A coffee shop is often the perfect place to spend an afternoon. If you like to spend your spare time having a delicious cup of coffee while reading the newspaper, then you know that you like to head to your local cafe to do that. As a cafe business owner, it’s up to you to make sure that your cafe is somewhere that people want to spend their time. If passersby are going past your cafe and they’re not walking inside, then what could you be doing differently to make the exterior of your cafe more welcoming and more enticing for people to want to stop?
As a locally owned cafe, you may not have the sort of budget that big companies do, but that doesn’t have to worry you. There are plenty of ways that you can engage your customers and get them visiting your coffee shop without you having to break the bank to do so. We’ve put together a list of how you can bring more foot traffic to your cafe.
- Take a look at your exterior. If you walked down the street where your cafe was located and you treated yourself like a customer, would you walk into your cafe? Putting all buyers aside here because this is your business, what is it about the outside of your cafe that makes you want to walk in? If you were a customer, this is the first thing that you have to ask yourself. Do you have commercial awnings that cover the front of the cafe and some tables so that people can sit outside in the sunshine if they want to? Do you have the type of menu that sits outside the cafe so people can see what offers you have on that make them feel like they want to walk in? Is your cafe hidden down a side street? Is there any signage that directs people that way? These are all questions that you have to be asking yourself as a business owner, and it starts by looking at the exterior. You could offer the best possible apple pie in the whole world, but if people don’t see the outside of your cafe or even notice you, then what’s the point?
- Set up your local listings. If you know that your audience is going to be spending a lot of time looking at their phones, you need to make sure that your coffee shop has an online presence. Even if you don’t offer online ordering or delivery, that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a website that details what your business does and signposts people your direction. People will browse nearby cafes or restaurants in your area, so you need to make sure that you’re popping up in the Google results pages. Claiming your business on Google My Business is free and it makes your cafe easier to search for online.
- Make sure that you’re active with your local tourism office. If you are living and working in a place that’s very popular with tourists, then you need to make sure that you are active with your tourism office. Go around to travel guys, hostels, hotels and even local travel bloggers to enquire about leaving your business card or flyer and ask people to blog about you. If you’re active with your local tourism office then you can have local influences and tourist guides directing people towards your cafe for the best, whatever it is that you offer.
- Make sure that you’re on social media. Along with having a good website, you need to be visible on social media. It’s a must for a modern business and high quality content on social media can generate some buzz for your cafe while you intrigue residents and visitors. Using the relevant location hashtags, you can let people know where you are and what your cafe is all about. If you consistently post stories and you engage with your social media users to answer questions, you’ll also be able to get people excited about what your cafe has to offer and make your cafe’s profile stand out.
- Get yourself in the local newspapers. Local press is going to make a big difference to the foot traffic of your cafe. Having a press release put out for your new menu or a new opening day or even a themed evening is a great way to pull customers in. Being featured in the local newspapers or mentioned on local blogs can put your coffee shop on the map. You have to position yourself as an active member of your community and you have to showcase what you can offer that other cafes can’t.
