43. Use the list – cheapest
marketing you’ll ever do
The importance of creating some form of list to mail to your
customers cannot be over emphasised. A list allows you to mail out
a newsletter, which can be cheaply and simply produced in-house,
to keep your customers informed of what you are doing.
This helps to create a sense of “community” which is a very powerful
and overlooked aspect of why people choose a regular coffee shop.
It also allows you to let customers know about various changes to
the menu, special events you are holding and, most importantly of
all, you can include offers to draw those customers back at times
when you are slack in the business.
You can create and collect a listin various ways depending on
your style of business. As covered previously, comment forms are a
great tool and have two benefits. They help to get you feedback on
the business while you aren’t there and also enable you to build a
list very quickly.
Depending on the style of your business it is worth asking for as
much information as possible on comment forms. Birthday and
anniversary information allows you to promote these occasions and
make the customer feel special.
And if you can, get customers email addresses and mobile phone
numbers too. Emailing or texting is much cheaper and less time
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