Contact Sales
Hospitality

7 tips to optimise your Insights Plus dashboard for hospitality marketing success: Unlock the full potential of your Insights Plus dashboard

In the bustling world of hospitality marketing, juggling multiple responsibilities is the norm. From crafting innovative menus to curating engaging social media content and managing your online presence, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Often, you find yourself juggling multiple logins for various accounts, including EPOS data, bookings, and customer feedback.

Enter our Insights Plus dashboard - a game-changing solution shaped by feedback and insights from seasonal hospitality marketers like you. This dashboard offers complete customisation, enabling you to fashion a tailored homepage featuring the metrics most vital to YOUR business. What’s more, you can schedule tailored reports to land in your inbox on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis.

Curious about which reports and metrics should top your priority list to maximise your Insights Plus package? Below, we have our top seven recommendations that have proved invaluable to other operators. 

10.39

Posted 21/08/2024

7 tips to optimise  your Insights Plus dashboard for hospitality marketing success: Unlock the full potential of your Insights Plus dashboard

So many dashboards, so little time…

For hospitality marketeers, quantifying the success of marketing efforts has traditionally been a challenge. Our solution makes it easier. The insights dashboard allows you to add ‘events’ to graphs, providing a clear view of the date a campaign was launched and its impact on footfall in and around your venue before and after the campaign.

You can monitor a wide range of elements. From new A-boards and window vinyls to email campaigns and social media posts, even small changes can significantly affect your bottom line. Demonstrating that your marketing efforts attract more visitors to your venue than merely passersby can be a game-changer.

1. Effectively track marketing campaigns

For hospitality marketeers, quantifying the success of marketing efforts has traditionally been a challenge. Our solution makes it easier. The insights dashboard allows you to add ‘events’ to graphs, providing a clear view of the date a campaign was launched and its impact on footfall in and around your venue before and after the campaign.

You can monitor a wide range of elements. From new A-boards and window vinyls to email campaigns and social media posts, even small changes can significantly affect your bottom line. Demonstrating that your marketing efforts attract more visitors to your venue than merely passersby can be a game-changer.

2. Analyse footfall trends by time and day

Understanding footfall trends in and around your venues by time of day and day part helps streamline staffing levels and align offerings with footfall patterns. Discover hidden busy periods outside venues based on footfall trends, which may have previously gone unnoticed. Imagine a restaurant in a bustling city centre with access to our Insights Plus dashboard. During weekday lunch hours and early evenings, especially on Thursdays and Fridays, there is an upward trend in footfall. They maintain a standard staffing schedule and menu throughout the week. But with this newfound knowledge, the restaurant could do the following: -

Staffing adjustments:

Increase the number of servers and kitchen staff during these peak hours to provide faster service, reducing wait times and improving the overall dining experience.

Menu offerings:

Recognising the higher demand during these times, they could introduce a special lunch menu and happy hour promotions on Thursdays and Fridays. These offerings can not only attract more customers but also encourage guests to spend more.

4. Benchmarking your own estate

Compare the performance of your venues against one another across key metrics. Understand which venues are outperforming others – is it due to their location or the offers they provide? Identify successful strategies in different locations that you can replicate in underperforming venues. Gain insights into footfall trends across your estate to manage supplies and staff requirements effectively. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the landscape where your venues operate.

2. Analyse footfall trends by time and day

Understanding footfall trends in and around your venues by time of day and day part helps streamline staffing levels and align offerings with footfall patterns. Discover hidden busy periods outside venues based on footfall trends, which may have previously gone unnoticed.

Imagine a restaurant in a bustling city centre with access to our Insights Plus dashboard. During weekday lunch hours and early evenings, especially on Thursdays and Fridays, there is an upward trend in footfall. They maintain a standard staffing schedule and menu throughout the week.
But with this newfound knowledge, the restaurant could do the following:

  • Staffing adjustments: Increase the number of servers and kitchen staff during these peak hours to provide faster service, reducing wait times and improving the overall dining experience.
  • Menu offerings: Recognising the higher demand during these times, they could introduce a special lunch menu and happy hour promotions on Thursdays and Fridays.

These offerings can not only attract more customers but also encourage guests to spend more.

3. Segment guests by age

Segmentation, segmentation, segmentation.

Segmentation is the cornerstone of effective personalisation for hospitality marketers, and there's no one-size-fits-all approach. Leverage data from your Wireless Social Guest Wi-Fi, such as age, gender, location, and time of visit, to craft targeted messages tailored to your audience. This data-driven approach eliminates the need to start with a blank canvas, allowing you to shape your messaging based on your actual audience.

A bar that has been using Insights Plus confirmed that one of their key audiences falls between the ages of 18 and 22. Based on this proven insight, they were able to implement specific strategies targeting this age group both via the Guest Wi-Fi and their email communications, ensuring a personalised experience from the moment the guest connects to the network.

After seamless onboarding to the Wi-Fi, and once the system recognises the age group, they are re-directed to a landing page with offers and content that aligns with their interests such as events, promotions, and featured artists, creating a dynamic digital experience.

4. Benchmarking your own estate

Compare the performance of your venues against one another across key metrics. Understand which venues are outperforming others – is it due to their location or the offers they provide? Identify successful strategies in different locations that you can replicate in underperforming venues. Gain insights into footfall trends across your estate to manage supplies and staff requirements effectively. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the landscape where your venues operate.

5. Benchmarking against competitors

One of the key questions that is constantly asked by our customers is *“What does good look like?”* We developed Insights Plus so you could visualise your performance on key metrics across the industry.

We designed Insights Plus to enable you to visualise your performance on key metrics within the industry. For instance, if your average guest visit frequency is 1.3, how do you know if this is above or below the industry average? Understand where you stand in relation to your competitors to better focus your efforts.

Additionally, for those who may not have Insights Plus, we offer a quarterly benchmark report accessible for free. This report provides valuable quarterly insights on benchmarking across the industry, allowing businesses to stay informed and competitive.

Download our Benchmarking Report

6. Analyse footfall trends amongst venue groupings

Categorise venues based on criteria such as location (e.g., High Street, Shopping Centers, London vs. Outside London). Dive into reports with granular, group-level insights or opt for a broader, holistic view. Analyse metrics across different groupings to enhance your understanding of how various venue types and locations are performing. Many of our customers with larger estates choose to group their venues based location type. For instance, cafes situated in busy walk-through shopping centres typically experience higher footfall outside the venue due to the nature of the location. Consequently, they may report higher footfall but lower conversion rates. It would be unfair to directly compare these ‘grab-and-go’ takeaway venues to ‘destination’ venues located in outdoor retail parks. The latter often enjoy longer dwell times, and lower passing footfall, but higher conversion. Grouping similar venues together enables more precise, like-for-like reporting, accounting for the diverse offerings at different types of sites.

7. Compare month-on-month footfall & conversion trends

Small shifts in performance are crucial for hospitality venues operating with slim profit margins. Even a minor percentage change, whether positive or negative, can have a significant impact on businesses financial health. For hospitality venues, month-on-month variations are common, but they can also be an opportunity for growth. By keeping a close eye on footfall and conversion trends, businesses can adapt their strategies, refine their offerings, and stay competitive in a dynamic industry.

6. Analyse footfall trends amongst venue groupings

Categorise venues based on criteria such as location (e.g., High Street, Shopping Centers, London vs. Outside London). Dive into reports with granular, group-level insights or opt for a broader, holistic view. Analyse metrics across different groupings to enhance your understanding of how various venue types and locations are performing.

Many of our customers with larger estates choose to group their venues based location type. For instance, cafes situated in busy walk-through shopping centres typically experience higher footfall outside the venue due to the nature of the location. Consequently, they may report higher footfall but lower conversion rates. It would be unfair to directly compare these ‘grab-and-go’ takeaway venues to ‘destination’ venues located in outdoor retail parks. The latter often enjoy longer dwell times, and lower passing footfall, but higher conversion. Grouping similar venues together enables more precise, like-for-like reporting, accounting for the diverse offerings at different types of sites.

7. Compare month-on-month footfall & conversion trends

Small shifts in performance are crucial for hospitality venues operating with slim profit margins. Even a minor percentage change, whether positive or negative, can have a significant impact on businesses financial health.

For hospitality venues, month-on-month variations are common, but they can also be an opportunity for growth. By keeping a close eye on footfall and conversion trends, businesses can adapt their strategies, refine their offerings, and stay competitive in a dynamic industry.