Tomer Molovinsky shows five ways coffee shops can get more app downloads without paid ads: optimize your website, add ordering links to Google Maps, promote on social media, use email campaigns, and put QR codes in stores. App users spend roughly three times more than in-store customers.
If you have a presence online, even on just a few channels like Instagram or Google Maps, then you're sitting on untapped potential. The reason is that mobile app users, they spend 3x more than your typical in store customer. And you could be leveraging these channels to get those people to download your app and then obviously spend more. In this video, we're going to talk about the top five ways to drive organic app downloads. So let's jump right in. The first channel that you're going to want to optimize to drive app downloads is your website. So starting from your menu navigation bar at the top of your site, you're going to want to make sure there's a link there with a clear call to action. Something like download app. Typically we'll also see people use that button that can appear in the upper right hand corner as a way to signal that you have an app as well. Again with a strong call to action. Then you're going to want to have a section on your homepage. This usually has like clear visuals. We'll provide a lot of these visuals for you through our design team when you launch with per diem. Also, like pop up banners work really well and then adding some sort of link in your footer as well. So that again, that appears on every page of your website. Usually all these sections, they'll lead to an app landing page that that app landing page will have information on your app and then it'll have links to both your iPhone app and your Android app. So again, people who download your app, they're going to end up spending 2x more than people that just order from your website and 3x more than in store. So the ROI is built in and you really want to drive that traffic to people that download your app because they're going to end up spending a lot more with you. We've seen more and more stores that'll launch. They'll go app only and they'll launch with just an app to drive a lot of those app downloads. And then again, when you're getting mentions on social media and stuff like that, that'll just help to drive more app downloads. So optimize your website, make sure that's available both on mobile and on desktop view and you'll see the ROI right away. The second channel that you're going to want to optimize and convert that into app downloads is your Google Maps listing. Google and Google Maps sit at the top of the funnel and that's where people start their search and their discovery and Here we've seen a few things be effective. Number one, you can edit your menu URL on your Google Maps and you can direct that to your app landing page where people can either download your iPhone app or your Android app. And again, your app is essentially your menu. It's a live menu. It has all your items, it has your inventory. So why not? And again, these users are going to end up ordering from you 3x more than in store, 2x more than your website. So again, the ROI is baked in. Another thing you can do instead of your menu is you can select as like a preferred ordering option on your Google Maps listing. You can again put your app landing page on there. You'll direct those people to your app landing page and then, great, they're going to download your app and now you're going to have that direct channel to communicate with them. So again, this has kind of been undercover. Like I don't even think Starbucks and Panera and those guys do this, but we've seen this be a super effective channel outside of your website. Probably the biggest opportunity in terms of app downloads. The third organic channel that you're going to want to optimize to increase app downloads are your social media channels. Now keep in mind, social media is more about awareness. Conversion. On social media, not so much. A lot of times this happens through a third party, whether it's an influencer or some sort of media figure will post about you and then that's going to drive the traffic. And in these scenarios, really it's less. You're not converting them as much on your Instagram channel or your TikTok channel. But what you're doing is people then hear about you, they Google you, they go to your website, they end up on your website. And going back to step number one, you're going to want to make sure your website is super optimized to capture all those people and to get them to download your app. Because again, 3x more from in store, 2x more from your website. So you capture that audience through social. You know, we've had a store recently again, I mentioned them before Barrio, they went viral on TikTok. Not from their own video, but someone posted a video about them and basically they got a ton of views, a ton of traffic, and then they converted that all into app downloads and they had just record breaking days, weeks, months. And this is during a slow time over summer in Arizona. So again, leverage with social media, it's less about converting on that channel, it's more about driving them to your own Channel, which is your website, and then getting the conversion there to your app. Good luck. Organic channel number four, email. So when you have a modern point of sale like Square, you're going to automatically start collecting these email addresses and building out your database and building out your list. Then you're going to be able to send through Square and Square marketing either automated campaigns or like email blasts. And on those email blasts especially, that's where you can include information about your app. And it's a really effective channel to get those app downloads. Typically we see this work really well when it's tied to an incentive. That can be a coupon, that can be something like a bogo deal, or it can just be like, hey, we have new menu items. Check out these awesome products that we're making. You know, this new drink, this new dish, whatever it is. Even if you're just sending out a general email at the bottom, you can create a section with information on the app and then great people click on that, they download the app again. Much higher, higher ROI and a great channel for you to optimize. The fifth place to optimize for app downloads is going to be your store itself. This can be done really simply with like postcards or window decals or let's say table tents. And then you can go take that next step by like printing it on your to go bags or your napkins or, or drink sleeves. We've even seen a lot of stores that'll have like a to go section and then they'll have a lot of like cool signage around there. If you use square point of sale, then you can also add an image onto the point of sale itself with the QR code and the call to action to download your app. So this is really where you can get as creative as you want. Keep in mind that these customers, I've said it time and time again, but they're going to spend 3x more than your typical in store customer. So if your average customer is coming six times a year, that can be about $100 in extra spend. If you're a coffee shop, but which you know, you extrapolate that over tens of customers or hundreds of customers, or even thousands. And that's where you really get the hypergrowth. And that's why you see these big chains like Starbucks and Panera, that's why they push their app so much, because they just make so much more money through their app than a typical in store customer. So those are the five most effective ways to drive organic app downloads. Again, starting from your website and really making sure it's merchandised well, both in the navigation bar and on your homepage. And then getting into your Google Maps listing and making sure either the menu URL or your ordering options include your app landing page. Then getting into social media and really again, this goes back to your website. Once you get the word out there on social and people are going to, you're going to drive people to your website. You want to make sure that your website is merchandise to convert that then into app downloads. Then getting into email marketing and general direct response marketing, building up that email list, sending out offers, sending out, hey, here's what's on the menu and really driving those incremental app downloads. And then finally in store, and this is like the fun part where you can get really creative. This can be just collateral like postcards and window decals, or you can create entire sections of your store that have signage and that's dedicated to this. I would say just start small and the key is just to start and then you'll see again, three times more than in store. You do the math, the ROI really adds up.
