10 Cafe Marketing Ideas (that actually work)

I'll fill you in on a secret. Posting on social media is pretty close to a complete waste of time for most small businesses. That's because ordinary posts on Facebook and Instagram typically only reach around the top 5 to 10%.

If you're hardcore fans, and that includes your mom. So instead of wasting time doing what everyone else is doing, here are ten marketing ideas that can actually help get new customers in the door. I'll kick it off with an old school marketing tactic that's perfect for bringing in the most important type of customer every successful café needs.

I'm talking about regular customers. Now, for many cafes, your best regular customers are often right next door. The businesses in your immediate area are packed with employees who are drinking coffee somewhere.

Just probably not yours. So here's how you can change that. On a weekday afternoon, pick a nearby business, walk over, introduce yourself and explain that they've been chosen as business of the day.

That means all of their staff can come in for unlimited free coffee for one day only. Present them with a business of the day card which shows your location and trading hours and ideally your menu so they can explain the offer to their colleagues. The next day you blow them away with amazing coffee, super efficient service so they never want to touch that crappy office coffee again.

The next day repeat the process again with another local business and bring in another group of potential regulars. Extravagant? Absolutely.

That's why it works. Generosity makes an impact and in reality, the one off cost of a handful of free coffees is pretty small compared with the thousands of dollars a year in sales that a regular customer is worth to your business. Every small business wants their customers to recommend them to people they know.

But the thing is, people don't go out of their way to tell their friends about the pretty good service or the decent food, but they might start talking if you do something they've never seen before. Here's an example. In a cafe I started a few years back, we decided to go all in for our hot chocolates and mochas rather than using the typical chocolate powders or syrups, we bought a small soup urn and melted down, fancy couverture chocolate as the base ingredient.

For advertising we simply wrote “melted hot chocolate” in chalk on an A-Frame sign and let a word of mouth do the rest. By the time next winter rolled around, the product had been featured in local newspapers and websites. It was all over customers social media, and we were selling thousands of dollars a week of a product that most cafes take for granted.

Now, of course, to be newsworthy, you can't just copy a product everyone else is selling. So my tip is this: Choose a product that you already sell and dream up a way to make it over-the-top awesome. If it's truly exceptional, people will talk.

Think about it. When people are outside the local area, how did they find where to go for coffee? They go to Google.

The problem is, if these potential customers type in “coffee near me” and your business doesn't appear in the top three listings, then they're probably not coming your way. But there are a few specific things you can do to rise to the top of these rankings. It starts by claiming your Google Maps listing and making sure you've filled in all the key information and added some quality pics.

The next part is customer reviews. The more the better. Ask your regulars to leave a review and then respond when they do, whether it's good or bad.

Doing this helps send the right signals to Google, but it will still take some time to climb the rankings. So if it's quick results you’re after, then you can jump the queue by advertising. It really depends on your location and your target customers as to whether this is the best way to spend your ad budget.

But if you're targeting tourists or business travelers, then this could be a smart option. One of the fundamentals of marketing is brand awareness. Customers need to think of you first when they're deciding where to go for coffee.

Now, a really simple but effective way to do that is a local business is old school outdoor signage like bus shelters and billboards. And it's a trick that fast food chains have been using for decades. You keep it really, really simple.

Just include your name, logo and one line to describe your business like specialty coffee or all day breakfast, along with an arrow to show where to turn. Sure, it's not going to win you any advertising awards, but a simple message like this can work to keep your café top of mind with locals. And it can do it in a way that digital marketing just can't do on its own.

If you're located in the suburbs, then a school community can be a great way to build your profile with a loyal local audience. Every school is different, so you'll need to get in touch to find out what options they have for sponsorships and donations. Sometimes it can be as simple as donating a hamper or gift vouchers for a fundraising event.

Aside from supporting your local community, it also puts your business in front of a large group of parents, teachers and 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.

Now, while everyone else is obsessed with Instagram and Facebook, you've got an opportunity to stand out on other channels. For that reason, Spotify ads are a real opportunity for cafes. Very few competitors are showing up there.

Now, unlike traditional radio, you can target ads directly to your potential customers based on their specific location, time of day, their interests, and a whole lot more. Okay. I'm not trying to sell Spotify ads, but they are relatively cheap compared to traditional radio.

Got an hour in the day when the place turns into a bit of a ghost town? For many cafes, it's just after lunch around two or 3 p. m.

. If so, pick a day of the week and offer a bring a friend incentive like buy one, get one free only available during that hour. It might be slow at first, but if you make it a regular offer, people will start to plan their coffee break to take advantage of the discount.

This helps you even out some of the gaps in sales and can even encourage customers to add a second visit to their day. Now, in your area, there are a whole range of other businesses who are looking for creative ways to impress their customers. Think of businesses like real estate agents, motor mechanics, hairdressers, or any service business that wants to add a little extra value to keep their customers coming back.

Now, one simple way they can do that is through giving them a free coffee card. And depending on the relationship with the business, you can either offer these cards for free or you can sell them at a discounted rate. In my case, we had several local real estate agents who were happy to spend hundreds of dollars a month to shop their clients free coffee.

So sometimes it's the small details that really get people talking. Let's say you've got a whole lot of dog walkers in the area rather than just adding a bottle of water out front. You could offer dog treats or add a puppy playground.

Perhaps you're targeting parents with toddlers. Something special to keep the kids occupied can go a long way. In truth, I've seen little touches like these inspire loyalty more than any buy ten.

Get one free program. Of course, as always, the trick is to find something that will delight and surprise a specific group of your customers in a unique way that will get them recommending you to their friends. Okay, so I'm not actually against using social media to promote your business.

I just think that the way most people approach it is a waste of time. Remember that platforms like Instagram and Facebook make money by selling ads, and they're not going to put your free post in front of an audience when they have other businesses willing to pay for it. So rather than spending lots of time and energy constantly coming up with free posts that go nowhere, you'll reach way more people if you focus on fewer posts and then place it as an ad.

Now the benefit of social media ads that you can target these two specific groups of people by location, interest, occupation and a whole lot more. But the real key is this, whatever method you choose to get the word out, an effective strategy always starts by first understanding the specific customers you're targeting. So whether you're opening a new coffee shop or growing an existing business, take the time to put together a plan.

This will help identify who your customers are and how you can build a business. that's the perfect fit for them. In my experience, getting that right is the real secret to long term growth.