A coffee shop marketing plan is a must-have task when you expect to run one successfully. Obviously, marketing makes a huge impact on your business, besides the product or service quality; that’s why you shouldn’t ignore this.
This post will show you step-by-step guidelines, and even when you’re an amateur, you’ll know how to do it. Keep reading slowly and start your plan as soon as possible. If you’re ready, let’s discover!
Contents
How To Create A Coffee Shop Marketing Plan
Establish Your Goals And Missions
Goal setting is a prerequisite. It is the foundation for you to determine what you must try to complete in the future to achieve those goals.
When there are clear goals, everyone can strive together. It reduces confusion and awkwardness in the process, especially when you encounter difficulties or obstacles.
How can you set your goals? Not all people know how to do this step. In fact, there are many ways that you can apply. For example, if it’s time-based, you can set short-term or long-term goals for your coffee shop.
However, based on our experience, the more specific the goal, the easier it is to achieve. Indicators are always chosen for goal setting. We highly recommend the SMART model that will support you a lot in setting detailed goals:
- S: Specific
- M: Measurable
- A: Attainable
- R: Relevant
- T: Time based
Some KPIs that you can think of are the number of customers you reach, the number of cups of coffee sold in a month, revenue per seat, expected profit margin, etc.
Determine Your Desired Position In The Market
It’s often said that “He who sees through life and death will meet with most success.” That’s why positioning the cafe in the market is extremely important. You need to be aware of the position you want to be in, thereby realizing your dream.
To do this step well, you need to know the market information. What types of cafes are there in your area or on the market? Who are your direct and indirect competitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
One will often have to pay quite a bit for this step to get the best overview possible. However, this expense is completely worth the investment because it is useful for long-term use.
Some ways you should not ignore to contribute to the positioning of your brand:
- Determine how to decorate the inside space that will attract customers and make them want to stay.
- What is the price range of your drink?
- Which type of music do you choose to play in your coffee shop?
Analyze Your Target Sociographic
When you open a coffee shop, it is obvious that you will cater to all types of customers. Yet, it is almost impossible to please all and suit everyone.
You need to define your target customer group. Think about what your store’s potential customers would look like. Ask yourself some questions to clarify this one:
- How old are they?
- Where do they live?
- Are they male or female?
- Are they single or married?
- What do they do to live?
- What is their average annual income?
For more information, you can consult the references available on the Internet. Or a pretty effective way is to see what your competitors are doing. Will you continue to follow their path or go your separate ways?
Understanding your customers helps you perfect your plan. When you know why they use your product, you will have more ways to satisfy these customers more and more.
As you plan, you can segment your market to define this target audience. Next, think about how to reach them effectively without making them uncomfortable.
For example, if your target segment is the Z Generation, they will love new things. The creativity and originality in the layout and drinks will attract them more.
Ensure Your Finance
Many people often think that the marketing cost is insignificant compared to the budget you spend to build and operate the shop.
However, the truth is that for construction costs, you may only have to pay once or a few times, but marketing costs need to be maintained throughout the operation.
For a newly opened coffee shop, without marketing, the likelihood of customers knowing about your store is next to nothing. As for coffee stores already in operation, marketing is needed to maintain the customer base and reach new ones.
Budgeting when planning will limit shortages during operation. A capital loss can make you confused or even out of business.
Borrowing isn’t a bad solution, but don’t forget about costs such as interest payable, loan terms, and application costs. Also, you have to make sure it’s an amount you can afford to repay afterward.
Retain Recurring Customers
Approaching new customers is vital for any coffee shop because we want to expand our market. That said, for coffee shops with a certain number of customers, retaining them is also a problem that you need to pay attention to, as they are the source of maintaining your store’s operation.
Retaining old customers is the best way to save money and make more revenue at the same time. It has been proven that acquiring a new customer will cost you five times more than retaining an existing one.
Staying connected with customers is the key to creating brand loyalty. For them, you can try some of the following methods to increase this connection:
- Email marketing: Notify your store’s new activities and programs via email to your customers.
- SMS marketing: If you collect their phone number, this is more efficient and faster.
- Loyalty card: loyal customers will receive more incentives such as a 5% discount on the total bill, free cakes, etc.
- Record customer’s feedback: Feedback from customers will be recorded and responded to satisfy their concerns.
Finalize Your Marketing Strategy
And now you have all the information you need: market positioning, target audience, finances, and so on. You’re now ready to set up a marketing strategy for your store.
And the main points you shouldn’t overlook when planning your own:
- Competitor analysis: Who are they? What are they doing? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What can you learn from your competitors?
- Choose the method to apply: 4P, 7P, Marketing Mix, and AIDA are the most chosen methods. You can read it carefully and see if it is the right choice for your store.
- Multi-channel advertising helps you reach more customers effectively, but it will cost more than the average range.
- Financial balance: loans and expenses need to be balanced with income and profits that you can achieve.
Conclusion
All the necessary information about building a coffee shop marketing plan is in your hand now! You shouldn’t miss any step of this guideline, and you even need to research more based on your shop’s actual situation.
To sum up, the simple steps you should follow to have a detailed and applicable plan are:
- Establish your goals and missions
- Determine your desired position in the market
- Analyze your target sociographic
- Ensure your finance
- Retain recurring customer
- Finalize your marketing strategies
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