Help with equipment and promotions for new coffee shop.

[charlie00]

Hello friends! My friends and I are planning to start a coffee shop business. All of us have some savings enough to buy a coffee machine or two, though we haven't decided on which one to buy yet. We found a great place to start the business and mortgage processes are already underway through our brokers Butler Mortgage. Things are moving fast and smooth so far. It's a good area and I hope we get a lot of good customers. There are a few concerns though. We are not entirely sure about what kind of promotions advertisements we should be doing before the business is started and after.Are TV, radio, mail marketing the main kind of marketings normally shops does in this stage of business? Do you think the digital marketing thing through the Internet will give any visible boost in business? The questions may seem basic, but we need such basic advice. Also, it would be greatly appreciated if you could provide any suggestions and advice on coffee machines that we could buy for our business. Thanks!

 

[Rewardster]

Hi Charlie,

Where to start...

New Customers - The best source of new customers for Coffee Shops today are primarily, Instagram, Facebook and Google (AdWords), in no particular order. If you have no experience with any of them, be sure not to start too aggressively. Each has a learning curve and you don't want to spend all of your available marketing dollars before you've got the experience to spend it wisely. The best Coffee Shop marketers can bring much of their traffic at little to no cost, so you don't need to go the "paid" route first, if you have experience with social media.

Retaining Customers - It costs 5 to 7 times more to find a new customer than it does to bring an existing customer back, and 50% of all customers never return (in a 5 year period if not reached out to). Be sure to consider a good loyalty program in order to be able turn your infrequent customers into loyal customers, and your loyal customers into powerful advocates of your brand and shop to friends and family. We offer such a service and if you'd like to message me privately I'll be happy to share that information with you.

Best of luck in your new endeavor!

 

[Dmtexas]

Before you even begin to start paying for ads or any type of marketing materials the first question you need to ask yourself is WHO IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE?!? How old are they? Where do they live? How much do they make? What do they do for a living? What kind of things do they like? Once you have your customer profile you should be able to figure out how to approach marking and advertising.

With th that in mind...let's look at your suggestions... radio..who listens to radio? How far do thy live? Do they even like coffee? Sure 20,000 people may be listening to the radio when your commercial comes on but who cares? This is how you should be evaluating any paid advertising.

The greatest advice I can give you is to plan plan plan. Social media is an excellent start. It's free! Build a gallery of images to use. Find memes or quotes that would appeal to your target audience. Goog led social media marketing calendars and social media tools. Look into hootsuite and Canva. Find food bloggers who or social media famous and invite them to your shop. Use hashtags. I can go on and on! Hope this helps!

 

[spencermoseley]

Thanks Dmtexas!

 

[MmmmCoffee]

Charlie,

You have been given some exceptional advice on this column here. I agree with everything that was said. It is very important to specify who you are targeting, rather than "spray and pray", i.e. spraying your advertising everywhere and praying that it works . Most of my clients will use services like Living Social, Groupon, or even AdPost to generate new business. The problem with solely focusing your efforts on advertising is that people have very short term memories when it comes to new businesses. That is why 50% of first time visitors don't come back. It is not that they did not like your product or service, but there are so many other options for them to get a coffee that you need to stay at the top of your customers mind.

That is where Rewardster is right about a loyalty program. That solves a small part of the problem. It does give them incentive to buy from you. That is why so many businesses over the years used punch or stamp cards with their customers. The problem is, that only works when they actually are in the business. Your biggest challenge will actually be what you do when your customers stop coming back in. A punch card will not remind them to come in, it is up to you to re-engage with that customer that lost interest or forgot about your business. I know coffee shop owners all over the country that had these exact same questions about their businesses. I would be happy to share with you what they have done to make sure that they can communicate with every customer that comes in...and more importantly, how to keep them coming back in. Just send me a message if you want me to share some of their best practices.

I wish you all the best in your new venture.

 

[Rewardster]

The problem is, that only works when they actually are in the business. Your biggest challenge will actually be what you do when your customers stop coming back in. A punch card will not remind them to come in, it is up to you to re-engage with that customer that lost interest or forgot about your business. I know coffee shop owners all over the country that had these exact same questions about their businesses. I would be happy to share with you what they have done to make sure that they can communicate with every customer that comes in...and more importantly, how to keep them coming back in. Just send me a message if you want me to share some of their best practices.

I wish you all the best in your new venture.

I can't speak for all Loyalty programs, but ours works whether your customer is in the business or has not returned. We help capture customer contact information, like email address and cell phone numbers, automatically during registration (takes less than 15 seconds at their first visit) and can use that information to reach back out to a non-returning customer after 30, 60 or 90 days and invite them back. We can even incentivize their return.

A good loyalty program can be your business's best marketing tool, as they are relatively inexpensive and can follow up with customers automatically. Keep in mind they are not all created equal and that you should do some thorough comparisons before choosing one, as you would with any product or service you use to work with your customers.