49% of people will disregard a brand if it bombards them with ads or if they perceive the advertising to be irrelevant. As consumers are continuously inundated with digital advertising and customized messaging throughout each day, for marketers, relevancy remains the ultimate challenge. Practically every advertising platform—Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and other content publishers—offer strategies for targeting a specific audience and reaching only those relevant to the brand. 

But how specific can these platforms get? Sure, you can enter a custom list of emails and monitor online behavior, but what about reaching an individual at the exact moment they step inside a local establishment? This is the level of trigger marketing personalization that can be achieved with a WiFi marketing platform. 

What is trigger marketing?

Trigger marketing reacts to a consumer’s past or current actions to inform their future behaviors, anticipate their needs, and ultimately predict the type of messaging they’re most likely to respond to. 

For instance, in the digital world, if a shopper has something in their online shopping cart but never makes a purchase, the retailer often sends that shopper an automated email reminding them to follow through and purchase. 

However, until WiFi marketing became accessible, this kind of messaging was completely off-limits for local businesses and marketing agencies serving them.

The role of WiFi marketing

In order to leverage data for accurate messaging, you need a system to collect that data. WiFi marketing software is that system for brick-and-mortar businesses. 

When a visitor signs in to the business’ guest WiFi, they’re able to gather valuable visitor provided data such as email addresses, phone numbers, information from social profiles, and their presence on location. Your agency can even use trigger marketing for new visitors. 

For example, a guest walks into a coffee shop and logs in to the free WiFi. Knowing that they are on location, an automated message can be sent to them promoting a Thursday special. 

As a side note, while purchasing ads online is effective, according to a recent study, consumers prefer email when communicating with brands. Let’s face it, direct messaging will never scream “AD!” as loudly as traditional advertisement. 

Our brains are practically trained to filter through banners, especially if we’ve been raised with a touch screen in-hand. The right platform combined with the right messaging can make the difference between slow profits and a boosted business.

Once you have a clear picture of your client’s customer base and some of their habits when it comes to the local business, you can use WiFi marketing to trigger targeted messaging. Here are a few examples of how this can be applied.

Meet Customers Where They Are (Literally)

WiFi marketing can track a user’s location when they are visiting your client’s establishment. This means you can trigger specific messages. Let’s say your client is a clothing store. Aside from simply telling their visitors to check out a new sale item when they walk through the front door, WiFi marketing uses geofencing to track exactly where they are inside the store.

What does this mean for your messaging? While a customer browses the sweater aisle, send them a message promoting a two-for-one sweater deal. With WiFi marketing, you have the ability to send highly relevant messaging to your client’s visitors at the very moment they’re making key purchasing decisions.

Aside from geofencing, WiFi marketing uses presence analytics that can help you understand the behavior of certain customer segments. If you notice that certain key demographics favor particular times or days—for instance, millennials 18-34 are visiting your client’s cafe every Saturday early afternoon—send targeted messaging to this age category advertising brunch specials a few days before.

Presence analytics provides invaluable insight into visitor behavior and preferences. You’ll be hard-pressed to find this level of personalization elsewhere.

Customize Promotions

When a visitor logs in to your client’s guest WiFi, the WiFi marketing software automatically generates a user profile containing their information and activity. If they used social media to log in, you will have their birth date recorded.

To maximize the personal sentiment of communication and build a stronger relationship between your client’s business and their customers, you can create an automation that will send a happy birthday message to the customer with a special offer just for them.

Reach Lapsed Customers

Attracting new customers is always the most important marketing goal. However, in terms of efficiency, reaching existing customers costs 5% less than acquiring new ones.

WiFi marketing enables you to automate messaging to customers who haven’t visited your client’s establishment for several weeks or months. Remind lapsed customers of your client’s offers and win back their loyalty with messages highlighting promotions, new products, and specials.

Address Potential Issues 

WiFi marketing provides a holistic understanding of your client’s customers that visit the local business every day. Which days of the week are the busiest? Which hours always lag? What areas of the location see the least foot traffic? 

When you have a visual understanding of problematic areas in your client’s business, you can shift their marketing strategy to address those problems. Start sending messages to customers encouraging them to visit the location during slower days with day-of-the-week specialty offers. Use presence analytics to send messaging that highlights specific products or areas of the location that remain less popular to boost awareness and, ultimately, generate profit.

Drive Local Marketing Forward

Marketing is all about meeting consumers at eye level and speaking to them in a way that resonates. While free guest WiFi is nice for local business visitors striving to surf the web, WiFi marketing goes beyond convenience. 

It provides marketers with the data necessary to automate personalized messaging and resolve an important marketing challenge—predicting a customer’s needs and responding to them in real-time.