In today's digital age, marketing strategies are constantly evolving to keep up with the ever-changing consumer behavior. One such strategy that has gained popularity in recent years is WiFi marketing. But what exactly is WiFi marketing and how can you use it to your advantage?

WiFi marketing is a powerful tool that allows businesses to leverage their WiFi network to collect valuable customer data and engage with their target audience. It has become increasingly popular among businesses of all sizes, from small local cafes and restaurants to large popular brands like Starbucks, McDonalds and large retail chains.

By offering free WiFi to customers, businesses can gather insights about their preferences and behaviors, and tailor their marketing efforts accordingly.In this article, we will delve into the world of WiFi marketing and explore how it can benefit your business. We will discuss the various strategies and techniques you can implement to make the most of this innovative marketing tool. Whether you are a business owner looking to attract more customers or a marketer seeking to enhance your digital marketing strategy, WiFi marketing has the potential to revolutionize the way you connect with your audience. So, let's dive in and discover the possibilities of WiFi marketing.

What is Wi-Fi marketing, anyway?

Guest WiFi marketing is a powerful tool for restaurants, breweries and coffee shops to acquire new customers and increase sales. It’s a great way to engage customers and build loyalty while providing an additional layer of convenience.

By utilizing guest WiFi marketing, businesses can capture customer data to enrich an existing guest profile with new information and acquire new customer who are not in your restaurant data management system or CRM yet.  The data points may include email addresses, phone numbers and a zip code in exchange for access to the guest WiFi network.

This information captured from a guest WiFi marketing channel can then be used to create personalized email and SMS campaigns to elevate your brand's digital guest experience, increase engagement and consistently drive sales performance. 

Let's dive in.

Overview

Guest WiFi marketing can be an effective customer acquisition channel, increasing your guest list at a significantly faster rate compared to other digital channels. When connected to a Cisco - Meraki hardware access point, a guest WiFi network can provide valuable data on in-store repeat visits and location analytics without needing a separate location analytics solution.

Meanwhile, coffee shops who require a unique code associated with a purchase sees an average spend per guest of $24 each visit.

‍

5 Reasons Wi-Fi marketing is essential to restaurants

Restaurateurs and operators have a unique opportunity to leverage guest WiFi technology to consistently attract new customers and grow their audience. With the help of WiFi marketing, businesses can organically grow brand awareness - it is free digital advertising for your restaurant or coffee shop business.

You'll grow brand awareness

WiFi marketing enhances brand awareness by providing a fully branded guest WiFi captive portal, which functions as a digital billboard for your restaurant. Whenever a device searches for available guest WiFi near your restaurant, the owner of that device will be required to authenticate through a fully branded captive portal. To authenticate, the customer will need to spend a short amount of time looking at your fully branded captive portal, which can include a link to your online ordering menu, social media channel, or other product offers.

You'll collect valuable customer contact details

Designing the WiFi marketing customer journey can be a rewarding process. When a captive portal is user-friendly and responsive, customers who are interested in accessing your restaurant's guest WiFi network will willingly provide their contact information.

The data you collect could be used to personalize your guest engagement using email marketing, SMS marketing or both. 

You'll drive revenue and sales

Customers who have access to free guest WiFi tend to stay in-store longer than customers who don't. Providing a free guest WiFi amenity could potentially encourage customers to purchase more food and beverage menu items over a short period of time. 

Coffee shop owners experience a dramatic shift in sales performance by 20-25% when offering a guest WiFi amenity that require a unique code.  Read our customer case studies.

You'll understand your customers better

Offering free guest WiFi amenity will mean you have access to high-quality customer data. By understanding your customers better, you can gain insights into their preferences and motivations for choosing your restaurant or coffee shop.  An example of the type of information you can gather includes contact details like an email address, phone number, or zip code. A zip code is a valuable data point that restaurateurs can leverage to understand a detailed audience demographics.

And what about your customers? With free guest WiFi, your customers will:

Enjoy a delightful customer experience

You'll want to provide your customers with the best possible experience, and free guest WiFi will be part of that. Customers want to stay connected, work, catch up with friends online, scroll news, social media, and other sites while enjoying their dining, drink, or snack experience.  Customers that have access to guest WiFi as an amenity are more likely to return to your business location and invite friends to join them! 

With the help of WiFi marketing, businesses can organically grow brand awareness - it is free digital advertising for your restaurant or coffee shop business.

A restaurateur's guide to selecting a WiFi marketing solution partner

This guide provides steps for getting started with WiFi marketing and offers tips for selecting a suitable solution provider.

1. Choose a local network telecom provider: You'll need to choose a provider that offers reliable and secure WiFi solutions. Make sure they can meet your business bandwidth requirements and provide customer support if you have any issues.

2. Select a hardware access point that supports third-party captive portals. Cisco-Meraki and Unifi or Ubiquiti hardware access points are the two hardware access points that are popular among enterprise network management providers, business owners and local technicians.

3. Choose a captive portal technology solution partner. The captive portal is a fully branded “landing page” that customers see when they first connect to your guest WiFi network. This is where you can collect valuable customer data, such as email addresses, phone numbers, zip code and if you need to, require a unique code prior to connecting to the WiFi amenity.  Your selected provider should also be well-informed about the different captive portal technology behaviors by device. This knowledge should give you the confidence to try using one in your coffee shop or restaurant. 

‍

4. Responsive design, ease of use and branding capabilities. The captive portal technology is the first point of contact that customers encounter when connecting to the guest WiFi. Ensure that your chosen captive portal solution partner provides all necessary features for a quick, completely branded, and device-responsive user experience.

5. Configure access rules. After setting up the captive portal, your technology solution partner will configure access rules for guest devices, enabling them to safely access web applications and browse the internet according to your WiFi policy, while also protecting them from cyber-attacks and malicious activity.

6. Create an onboarding plan. Consider how you want to onboard your team and customers about the enhancements to your guest experience — this could include training your front of the house team (FOH) about the enhancements to your guest WiFi experience and policy. For your customers, it is good practice to share an update about the enhancements, why it is being implemented and a communication channel for follow up questions is always a great way to introduce a change.

7. Collect data for customer marketing purposes with the appropriate consent. Protecting consumer privacy should be top of mind when choosing a captive portal solution partner. When a consumer gives permission to be contacted for marketing promotions and offers, you can take advantage of the tools included in a WiFi marketing package, such as email marketing, SMS marketing, analytics, integrations, and more.

8. Analyze customer insights. Analyzing customer insights will help you optimize your marketing efforts and create campaigns tailored specifically for each of your customers’ needs and interests — ensuring better engagement rates every time.

The ROI of Wi-Fi marketing is impressive

WiFi marketing often results in a positive return on investment when the collected information is used for personalized digital outreach. An example, the cost of acquiring a new customer for the first time is $5.00 through a combination of digital advertising and social media marketing, while the cost to capture and engage a new customer through WiFi marketing is $0.03 cents per month.

It's inexpensive to set up, and it's easy to maintain. At the same time, it offers amazing and tangible benefits for your business.

WiFi marketing is still one of the best ways to get accurate first-party data from your customers, who share their contact information in return for access to your network. With this information and your customers' permission, you can run highly effective and targeted marketing campaigns.

The data you collect will also help you achieve your business goals. You'll enjoy a better understanding of what your customers like, their motivations, and who they are. You'll be able to use this information to make smarter decisions for your business that drive sales and revenue.

Conclusion

Implementing a guest WiFi marketing solution for your restaurant is a cost-effective guest engagement channel and can significantly make a difference to your restaurant's sales performance. GoGoGuest offers the ability to set-up a fully branded guest WiFi captive portal that behaves like your digital billboard, collect customer data and launch personalized email marketing and sms marketing campaigns.

Moreover, it can help coffee shops increase the average purchase per visit by requiring a unique code before connecting to the guest WiFi.  Book a demo.

‍