How to capture more guest data at your venue

Too many fields and guests quit. Too few and you learn nothing. Here's the middle ground.

For most web forms, the rule on field count is simple: less is more. For guest Wi-Fi sign-up forms, the answer isn't quite as straightforward.

You're balancing two things at once. Guests want a fast, easy login. You want the Wi-Fi to work as a marketing tool: enough data to segment, personalise and drive repeat visits. Most sign-up forms get that balance wrong in one of two directions.

Case 1: too many fields

If your sign-up has a long list of fields, logging in becomes slow. Guests either start typing junk to speed things up or abandon the form before they're connected.

Remember what they came for: a quick login. Nobody wants to scroll through pages of questions just to get online.

Case 2: too few fields

Ask for an email address and nothing else, and you've thrown away most of the value. You can still reach the guest, but you can't personalise much, and generic campaigns convert badly.

The middle ground

The form that converts asks for the fewest fields that still give you the data you need. Start with the campaigns you want to run, then work backwards to the fields those campaigns require.

Must-have fields:

• Email address

• First name

• Date of birth

Nice-to-have fields:

• Phone number

• Last name

• Postcode

• A custom question, for example reason for visiting or how they found you

One well-chosen custom question can build you a ready-made segment, like students or locals, and point your next piece of customer research. Extra tip: enable social media sign-up, because auto-fill makes the form fast and more guests finish it.

Set the form up once and your mailing list grows every time someone connects. Book a demo and we'll help you get the balance right for your venue.