How to grow your restaurant email list with Wi-Fi

Guest Wi-Fi is still the easiest marketing list you will ever build. You have to remind people it is there.

Your guest Wi-Fi is the easiest marketing list you will ever build, because it works while you are busy. Guests want a connection when they are out, and the sign-in gives you a name, an email address and a visit, all attached to the same profile.

The catch is that sign-ins have flattened. Free Wi-Fi stopped being a novelty, so guests no longer look for it, and phones have got good enough that plenty of people never bother. The network is still there. The prompts are not.

Make the Wi-Fi visible again

Venues took the signs down as soon as Wi-Fi became expected. Put them back.

1. Generate a QR code that points at your guest Wi-Fi sign-in page.

2. Print it on table talkers, the bar back, the door and the bill folder, and put it where a guest sits rather than where you stand.

3. Name the network on your menus and on your socials. A generic network name gets ignored.

Change the landing page too. If the sign-in form asks for six fields, you will lose most of the people who bothered to scan.

Give a reason to sign in

A discount usable straight away beats one that arrives next month.

• A percentage off today's bill for signing in.

• A happy hour offer that only unlocks on the sign-in page.

• A free side or a soft drink for posting while in the venue and tagging you.

Keep the reward small and instant. The guest gets something now, and you get a contact you can write to for years.

Run a competition

Competitions cost next to nothing and give you a list, because entering means leaving an email address.

• A prize draw where signing in is the entry, and sharing it with a friend doubles the chance of winning.

• Vote for your favourite dish on the menu, with a voucher for one of the voters.

• A short quiz that matches a guest to a drink, with the result sent by email.

• A photo competition run off a hashtag, judged at the end of the month.

Send the result by email or SMS, so the guest gets something for the address they gave you.

Then use the list

Capturing the sign-in is only half of it. A list nobody writes to goes cold.

Send something worth opening once a month: what is on, and one offer for people who have not been in for a while. Guest Wi-Fi collects the sign-ins and email and SMS sends to them from the same record. Book a demo if you want us to set the sign-in page up with you.