Yelp has paid Turnstyle Analytics $20 million in cash to obtain the Wi-Fi marketing company. This is big news as it permits businesses to connect with customers over freely provided Wi-fi network. This is designed to go beyond customer acquisition which will emphasize on customer loyalty and retention.
This Toronto-based company was established in 2012 that assists about 3,500 businesses around the US and Canada. According to their website, the support large companies such as Subway, Broncos Slider Bar, Burger King, Back Alley Burger and more.
Acquiring Information Using Yelp Wi-Fi
This is a paid service marketed towards businesses which provides insights about consumer behavior, visits, and more. This is all acquired from free guest Wi-Fi logins.
Customers who want to use the Wi-Fi service will need to require an email address that allows the company to generate a target customer contact list. Companies using the service will also have the advantage of insight tools such as tracking customer frequency, duration of stay, and identifying loyal customers, and more.
Yelp reveals that the average person spends about five hours online, but about 93% of their purchases are still offline. Using Turnstyle, small-to-medium sized businesses will have a way to connect to those offline customers.
Additionally, businesses offering free Wi-Fi shows a staggering amount of foot traffic compared to those who don’t offer them. In fact, 62% of consumers spend of their time in places with Wi-Fi and about 50% of those people tend to spend more on other products and services because of the extra time they spend at the store.
The Game-changing Direction to Marketing Campaigns
With the use of Turnstyle, businesses can deliver emails to customers while offering them rewards and incentives to encourage repeat visits. The service allows businesses to automate their marketing strategies by scheduling campaigns months, weeks, or days in advance in the form of SMS messages or email marketing.
The campaigns are never static as businesses are free to customize them to meet different metrics. For instance, it delivers promotions after a customer visits a certain number of times, send out birthday rewards, issue incentives to first-time customers, reach customers who have not visited for quite a while, and more.
This service is sought out by a number of businesses such as auto dealers, salons, spas, cafes, retail stores, restaurants, and more. Ideally, this product is perfect for places where consumers tend to linger and assume free Wi-Fi.
Turnstyle Will Remain the Same Through the Integration
For customers who have subscribed via Turnstyle’s, their pricing and service offering will remain uninterrupted as it starts to integrate with Yelp systems.
30 employees are involved in the Toronto-headquarter, but there will be no layoffs as the shift continues. Turnstyle might keep its brand name, but this is subject to change at any given time.
While Turnstyle offers the product in Canada and the US, they will be focusing their sales campaigns in the North American industry.