Marketing Strategy for Coffee Start-Up

Not all businesses need a full strategy; sometimes you just need someone to point you in the right direction and work with you to develop a plan for your next steps.

Conor, the owner of Cosmopolis Coffee, wanted marketing advice for his coffee roasting company. His main concerns were:

-How to develop a reasonable marketing and advertising budget, given the business's goals -What should the marketing mix include? How much effort and investment should be dedicated to each channel? -Advice on strategy implementation -Any additional advice or insight that may be needed.

Marketing can feel complicated and overwhelming when you're a small business owner trying to figure it out on your own, and while Conor was doing a great job, he was ready to get some direction to help take his business to the next level.

Conor and I worked together over the course of four hours. During that time, we discussed how to best market his coffee, both online and locally, and different ways to stay true to the heart of his brand (the people and cultures that surrounded the growth and harvesting of the coffee beans).

The strategy included changes to their website, improving their sales funnel and email marketing strategy, setting a budget, and an implementation plan. It also included ways to get in front of their audience, including ads and in-person events.

A big part of our discussion was around their message and brand, not only building a brand message for Cosmopolis Coffee, but also talking about what their brand is and how to showcase it. The cornerstone of everything their brand stands for is community--with both the people who grow the coffee and the people who drink the coffee. We discussed how to tell that story, so that people associate the Cosmopolis Coffee brand with togetherness.

Working together, we developed a plan to work that theme of community throughout their marketing efforts, from their website to their social media and advertisements.

As Conor has started implementing the strategy we developed, and is already seeing results.

From his review: