A little competition can be a good thing. It can inspire, motivate and encourage forward momentum for all parties involved. In terms of restaurant marketing strategy, it keeps everybody on their toes and helps companies avoid many types of stagnation. Knowing that today’s restaurant patrons have numerous options, restaurateurs must understand it's essential to evolve and adapt to current market trends.
While this may sound pretty obvious, there is a catch. It's easy to come up with general strategies and test them out at your location(s), but coming up with the right strategy at the right time for your specific market at your specific locale, can be a little trickier.
The secret lies in gaining access to accurate insight and comprehensive data.
Customer analytics for e-commerce companies is nothing new, but it's something that hasn't been fully developed for brick-and-mortar locations – until now. Thanks to the ubiquitous rise in popularity of mobile devices, there is a relatively simple way to get a true grasp on the demographics and habits of your patrons. It uses your guest WiFi access point and provides precisely the kind of data you need for effective restaurant marketing.
By offering visitors free WiFi access, you're not only providing a service they will appreciate, you're also being handed a foolproof way to get to know them a lot better.
With a WiFi marketing and analytics platform like Bloom Intelligence, you will be able to track individual customer visits with accuracy. You’ll see things such as how often your clients are visiting, and how long they stay at your location, the amount of time that passes between visits, and what times of day or days of the week are particularly busy or slow. You’ll be able to see this data on an individual customer level, or overall location averages for any date span.
This information will help you target your marketing and promotions efforts to help fill sales gaps and boost your bottom line.
Additionally, using the personal information provided as visitors login, such as names and emails, you can tailor messages to your clients, thanking them for repeat visits or perhaps offering a discount or freebie once they reach certain milestones. Or, conversely, you can automatically trigger emails to customers who haven't stopped in for a while, letting them know you miss them and hope to see them again soon. Consumers will reap your loyalty benefits, which is always a good thing, and those who haven't had a chance to come in lately can receive a friendly nudge to take some time out of their busy schedule to visit your location once again.
As an added bonus, you can customize your landing page to encourage customer reviews or social media follows, or even promote special offers, events, and hot deals. Here's where you can get creative with your marketing, highlighting loyalty programs, or offering coupons for likes or shares. Utilize your repeat visitors to get the word out about your brand.
The more communication you have with your customers, the better relationship you will certainly build. And the more you understand their habits, the more efficiently you can entice them to visit again and again.
For more information on bringing the power of customer analytics to your restaurant, contact Bloom Intelligence to schedule a free demo today.