How to utilise data effectively to boost return visits

In today’s data-driven world, the hospitality industry thrives on the data, insights and information. Customer preferences, visit trends, and market fluctuations – all these elements can be analysed and strategically employed to gain a competitive edge. However, attracting and retaining guests has become an ever-increasing challenge in a landscape saturated with options and channels. By leveraging this knowledge, hospitality venues can personalise their marketing efforts, fostering stronger connections, and ultimately, driving repeat visits and customer loyalty.

The power of data-driven hospitality

Over the last three years, the hospitality industry has seen a significant shift to a more data driven approach. Much of this is simply due to the amount of data now shared between the tech platforms and the prevalence of API’s (integration protocols) to enable that data to flow. Context driven communication triggered off the back of great data drives a higher and provable conversion. It’s really that simple.

The trick with this connected data is to put it to use, and to do that from a marketing perspective, you need to collect a customer opt-in at source. In effect, there’s two types of opt-in; passive opt-ins are collected when the customer is carrying out a different task and it is presented with an opt-in tick box. This might be making a booking, giving feedback, connecting to the WiFi or using Order and Pay. Direct are where you are asking people to sign-up with you. This could be through a loyalty campaign but mostly it’s through a newsletter sign-up on your website.

The issue is that 95% of the data you collect is through passive sign-ups, so the key is to quickly engage these customers with a compelling message that encompasses your CRM and data driven marketing efforts.

Don’t be boring

Similarly, you have to ask yourself: does a newsletter sign-up cut it? Does the engagement of a customer to receive a regular newsletter actually purvey how you want to (or can) engage with the customer?

At Airship, we promote the Customer Value Exchange (CVX) as a way to engage all of our customers’ customers collectively. This approach simplifies the whole approach to data- driven marketing, as the customer has a much more satisfying engagement, knowing why you are collecting their data and what they can expect in return. This approach encompasses the entire guest experience, from the initial engagement to brand building; the laying of foundations with the customer that helps to build brand buy-in. Pre-visit, in visit and post-visit comms are absolutely critical in driving up the frequency of visit and mapping those journeys out, including the different suppressions will return significant revenue. Automation is the cream of email marketing, it delivers the highest engagement and when you include personalisation and localisation it will blow the socks off any other channel (apart perhaps from word of mouth).

Automating repeat visits

Because we have so many different touch points within hospitality (there’s actually about 12), we can use those touch points as a digital signature or footprint with customers. This enables operators to understand their customer visit frequency and then increase it.

Combine this approach with personalisation, right down to the basket associated with someone’s bill and you have something very, very powerful. Data allows hotels and restaurants to tailor their communication to individual guests. Imagine an email campaign where guests receive exclusive offers based on their past behaviour. Data can also enable operators to create effective, targeted marketing campaigns. Customers can be targeted with promotions and offers based on their buying habits and preferences, for example. This level of personalisation enhances the consumer experience, fosters a sense of appreciation, and increases the likelihood of them returning for more visits, building loyalty.

It’s all provable

The beauty of CRM or data-driven marketing today is that it’s all provable. We know who your customers are, when they joined you, how they joined you, what they’ve opened, what they’ve clicked, when they’ve booked and when they’ve visited. In many cases (where we have an identifier) we know not only what they spent, but what on. We know their lifetime value, whether they are a promoter (or detractor) and using the methods above, we can drive them to visit you more often.

By leveraging customer segmentation, journey mapping, and a suite of data-driven marketing strategies, hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality venues can gain a deeper understanding of their guests, personalise the customer experience and ultimately drive footfall. Targeted advertising, personalised communication, and data-powered loyalty programmes are just a few ways data empowers hospitality businesses to thrive in a competitive landscape. The data is yours – unlike your social channels, you are in complete control. It’s no longer about ‘spray and pray’ campaigns or simply ticking a box to say you’ve sent a newsletter. By embracing a data-driven approach and investing in the tools and expertise to unlock its full potential, hospitality venues can ensure they stay ahead of the curve, fostering guest loyalty and driving sustainable growth in the years to come.