Guest WiFi Email Capture: Essential Marketing Strategy
In this guide, I’ll show you how to capture customer emails in exchange for access to guest WiFi.
You’ll learn why to use guest WiFi to capture guest emails, and how to do it.
So, let’s begin.
Why Capture Emails on Guest WiFi?
The practice of email capture through WiFi, a concept as old as WiFi itself, remains surprisingly underutilized in the broader hospitality sector.
Why the reluctance?
Many fear alienating customers with signup forms, while others are daunted by perceived technical complexities.
Let’s dismantle these concerns.
Guest WiFi Email Capture is Easy
Resistance to WiFi email capture often stems from a fear of deterring customers, but this concern overlooks the immense value of customer data.
True, customers might prefer hassle-free WiFi, just as they might enjoy complimentary drinks. However, this doesn’t mean they’ll shun your service over a simple signup form.
By streamlining the process to a quick, minimal data request, possibly with a social login option, the entire process can be as brief as 15 seconds.
Quality WiFi marketing solutions make this a one-time step, ensuring subsequent visits offer seamless connectivity, much like their home WiFi experience.
Email is the Foundation of Marketing Strategy
In the digital marketing landscape, email stands as the cornerstone, driving a multitude of strategies crucial for business growth.
It’s the key to unlocking customer reviews, a vital component for building trust and credibility.
Through email campaigns, businesses can effectively nurture customer loyalty, offering personalized deals and information that foster long-term relationships.
By integrating email into various facets of marketing, businesses can ensure a cohesive and impactful approach, maximizing the potential of their digital marketing efforts.
Once you have a customers email address you have a relationship with the customer that you control. After that, everything else is easier
How does Guest WiFi Email Capture Work? Find out More here
Summary:
- Don’t Hesitate: Overcoming concerns about customer pushback reveals the huge value in WiFi email capture.
- Simplicity in Action: Implementing guest WiFi email capture is straightforward and accessible for any business.
- Email, A Marketing Keystone: Email is crucial in driving customer reviews, loyalty, and targeted marketing efforts.
Getting Started with Guest WiFi Email Capture
Your business most likely has the necessary WiFi equipment to kickstart using a WiFi guest portal.
In case you don’t, setting it up is really easy and straightforward.
My guest WiFi email capture platform – MyPlace – has beed designed to work seamlessly with a wide range of WiFi systems, ensuring compatibility with your existing setup.
Should you need to upgrade or extend your WiFi capabilities, it’s a simple matter of enhancing your network with additional access points.
Reach out to your IT specialist for guidance on activating or upgrading your WiFi system for effective guest portal marketing.
Guest WiFi Email Collection Benefits
In the competitive world of hospitality, leveraging every advantage is crucial.
One key asset often overlooked is customer data.
Before diving into the benefits of WiFi email capture, consider the challenges facing the hospitality sector:
- a fierce competition,
- the impact of online reviews, and
- fluctuating demand.
Your customer data is a goldmine, offering insights and direct communication channels that platforms like Facebook or Instagram can’t guarantee.
Data is today’s most valuable resource, and harnessing it through WiFi email capture could be the game-changer your business needs to maintain and grow its market presence.
Capture Verified Emails
The single best thing that a good WiFi CRM or WiFi Marketing service can offer is the ability to capture verified customer email addresses.
All of the other features that they offer will simply be a value add on top of this key ability.
Almost all businesses now realize the power of their customer data and are going to great lengths to build a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
Facebook and Instagram are great platforms for the hospitality business, but have you noticed how it is getting harder to get your posts listed and viewed.
Even Twitter is pushing a new “recent tweets” feature that pretty much makes it very difficult for your post to reach your intended audience.
Want to know why this is happening?
Simply put, we all have a limited amount of attention time, and there are advertisers that are willing to pay the social media platforms for attention in your customers timelines.
This trend is only going to accelerate. You do not own your Facebook or Instagram following, Facebook does, and they can turn the tap on and off as they please.
The only way to build a truly valuable and lasting audience is to have direct link to your guests and have their email address.
WiFi Email Capture to Increase Online Reviews
With the all important customer email, you can connect into the online review platforms that influence and shape the hospitality industry.
Using the customer email, WiFi Marketing platforms, like MyPlace can automatically issue invitations to your customer to leave a review on your platform of choice, a set amount of time after they leave the restaurant, bar or hotel.
TripAdvisor and Yelp are among the most popular and the number of TripAdvisor reviews can be increased by over 400% when linked to your WiFi hotspot service.
Coming quickly into prominence is Google reviews, and at MyPlace, we believe that this will be a significant influence in this space in the years to come, specifically with augmented reality and the ability to see reviews in real time on a camera. Getting more google reviews for your business is going to be critical to achieve visibility and ranking.
Build Loyalty through WiFi Email Capture
With a good WiFi CRM and Marketing platform, you will have access to valuable loyalty metrics on your customers.
The ability to capture email on WiFi for restaurants can provide stats like visit frequency and date of first and last visit allow you to create powerful campaigns, based on the status of the customer.
For example, you could easily segment any customer who hadn’t visited your restaurant, bar or hotel in 6 months and send them a special welcome back offer, giving you another chance to turn them into loyal customers.
Similarily, you could frequent visitors or loyal customers an email asking them to sign up for your loyalty card, thereby increasing sales and profit margins
Feedback Channel for Customers
Getting feedback form customers is critical, and not always easy to execute. It is also preferable to get any negative feedback privately, instead of a public forum like TripAdvisor.
The Net Promoter Score feature, recently launched by MyPlace automatically sends a request to a customer after they visit, asking them how likely they are to recommend a venue to a friend.
This powerful loyalty indicator provides an accurate measurement of a customers likelihood of leaving a positive or negative review.
Combing this information with automated online review generation can provide powerful results both internally and in public review platforms
Use Guest WiFi for Footfall Data
This ability could also be compared to Google Analytics for bricks and mortar venues.
It will provide a high level anonymous view of the general population of customers in your restaurant.
With a good WiFi Marketing and Analytics service you can see the percentage of new users vs returning users in your restaurant over a period of time.
These stats are independent of the actual WiFi registration process and capture all people in the venue, regardless of whether they sign up for WiFi or not.
Unlike WiFi signup, the presence analytics feature is entirely anonymous
Concluding on Guest WiFi Email Capture
We have touched on several elements in this piece, from breaking down the typical barriers against email capture for restaurants to the specific how to and the benefits of WiFi Marketing.
The benefits are clear, and the risk is very low. Getting started is not difficult, and if you do not have the equipment you can buy for as little a $150.
A typical WiFi CRM and Marketing service like MyPlace costs only $49 per month and that includes all of the features outlined today. With the benefits being so high, and the risks and costs being so low, this is an easy win for your hospitality business.
Would you like to learn more about using your WiFi to collect customer email addresses? You can learn more on the MyPlace WiFi email capture product page
FAQ
What is Guest WiFi Email Capture?
WiFi Email Capture is a process where businesses collect customer email addresses through their WiFi network. It’s a powerful tool for marketing and customer engagement.
How does WiFi Email Capture benefit my business?
It helps in building a customer database, improves direct marketing strategies, and enhances customer loyalty through personalized communication.
Will customers be deterred by email capture on WiFi?
Most customers are accustomed to this practice and are willing to exchange their email for WiFi access. Making the process simple and quick minimizes any inconvenience.
Is setting up WiFi Email Capture complex?
No, it’s quite straightforward. Your existing WiFi system likely supports it, and your IT personnel can easily activate the guest portal feature.
Can I use WiFi Email Capture with any WiFi system?
Yes, most modern WiFi systems are compatible with email capture functionality. Your IT team can confirm if your current system supports it.
What should I do if my current WiFi setup doesn’t support email capture?
Upgrading or extending your WiFi network is generally simple and cost-effective. You can consult with your IT team for the best options available.
Does WiFi Email Capture comply with GDPR and other privacy laws?
Most reputable Guest WiFi software solutions will have inbuilt processes so that data is being collected and used in accordance with GDPR and local privacy laws
The more advanced guest WiFi solutions, like MyPlace allow you to sync any emails collected on WiFi to the most popular email marketing services, including Mailchimp
