As the craft beer industry evolves, so does the importance of knowing your guests. Today, successful taprooms are those that actively collect, analyze, and act on guest data.
In an increasingly competitive landscape, simply serving great beer isn’t enough. The thriving taprooms are those that leverage the power of guest data to enhance their marketing efforts.
Here we will delve into the significance of collecting guest data, exploring ways to obtain it, and discussing how to use it effectively for customer segmentation and targeted marketing for taproom success.
The Importance of Collecting Guest Data
The foundation of any successful marketing strategy is understanding your customers. By gathering guest data, taprooms can gain insights into customer preferences and behavior.
This data serves as the lifeblood of informed decision-making, enabling taprooms to understand their guests on a deeper level. It provides valuable insights into guest preferences, purchasing habits, visit frequency, and more.
Such insights fuel the creation of tailored marketing strategies that speak directly to the individual guest’s tastes and behaviors.
Moreover, guest data enables taprooms to anticipate guest needs, drive engagement, cultivate loyalty, and ultimately, increase profitability.
Hence, the importance of collecting guest data in the craft beer business is much like the importance of hops in beer. It’s integral to the final product’s quality and character.
Ways to Collect Guest Data
Collecting guest data in your taproom can be as simple as it is essential. Like many other businesses, taprooms and breweries are evolving to gather guest data effectively and ethically.
This process, typically managed through a combination of digital technologies and personal interactions, involves collecting, organizing, and analyzing data associated with their guests’ habits, preferences, behaviors, and demographics.
Here are some techniques to consider:
- Captive Portals: When guests log into your WiFi at your physical location, a captive portal will require the guest to enter information prior to accessing the internet. Collect names, emails, ages, postal codes, genders, and more.
- Loyalty Programs: These can be a goldmine of information. By offering rewards, you incentivize guests to share their data. You can gather information about things like their favorite visit times, frequency of visits, and spending habits.
- Digital Surveys: Use feedback forms to gather data. These can be sent via email or made available on your website and social media platforms. Bloom can even automate the process for you and give you an accurate view of customer sentiment.
- Point-of-Sale Systems: Modern POS systems like Toast POS can track what each guest orders, providing insights into popular products and purchasing trends.
- Online Ordering/Reservations Platforms: This is another great way to gather more data about your guests. When guests order online, they can be asked for specific data or sent a follow-up survey.
Remember, it’s crucial to comply with all privacy regulations when collecting, storing, and using guest data.
A restaurant customer data platform like Bloom Intelligence will collect all of this data for you behind the scenes. All you need to do is sit back and watch your CRM database grow quickly.
In no time you’ll be able to segment your database and execute targeted marketing campaigns, improve your restaurant reputation, increase customer lifetime values, and watch your business grow.
Leveraging Guest Data for Customer Segmentation
Once you’ve gathered a substantial amount of guest data, the next step is to categorize your guests into different segments.
Customer segmentation, an essential aspect of a savvy marketing strategy, becomes infinitely more effective with the use of guest data. Once you’ve collected the data, the information can be analyzed and grouped to create distinct customer segments.
These segments might be based on various factors such as demographics, geographic location, behavioral patterns, and beverage preferences.
For example, you may have a segment of local craft beer aficionados who frequent your taproom weekly, a segment of tourists who visit seasonally, or even a segment of patrons who exclusively attend special events.
By identifying and understanding these unique segments, you can deliver a customized and highly engaging message.
This level of personalization fosters stronger guest relationships and increases the efficacy of your marketing efforts, illustrating the crucial role guest data plays in successful customer segmentation.
Each segment will have unique needs and preferences, and segmentation allows you to understand and cater to those effectively.
Guest Data for Targeted Marketing
With a clear understanding of your customer segments, you can then create personalized and targeted marketing campaigns. Here are a few examples:
- Email Campaigns: Tailor emails to each customer segment. For the local enthusiasts, send emails about new beer releases. For tourists, send seasonal emails reminding them of your taproom when they’re likely planning their next trip.
- Save Lost Guests: Easily identify and target guests who have stopped visiting your locations. Send them an offer or promotion to get them back through your doors.
- Social Media Ads: Use customer preferences and behaviors to tailor social media ads. You can target ads based on factors like location, interest, and more.
- Special Events: Use the data to plan events that cater to different customer segments. If you have a group of IPA lovers, host an IPA-tasting event.
- Loyalty Program Rewards: Tailor the rewards of your loyalty program based on customer preferences. If one segment prefers a certain beer style, offer discounts on that.
- Personalized Recommendations: Use customers’ order history to recommend new beers they might like. This could be done via email or even when they visit your taproom.
These are just a few examples of using guest data to power your taproom marketing campaigns. The opportunities are boundless.
With a restaurant marketing platform like Bloom Intelligence, collecting guest data and creating triggered, automated marketing campaigns becomes nearly effortless. All of the work is done behind the scenes, giving you time to concentrate on other important areas of your business.
You can also use Bloom’s AI-powered reputation management tools to aggregate, monitor, and respond to online reviews in a single platform. Plus, AI-driven automated responses can save you a great deal of time to devote to improving the guest experience.
In summary, the power of guest data in taproom marketing is immense. By effectively collecting this data, segmenting your customers, and using these insights for targeted marketing, you can significantly enhance your customer engagement, loyalty, reputation, and ultimately, your taproom’s bottom line.
Enhance Guest Experience Using Data
Data doesn’t just bolster your marketing strategy, it can directly improve the customer experience. By knowing your guests better, you can serve them better.
With data on their preferences, you can make spot-on beer recommendations, alert them to new releases they’ll love, or even cater your taproom’s menu to the tastes of your regulars.
A personalized experience is a superior experience, and it’s sure to turn casual visitors into happy regulars.
In the end, collecting and leveraging guest data is a key ingredient in the recipe for a successful taproom.
Not only does it fuel your marketing efforts, but it can dramatically enhance the customer experience, build strong guest relationships, and ultimately, make your business more profitable.
As you embark on this data-driven journey, remember the importance of ethical data collection, the potential of technology, and the ultimate goal: creating a taproom that’s a beloved favorite amongst all beer lovers who walk through your doors. Cheers!
Schedule a Free Demo Today
Bloom Intelligence is an AI-powered restaurant marketing platform that includes a powerful customer data platform, automated data collection, automated WiFi marketing, and reputation management tools.
Guest data is collected from many different sources and aggregated into one single platform, making it simple and easy to analyze and segment your restaurant’s guest personas.
Bloom makes guest data collection effortless, allowing you to quickly execute the strategies listed above, saving you time, increasing customer lifetime values, attracting new guests, improving your reputation, and boosting your bottom line.
To see more of what Bloom can do for your restaurant, schedule a free demo today, or call us at 727-877-8181.
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