Week 11: Email Marketing

For my small coffee business, I would send out a few newsletters. The first would be the “welcome” newsletter for when they sign up to join our email listing. In that newsletter I would offer a free coffee. Another would be the birthday newsletter for their birthday month. During that month they will also receive a free coffee. I think if I were to add another newsletter, it would be to promote a new product or if we were having a BOGO deal going on. Ultimately, I would send out monthly newsletters to not overflow their email with spam. I think that approach for a small business is smart. There is always room to grow, but unless you’re wanting to expand your business and “go corporate” or open another location, there is no need to go crazy with emails. 

I like how Starbucks offers the app to customers, allowing them to collect points to earn free coffee. Coffee Bean does the same. I would be interested in starting that as well because it brings your customers back and as a thank you for returning, you get points to receive a free item.

Week 10B: Blogging for Business

To stay organized, I would post moments of customers favorite item on the menu and post at least once a week. I wouldn’t make myself post on a certain day of the week because I would be the one to get stressed about it if something came up and I wasn’t able to. But anytime during the week would be my goal. I would also stay consistent with posting at least once a day, whether than be a picture of a cup of coffee or one of our pastries. Staying consistent with posts and connecting with our customers via social media will help grow our business through followers and new customers.

Week 10: Blogging for Business

Readers like to be touched, moved, by story. They like to imagine themselves in worlds and situations that challenge them, that give them opportunity to do and be something other than what they do or are in their real lives. It depends on what your ultimate goal is for your post and what you want your follower to feel. For example, I am trying to sell coffee. I want our customers to feel welcomed with open arms, so with permission, I would post pictures of our customers in the morning drinking coffee. Obviously leaving their full names out of the description and not tagging them. But that comes across as personal and people like it when they see themselves through a business post.

Week 9: Twitter- Sharing Your Thoughts in 140 Words or Less

Since I am a coffee spot in Oceanside, I searched for words such as: coffee, oceanside, visit oceanside, brew and cafe. If i’m missing out on any words or phrases, let me know! I ended up finding Peet’s coffee in San Marcos, The Coffee Bean in Oceanside, Visit Oceanside, Main Street Oceanside and Starbucks.

I created 2 lists. Oceanside Local because I want to be connected to the locals in Oceanside and have my spot be visible to everyone. The other list is Fair Trade Beans. I added this so whoever visits our site can look to see what kind of beans we use to ensure they’re purchasing the highest quality coffee.

7PM would be an effective time to post because for the most part, everyone is settled at home relaxing and looking through their phone. Another good time would be 7-8AM. Putting that thought in customer’s heads that we are open for the day and ready to serve coffee could entice them to come in for their lunch break or after work. 

Week 8B: Get Visual- Let a Picture Tell a Story

Some examples of local coffee shops similar to mine are listed below with their visual social media they’re currently using:

Pier View Coffee Company-Oceanside, CA-Instagram

341 Followers, last post on September 13th, 2018

The Loose Leaf Tea Bar-Oceanside, CA-Instagram, Twitter

Insta: 2,142 Followers, last post on October 12th, 2018

Twitter: 1,022 Followers, last post on October 21st, 2015

Revolution Roasters- Oceanside, CA- Instagram

5,708 Followers, last post on October 13th, 2018

Skybound Coffee-Vista, CA-Instagram

605 Followers, last post on October 6th, 2018

Lush Lounge-Vista, CA- Unknown

The one visual social media platform I can use to my advantage for On the Edge Coffee House is Instagram. After looking through all their social medias, they illustrate coffee in front of a great scenery or use latte art to attract their followers. Each post I notice is around the same number of “likes” which ranges from 50-200. I noticed that Revolution Roasters has a stronger follower based platform, maybe because they post every day and are consistent. Another thing I noticed was the comment section. The coffee companies didn’t leave much space to connect to their followers. They don’t hold any promotions or ask questions. As a mom and pop shop, I think its beneficial to connect to your existing customers as much as possible. The surrounding area where your shop is located is where you will see more of your regular customers. 

Week 8: Get Visual-Let a Picture Tell a Story

My “business” is a coffee shop in oceanside. I don’t plan to run with it and open multiple locations, I plan to keep it a small “mom and pop” shop. After looking through the visual social media blog, Instagram would be my widely used platform. I could use Snapchat and Twitter, but the audience from Facebook and Instagram would alone be a great start up. With Instagram, I’m able to use hashtags, and add promotions on there such as, “first time followers will receive a free pastry”. I’m also able to connect to customers and hold giveaways. If I feel the need to post a video, I would add it to the Instagram stories. Later down the road when the “business” decided to expand, we would use Twitter and possibly YouTube. Ultimately, Facebook and Instagram would be used to connect with my customers. It’s also easy to click the share button on Instagram to connect with our Facebook page so the posts are similar and consistent.

Week 7B: Engaging Your Cutomers

My computer is not allowing me to add a photo from my library right now. I will try again later and edit this post. 

I scheduled a post for 7pm on October 9th, 10th and 11th about our grand opening on the 12th. I scheduled it at 7pm because people just start to settle down after work and eating dinner and check their phones once relaxing so I’m hoping to grab ahold of customers in the Oceanside area. In the post, it was an invite to the grand opening, allowing customers to engage saying if they will be attending or not. The incentive to On the Edge Coffee House’s grand opening is free coffee all day. Since there are many coffee spots join Oceanside, I wanted to be able to allow customers to come check out the coffee spot for free. 

Week 7: Engaging Your Customers

I chose to “like” the following businesses from my business page:

Legoland, California
1904Photography
Oceanside Sunset Market Street Fair
Carlsbad Premium Outlets
Mira Costa College
Friends of Oceanside
Visit Oceanside

I chose the above pages on Facebook for many reasons. One, being that my business is a coffee shop. I am trying to target a certain group of people-people who like coffee and tea. This includes parents, students, and really anyone in the drinking coffee category. Secondly, I chose specifically areas around the Oceanside/Carlsbad area because that’s where my “business” is located (It’s a made up business). I think liking pages such as Friends of Oceanside and Visit Oceanside is important because those people reside in the area. Mira Costa College was another one because my business is a coffee spot with a seating area, targeting students who go to coffee shops to study or meet up with friends. 1904Photograpy was a pretty random one, but they have similar followers in Oceanside. I also think it’s important to support other local businesses (regardless if they are similar or not).