How to Attract Students to your Ice Cream Shop

Research conducted some years ago shows that the largest demography of people who patronize ice cream shops are students of all levels.

In essence, if you are planning to open an ice cream shop, or if you already have an ice cream shop and you are looking for ways to increase sales, then you should consider attracting students.

Interestingly, there are several ways or strategies you can adopt to attract students to your ice cream shop. Note that students are attracted to places where they feel connected, and a place where they can get things cheap or at a discount.

These and more are part of the tips we will discuss in this article. So, if you are looking for ways to attract students to your ice cream shop, then you may want to consider reading this article.

10 Strategies to Attract Students to Your Ice Cream Shop

1. Build an Active Social Media Presence

The fact that a large chunk of the population across various social media platforms are students makes social media a suitable place to deploy your marketing strategies.

You can do this by establishing a strong presence on popular social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter.

Much more than having an active presence on social media platforms, you should encourage your followers to share mouth-watering pictures of your ice cream creations.

You can even go ahead to regularly run social media contests or promotions to encourage students to share their experiences or create their own ice cream combinations.

2. Student Discounts

One of the marketing strategies you can deploy to attract students to your ice cream shop is to offer student discounts. The truth is that offering student discounts will make your ice cream more affordable for them hence it will pull them to your ice cream shop.

Of course, you may not have the capacity to sustain discounts for a long time hence you should consider creating special student discount days or happy hours.

3. Loyalty Programs

You can implement a loyalty program where students can earn points for each purchase, and after attaining certain points, they will be able to get discounts or free items the next time they visit your ice cream shop.

To track their purchase and make them keep count, you should provide them with loyalty cards or apps that can help them.

4. Collaborate with Student Organizations

Collaborating with student organizations especially the student union leadership of any school is one of the surest ways to endear your business to the hearts of students.

In essence, if you are looking to attract students to your ice cream shop, then you must go out of your way to partner with local universities or colleges and collaborate with the various student organizations in the school.

You can achieve this by sponsoring events or sports teams. With that, it will be easier for you to increase your visibility among students which in turn will help you attract them to your ice cream shop.

5. Themed Nights or Events

Naturally, students love places that are attractive, and trendy. So, one of the strategies you can deploy to achieve this is to organize themed nights or events in your ice cream shop specifically targeting students.

For example, “Student Sundae Sundays” or “Late Night Ice Cream Madness.” You can bet that if the events are well-organized, your shop will not be big enough to accommodate the number of students that will flock there.

6. Create a Cozy Atmosphere

Creating a cozy atmosphere for your ice cream shop means that you should design your ice cream shop with a student-friendly atmosphere, incorporating comfortable seating, Wi-Fi, and study-friendly spaces.

Apart from that, you should also consider playing music that appeals to students and consider hosting live music events.

Trust me, students naturally love socializing and enjoying themselves, and such an atmosphere will pull them to your ice cream shop.

7. Engage with Local Colleges/Universities

Apart from working with student organizations, you can work directly with colleges or universities. For example, you can attend local college fairs, events, or sports games to promote your ice cream shop in the student community. This will work well if your ice cream shop is located within the campus community.

When you attend such college fairs, events, or sports games, you may also want to consider setting up booths or ice cream trucks on or near campuses during such special occasions.

8. Online Ordering and Delivery

Trust me, students love the easy life, anything that will make them get what they want at a fingertip will always be welcome by them. In essence, implementing online ordering and delivery services will make it convenient for them to enjoy their ice cream without leaving their dorms or apartments.

9. Cross-promotions with Local Businesses

You can boost student traffic to your ice cream shop by strategically collaborating with local businesses. For example, you can create cross-promotions by offering discounts or incentives to customers (students) who show receipts from nearby establishments like coffee shops, barber shops, hair salons, grocery stores et al. This mutually beneficial approach will help enhance the visibility of your ice cream shop.

10. Bloggers and Influencers

Come to think of it, most of the people who make up the larger percentage of the followership of most bloggers and influencers are students.

All you need to do is to make sure you work with bloggers and influencers who are still in school or are still in connection with the school they graduated from.

The truth is that students can easily trust the judgment of the influencers they are following, and if these influencers or bloggers recommend your ice cream shop to the student community, you can rest assured that they will flock to your ice cream shop.