Maximize Your Wi-Fi ROI

Marketing any business can be a challenging affair. Are you capitalizing on current trends? Are you reaching your target audience? Are your initiatives tailored to your specific industry? These are key questions to be asking yourself. However, in the digital age, an even more important question to ponder is whether you are taking full advantage of the many benefits your wireless platform affords you? In other words, are you maximizing your Wi-Fi ROI? In order to answer this question, it’s important to consider two primary metrics: the cost associated with your wireless platform, and the generated outcome from spending. Let’s look at some key strategies and tactics you should be using to get the most out of your Wi-Fi network.

Track visitors and create an email list

Captive portals or splash pages are used by businesses from restaurants to bars, cafés, airports, hotels and many others. Beyond presenting your welcome message and setting the tone for your business, captive portals offer a wealth of opportunities for savvy marketers, which is why you should make sure yours is optimized and targeted to your specific business goals. In order to get the most out of your investment, your splash page should be tracking all guests and visitors; collecting their contact information, email, birthday, as well as other useful customer data that can be parlayed into targeted marketing initiatives. Some restaurants have reported collecting between 250 and 750 emails per location, per month on an ongoing basis. This can quickly add up, especially for restaurants with multiple locations, and can go a long way to growing the reach of your marketing tactics.

Engage customers with targeted emails

While email blasts were once the go-to online marketing strategy, today we have access to a wide variety of more refined customer engagement tools. As such, businesses can now segment their customers by category and then deploy targeting initiatives. It should come as no surprise that targeted marketing is a lot more effective than non-targeted ads, offers and other communications. In fact, an article on CMO.com recently reported that targeted marketing initiatives were on average twice as effective as their non-targeted counterparts, and that consumers were more willing to trade in their contact information and details for promotions, deals or discounts that were in line with their interests. Some of the more popular and effective targeted emails that restaurants can have, include birthday greetings, a free product or meal upon a customer’s next visit and upcoming special events. Another effective targeted marketing initiative for restaurants is email solicitation of customers that have not visited the venue in a given amount of time – for instance, if a repeat customer hasn’t been by in over 30 days, you can choose to automatically email them as a means of reengagement.

Visitor notification

Another advantage that Wi-Fi marketing affords you, and that you should be capitalizing on, is instant visitor notification. Savvy restauranteurs and other retail business owners can get push notifications from their Wi-Fi network when a connected guest arrives. In turn, each of these push notifications provides the guest’s visit history, likes, dislikes and any available social media information. This allows your staff to offer existing customers a highly personalized service, which can go a long way to securing their business long-term. It should be noted that visitor notifications are a particularly effective tool in a restaurant setting where face-to-face interaction is paramount.

Rewards programs

While reaching new customers is important to grow your business, it’s equally important to maintain your existing customer base. Statistics tell us that, on average, 80% of a businesses’ sales come from the top 20% of customers. Add to this the fact that it can cost about five times more to attract a new customer than it does to retain an existing one, and you quickly realize the importance of directly engaging with and catering to your established customer base. One of the most effective ways to do this is with loyalty programs. Regardless of your industry, a solid Wi-Fi marketing plan should always include a rewards-based, points-based or multi-tiered loyalty program. These loyalty programs should also be easy to adhere to, simple to understand and should allow your business to collect additional actionable data beyond the initial customer contact information.

Wi-Fi Analytics  

In order to truly capitalize on your Wi-Fi marketing expenses, it’s critical to gain a better understanding of how each marketing initiative is working for you. To that end, a variety of customer engagement platforms exist that allow businesses such as restaurants and other retail establishments to collect and analyze a variety of customer data. Wi-Fi analytics platforms can provide considerable metrics such as first-time visitors, repeat visitor frequency, average dwell times, regular visit days, along with a wealth of other customer data. These metrics can accurately measure trends and customer behavior and can greatly inform your business plan. In turn, these metrics allow restaurateurs to fine-tune their approach, so they can create even more targeted marketing initiatives to grow their business.

Offering complimentary Wi-Fi in your restaurant or other retail establishment not only helps generate value and attract more customers, but it also lets you collect valuable insights about your guests that you can then parlay into a variety of marketing initiatives to maintain your customer base and grow your business. In order to fully capitalize on the many benefits that your Wi-Fi offers, it’s important to tailor your platform to your specific business goals. An experienced and trusted Wi-Fi service provider can help you define and design the perfect Wi-Fi platform for your restaurant or other retail business and will ensure you are maximizing your Wi-Fi marketing ROI.