The competition in today’s offline marketplace is fierce. Brick-and-mortar businesses like restaurants and retail establishments are in a constant struggle to stay ahead of their competition, and presence analytics can provide them with a huge advantage. This technology is literally changing the way brick-and-mortar businesses are thinking about marketing.

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, physician, author

The most effective marketing campaigns are built on solid, reliable data. For brick-and-mortar marketing campaigns, WiFi analytics can bring you exactly the type of data you need.

Is mobile technology worth the money and time for restaurant owners to invest in? Well, consider a 2018 Pew Research Survey that shows 94% of adults aged 18-29 in the United States own a smartphone. In addition, 89% of smartphone users are 30-49. If you are going to reach them, you must reach them through the device they use the most: their smartphone. The same survey showed that 49% of Millennials prefer a digital restaurant receipt to a paper receipt. That age group is the most opinionated, adept, and engaged group of mobile users anywhere. Here are six reasons why mobile technology is worth the effort for restaurant owners. 

As a business owner, it's important to understand who your customers really are. After all, without them your business wouldn't exist. For this reason, it's integral that you are able to meet the demands of your customers to achieve a competitive advantage. One of the best ways to do this is by collecting customer data. 

Customers are spending an increasing amount of time online and because of that, the options of gathering customer data have advanced beyond measure. Collecting this data will not only help you build a loyal base of customers, but will assist in attracting potential new customers as well. Here's why collecting customer data is essential to your business.

Just as quickly as customer’s taste buds change, customer expectations are changing, too. Restaurant marketers are faced with challenges in increasing customer loyalty as well as differentiating among competition. Check out these stats to learn about the state of restaurant marketing and where to focus your efforts in 2018. 

One of the best tools available to restaurant owners are online review sites. More and more these days, people are turning to sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp! to help them decide which restaurants they go to. Having a good rating on one of these sites could be the difference between bringing in a large amount of new customers or having your numbers shrink. 

But in terms of marketing, there isn't much you can do to improve your standing. For instance, with your SEO strategy, there are things you can do to improve your standing within search engines. But with review sites, it all comes down to how well you serve your customers. That being said, the more reviews you can gather, the better. To do this, there are a few proven strategies you can try, that will encourage more people to leave a review on sites like TripAdvisor, and ultimately bring in more customers. 

We spend a great deal of time and effort courting customers. Resources, finances and considerable thought goes into how to attract, draw and eventually convert those visitors into loyal customers. However, we may not be spending enough time evaluating how long visitors dwell on property.

Loyal customers are what keeps any restaurant successful, so having effective ways to engage and track them is always important. One metric Bloom Intelligence uses to measure this is the Lifetime Value of Customers. A high result indicates customers spend more time and money at your establishment.  Personalizing content for key demographics is a great way to engage customers and keep them loyal to your brand, but finding the right ways to do this can be challenging. Here are some ideas when tailoring your content.

The more you know about your customers, the better experience you can provide for them and ensure repeat business. You don’t have to be a fortune teller to predict customer behavior when owning or managing a restaurant. The Analytics Dashboard provided by Bloom Intelligence can collect several business metrics while offering free Wi-Fi for guests. One important component to understand is the customer lifetime value.

Would you like to know what store promotions are working? Would you like to know what marketing campaigns are delivering real ROI? How about your operations and your staff, wouldn't it be nice to have some type of metric to gauge the performance of your business and employees?