Why You Need a Website for Your Coffee Shop
Start Selling Your Coffee, ONLINE, RIGHT NOW
Whenever I seek out a new coffee shop or restaurant, I immediately check their coffee shop website. This is a way I can see where they are located, the menu, operating hours and any promotions that are going on.
In this worlds digital age, first impressions often begin online, having a compelling coffee shop website is more than just a modern necessity; this is an opportunity that needs to be capitalized. By allowing your business to have a virtual storefront this allows you to showcase your unique branding, the story-telling behind the store and the passion behind brewing coffee for your customers. By establishing a well-known online presence with a coffee shop website, will allow a glimpse of what your storefront looks like when customer put their foot through the door. You will also be able to un-tap a vast audience by search engines to increase your reach and impact to customers you would never think are reachable.
How to Set up an Online Coffee Store
When considering a coffee shop website, you have several avenues to explore this option. You use a professional that is a web designer or even use a pre-made template that is made for coffee shops websites.
Hiring a Web Designer:
Pros
By hiring a web designer, you'll get a professional and functional website that looks exactly as you want it. Web designers will incorporate all your wants and needs into your website. If you want online ordering, a web designer can do that. If you want your website to have the same look as your menu, a web designer can do that for you. Your website can be exactly as you want it.
Cons
Web designers can be pricey. You'll have to pay them for their time and supplies. You'll have to go through the hiring process for that person as well. Alongside that, it can take upwards of a week for your website to be finished.
Using a Template:
Pros
If you don't want to hire a web designer to make your website, you can make it from a template. Websites like Wordpress, Squarespace, and Wix allow you to make websites yourself from their drag-and-drop templates. While you may have to pay some sort of subscription fee, it will be less expensive than hiring a web designer. You won't have to design your website from scratch, you'll have helpful templates already made.
Cons
When you make your website on a website-making platform, you have a lot less freedom than when you hire a web designer. You give up the freedom of full customization for the ease of drag-and-drop. While your website will still have some customization, you won't be able to make it exactly what you want, you'll have to rely on a template.
Reasons Why a Coffee Shop Needs a Website
Websites Drive New Traffic:
Having a website isn't just a digital placeholder; it's a portal to amplify your reach to gain a wider audience. In todays interconnected world, an online search like "coffee shops near me" can lead to new/ potential customers coming to your doorstep. Having a coffee shop website can help search engines recognize your store and act as a beacon to guide customer to discover what your shop offers.
Website is the foundation of SEO:
This is a marketing strategy that help your website gain traffic on any search engines without paying a single dime; this is big reason why you need a website for your company. SEO stand from "Search Engine Optimization", this is a practice of making your company visible to the digital world. Since organic search in one of the way people can discover your content online. Become visible and credible to your customers and potential new ones.
Improve Brand Image
This is why you need a website; it is essential for branding in this modern digital world that we are apart of. A website is the cornerstone of a brands identity. Social media is another platform that allows a different form of interactions with customers. How do you tell your customers that a coffee shop is more than just a cup of coffee? Your branding is suppose to bring an ambiance, an experience, this is why coffee shops are so artistic. With having a website, you can seamlessly extend that ambiance onto the online world and ensure that your brand image is present!
Build Trust:
Establishing a website lets you gain credibility and trust with your customers. When there is access to a menu, opening hours, and shop policies directly from the source itself. All this eliminates the uncertainties or outdated information they might come across from different sources. A coffee shop's website is a reliable bridge between you and the customers. Foster the confidence and cultivate a long lasting bond with your customers.
Once you've decided how you're going to make your website, you'll need to start it. If you're hiring a web designer, you'll just tell them what you want on your website and they'll create it for you. If you're using a website-creating platform, you'll have to spend the time making it yourself.
However you decide to make your website, your coffee shop will definitely benefit!
