A picture is worth a thousand words. This is especially true when it's a picture that's being shared with hundreds of followers on social media. If you were to ask your customers how they wandered into your cozy cafe, chances are they would say they saw a post on Instagram.
Thanks to foodie culture, Instagram is a must-have marketing tool for businesses and provides a budget-friendly alternative to advertising. The key to successful Instagram marketing for your coffee shop lies in its aesthetic. Here are some tips for making your coffee shop Instagram-worthy.
Stand Out From The Crowd
It's simple: your coffee shop should have a personality. What does your food and drink menu say about your coffee shop? Is it bright and bursting with vibrant flavors and colors? Or is it minimal yet cozy, filled with classic treats? Maybe it's a sweets lover's heaven or the best brunch stop in your city. Whatever the tone of your cafe is, your decor should reflect that.
Decor Tips For Your Coffee Shop
- Locals appreciate familiarity and tourists appreciate grabbing a snack somewhere that reflects the city they're visiting. Consider incorporating the patterns, prints, or landmarks that define your city as subtle touches throughout your coffee shop.
- Place wall art throughout your establishment that can be used as a picture-perfect backdrop. Neon signs with logos or catchy phrases are adored by Instagrammers and double as a way to brand your business with an unforgettable look.
- Don't overlook the bathroom! Customers love to pause their dining for a quick mirror selfie. Unique bathrooms, good lighting, and large mirrors almost always guarantee a picture on your customer's social media.
- Consistent color schemes are a great way to liven up your space and draw in customers. Choose a color and place it in just about every nook and cranny in your shop, even in your food and drinks. Pink and blue are both especially popular colors for coffee shops.
Set The Scene
The setting of your coffee shop matters just as much as the coffee itself. Customers want to feel welcome and comfortable as they enjoy a steamy latte and a book or delightful puff pastries over tea. The ambiance of your coffee shop shouldn't necessarily reflect your store's decor but instead, highlight the overall tone you would like to set in your shop.
Tips For Improving The Ambience Of Your Coffee Shop
Consider the layout of your coffee shop. Is it enclosed with walls or an open room? Is it filled with windows or does it have an outdoor patio? What are the kinds of textures and tiles that exist in your store?
- Open layouts tend to work best when creating a welcoming space for guests, and a full view of the kitchen adds an interactive touch to your shop. If you have walls that crowd your storefront, consider knocking them down for a wider, cohesive layout.
- Good lighting is necessary for a good Instagram picture, and cafes adorned with large windows work best for easy lighting. If your cafe is lacking in the window department, change out your light bulbs to LED daylight bulbs, which mimic the tone of natural sunlight indoors.
- Provide cozy chairs, comfortable couches, and plush pillows throughout your cafe to make guests feel at home in your space.
- If you have room to set up a couple of outdoor tables in the front or back of your coffee shop, consider adding them! Giving customers the choice to dine indoors or outdoors is a luxury that will set your business apart from the competition and makes for a sunny snapshot.
Create Your Canvas
Your coffee isn't complete without a cup to place it in of course! From disposable coffee cups and sleeves to reusable mugs and glasses, finding the right vessel to showcase your coffee is essential to complete the look of your cafe.
Plating Tips For Your Coffee Shop
To keep the aesthetic of your coffee shop consistent, try incorporating the same elements used in your decor and ambiance into the look of your coffee cups.
- Consider crafting drinks in patterned or brightly colored coffee cups that match the interior of your coffee shop.
- Keep it minimal by opting for clear glasses, bright white mugs, plates, and bowls to create a blank backdrop for latte art or decorated pastries.
- To add a personalized twist to your drinkware, try customizing your coffee sleeves and cups with your company logo, slogan, or color palette.
Social Media Hack: When your loyal customers post a picture of your frothy espressos and lattes, customized drinkware ensures that your logo will make it onto their feed for their followers to see. It's even better if they tag your business in the picture, that way their followers can head over to your account and see what you have to offer. 
How To Keep Your Coffee Shop Eco-Friendly
Sustainability is a huge trend in the food and beverage industry so change out traditional cutlery for compostable wooden alternatives. By providing recyclable coffee cups and sleeves, you are helping make a positive environmental impact. And be sure to place recycling bins throughout your establishment so your customers can properly dispose of their waste. This shows both in-person customers and their Instagram followers that your coffee shop is eco-friendly. It can even potentially help you gain customers who choose to support businesses that prioritize sustainability over ones that don't.
Why Does Social Media Matter For Your Coffee Shop
Everyone is always on the lookout for their next social media post. Customers are more than likely to post a picture of their favorite lattes and cold brews anyways, so it could be beneficial for your business to take advantage of that to boost traffic and sales.
Having sunshine pour through windows and onto steamy mugs ensures that coffee is always camera-ready. By creating a coffee shop grounded in distinctive aesthetics and ambiance, you open a space where photoshoots and mirror selfies are not only common but encouraged.
