Cafes are big business now. This trend came from the back of giant cafe franchises that took over the world in the past decade. Mention Starbucks and San Francisco coffee, and most everyone would be familiar with these big brands. Either franchised or independent cafes, people have come to expect the expensive coffee, hipster venues and instagrammable coffee presentation.
It is worth noting also that the success story of cafes within the F&B industry have lead to fierce competition. The high bar set by new cafes all around Kuala Lumpur or areas within Klang Valley, has meant that the entry cost for a successful cafe is becoming higher. Not only that, recruiting award winning coveted baristas and keeping up with the demand for the best and exotic coffee beans have created high overhead running costs.
CAFES ARE AN AWESOME BUSINESS, BUT THERE ARE ALWAYS BETTER, MORE HIP PLACES COMING UP EVERYDAY TO REPLACE YOURS
Award winning barista (anonymous)
Inevitably there are those who fall on the wayside as newer more hip places appear. Your only hope is to stay relevant by using conventional methods of marketing such as, innovating menus, timely renovation work to spice up your place or creating special promotions to help you weather the storm. However the best guarantee to stay relevant would be to improve your ability to keep attracting new customers while retaining your loyal client base.
SOCIAL MEDIA IS FOR ALL BUSINESSES
Social Media is a beast when it comes to creating higher peak sales while consistently rewarding your loyal customer base to keep them coming back. However we are hard pressed to find cafes employing simple web funnel strategies or using paid reach to distribute the unique user experience to new prospects. This is a waste of opportunity as cafes are no longer about selling coffee, but rather providing a great place with a user experience that justifies spending your customers’ time and hard earned money.
INVEST IN YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA BEYOND NICE IG PICS
Imagine investing thousands of ringgit, passion and care into your life’s dream but failing to supplement it with a worthwhile marketing strategy. It is worth noting that the time (recruiting talent, sourcing food and beans, the early morning rush) and money (you could have a good pension if the money you put into the cafe is saved in an FD), is many magnitudes over what you need to spend on social media marketing just to push you ahead of the competition. In today’s world every cafe has their own flair or edge but unfortunately not every owner has the foresight of making their presence felt using an effective social media strategy.
Lazada, Shopee, Mudah are online business giants in Malaysia that spend tonnes of money on online paid advertisement, usually with special promo codes! Why isn’t the cafe industry employing such effective online strategies to increase sales and create customer retention?
Humanlogica
Cafe owners are notoriously busy, between keeping the place neat and tidy, to ensuring top notch quality of service and re-thinking about the next menu. Most cafe’s have outsourced their social media to the girl or guy employee who is ‘good’ with social media. Usually it’s the person who is good with taking pictures. Although cost saving but cafe owners need to understand that a social media presence does not equate to an effective social media.
SO WHAT IS AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CAFE?
An effective social media is a converting social media. In short, it is social media that can bring customers to your cafe and develop them into a loyal customer base. Just as how brewing, serving and giving your customers a great experience is an artform, monetising your social media is also an art form that involves converting business ideas into a plan with milestones.
Before we go deeper into the rabbit hole that is social media. Perhaps you would like to test out your knowledge of social media by going through our QUIZ to see how well you score?
The 3 social media tips for a successful cafe business
- CONTENT CREATION – List the top 3 experiences from your cafe and convert that into a story
- PULL FACTOR – Create a motivator for customers to experience it themselves
- PUSH NOTIFICATION – Develop your customer clientele and keep them coming
Content Creation
We need to grasp a few basic concepts before we can continue on. Postings on social media and having a vanity website is not monetising your social media. We can create influence or authority as a great place for a coffee shop but that is only half the battle. It is only when you start creating content that is meaningful to your future clients that you are able to create a strategy to monetise your social media.
Lets start easy, list down the 3 top selling points of your cafe
Cafe owners are so busy that we need to start with the basics and a little slow me down exercise. Just take 30 minutes to go through your self journey in understanding what is it about your cafe that stands out from the rest of the crowd. This exercise has a lot more substance and impactf than hitting that ‘boost’ or ‘promote’ button in Instagram. Once you have these 3 pointers, envision creating a storyline that can be translated into content as an image, engaging text or a video. Whatever it is the content needs to be authentic and engaging. Your top 3 could even be that you have ample parking space it is a quiet place for work. WiFi speeds are pretty good too.
MY PLACE HAS 1) the best cinnamon coffee 2) Lots of trees 3) Smiley Staff!
Now lets create the content
Anonymous Cafe Owner
Make your presence known by using paid reach for more efficient impact
If you own a coffee shop that is hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the area that you are in, whether you are in some corner that is not immediately eye catching, you would be hard pressed to show the customer experience from coming to your place. Instagram and Facebook would help a lot in portraying this list that you have just created. But it goes back to reaching out to those prospects in the nearby area that do not yet know of your shop.
This is akin to handing put flyovers at the corner somewhere nearby your shop except with social media, you can quantify it, target your prospects accordingly and automate the process. Yes its also way cheaper than printing pretty flyers where most or all of the prints go into some bin somewhere.
Pull Factor
In Malaysia, ‘FREE’ is king and the queen is ‘DISCOUNTS’. Statistics have shown that if you provide a discount in your shop, say a one time use promo code, 61 percent of the times they will make the time and effort to redeem it. This is an easy crowd puller if executed correctly.
88% of restaurants pay for marketing
(Toast)
Another statistic that is very much in favour for Food and Beverage industry is that initial chained promotions can lead to a long-lasting customer retention. If a customer patrons your outlet consistently for more than 4 times, the chances of that customer becoming a long lasting frequent patron is 80% higher. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could create a system that does this for your coffee shop?
Discounts and coupons came in as the top-ranking tactic for driving loyalty with 61% of consumers saying they use them
(Globe News)
Push Notification
List building or creating a customer database is an old trick that has been deployed since the early age of social media. However the effectiveness of this exercise has always been an important tool in ensuring that your business will have retained engagement with your loyal customers. However we are hard pressed to see cafes employing this same technique. Through push notifications, always make sure that you reward your loyal subscribers first. This exclusive club will create an on demand sales doubling technique every time you send out your notifications. IN FACT !!
WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN BUILDING A 5000 CUSTOMER DATABASE WITHIN 3 MONTHS? LEARN MORE ABOUT IT BY CONTACTING US IN THE FORM BELOW
5000 customer database in 3 months? that’s crazy
Humanlogica
LET US ROCK YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TOGETHER
Its a preposterous claim to be able to gather 5000 subscribers within 3 months but it is something that we feel achievable. Imagine having such a database and with a single push notification, you can get 50% of that database to come and claim your special combo or a new drinks menu. Thats 2500 customers within a span of your promotion period.
Combining your excellent customer service with detailed analytics and laser targeted prospects across the popular platforms of Facebook, Youtube and Instagram, you will achieve an enormous exposure with a very flat web funnel. Your great story content -> Click to Promotion -> Redeem. It just doesn’t get better than this. Oh wait it does, by creating a database that’s combined with the latest push notification trick, we can instantly push promotions to your loyal subscribers.
As your social media partner, we provide a whole range of services such as copywriting for great SEO, choosing the best ad placement and ad types. Creating explainer or experience videos combined with a 3rd party distribution channel. Script writing and social media management. We ensure that we hit the numbers that we promise, as partners we are here to keep your conversions at an optimum as that is our credibility. Please do contact us for a free consultation or sign up for our services.
