Your business plan is ready, the equipment is in place, and the staff is ready to deliver fresh bake. But there’s a dead calm at the storefront. Why? What is it that you are missing? Are you wondering how to attract customers? Find out the best Customers for Cafe & Bakery Business.
Executing a successful business plan goes far beyond what’s written in the executive summary. The struggle becomes real when it comes to new customers entering your bakery along with retaining the old ones.
In fact, several business studies confirm that businesses can boost their profit by 95% just by increasing their retention by 5%.
Sounds unbelievable, right?
Well, it isn’t.
Here are some different ways of improving bakery promotion. In this article, you will find some great strategies to bring more customers to your cafe and bakery storefront. Keep reading.
1. Create an Inviting Atmosphere
Start treating your cafe like a character. It’s someone your customers interact with. When the cafe has an inviting atmosphere, it’ll easily bring more customers in. But how? Think of cafes from movies and TV shows that work as a setting for important events.
If you want your cafe to play such a part in your customers’ lives, start to work on the ambiance and decoration. Have cozy and warm lights in the store. Table lamps, wall scones, and floor lamps are also great options to have.
Ambiance: You can use color palettes that evoke thoughts of comfort. Furthermore, make your store’s seating arrangement welcoming and versatile. This will enable customers to feel more at home. If customers prefer privacy, they must have seats that offer privacy. Also, ensure there’s room for close communication which will give off a comfortable and cozy vibe.
Seating Arrangement: Work on the store communication culture. Make sure that your staff are friendly and welcoming.
Background Music: Music plays a big part here. Don’t go for loud and over-the-top sounds that overtake the customers’ attention from everything.
Cleanliness: Most importantly, keep it clean. Maintain a regular cleaning routine so that your customers have a lasting impression on their minds about your place.
2. Know Your Customers
The first step toward acquiring more customers is by building customer relationships. It’s only possible when you start noticing who your customers are. Building a strong customer relationship helps brands boost their sales by up to 20%. In fact, the customer retention rate also increases.
Identify who your customers are, what they prefer, and their demographic. Start to notice what they value the most. Make the entire journey more than bread for money. With this approach, you can approach your customers differently.
Follow a well-planned promotion and branding strategy. Ensure that your storefront and your marketing strategy go hand in hand with the communication you are taking forward. Your store needs to be on their radar.
So, ensure that they connect you through social media, subscribe to your newsletters, and attend community events. When people are placing orders regularly, ensure that you know their names.
3. Free Wi-Fi
To get more customers rallying to your storefront, you’ll need to give more. Offering free wi-fi is a great way to attract more people to your storefront. When there’s a small cafe component at your bakery, you can attract more customers.
You can use it to your advantage to build relationships as well. Offer free wi-fi to customers who drop by for fresh bakes. It’s common for people to bring in their laptops and sit at the cafe and attend Zoom meetings. Make it easier for them by offering free wi-fi.
The more time they spend at your cafe, the easier it is for you to build a good customer relationship. In fact, it’s a great way to get customers visiting repeatedly at your storefront.
4. Leave Room for Optimizing Your Menu
You don’t want your customers coming to your store only to find out you’ve run out of croissants. When you have an online storefront, use a customizable menu for your customers.
Some menu builders let you update if you have run out of a certain item. You can also mention when adding new items to the menu. Let’s keep a blackboard at the front where you can write and wipe all your food menu updates! This helps build communication and curiosity among your potential customers.
Ensure that your bakery website has a menu where you can add and remove items from. You can go for weekly and monthly options. Keep a specific item for Mondays or the other days of the week as per your customer’s requirement.
But whatever changes you make, be sure to relay them through the website. Do your bakes cater to different allergies or preferences? If so, don’t forget to mention them on your menu. Such small changes may not seem significant at first, but they can have a massive effect on the menu.
5. Sensory Marketing
We have an article in the Small Business Journal where we have talked about bakery marketing strategies. Sensory marketing is a great strategy to bring customers into the storefront. It helps them take emotional actions and helps you build a memory in their mind.
How?
You can enhance the aroma of your bakes. Make time to leave the doors in front of your bakery open. Let the fresh fragrance of cakes flow in the air and call the customers in. Use the fresh aroma to invite in the passers-by. Also, try keeping the display shelf close to the door so that the smell of freshly baked croissants can easily go out.
6. Signature Items and High-Quality Bake
Market how your bakes are made. Your customers must know that you are using the best ingredients for your bakes. Emphasize how you source your raw materials. You can even share stories of your affiliation with your suppliers.
Never compromise on the quality of your bakes. Also, when marketing the quality of your products, fact-check everything you are talking about. Ensure that your ingredients and food follow the standard guidelines of the FDA.
Focus on Signature bakes that your customers would love. If you have a generational culinary recipe and story to align with it, that’s even better. Is there any seasonal or limited-time period offering? If yes, market that as well. Your signature items not only attract customers but also help you brand your bakery. It can be part of your branding.
While sticking to a menu is best, don’t forget to personalize it and bring in changes and new flavors. Experiment with your offerings. Sometimes, changing the shapes of your baked items or flavors can help boost customers’ interest.
7. Loyalty Programs aren’t Outdated
The sale is steady at the storefront. Your bakery is also getting online orders for birthday and wedding cakes. That’s good news. But how many of your customers are returning? Success in any business isn’t one of them. Just because you opened the store with few customers doesn’t mean they’ll keep coming back every day.
Your KPI for success should be the number of customers that are coming back. You may implement all the possible tricks only to end up with a bare minimum of customers coming back. So, how do we make them return?
77% of customers belonging to loyalty programs say that they are more eager to do business with brands that provide these programs. Offer incentives to your returning customers. It is the push that they need to come back to your door.
- Provide discounts on different items based on days of the week.
- Plan a giveaway for your customer’s 13th order. Baker’s Dozen is a good loyalty program that keeps old customers coming back.
- Provide discounted customization on pre-ordered items.
- Work on targeted discounts depending on your customer’s previous purchase.
8. Sampling but With a Twist
If you haven’t tried sampling your bakes, then you must. It is an age-old bakery promotional tactic to get new customers. Most owners have a waitstaff standing at the storefront with a tray full of mini cupcakes. While that has worked for generations, it’s time for a twist.
A good change of plan would be planning product donations. You heard me right. Go ahead and donate your bakes to charitable causes. This not only introduces your baked items to people, but it also builds a sense of community around your brand.
When those people buy cakes or croissants, your shop will be at the top of their minds. There’s a thing called word of mouth; this is the time for you to use it. It helps form lucrative business opportunities you can leverage for future engagements.
For Growth!
The growth phase of any business seems more difficult than the startup phase. Your strategies can make a breakthrough for your business, or you may stay behind the competitors.
It all depends on how you use marketing to retain your existing customers. Based on your current revenue status, focus on your retention and build a new customer acquisition strategy.
The different tips provided in this article should help. Let us know if you need any further help with this. Thanks for reading
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