A cafe marketing plan and marketing campaign is a necessity before opening your establishment. And understanding the structure of your target audience is the foundation of marketing campaigns. For example, if you’re betting on students, a combination of comfortable chairs, multi-person tables, and wireless Internet will reduce your profits because orders will be minimal and tables will be constantly busy. You may inflate your prices a bit if you open a café in central areas, near business centers, compared to similar positions in cafes near universities or in bedroom communities.
Talk about why you chose this style of interior and what kind of cuisine you will have. Announce the opening date and try to inform local internet portals about the event in advance. Publish the news that on the day of opening everyone can take part in a lottery or that a concert of a local band is waiting for everyone.
Marketing part
One of the main sections of the business plan is Marketing. In it, describe the sales market, analyze market and competitor indicators to determine the promotion strategy for the establishment.
Sales Market Description
The development of the cafe business plan includes an analysis of the market and industry in which you plan to operate. Describe the conditions and characteristics of doing business in the region, add information about the structure, growth rate and business prospects.
If the goal of the business plan is to attract partners and investors, explain your ultimate goal in this section. Show the scale of the market you want to enter, share your plans, backing them up with market growth dynamics.
If you’re writing a business plan for yourself, a market analysis will show you the real picture and help you assess your strengths and growth opportunities.
Market Analysis with Competitor Assessment
Every year there are new and interesting formats of establishments, so it is necessary to evaluate the competitors and their target audience in order to correctly draw up a strategy for the development of your institution.
You can visit several establishments in the area where you plan to open a cafe, assess the service, see the number of visitors during rush hour and learn the pricing policy.
Such reconnaissance requires personal presence and your time, another option is to search for information about competitors on the Internet. Examine cafe sites for search engine queries in your city, so you can find out:
- The number of competitive sites and establishments.
- What kind of advertising your competitors use.
- Quality of sites and contextual advertising.
- Such an analysis will show the number of competitors in the catering market, helping to assess their promotion costs.
Sales and marketing
Any sphere of business needs advertising, especially catering establishments, because the competition is high. The marketing strategy should be painted step by step, specifying in each point the conditions and approximate costs of advertising.
The program includes:
- Advertising in social networks – write whether there is already a page of the institution in the social network. What methods of advertising you plan to use in social networks and the approximate cost of advertising.
- Website promotion – create your own website or a sample template, which later will be the site. Specify the budget you need to create the site and its promotion in search engines.
- Brand – come up with a logo and briefly describe your brand concept. Costs for menu or logo design should also be spelled out.
- Participation in community events – describe what events you plan to travel to: city food fairs, trade shows.
- Loyalty programs – will the establishment have discounts or bonuses for regular customers. Consider whether it will be plastic or electronic cards in the app, this will require different budgets.
- These are not all promotion options, you can also come up with special offers, gifts and promotions for the opening of the establishment and during the entire operation.
All of the items in this section should come together into one cohesive marketing strategy that will help promote your establishment effectively.