Coffee shop marketing should be a constant in your business. Besides your inviting location, highly visible signage and killer espresso, how do you attract customers to your coffeehouse? Drink specials or coupons? Co-marketing with other businesses? Live music? All of these approaches have their merits and potential upticks in sales.

Not unlike your clothes, your menu design says a lot about you. Are you clean and polished and easy to read, or disheveled and a bit confused? Keep the following guidelines in mind when creating your menu and you’ll be sure to make a positive first impression:

A good restaurant menu will encourage customers to dive into your offerings. They should be able to rely on popular go-to items and new favorites—with a fair amount of flexibility mixed in, so they know what to expect. But your menu should not be set in stone (read: do not laminate). The big reasons for keeping it loose: fluctuating food costs, spoilage and passing trends.

The best part of a do's and don'ts list? The don'ts. Now that you know what to do on social media, here are some mistakes to avoid.

It wasn’t all that long ago that opening a restaurant or coffee shop required some cash to get the word out. You’d take out ads in the local newspaper, create fliers, and throw a press party to kick things off. Nowadays three free platforms do nearly the same job: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Coffeehouse marketing is all about letting people get to know you and the tangible benefits you offer. 

In a way, your brick-and-mortar coffeehouse or restaurant is its own form of advertising. If you’re well located—with significant drive-by traffic and plenty of unobstructed sight lines—visibility may be enough to keep business buzzing along. But other than your physical address, how do you market your business? And does your coffeehouse marketing message convey your philosophy while giving customers good reasons to walk through your door?

Body language speaks louder than words.

Have you ever walked into a room and decided whether to talk to a person based on the way they acted or looked? Were they involved in a lively discussion, or were they on the periphery of the room with their arms crossed? Did they make eye contact with you, or completely avoid it?