From working with local businesses in Malaysia, we know that one of the biggest hurdles s acquiring new customers. And it’s even harder to keep them! For cafes, this is often a struggle. So, if you’re here asking “How to get more new customer for cafe?!” then we have some good news for you. We’ve put together 8 tried and tested methods you can take away in order to get more visitors through your cafe doors. Check them out and let us know what you think!
1. Get Referrals
So we put this number one because we think referrals are hugely powerful! If one of your loyal customers recommends your business to their friends, this is one of the most effective forms of marketing you could get. Why not incentivise your customers, with a “recommend a friend, get a free coffee”?
2. Great Reviews
We’ve spoken to some businesses who haven’t even claimed their TripAdvisor listing, or got set up with Yelp! What!? Great reviews are a brilliant way to expose your business to thousands of new customers, as well as being a way to help you improve. Work hard and those five-star reviews will come flowing your way.
3. Create Seasonal Drinks
If you offer the same-old, same-old drinks, month after month then there’s little incentive for someone new to come through your doors, especially if the shop down the street is offering seasonally-specific brews. Play of the flavors and taste of the season, such as offering pumpkin spice drinks come fall, floral-infused teas, and coffees when spring comes around, etc.; you get the idea.
4. Loyalty Program
No, we are not biased. We just think that loyalty is one of the top ways to get more customers in your cafe. Especially when it comes to eLoyaltyapp, where your business will have its own branded page and loyalty program set up within the app- which has thousands of users exploring their area every day.
Loyalty programs, in general, are an effective way of improving your rates of customer retention. Getting new customers in the door and keeping them.
5. Build an Online Presence
We’ve already briefly mentioned improving your online presence by setting up TripAdvisor and Yelp to make the most of your brilliant reviews. There are other ways you can build an online presence, that you may not have thought of. For example, are you really making the most of Google? Make sure you have Google My Business set up properly so that when someone Googles you, they have all the information they need.
6. Collaborate with Non-Competing Businesses
A great idea we’ve seen used in action is to collaborate! For smaller, independent businesses there can be a huge advantage to using your relationships with other local businesses to find new customers.
Here’s an example, say you’re a cafe with a hairdresser across the road from you. As an introductory offer, you could get the hairdressers to offer 25% off a coffee for everyone that gets a cut and blow-dry. And vice versa! This can be a great way to collaborate and get new visitors to both shops.
7. Make the Most of Social Media
Basically everyone — and, probably, including your mom and her — are on some form of social media, these days. Try keeping an active, lively, engaged presence on your various social media accounts, making sure to stay “on-brand” and respond to queries and comments in a punctual, engaging way
8. Use Freebies
Everyone loves free things. So, needless to say, that offering free samples and giveaways for drinks, bagged beans, etc. is a great way to push new traffic to your storefront. For an added boost in sales, consider creating a raffle system, i.e. a customer needs to purchase X-amount of drinks to have their name entered in a drawing for a prize. Make sure to collect email addresses of those that enter the raffle so you can grow your mailing list at the same time.