Let’s face it...who doesn't love a great coffee or a good brew at any time of the day? Coffee Shop culture has thrived through the pandemic of Coronavirus/COVID-19, changing the way we live and socialise....and even work!
Bearing this is mind why would you as a Coffee Shop need a website or any sort of digital presence? I bet you are thinking...people will see my coffee shop, I'm local...? Right?? Wrong! People are always on the hunt for something new or the next big thing...they could even be visiting from outside the area...
Why you need to have a website and/or social media presence is simple but crucial to help your business thrive.
- It allows new customers to find you. At a very simplified level it gives the target market your name, address and contact details.
- It showcases your menu & wares,. You can post photos of that gorgeous latte combined with an energy ball/scone/cupcake or delicious sambo.
- It gives space for comments so you as a business can ascertain what your customer likes, wants, and needs for them to be happy visit your business and then to come back for more!
The website Limecube.com has published that ....
"According to Google, 80% of customers use search engines to research business in their local area, and half of these people visit a business they have looked up within the next 24 hours."
WOW! There’s a very concrete reason to get your DIGITAL ON!
What do we do with this information?? Well there's a little tool to help called Google Analytics. This FREE business tool allows you to analyse and assess how your business is doing -sounds complicated? Well its actually really EASY. Google Analytics is designed to collect data about your business and basically converts it to a report for you!
How will this information help my Coffee shop?
Google Analytics can analyse visitor traffic. i.e. Who is visiting your website and social media pages. So now you know who your customer is, what do they do when they visit?
Google Analytics shows how visitors find you & ultimately how they use your site. This simply means tracking your customers’ behaviour. Did they find you through Word of Mouth, a radio advert, a Google search? What they read on your site (recipes, blogs, interesting food facts, etc.) and how long they are visiting your site for. Did they read the full blog or just glance and move on quickly (bounce rate).
Google Analytics can also track keywords, newsletter sign-up, etc. Google Analytics is a full-on FREE business analytics tool that helps you improve your small business very easily. I'm sold!
From this Blonde Roast to you...Let's grab that coffee!!
Colette Breen-O'Boyle
Great post Colette, and I completely agree, Google Analytics would be a great tool to use in conjunction with a coffee shop website. In this particular market, a small business can have quite a bit of competition from the big chains so it's important to use every tool to get that compeditive edge! Ultimetly, when you know more about your customer you can target your content better. Also, return on any paid advertising budget can analysed and reallocated as nessesery.
ReplyDeleteIn the context of the coffee shop, if the owner decides to sell any of their offerings online e.g branded cups, coffee beans etc, then Google Analytics can also be used to track sales goals in this regard.
For the new Google Analytics user, it's also good to know that there is plenty of free training available. The Google Academy offers an excellent ' Google Analytics for beginners' course which can be handy to get your head around all the features. That said, it's a pretty intuitive platform to use anyway.
Anyway, after all that talk about coffee shops, I think I'll head out to my local one now!! - Suzanne Mc Cabe
As a coffee fanatic myself, I always google where in town I can get the best coffee when I am travelling to a new area. Its interesting to know that a small action like that as described in your post can help a coffee shop gain more insight into their customer audience and therefore help to grow their business....and all through Google Analytics! It really is so beneficial. Not everyone will be a coffee drinker, so having the ability to utilize the information provided by Google Analytics can help you to collect important information on different users as to why they are visiting your website/social channels Terrific read, looking forward to the next blog post.
ReplyDeleteSuzanne Earley
What a fantastic read Colette. I really enjoyed it, and I think everyone certainly loves their fix of coffee whether first thing in the morning or catching up with a friend. I totally agree that it is important for coffee shops to have an online presence. If I am anywhere like say for example away for the day I would always google coffee shops to see what is close by so it is important for them to ensure they have good SEO Optimization. I would definitely agree with the quote from Limecube but I do think one of the important factors is how do the coffee shops continue that engagement online with the customer once they reach this store. I think having people do Google Reviews is a great way to capture this.
ReplyDeleteI love coffee - great blog
ReplyDeletegreat Blog Post Colette, i hadn't thought about the need for a coffee shop to have an online presence as I had thought they relied on foot fall but it is of course getting so competitive out there now in the coffee world you do need to differentiate andget your product out there.
ReplyDeletegreat examples of the use of anylytics in this endeavor.
thanks
Caitriona