The second coffee is where the money is.
High footfall, thin margins, and a crowd that already lives on Instagram. This is the trade that works fastest.
Café Nordwand · Berlin
10% off
Everything on the menu, once per day.
What to offer, and what it costs you.
Ten to fifteen percent
On the whole bill. Reads as generous, costs you the margin on one drink, and does not attract people who only ever come for the offer.
A free extra
Syrup shot, oat milk, the second scoop. Costs cents, reads as a gift, and it is attached to something they were buying anyway.
Not the main item free
A free coffee brings people who want a free coffee. They follow, they redeem, they unfollow, and you paid for all three.
Tuesday, two in the afternoon.
Your rent runs at the same rate whether the room is full or empty, and the hours between lunch and the end of the working day are where cafés lose the week.
A quiet hours campaign only fires in that window and only reaches people who already followed you. They get one line in a chat they opened themselves, not an advert on a feed they are ignoring.
What café owners ask first.
My staff are already busy at the counter.
They scan, or they type six characters. There is nothing to check, nobody to judge, and no phone to squint at. The whole interaction is shorter than handing over change.
What if they unfollow after they redeem?
Then the next voucher never arrives. Each one is checked again at the moment it is issued, so the follow has to be live every single time.
I already run a stamp card.
Keep it. This one is aimed at the visit that has not happened yet, and it leaves you with reach you can use next month. A stamp card leaves you with a stamp card.
Where does the sticker go?
The counter, at eye level, where someone waits for their order. The door is worth about a tenth of that. Three stickers per shop is the number that works.