often seen as a disturbance so be careful not to offend anyone.

Have a great website!

Every business needs a presence online, even a small tiny coffee shop! Your website does not have to be massive but it does need to look good and work well. A great host for your website is VidaHost - good pricing, fast! and good service.

Just wanted to say "thank you" for a fantastic 2 days. The course was superb, both fun and imformative. It has made me even more determined and passionate about ensuring we deliver nothing less than amazing coffee and customer service in our new coffee shop. Your passion is obvious in all you do, the training, service and website. The support page is excellent and i'm sure i'm going to be a regular visitor to this page. I look forward to working with you in the future, anything to do with coffee you will be my first port of call!! Thank you again, Sarah x