What to post on Instagram for a coffee shop
A café has more to post than most businesses and less time to do it. The problem is rarely a lack of things happening — it's that at 4pm nobody wants to open a design tool. These are twenty-eight posts that work for a coffee shop, what each one is actually for, and the one line you'd type to get it made.
Updated September 6, 2026
28
ideas for coffee shops, each with its brief
The new drink, with the price in the image
The single highest-performing post a café can make, and the one most often ruined by leaving the price out. Someone scrolling decides in a second whether this is for them, and price is half that decision. Put the drink name and the price inside the artwork, not only in the caption — most people never open the caption.
The brief that produces it “our new cold brew tonic is here for the summer, $6, we want people to try it on the terrace after work”
Holiday and long-weekend hours
Boring, and among the most saved and shared posts you will publish. People screenshot opening hours. Post it two days before, not the morning of, and keep the dates large enough to read from the feed thumbnail without opening the post.
The brief that produces it “we're open 9 to 2 on the holiday Monday and closed Tuesday, let people know”
The beans you're brewing this month
This is the post that separates a café from a place that sells coffee. Origin, roaster, what it tastes like — three facts. It gives regulars something to ask about at the counter, which is worth more than the likes.
The brief that produces it “this month we're pouring a washed Colombian from Huila, chocolate and orange, tell people what it tastes like”
Hiring
Hiring posts reach further than anything else a small café publishes, because followers tag people. Say the shift, say whether experience is needed, and say how to apply. Vagueness costs you applicants.
The brief that produces it “we're looking for a weekend barista, no experience needed, we train, send a DM”
A moment behind the counter
The first pour of the day, the grinder being dialled in, latte art that failed. It's the cheapest post to make and the one that builds the thing people actually follow a café for, which is the feeling of knowing the place.
The brief that produces it “a behind-the-counter shot of the first espresso of the morning, warm and quiet”
Loyalty card or bring-your-own-cup discount
A recurring offer needs re-posting more often than it feels comfortable to, because your feed reaches a fraction of your followers each time. Once a month is not too often for something that is permanently true.
The brief that produces it “reminder that bringing your own cup takes 50 cents off any drink, every day”
A pairing
Two products in one post, and it raises the average ticket instead of just the follower count. Name both items and make the photo do the selling — this is the post where the artwork matters most.
The brief that produces it “our almond croissant with a flat white, the pairing we recommend every morning”
The terrace, live music, a small event
Anything that gives someone a reason to come at a specific time rather than someday. Put the day and the hour inside the image. An event post without a date is a mood board.
The brief that produces it “the terrace is open again, live music Thursdays from 7pm, no cover”
Why a flat white costs what it costs
Someone is deciding right now whether your coffee is expensive, and if you never answer they answer for you. Name what is actually in the cup: the roaster, the milk, the person pulling it, the room. Do it without apologising and without asking for sympathy, and without naming the chain down the street — being specific about your own side is enough.
The brief that produces it “explain why our flat white is $4.50 and what goes into that price, no apologising”
The milk list, surcharge included
Oat, almond, soy, lactose-free: a lot of people choose a café on this alone and none of them will DM to ask. Say which ones you keep, which one you would actually pick for a cortado, and if you charge extra put the number in the same post. The cafés that hide the surcharge until the counter are the ones collecting the bad reviews.
The brief that produces it “we have oat almond soy and lactose free, oat is 40 cents extra, say it straight”
Decaf, treated like real coffee
Most cafés keep a dusty bag of decaf under the counter and never mention it, which quietly tells pregnant customers, anyone on medication and anyone who wants a coffee at nine at night to go somewhere else. Post which decaf you use and that it goes through the same grinder and the same recipe as everything else. It is a small audience that comes back every week.
The brief that produces it “we take decaf seriously, same origin same recipe, tell people they can have a good coffee at night”
What to order if you don't know what to order
The counter is a stressful place for someone who only knows the word latte, and that stress is why they order the same thing forever. One post that maps taste to drink — milky and mild, short and strong, black and fruity — removes the friction that keeps people from trying the thing you are proudest of. Use your own menu names, not textbook definitions, and stop at four or five drinks.
The brief that produces it “a simple guide, if you like it milky order this, if you want it short and strong order this”
Laptops and Wi-Fi: post the rule
Every café has a policy on this and most of them communicate it by glaring at someone at one o'clock on a Saturday. Publish it instead: laptops welcome until noon on weekdays, plugs along the back wall, weekends the tables are for two. Being clear is not being unfriendly — it is how you get the right people at the right hour without having that conversation.
The brief that produces it “laptops are fine until 12 on weekdays, not on weekends, plugs along the back wall, say it kindly”
How people pay, before they reach the counter
Cash only, a card minimum, a QR code that works with one app: any of those is a bad review waiting for someone to find out with a drink already in their hand. Post what you take, plainly. If you have a minimum, put the number inside the image rather than buried in the caption.
The brief that produces it “we take cards and contactless, no minimum, cash is fine too, make it clear”
The best hour to come if you want a table
You know exactly when the room fills and when it empties, and your customers are guessing. Telling them which windows are calm moves demand off your worst twenty minutes and wins back the person who left last time because there was nowhere to sit. It reads as generous and it is really scheduling.
The brief that produces it “if you want a seat come before 8 or after 10:30, the rush is 8:30 to 10, tell people honestly”
Bags of beans to take home
There is a shelf of retail bags in most cafés that nobody has ever photographed. One bag carries the margin of several cups and puts your name on someone's kitchen counter for two weeks. Show the bag, say the weight and the price, and add the line about keeping it: sealed, away from heat and light, ground the day it gets drunk if they can.
The brief that produces it “we sell 250g bags of the house blend for $14, tell people how to store it so it lasts”
How to brew our beans at home without ruining them
People buy your bag, brew it badly and quietly decide your coffee was overrated. A short post about grind size, how much coffee to how much water, and letting the kettle settle before pouring protects the bag you already sold and sells the next one. Give your own numbers for your own coffee, not a generic recipe copied from somewhere else.
The brief that produces it “how to brew our beans at home, grind, dose and water off the boil, short and practical”
The last week of the seasonal drink
A drink that is leaving sells harder than a drink that arrived, and because the date is real you are not inventing urgency. Post it with the actual last day and say what replaces it, so the same post opens the next season. Do not do it more often than the calendar honestly allows — if everything is always ending, it stops meaning anything.
The brief that produces it “last week for the horchata latte, it leaves the menu on sunday, iced matcha takes its place”
The food you sell that nobody knows you sell
People file cafés into two boxes, coffee and somewhere you can eat, and if you are in the first one they walk past you at one in the afternoon. Post the sandwich, the soup, the thing your kitchen is genuinely good at, with the hours the kitchen runs. If you have a gluten-free or vegan option, put it in the same post: that is the person who checks before deciding for the whole group.
The brief that produces it “we do toasties and soup from 12 to 3, there's a vegan option, most people don't know we serve food”
One person behind the bar, and what they drink off shift
Team posts fail when they read like a LinkedIn bio. Pick one person, say how long they have been there and what they order on their day off — that last detail is the whole post, because it is a recommendation from someone who tastes everything that comes off that bar. What actually happens is that customers start ordering by name.
The brief that produces it “meet ana, two years with us, on her day off she has a cortado with the ethiopian, keep it warm”
Who makes what you sell
The bakery three streets over, the person who makes the cakes, where the milk comes from. Naming your suppliers tells people your food did not arrive frozen in a box, and it is one of the few posts another business will reshare to its own audience. Say the name and say why you chose them over the cheaper option.
The brief that produces it “our croissants come from the bakery around the corner, we pick them up at 7, say why we chose them”
A regular and their usual order
You ask first, then you post the person and the exact drink they have had four hundred times. It is the most believable thing on your feed because there is nothing being sold inside it, and every other regular reads it and recognises themselves. Never post a customer's face without asking, and never invent the regular.
The brief that produces it “marco comes in every morning at 7 15 for a double espresso, we asked him, tell that story”
A real review, quoted word for word
Screenshots of five stars go unread. One sentence somebody actually wrote — the odd, specific one about the cinnamon bun or about the barista remembering their name — does work, because it sounds like a person and not like a brand. Quote it exactly as written, credit it, and never write one yourself.
The brief that produces it “a customer wrote that our cortado is the only one she likes in this neighbourhood, use that line as the post”
The day the machine broke
The espresso machine goes down, the delivery does not turn up, Saturday runs twenty minutes behind. Saying it the same day costs you nothing and buys more trust than a month of nice photographs, as long as you say what happened and what you did about it. The version that fails is the vague apology with no facts in it.
The brief that produces it “the espresso machine went down saturday morning, we served filter and apologised, tell people what happened”
The offer that fills the empty hours
Every café has a dead stretch, usually mid-afternoon, with the lights on and nobody buying. A discount that only exists between three and five moves people into that window instead of giving away margin at the hours you were going to be full anyway. Put both hours inside the image, and if it stops working, end it without drama.
The brief that produces it “between 3 and 5 any filter coffee with a cookie for $5, only in those hours”
Office drop-offs and event orders
The offices on your street are ordering bad coffee for their meetings because they do not know you do this. One post with the minimum order, how much notice you need and what it arrives in turns a quiet Tuesday into a tray of thirty. Say the notice period: that is the detail that kills the impossible one-hour requests.
The brief that produces it “we do coffee for offices and events, from 10 cups, 24 hours notice, message us to arrange it”
Who the room is actually for
Dogs, strollers, a table that six people fit around, a high chair. People plan around these and will pick the café that answered the question before they asked it. Say what you can host and also what you cannot — a small room with no space for a stroller at nine in the morning is useful information, not bad news.
The brief that produces it “dogs are welcome, we have two high chairs and water bowls outside, the big table seats six”
The business next door
The bookshop, the gym, the barber: their people are your nine o'clock. A post that sends customers their way is the cheapest marketing there is, because it is the kind of favour that gets returned in front of an audience that already walks past your door. Do it with a real neighbour and for a real reason, not as a swap of tagged posts.
The brief that produces it “the bookshop next door just opened, we want to send people their way, say their books read well with our coffee”
Twenty-eight posts is roughly two months of a café's feed, publishing every other day. If you want the year planned instead of the week, the content calendar below breaks it down month by month.
Your posts for coffee shops, ready in a minute
- Free, no card and no watermark
- 10 credits to start and 10 every month
- Publish and schedule up to 20 posts a month