8 Best WiFi Marketing Tools

Want to take full advantage of WiFi marketing? Wondering what tools to use and where to start with them?

I’m not surprised. Is there a better way to collect customer data and engage with them than to use the WiFi network you provide them for free?

(To be fully transparent, I appreciate that I might sound slightly biased here. I do run WiFi marketing software, after all. Nonetheless, I also strongly believe in the power of WiFi marketing.)

The problem? Well, you can’t take advantage of WiFi marketing without dedicated software. It’s just impossible to do without it. 

This is why I created this guide—to show you what options and tools are available on the market. 

Before we get to that, though, let’s very briefly discuss the concept of using tools to capitalize on the free WiFi you’re providing to customers. 

What are WiFi Marketing Tools?

First things first, when I talk about WiFi marketing, I mean various strategies to utilize the free WiFi network you’re providing to customers to: 

• Collect their customer data like email and other information and build your email marketing list.
• Display targeted messages or ads on the sign-up page (we call it the captive portal, by the way.)
• Offer promotions and coupons
• Conduct customer surveys, and so on. 

WiFi marketing tools, in turn, enable you to do it all and more. 

Let’s take email list building as an example. 

Usually, when customers want to connect to the free WiFi at your shop or restaurant, they first need to sign up. 

This happens on a page we call a captive portal. Customers are directed to this page when they access your WiFi network for the first time and need to enter some registration information to get access to it. 

This information might include their email address or social media details. The captive page might also display promotions, terms of service, videos, ads, coupons, and much more. 

The most important thing to understand about it is that you cannot create a captive portal without a WiFi marketing platform. 

• First of all, the platform will provide the captive portal capability. 
• It will also work with your router and trigger the portal when a new customer tries to access the network.
• The platform will allow you to customize the captive portal, add your logo, branding, marketing messages, and, most importantly, data capture fields. 
• The WiFi marketing platform will facilitate collecting customer data and forwarding it to your CRM or email marketing platform via direct integration. 

What are the core features of a WiFi marketing tool?

An important thing to remember about WiFi marketing tools is that these platforms are not similar. Some tools specialize in providing captive portal functionality. Others extend that and also offer email marketing capabilities. And then, there are all-in-one marketing platforms where WiFi marketing is only a small fraction of everything the tool does. 

For the most part, though, WiFi marketing tools provide the following core capabilities:

Captive portal

We’ve already discussed this capability, but it might be worth mentioning again. 

So, a captive portal is basically a web page that controls access to a WiFi network. In other words, captive portal is where you get user info (such as their email addresses or social media details) and show customers marketing messages, terms of service, or other info before letting them access the WiFi network.

Social login

Social login is a functionality that allows customers to access a WiFi network by logging in through their social media accounts.

In other words, instead of registering for access with their email, they connect via their social profile. 

Social login simplifies the login process for users and enables businesses to collect valuable customer data and engage with users through targeted social media marketing campaigns.

Return guest recognition

The idea behind WiFi marketing is to increase return visits. After all, you want to collect customers’ data precisely to engage and connect with them and attract them to your place over and over again. 

Return guest recognition capability allows you to identify and acknowledge returning customers when they connect to a WiFi network, personalize their experience, offer loyalty rewards, and tailor marketing messages to encourage even more repeat visits and enhance customer loyalty.

Visitor analytics

This particular capability allows you to track and analyze customer behavior within your WiFi network. 

Most WiFi marketing tools will collect various customer data: foot traffic, dwell time, repeat visits, customer demographics, and more. 

With this information, you can understand customer preferences, optimize your marketing campaigns, and improve the customer experience in your place. 

Integration with email marketing platforms

Let’s face it: You don’t collect all this customer data just to have it in a database. 

You want to use it to drive more sales and repeat customers for your business; the best way to do that is by communicating with them.

But for that to happen, you must first move all those emails and social logins from your WiFi marketing platform to the email marketing one. 

WiFi marketing tools integrate with other platforms and allow to transfer data to your email list directly. 

TIP: Review what other tools the WiFi platform you consider integrates with to ensure that it already works with the email marketing platform you’re already using. 

(My tool, My Place, integrates with the most popular email marketing platforms.)

8 Best WiFi Marketing Platforms and Tools

#1. MyPlace

Best for: 

Launching powerful and highly-converting WiFi captive portals.

What is MyPlace:

MyPlace (disclaimer—this is my tool) helps venues, restaurants, coffee shops, and other businesses manage access to WiFi networks through a captive portal where WiFi users are required to register to get access. 

In other words, with MyPlace, you can create a powerful captive portal for all customers who want to access your WiFi.

You can fully customize the captive portal, adding your logo and brand colors and tailoring its look and feel. 

Customers can also sign in using social login, and MyPlace also incorporates behavioral data and geo data to provide additional context for each customer.

Key features:

• Social login
• Email Capture
• Advanced Email Verification
• Customizable guest landing page
• Return guest recognition
• Dual-branded guest portals per site
• Visitor analytics
• Smart WiFi usage controls
• Branding customization
• Segmentation
• Micro-targeting
• Event tracking

Supported networks:

• UniFi
• Meraki
• Cambium
• Ruckus
• Aruba
• MikroTik
• OpenWRT
• Omada

Integrations:

• Mailchimp 
• ActiveCampaign
• Airship
• FB Custom Audience
• Klaviyo
• Zapier

#2. Beambox

Best for:

Managing the entire WiFi marketing campaign, incl. email marketing

What is Beambox?

Beambox is an all-in-one WiFi marketing platform, meaning that its capabilities cover everything from capturing customer data to using it to drive email marketing campaigns. 

As a result, Beambox is best suited for businesses that do not have an email marketing provider. That’s because Beambox offers an email marketing platform as part of its product. It is an excellent option for anyone who doesn’t have an existing system in place. But if you do, using Beambox means migrating all your data to its systems or using two separate tools.

Key features:

• Social login
• Email Capture
• Advanced Email Verification
• Customizable guest landing page
• Return guest recognition
• Visitor analytics
• Smart WiFi usage controls
• Branding customization
• Segmentation
• Micro-targeting

Supported networks:

• UniFi
• Meraki
• Cambium
• Ruckus
• Omada

Integrations:

• Mailchimp
• Zapier

#3. Cloud4Wi

Best for:

Large and enterprise-level businesses

What is Cloud4Wi?

Cloud4Wi is an enterprise-level WiFi marketing platform designed to help multi-location enterprises leverage their WiFi networks for growth. 

With Cloud4wi, you can set up customizable captive portals, offer customers social login options, and monitor real-time analytics. 

But, and this is worth repeating, Cloud4wi targets large enterprises and its product is optimized for the needs of such companies. 

Key features:

• Email Capture
• Social Login
• Advanced Email Verification
• Customizable guest landing page
• Return guest recognition
• Show customers ads, videos, or promotions
• Network Analytics
• Dual-branded guest portals per site
• Visitor analytics
• Smart WiFi usage controls
• Branding customization
• Segmentation
• Micro-targeting
• Event tracking
• Device recognition
• Data export

Supported networks:

• UniFi
• Meraki
• Cambium
• Ruckus
• Aruba
• MikroTik
• OpenWRT
• Omada

Integrations:

• Mailchimp integration
• ActiveCampaign
• Airship
• FB Custom Audience
• Klaviyo

#4. SocialWiFi

Best for:

Managing the complete WiFi marketing campaign.

What is SocialWiFi:

I admit that this company’s name might be a little confusing at first. Based on the brand name, it might seem like SocialWiFi was designed to facilitate social logins. The platform does that, of course, but it provides other capabilities, too. In fact, its feature set spans almost every aspect of WiFi marketing – data capture, email marketing, ad delivery, reviews and ratings, complaint management, and more. This makes the tool an option for companies that do not yet have an email marketing platform or other tools. 

Key features:

• Captive Portal
• Email Marketing
• Ad Delivery
• Review Gathering
• Customer Loyalty
• Complaint Management

Supported networks:

• Aruba
• Cambium
• Cisco
• DrayTek
• Extreme Networks
• Fortinet
• Grandstream
• IgniteNet
• MikroTik
• OpenMesh
• Ruckus
• Tanaza
• TP Link Omada
• Ubiquiti UniFi
• Zyxel

Integrations:

• Google Ads
• Snapchat Ad Pixel
• TikTok Ads
• ChatGPT
• SMS Marketing
• Campaign Monitor
• Freshmail
• GetResponse
• Klaviyo
• Mailchimp
• Profitroom
• Revinate
• SalesManago
• Webhooks
• Zapier

#5. Purple

Best for:

Enterprise-level WiFi marketing

What is Purple.ai?

Purple.ai is a complete solution primarily aimed at enterprise-level companies, and that is reflected in its plan structure and price. For example, the basic plan focuses on venues with twenty or fewer access points, while the next plan targets enterprise companies.

Key features:

• Email Capture
• Social Login
• Advanced Email Verification
• Customizable guest landing page
• Return guest recognition
• Show customers ads, videos, or promotions
• Network Analytics
• Visitor analytics
• Smart WiFi usage controls
• Branding customization
• Segmentation
• Micro-targeting
• Event tracking
• Device recognition
• Data export

Supported networks:

• UniFi
• Meraki
• Cambium
• Ruckus
• Aruba
• MikroTik
• OpenWRT
• Omada

Integrations:

• Mailchimp integration
• ActiveCampaign
• Airship
• FB Custom Audience
• Klaviyo

#6. MyWiFiNetworks

Best for:

Reselling a white-label WiFi marketing solution

What is MyWiFiNetworks:

What makes MyWiFiNetworks unique on the list is that the platform offers a white-label solution that allows other providers – MSPs, IT companies, etc. – to resell the product to their customers. This makes it ideal for any IT provider that wants to expand into offering customers with physical venue WiFi email capture capabilities. 

Key features:

• White-label captive portal solution
• Custom splash pages
• WiFi analytics
• Client access

Supported networks:

• Adtran
• Aruba
• Cisco
• Cradlepoint
• Datto
• Extreme Networks
• Meraki
• MikroTik
• OpenWrt
• Ruckus
• tp-link
• Ubiquiti
• Xirrus

Integrations:

• ActiveCampaign
• Aweber
• Clickfunnels
• Constant Contact
• Drip
• Facebook
• GetResponse
• Gmail
• Google Ads
• Hubspot
• iContact
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Mailchimp
• Sendgrid
• Shopify
• Zapier

#7. WiFi Marketing

Best for:

Outsourced WiFi marketing campaign management.

What is WifiMarketing:

What’s different about WiFiMarketing is that this isn’t actually a software company. Granted, WiFiMarketing does offer software to its customers, but they also offer consulting services to help their customers make the most of guest WiFi.

Key features of the company’s software:

• Data capture
• WiFi Analytics
• Email marketing automation
• WiFi Advertising

Supported networks:

• Not specified

Integrations:

• Not specified

#8. Adentro

Best for:

Complete WiFi marketing management.

What is Adentro:

Adentro is a marketing platform that uses your guest WiFi to collect customer data, provide in-store analytics, segment customers based on visit behavior, run email marketing campaigns and paid advertising campaigns, and even manage offline attribution.

Key features:

• Data capture
• Built-in CRM
• Data analytics
• Email marketing
• Omnichannel attribution analytics

Supported networks:

• Not specified

Integrations:

• Not specified

And there you have it…

Eight absolutely best WiFi marketing tools on the market today. 

All that’s left for you is to review them more closely and test out the ones that match your requirements. 

Good luck!