Cafe Marketing Ideas: How to Create a Cafe Marketing Plan

You finally did it. You accomplished your dream of opening a cafe in your neighborhood. You have strong coffee and great pastries, not to mention an ingenious coffee shop name idea. But how do you start to attract new customers?

Beyond having the latest barista equipment and WiFi, it takes marketing savvy and an understanding of the local community to thrive as a cafe owner.

It’s a sad fact that 1 in 3 restaurants won’t survive their first year. So what sets successful coffee shops apart from the rest? Having a great location, an inviting atmosphere, and, of course, a solid cafe marketing strategy.

In this guide, I’ll talk you through why you need a cafe marketing plan. I’ll also offer genuine advice about cafe marketing ideas and tips you can use to develop a loyal customer base. Keep reading to find out how you can improve your cafe’s marketing.

What’s in This Guide?

• What is a Cafe Marketing Strategy?

• Coffee Shop Marketing Costs

• Marketing Ideas for Your Cafe

• Effective Marketing Strategies for New Cafes

• Tracking the Success of Your Cafe Marketing Strategies

• Use Toast to Improve Your Customer Experience

• FAQs

What is a Cafe Marketing Strategy?

Now that you can officially open your coffee shop, how will you attract customers? You can’t just open suddenly and expect people to show up - you need a good cafe marketing strategy. 

Cafe and restaurant marketing strategies usually involve a series of tactics that showcase and promote your business to customers, including communications, ads, and branding. It’s how you engage with your customers and generate demand for your products. Cafe marketing strategies differ greatly depending on industry, target demographic, resources, and location.

Coffee shop marketing combines search engine optimization (SEO), social media, email marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, and reputation management. It can be as simple as placing an advertisement in the newspaper to as complex as filming a commercial.

In a world where you’ll be competing against massive chains like Starbucks, you’ll need a solid marketing strategy to stand out.

How Much Should You Spend on Cafe Marketing?

According to our Restaurant Success Report, 67% of restaurants pay for social media ads, 53% pay for sponsorships, 42% pay for Google or search engine ads, and 32% pay for newspaper or magazine ads. 

In other words, most other local coffee shops in your area will be paying for marketing. But how much are they spending? In general, I recommend spending around 3% to 6% of your revenue on marketing strategies and tactics. Don’t go overboard, but make sure you can get the word out.

When designing your cafe marketing idea, coffee shop owners should think about the following channels:

• Social Media Marketing (Facebook, Yelp, Instagram & TikTok)

• Google & Search Engine Ads

• Email Marketing Tools & Platforms

• Community Events & Sponsorships

• Video Commercials

• Digital Menus & Signage 

• Print Ads & Direct Mail

You can learn to navigate potential marketing costs with our guide on How to Create Your Restaurant Marketing Budget.

Marketing Ideas for Your Cafe

Now that you know why it’s important to have an arsenal of coffee shop marketing ideas at your disposal, it’s time to explore what strategies you can use. Below, I’ve outlined six proven marketing strategies you can use to boost your cafe branding and attract more customers.

1. Leverage Your USP (Unique Selling Point)

What distinguishes your cafe from other local businesses in the area? Do you have tons of seating? Lots of outlets and plugs? Do you feature art from local painters? Do you have an open mic night? It’s important to remember that you’re selling an experience.

Think about the ways in which your cafe is unique and use it to your advantage – then make sure your marketing message aligns with that.

Take Spoken Cafe in Chicago, Illinois, for example. The cafe was founded by Southern natives, who infuse Cajun flavors into all their recipes and specials. With active social media platforms and a solid website, Spoken Cafe attracts locals and visitors by showcasing its unique menu items.

2. Offer Promotions and Local Partnerships

Digital marketing is essential for brick-and-mortar cafes, but you should never underestimate the power of offline tactics for attracting loyal customers. Promotions and discounts can go a long way with coffee drinkers.

Offline marketing strategies for cafes include:

• Offering discounts to students or healthcare providers. 

• Joining your local chamber of commerce and attending networking events to build your local business reputation.

• Placing an ad in a local or university newspaper with a coupon.

• Hosting local events and fundraisers in your cafe with unlimited free coffee for refills.

• Using direct mail to send out a discount code for a free drink or snack to addresses within a 10-mile radius.

For example, Mimi’s Cafe offers a 20% Back Fundraiser Program where they allow schools, booster clubs, sports organizations, or charitable groups to run fundraisers from Monday to Thursday. They offer 20% off food and non-alcoholic beverages to members who show their fundraising flyer.

3. Spread the Word on Social Media

Around 88% of restaurants in the US have social media accounts. Also, half of all diners have tried a restaurant for the first time because of a social media post. Need we say more?

Social media marketing is incredibly essential. You can market your cafe using platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok by sharing posts and videos that:

• Educate visitors on different types of coffee.

• Showcase popular dishes or interesting drinks.

• Feature employees and exhibit personality.

• Show the inside of your cafe.

• Connect with customers by letting them know more about you and your business.

For example, Old Town Coffee and Cake went viral with a video that featured a behind-the-scenes look at how they train their baristas. Meanwhile, Cafe Lola’s TikTok shows off its cute interior design. The company knows its target market well and uses this to its advantage on its social media platforms. 

If you’re more comfortable using Facebook or your target audience is best reached there, you can also run a Facebook advertising campaign. 

Facebook has almost 3 billion monthly active users, making it one of the most popular platforms in the world for advertisers. Run a simple local campaign by targeting anyone within a 5-10 mile radius of your cafe business. If you have a lunch promotion, you could set the ad to display during lunch hours and on certain days of the week.

4. Utilize Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing generates $36 for every $1 spent, making it one of the most cost-effective ways to market your cafe. You can send emails either as general promotional marketing efforts or as automated post-purchase responses, whichever you think is best for your coffee shop marketing strategy.

You can use email marketing to:

• Remind your customers about your latest promotions.

• Update them about seasonal additions to your menu.

• Make them aware of changes in opening times.

• Highlight upcoming coffee-related events.

• Build a relationship with them by sharing your story.

• Ask your coffee shop customers to write your cafe a review.

• Recommend products they might enjoy based on previous purchases.

• Ask for suggestions on what they’d like to see in store.

You can also incorporate user-generated content like online reviews into your emails. Using this type of content improves your brand reputation and helps increase your customer engagement.

Explore Toast marketing and email features that help automate receipts to save time for your staff.

5. Host an Influencer Event

Influencer marketing is now a $21.1 billion industry. Whether you focus on building your community on Yelp, Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram, having an influencer marketing strategy will help you grow your following and brand awareness. 

For instance, why not host a Yelp Elite Squad member event to attract local foodies and influencers to your coffee shop business? As most attendees only expect a free meal, this is an affordable way to gather new reviews and leverage the influencers’ community.

6. Invest in a Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs are a great way to target potential customers and keep them coming back. It can be as simple as offering a free coffee after 10 visits or something more involved, such as points-based rewards. Whatever you offer, make sure to prioritize customer loyalty.

Reward your most loyal customers with free samples of upcoming menu items, access to member-only hours, or invites to private tasting events. Make it easy for your customers to view and redeem their perks. Toast’s restaurant loyalty program allows you to set up sign-up bonuses for repeat customers and provide birthday rewards.

Be sure to train your staff on how to advertise your loyalty program, as they interact with your customers the most on a daily basis. Simply asking customers if they want to sign up for the program at checkout can yield bigger results than you think. You can also use emails to remind customers to join your loyalty program and start redeeming their rewards.

What are effective marketing strategies for new cafes?

When you first launch a new cafe or coffee shop, the most important thing is to get your name and brand out there (after creating your cafe business plan, of course). To do this, make sure your online presence is up to date. Here are my three recommendations for marketing strategies for new cafes:

Establish a Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile is important because it lets you post updates to searchers putting in queries like “cafes near me.” Your updates appear on the local panel and on Google Maps, making them an efficient way to increase traffic to your website and boost sales.

Having a Google Business Profile makes it easy for you to:

• Create Posts, Offers, and Events 

• Respond to Reviews

• Send and Receive Messages

• Post Answers to Questions

Setting up a Google Business Profile is free. As a coffee shop owner, you should use Google to improve your business and track your online interactions.

Create an optimized Yelp page

Yelp is a goldmine for new cafes since it serves as an online directory for consumers to discover local businesses. Yelp boasts over 178 million unique visitors every month across mobile, desktop, and app platforms, and businesses can earn an estimated extra 9% in revenue for every star earned on the site.

Here’s how to market your cafe using Yelp:

• Upload your own photo slideshow: Use this to your advantage and focus on capturing shots of your cafe’s interior, most popular dishes, friendly staff, and more.

• Fill Out Your Yelp Profile Completely: Make sure your business is listed under the right category and add the amenities you offer (Do you have Wifi? A drive-thru? Are you dog-friendly?). Don’t forget to upload your store hours and menu.

Use SEO to Your Advantage

You’ll also want to use SEO to optimize your cafe marketing plan. Good SEO practices make it easy for locals to find your coffee business. Ensure your information, such as name, address, and hours, is consistent across all platforms.

One SEO tactic you can try as a brick-and-mortar cafe is using local keywords in your content. These contain location-specific phrases, such as “cafe in Long Beach”. 

If you’re near a college town, you could write something like: “Our coffee shop has plenty of seating which makes it perfect for students from [local university]. We’re located in [address], only 5 minutes away from downtown [city].” 

How to Track the Success of Your Cafe Marketing Strategies

It’s important to monitor your progress and measure your results to get smarter with each campaign.

Here are some ways to measure the effectiveness of your marketing strategy:

• Facebook Ads Manager: If you run a Facebook (or Meta) ad campaign, you can track your spending and conversions using their ads manager. Read more on how to use Facebook ads for restaurants using the link provided.

• Tracking Direct Mail: If you run a direct mail campaign, you can keep track of how many customers actually brought in the flyer and compare it to the cost of how much you spent on the campaign.

• Google Ads & Analytics: Using Google Ads? Pay close attention to your CPC or CPL and compare it to your average ticket price.

• Monitoring Emails: With email marketing, you can track open and click-through rates. If you’re finding that your open rates are low, the issue is most likely your subject line. Improve it, and your open rates will rise. Similarly, if your click-through rates are low, focus on improving your call-to-action (CTA).

The success of your restaurant marketing efforts depends on comparing results against your own goals rather than against generic industry benchmarks.

Improve Your Customer Experience with Toast!

A strong cafe marketing strategy will help you bring in new customers and improve your reputation. Coffee shop marketing ideas can involve local partnerships, social media marketing, hosting community events, utilizing SEO, and offering promotions.

But to truly make your mark on customers, you need the right tools and tech to give them the best experience possible. With Toast, you can use state-of-the-art point-of-sale systems to make ordering a breeze. You can also purchase our kitchen display systems to keep your chefs cooking efficiently, helping customers get their orders more quickly.

Your cafe marketing ideas will undoubtedly be boosted when you use Toast, so give it a try today!

Related Cafe Related Resources

• Cost to Open a Cafe

• Cafe Equipment List

• Best Cafe Websites

• Cafe Ideas and Concepts

• Cafe Menu Ideas

• Cafe Floor Plans

FAQs

What are effective marketing strategies to increase cafe revenue?

Repeat customers typically spend more than new customers, meaning that increasing customer loyalty plays a big part in increasing revenue. Investing in a customer retention strategy will help ensure that you keep your regulars happy. For instance, you could establish a loyalty program to reward your loyal customers and increase cafe revenue.

What are the most common marketing strategies for cafes?

Most restaurant marketing strategies use a mixture of email marketing, social media, and loyalty programs. You can also employ more traditional tactics: handing out flyers and hosting community events are great ways to attract new customers.

What are the 7 P’s of cafe marketing?

Product, People, Place, Price, Process, Promotion, and Physical Evidence - these are the 7 P’s of running a cafe. If you keep all these in mind while you plan your cafe marketing strategies, you’ll find the right target audience and increase your outreach, ultimately boosting your sales and revenue.