The restaurant industry has changed in so many ways in just the last few years. With the pandemic and the incredible competition, it is time to embrace technology as a way to keep your guests interested and your business alive.
To do this, restaurants need to understand who their guests are. This requires collecting guest data from multiple sources, such as your website, social media, WiFi logins, online ordering and reservation systems, and more. Then it can be compiled, analyzed, and presented in an easy-to-understand way using a restaurant customer data platform.
It will allow you to stay ahead of your competition by making effective data-driven decisions while keeping very close track of all your marketing campaigns.
Smart restaurant owners and operators are realizing that technology allows them to keep up with the rapidly changing marketplace. COVID-19 has not only caused a tremendous loss of industry income, but it has also created a lasting change in operations and restaurant marketing.
No longer is technology a choice. It is now a necessity.
While many things still remain unpredictable, it is clear that technology is going to play a major role in keeping ahead of the competition moving forward.
With no clear end in sight, and for the first time ever, restaurant success depends more on take-out, catering, and delivery services. Many restaurants have had to restructure their business to shift more toward these services, as well as mobile and online ordering.
This has brought about changes in restaurant technology at a pace that has outmatched any ever seen before. Even after the pandemic is gone, guest behavior is likely to have changed forever.
Restaurant Marketing Technology in 2022
As more and more consumers are seeking a flexible restaurant experience, owners and operators are turning to technology to help get them through these tough times and come out with solid leverage as revenue begins to rise again.
Collecting and leveraging data about how your guests engage with your brand can be very useful in this area.
The key lies in understanding who your guests are and how they behave, both individually and at scale. When you have access to this kind of data, you can then remarket to them based on their wants, needs, and preferences.
Likewise, you can custom-tailor your marketing campaigns to your own specific business needs (delivery, take-out, etc.) and market each campaign to specific segments of your customer base.
Whether you are a single-store owner, or you operate a small to a medium-sized franchise, guest data is what can keep your business competing with the big brands through tough times and for years to come.
Today’s technological tools, such as a restaurant customer data platform, can bring this to you at a surprisingly inexpensive cost.
Using Technology to Segment and Target Guests
Especially in times of uncertainty, it is unwise to spend what money you have on mass marketing campaigns. With the marketplace in turmoil, it is best to leave this to the big brands who can afford it.
Perhaps a single mass message will resonate with many of the recipients, but for smaller companies, it is wiser to send targeted, personalized emails to various guest segments with messages specifically tailored for that group of people.
Why would a restaurant marketer want to segment guests and send different messages?
The answer is simple.
Segmented, targeted marketing is much more effective in terms of engagement and ROI. Then you can customize messages to each group’s particular needs and preferences.
The primary value in executing targeted, personalized marketing campaigns is that you are sending your message to guests who are more likely to engage and respond, and therefore purchase.
Again, the key to this it to have accurate, reliable, and comprehensive data from multiple sources about your guests’ actual demographics and behavior history.
Using Technology to Collect Guest Data
Ideally, you need an automated solution to gather guest data and store it in a singular platform. This will give you a true 360-degree view of your customer base and its various segments.
Even if you are closed for on-premises dining, there are still ways in which you can quickly build your customer database and begin executing targeted marketing campaigns.
Fortunately, there is a solution that can automate this for you. You can passively build your database while you concentrate on keeping your business running. Bloom Intelligence allows users to collect guest data from these multiple sources.
For instance, Bloom provides a simple-to-install widget that you can integrate with your website. This creates an unobtrusive pop-up that asks the visitor to enter their name and email address. It allows the website to write any message in the widget, such as signing up for a newsletter, specials, or deals, for example.
It can collect data from your POS system, from your online ordering platform, your reservations system, social media, mobile app downloads, your guest WiFi logins, and more.
As visitors come to your website, order online, engage with your brand online, or dine at your physical locations, your database will continue to grow.
Collecting Guest Data Through WiFi
Another way to collect data using Bloom is through WiFi technology. When guests come into range of your WiFi, the platform can “sense” a guest’s presence and begin collecting anonymous behavior data for that guest. It will know every time the guest returns and how they behaved during each visit, such as their dwell time, time of day, repeat rate, and other anonymous data.
This alone can bring you valuable data about how your guests behave. But Bloom can also help you find out who your guests are.
When a guest logs into your WiFi, they will be taken to a captive portal page, also known as a WiFi landing page. This page will require them to enter their email address before gaining access to the internet.
At that point, their identity (email address) can be matched with all previous guest behavior data associated with their device. This is a great way to passively collect guest data and create a large CRM database filled with detailed customer profiles.
Then you can begin to execute various marketing campaigns to different customer segments with messaging to resonate with those different segments.
Discover Bloom Intelligence
Learn how Bloom Intelligence can do this and so much more to increase your restaurant revenue, improve ratings and guest lifetime values, automate marketing tasks, and much more – all while saving your time and money.
Discover Bloom Intelligence, your guests will love you for it.
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