I own a Houseplant Café, where you can sip coffee while you shop for houseplants and small handmade items, think jewelry, pottery, candles etc. We’ve been open six months and things are going not as well as we’d hoped. Demographic: millennial women, brunch crowd (I can break this down further) Area: 12k cars pass us a day, we do have road signage and a flag Returning customers: 17% of our clients visit more than once a month Offerings: locally roasted coffee, lattes, smoothies, sandwiches, fresh pastries
I have a marketing background, but I’ve been out of the game a bit and so I feel like I’m not living up to the needs of the business. We do post daily on social media. Have a following of over 5k between insta and FB, starting on Tiktok next week. We need to nearly double our daily numbers to get to the profits we estimated before we opened. We do theme days that are very popular but then the rest of the week is under $500 days. I have a small marketing budget of about $1000 a month which I’m not sure where to utilize. Help? I’m getting desperate for my space to succeed.
First, before spending anything, focus on that 83% of customers who aren’t coming more often. Who are they? How can you bring them in more often? How many of them would you need to come back, and how often, to turn things around? Existing customers should always be your first stop.
Next, I’d probably try to think of local businesses that have a similar customer base as your own and try to create a relationship. You have plants. What about relationships with landscapers? Decorators might need plants for hotels, office buildings etc. You have crafty things. Is there a fabric store in the area? A Michaels or Hobby Lobby? These types of businesses might have your same customer profile. Offering people who buy craft stuff at the local craft store a discount coupon to buy XYZ from your shop.
I’d do all this before I even spent a dime on marketing.