Making your coffee shop stand out from the competition on busy high streets can be a frustrating exercise. But a well-thought-out series of marketing strategies can give your coffee shop business the boost it needs.
Here we look at some of the best strategies for coffee shops wanting to attract and retain customers.
1. Social Media as a Marketing Tool
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter are powerful tools for coffee shop marketing. However, they are crowded platforms, so your posts need to be relevant, eye-catching, and frequent. Also, consistency is important, all your posts should retain the theme of your business and its image. This helps people to instantly identify your brand.
Some ideas that always make popular posts include:
- Pictures and videos of your barista-brewed coffee.
- Use social media to promote your menu.
- Offer discounts and promotions to your online followers.
- Customer interaction is also a valuable social media tool. Be sure to be responsive to comments and feedback.
Most businesses use social media in some form. But a coherent, relevant, and consistent social media strategy will pay dividends.
2. Think Green!
Consumers are increasingly basing purchasing decisions based on the green credentials of a business. This means that you could be losing customers just by not having a visibly environmentally friendly approach to running your coffee shops. Here are some simple steps you can take to help make your business more environmentally friendly (and remember to tell everyone about it in your social media posts):
- Use compostable disposable cups: Consumers are waking up to the fact that traditional plastic-coated paper cups are an environmental disaster. Choose compostable cups for your takeaway trade. The best option is to opt for disposable cups that use an aqueous coating instead of plastic. The problem is that some types of compostable cups still use plastic coating, and composting has to be done in commercial composting facilities. Aqueous-coated cups use a water-based coating and can be disposed of in any home compost or paper recycling bin.
- Efficiency at every turn: When appliances and lighting need to be replaced, make sure you choose energy-efficient options. Not only does this give you more green credentials to tell people about, but it will also save money on energy and water bills.
- Use local ingredients and fair trade ingredients: Local ingredients help to reduce your carbon footprint and support local suppliers. Both of these are big selling points that will boost your business. Similarly, fair-trade coffee beans are often more sustainable and support the farmers and workers who produce the beans.
There are many other ways to make your business greener, and it is a win-win situation. Not only can it attract new customers, but it can also help reduce overheads.
3. Personalised Coffee Cup Branding
Now that you have your compostable coffee cups ready, a great idea is to brand them and make sure that you tell people about your green credentials. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your disposable coffee cup branding:
- Keep it bold: This isn’t the place to write an intricate message or list your new menu. Remember that you want your message to reach not just the customer but for your message to be visible to everyone else that sees your cup.
- Consistency: There’s that consistency word again, but it is extremely important. Your brand image needs to remain consistent on every platform. This hugely improves brand recognition.
- Be unique: A unique and recognisable design will help your brand stand out from the crowd. Using the competition for inspiration is okay, but avoid closely copying what they do.
When done correctly, coffee cup branding can be an incredibly powerful marketing tool and should be a crucial part of your coffee shop marketing strategy.
4. Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs can be a great way to reward your regular customers and encourage repeat business.
You can offer a free coffee or pastry after a certain number of purchases or offer discounts to members of your loyalty program. This can create a sense of exclusivity and make your customers feel appreciated and valued.
Time for a Coffee
Following these four strategies can help your business grow and prosper. At Think Green, we can help you with our range of branded disposable cups and disposable cup lids that use a water-based coating to make them truly compostable. Our design team can also help to make sure that your message spreads far and wide.
Why not call us today and find out more about our range of truly green disposable cups?
