Offering Free Guest Wifi has been a staple in the restaurant business for sometime. The thought is the more comfortable the consumer is, the longer they will stay increasing the opportunity for additional sales.
In reality, turning the table would most likely provide a higher revenue than an additional coffee or desert. What about the consumers that linger and don’t buy anything?
Free Wifi is not without its challenges. If you are simply offering it as a Customer Convenience, incremental sales is the only upside for your business.
Consumers are now used to logging into things using their Facebook, Google or email credentials. If you were to ask them for these credentials when they log onto your Free Wifi, would they provide them?
YOU BET CHA THEY WILL!!
Why give it away when you can have them give you something in return?
Now that you have their information. So what?
There is a war being waged for consumers online, on their computers and on their cellular phones.
SPOILER ALERT: it also makes social media and google campaigns more effective.
When a consumer shops online, the ecommerce business collects, the consumers:
- Name
- Address
- Credit Card #
When a consumer executes a transaction at your store, what do you collect?
Ecommerce businesses DON’T:
- Smile and offer helpful service and advice
- Develop a relationship with their consumers
- Know their best customers by name
- Help customers with recommendations
- Give their children snacks and toys so the consumer can relax for a few minutes
What do Ecommerce businesses do then?
- They collect consumer data
- They market directly to these consumers
- They offer meaningful promotions, sales, loyalty programs
- Their ads show up everywhere the consumer goes online
Why are Ecommerce businesses so successful when every consumer knows how important it is to support their local neighbour?
- Consumers want to engage with their favourite brands.
- Consumers want to hear from these brands with meaningful offers.
- Consumers want to engage with MEANINGFUL loyalty programs
Can a local brick and mortar store do this?
IT SURE CAN.
Not using Guest Wifi as a marketing tool is an opportunity lost. Guest Wifi is one piece of a complex puzzle. This puzzle does not have to be expensive. But it does need to be a complete puzzle. Missing pieces in your Marketing Puzzle allow those sophisticated MegaMartAzon’s to steal the attention and consumer spend of your local consumer.
Marketing has changed over the years. A radio ad and newspaper ad just do not move the needle anymore. There is still a role for these but not in the same way. You cannot JUST do a radio ad or JUST a newspaper ad. If you have in the last few years, you have been disappointed by the results I bet.
What is required now includes:
- Getting your business listed on as many sites as possible
- A strong Google My Business strategy
- A Fully optimized website
- Consistent and strategic blog articles and case studies on your web site
- Strong and effective SEO
- Online ordering and appointment or reservation setting
- Easy to find coupons, offers and promotions
- A Loyalty platform that your customers care about
- Comprehensive CRM of your customers and prospects
- Behavioral insights on your customers and prospects
- Consistent social media campaigns
- And so on….
There is a lot.
The good news is, it doesn’t have to be expensive which means even a small business with limited means can execute a strong marketing strategy.
The bad news is, the MegaMartAzon’s have big budgets, dedicated marketing staff and a head start.
Free Guest Wifi can be an important piece in your overall marketing strategy. It can:
- Gather personal details on your customers and prospects
- Measure their frequency and duration of each visit
- Directly offer promotions and information about your business to your consumers
- Build your CRM database
- Allow you to market directly to them on social media and google
- Build profiles of your ideal clients
- Allows Google and Facebook to find more of your ideal clients more effectively
A strong strategy can be more effective and cost you less. That is the case with Guest Wifi. By marketing to consumers while on your wifi you:
- Provide them free ads
- They pay you with their contact information
- Make your other marketing efforts more focused, more effective for a lower budget
- Predict if you will lose that consumer or if you have already lost them
There is a war on the consumers cellular phones. Yokalize has built many tools designed for small and medium sized businesses. The sole purpose of these tools is to help you fight this battle and win this war. You might be surprised at how little you need to spend to execute a strong and successful marketing strategy.
If you are not building your CRM and using for marketing, you need to. Rest assured, your most sophisticated competitors are more than happy to steal your customers if you don’t take care of them.