Digital marketing for coffee shops: A modern way to entice the coffee aficionados.

09/10/2014 By Waka Reading Time: 2 minutes

Digital Marketing for Coffee

We love coffee. We just can’t miss an early morning café late and a late-afternoon espresso.

The UK’s coffee shop sector continues to be ‘’one of the most successful in the UK economy’’. What has changed the nation of tea drinkers to coffee aficionados? Is this the George Clooney effect?

Interestingly, while coffee shop has flourished over the past decade, the British consumption of coffee hasn’t changed drastically since 2006.

So what contributed to the success? The changes in our habits – people nowadays go to coffee shops for social gatherings, studying and even business meetings.

But the market is not unrivalled. People are not only searching for professionally roasted coffee. Your consumers are expecting to find online stores for coffee and enticing social platforms.

Friendly and welcoming website

Almost any kind of business today has their own website. Because people are expecting to find whatever they want on the Internet, your brand should be visible.

Outstanding design

There are two important aspects in web design – UX and graphic design. In a perfect world of websites, these two elements complement each other.

You don’t want a crammed website that only confuses the users. On the other hand, an over-simplified website appears to be dull and ‘bland’.

An excellent website is both aesthetically beautiful and functional (in other words, easy-to-use).

Functional online store

Many coffee brands are selling their coffee products offline and online, to individual customers, retailers and wholesalers. Others offer a wide variety of services – from coffee makers to master course for espresso.

So your eCommerce needs to be well-structured to cater for different customers with different purposes.

It is essential to keep the checkout process simple and comprehensive to prevent any shopping carts from being abandoned.

(http://www.workshopcoffee.com/)

Make it educational and informative

A really useful website provides some interesting and useful information which make the users keep coming back. Can this be the same for coffee brands?

Rather than simply listing your menu, why not enlighten the visitors with some interesting knowledge through interactive videos or blogs? These features should shed the light on your expertise and therefore differentiate your brand from the rest.

Storytelling and communication

Speaking of a differentiator, many coffee brands are building up their reputations by telling ‘stories’ on social media.

They use image-focused Instagram to give you a glimpse of where their beans come from, and the people involved in the journey – from farmers to baristas.

The real differentiator lies on your unique story and how you engage with your customers to create the incentive to visit your shop. You need to recreate the atmosphere using beautiful visual content with creative narratives. You can even use some image content posted from your customers and employees.

Others use Twitter to push their blog posts and their menus to customers updated.

(Look mum no hands)

If your store is located in an iconic neighbourhood, then why not get a localised approach to target specific customers? What often happens on social media is that major brands often generalise their fan base.

Finally, don’t be afraid to ask ‘questions’ to facilitate the online conversation with your customers. Well what can I say, communication is what matters in any social media platforms.