In this world of digital dynamics, almost every other person keeps a smartphone and wishes to use it for recreation and learning wherever they are. And when they are shopping, they want to learn about the products they are going to buy. According to an estimate, nearly 82% of consumers use their phones while browsing aisles. This is why many venues are now offering access to their social WiFI network. Customers have to sign-in if they want to connect with the guest WiFi. This offer is not only useful for the customer but brick-and-mortar companies also get an opportunity to target customers with Social WiFi marketing.
Whether you own a retail store, restaurant, hotel, or shopping mall, offering free social WiFi is not only a great, in-demand perk for your customers, but it has serious benefits for your business, too. For instance, according to a study, 50% of customers feel more comfortable making a larger purchase if store WiFi is available. This blog post will tell you what social WIFI marketing is and how it can benefit your business.
What does Social WiFi Marketing Mean?
Although, nearly every retail location is offering free WiFi for their customers, yet the way to connect with it varies. Some retailers still give passwords to their customers to sign in to their WiFi network, this is workable but it leaves a lot of potential profit on the table. Retailers that are more advanced in their marketing strategies are setting up their network with a sign-in splash page. They ask customers through this page to connect to the hotspot via their social media accounts. And signing in through this method is known as social WiFi.
It is a very powerful option a physical space can implement as it is the most cost-effective and highly targeted digital marketing available. When a customer signs in with Facebook, you can use a captive portal tool to learn about that customer, his interests, and other contact information. And this information can help you devise a workable strategy for your business, besides retargeting your customers through email, surveys, and their social networks.
How does Social WiFi Work?
Some social WiFi providers use their own proprietary hardware which means the entire wireless network infrastructure needs to be partially or completely rebuilt. But some are using a more convenient option like services of cloud-based WiFi Marketing solutions. With this option, you will be ready to start putting your WiFi network to work for you after a quick setup process. Here’s how it works:
Most of the customers will try to connect to your wifi on their own but encouraging customers to sign in to your hotspot with their social media accounts is even better. And for this, you can post signs and messages around your retail space or offer a small discount to incentivize them to use the WiFi. And once they sign in, you can get access to their behavioral information. You will learn how often they return to your venue, how long they spend on your premises by using a captive portal tool.
Having this information on hand, you can effectively market to your customers. Offer them incentives for bringing to your location again, have them fill out a survey for making sales strategy. You can also ask them to review your retail space on user recommendation sites such as Trip Advisor and conduct multi-channel marketing through email, Facebook ads, and Google ads. All these things will ultimately boost your business.
How does Social WiFi Marketing Benefit Customers?
Logging into a guest WiFi network using the traditional method is not a convenient option for the customer. There is a bit of hassle involved in that option like they have to ask for the password or fill a form to use the WiFi. Social media authentication, on the other hand, gives customers a convenient option of one button sign-in. Moreover, when a customer returns to that venue, he will be automatically signed in onto the WiFi network.
How Can This WiFi Option Benefit Your Business?
WiFi marketing dramatically enhances the ability of businesses to connect with and understand their customers. This method can help businesses collect demographic and behavioral data, increase customer engagement, and market to their visitors. This data can help in increasing the number of times customers return to their venue which in turn increases sales. Here are just a few benefits you can enjoy with social WiFi if you are a business owner:
Increases Your Branding Presence:
You will stay fresh in your customers’ minds through digital marketing and email campaigns. You can even ask them to like your social media accounts to increase engagement.
Help You Know Your Customers:
Social Marketing gives you an understanding of your customers, what they like, and what their behaviors are with a captive portal tool. You can then use these insights to create hyper-targeted user lists to market to.
Grow Your CRM:
You can add the information you have collected (customer names, contact information, behavioral, and demographic data) to your user database. This will help you grow your database from hundreds to thousands to millions of active customers.
Understand how Locations Influence Each Other:
You can learn whether you have customers who visit multiple locations. It will help you cross-promote venues by offering incentives for customers at one location to visit another location.
Develop Valuable Relationships:
When you have demographic and behavioral data on your visitors, you can reach out to them via digital advertising and email marketing. Tailer messages and deliver them to specific types of customers or target them in accordance with their behavior in your venue. Send them an email an hour after they’ve left the premises to thank them for visiting.
Wrap Up:
Social Wifi Marketing has revolutionized the way businesses market themselves. It helps you in making decisions about your sales and marketing strategies. You will be able to satisfy and retain your customer with the information you get from this marketing method. This is the reason why more and more businesses are turning to wifi marketing solutions. If you too are an owner of a brick-and-mortar business, you can hire the services of EZ Smart WiFi, the best wifi marketing solutions provider.