The mailing list you already have (and how to start using it)

Here's a number worth sitting with: if a few hundred people connect to your Wi-Fi every week and you capture even half of their emails, you have a mailing list of thousands within a few months. A list of people who have physically stood in your shop and handed you money.

That's the most valuable kind of marketing list there is, and most coffee shops throw it away one customer at a time.

The fix isn't a clipboard by the register. Nobody fills those out. The fix is the sign-in screen customers already see when they join your Wi-Fi. Make connecting and leaving an email the same action, and the list builds itself.

Once you have the list, the rest is easy: a welcome email the first time someone connects, a gentle win-back when they've been away, the occasional "new beans just landed." We'll cover each of those in their own post.