The Ultimate Guide to SMS Marketing for Restaurants

Have you used SMS marketing for your restaurant?

Restaurants are different from other businesses when it comes to marketing. The reason is that timing is much more important in restaurants. Imagine if you’re hungry and at the same time you receive an SMS from a local restaurant. You’ll probably decide to go there and try their dishes.

That’s why SMS marketing is really useful for restaurants. It’s really effective in time-sensitive ads because many people read their text messages soon after receiving them. Therefore, you can easily encourage them to come to your restaurant for each meal.

In this blog post, we’ve prepared an ultimate guide to SMS marketing for restaurants to help restaurant owners.

Is SMS Marketing Useful for Restaurants?

The answer to this question is a big YES!

SMS marketing is incredibly useful for businesses of all sizes and types, and restaurants are no exception.

SMS is a direct, real-time communication method with customers. So if you want to have fast communication to drive foot traffic to your restaurant, SMS is the best option for you.

Here are some other benefits of SMS marketing for restaurants:

1. High Open Rates: SMS messages have an open rate of over 98%. This is higher than that of any other channel. So you can be sure that almost all of your customers will see the promotions, updates, or events you send via SMS.

2. Instant Communication: Around 90% of people open text messages within three minutes. This makes SMS marketing the best option for time-sensitive campaigns. For example, when you want to encourage potential customers to eat dinner at your place, you can’t find any better channel than SMS.

3. Personalized Marketing: Restaurants can use SMS to send personalized messages. For example, you can consider customer preferences, past orders, or birthdays to reach out to them. This personification is great for increasing intimacy and gaining the trust of your customers.

4. Boosting Customer Loyalty: SMS marketing can be useful in loyalty programs. Using SMS, you can offer rewards to customers who visit your restaurant several times. This way, your loyal customers feel that you value them and therefore, they’ll choose to come to your place more and more.

5. Cost-Effective: SMS marketing has a relatively high ROI. Using a limited budget in SMS marketing, you can reach out to numerous potential customers for your restaurant and encourage them to try your dishes.

Step-by-Step Guide to SMS Marketing for Restaurants

Now that you have become familiar with the benefits of SMS marketing for restaurants, it’s time to learn how to run a campaign to reach success.

Here is an ultimate guide to building an SMS marketing strategy for restaurants:

Step 1: Define SMART Goals

First and foremost, you need to think of what exactly you want from SMS marketing. Without defining your goals, you can’t expect success in your restaurant SMS campaigns. 

Here is what SMART goals mean:

• Specific: You have to be clear about what you want. This means that you must avoid general purposes like “increase sales.” Instead, define something like “increase lunch sales by 15% during weekdays.” Specific goals will guide you through your journey and let you track the results. 

• Measurable: Your goals need to be tracked and measured so try to set metrics to track your progress. For instance, an objective like this is good: 200 new subscribers to the SMS list in the next three months. Otherwise, you can’t measure your SMS marketing success.

• Achievable: Try to be realistic and avoid too big goals. You have to define your goals based on your restaurant’s resources and customer base. Don’t expect a dramatic result in the beginning and consider your limited budget if you’ve just embarked on your restaurant business.

• Relevant: You have to avoid the goals that are not aligned with your restaurant’s needs. For example, if you need to increase your weekend foot traffic, define SMS campaigns for the weekends.

• Time-bound: Last but not least, you have to consider a timeframe for reaching your goals. Remember that deadlines create urgency and help you keep your campaign on track.

Step 2: Choose the Right SMS Marketing Platform

Reaching success in SMS marketing is not as easy as sending some text messages. If you want to outperform your competitors and reach a high  ROI, you have to use effective tools and platforms.

Fortunately, there are numerous SMS platforms with various features out there. You need to choose the one that suits your requirements and budget. 

Here are some features that you need to think of when it comes to choosing the right SMS marketing platform for your restaurant:

• Cost: Try to start with an affordable SMS tool with freemium options.

• Features: You have to use a tool that offers some advanced features like scheduling, automation, etc.

• Integration: Your SMS tool needs to combine with other marketing platforms to reach higher efficiency.

• Gateway: The more gateways your SMS platform supports, the better.

Overall, we offer WP SMS as it supports more than 300 gateways and offers lots of useful features at an affordable price. You can also use it along with your WordPress website and use your site’s subscribers and segment them as your restaurant SMS marketing audience.

Step 3: Build Your SMS Subscriber List

One of the most critical steps in restaurant SMS marketing is growing your subscriber list. You need to first recognize your audience from various sources and make sure that you’re targeting the right people.

For example, if you send SMS to those who are far away from your restaurant, you’ll waste your time and money.

So let’s see how you can increase your subscribers from potential customers. Here are some tips for building your restaurant SMS subscriber list:

1. Use Local Ads: Local advertisements are useful marketing methods. When you combine them with your SMS marketing efforts, the result will be much more effective. You can use these ads to encourage local people and also passengers to subscribe.

2. Offer Incentives for Opting In: Nothing can encourage customers to subscribe more than a discount on a meal. So give customers this compelling reason to join your SMS list. Try to offer something like “Get 10% off your next order when you sign up for our SMS alerts!”

3. Encourage Sign-Ups In-Store: Use every opportunity to increase your subscribers. You have to make the opt-in process easy. For example, put SMS signs at the counter or on your tables to highlight the benefits of subscribing. Exclusive deals or loyalty rewards can be great for these situations because people are eating something and they can earn something instead of thinking about the bill.

4. Use Your Website and Social Media: Social media and websites are the best channels for growing the subscriber list of your SMS campaigns. You have to put simple forms for subscriptions on both channels and also explain the benefits.

5. Leverage QR Codes: An easy way to subscribe is by putting QR codes on menus, receipts, or flyers.

6. Promote During Events and Online Orders: Events and online orders are also great opportunities for increasing your subscribers.

Step 4: Segment Your Audience

Another important matter about your subscriber list is that you don’t have to behave the same with all of them.

As you know, people have very different food habits so you can’t offer something to all people and expect the same result.

So you need to segment your audience according to some factors like age, gender, location, previous orders, etc.

This way, you can customize your message according to their interests and increase the chance of reaching higher engagement rates.

For example, you can send different messages to frequent customers of your restaurant and first-time visitors like this:

1. Frequent Diners: Offering loyalty rewards or exclusive VIP offers, such as “Thanks for being a regular! Enjoy 20% off your next meal.”

2. First-Time Visitors: Greeting and appreciating their first visit and encouraging them to visit more often. You can offer a special discount like “Get $5 off your second visit.”

Step 5: Ensure Legal Compliance

One of the critical matters you need to consider in SMS marketing is regulations. Here are some of the most important legal tips for your restaurant SMS marketing:

1. Opt-in before sending SMS: You must have clear consent from your subscribers before sending your restaurant ads. You can use online forms, QR codes, etc to get consent.

2. Opt-out option: You have to include an opt-out option in your message so that recipients can choose to unsubscribe.

3. TCPA and GDPR: You have to make sure that you’re in full compliance with these communication regulations.

Step 6: Create Engaging and Short Text Messages

Until now, you have become prepared to start your SMS campaign. Now, it’s time to think of the SMS itself.

Here are some tips for creating compelling and short messages:

Keep it Concise

As you know, content is king, and in SMS marketing, this is even more critical. The reason is that SMS has a limitation on the number of 160 characters.

So you have to write something concise and clear that conveys your intent politely and ask the recipient to do what you want. For example, take a look at two versions of a text message and see how you can summarize your SMS:

• “We’re offering a special promotion this weekend on select menu items for dine-in customers. Join us for a great meal!”

• Summarized Text: “Dine in this weekend for 20% off select menu items! Show this text at checkout!”

Use a Strong Call to Action (CTA)

Every SMS should have a specific, actionable goal. Whether you want customers to make a reservation, visit your restaurant, or claim a discount, your CTA should be clear and urgent. Examples:

• “Show this text for 10% off your meal today!”
• “Reply YES to reserve your table for tonight!”
• “Order online now and get free delivery!”

Create Urgency

This is what you need more than anything else in your restaurant SMS marketing. You have to create a sense of urgency so that your potential customers think they’re losing something beneficial.

Here are some examples of the phrases that create such sense:

• “Today only!”
• “Limited time offer!”
• “Hurry—the offer ends tonight!”

Include Exclusive Offers

Another item that makes your SMS more engaging is deals customers won’t find anywhere else.

Remember that if you don’t offer anything special, you can’t expect them to do what you want. Here are some examples of exclusive offers in restaurant SMS campaigns:

• “Exclusive for our SMS subscribers—get 25% off this weekend!”

• “Be the first to try our new summer menu. Show this text for early access.”

Step 7: Personalize Your Text Messages

Intimacy with your customers can work miracles. If you build a long-lasting friendship with your visitors, you’ll make a constant income for your restaurant.

If you personalize your messages, the recipients won’t consider them as spam and therefore, the opt-out rate of your messages will drop.

You can personalize your messages using the following tricks:

Use Customer Name

It’s highly recommended to use the first name of your previous customers in your messages. This way, they feel comfortable with your restaurant and will highly likely choose your place for their next dinner. 

So start your messages with something like “Hi Nick!”

Include Previous Orders

If you want to run smart SMS campaigns, you need to see what your customers order. If you use your customer data in your SMS marketing without breaking their privacy, you can make them feel you’re paying attention to their choices.

For example, you can send the following message to a customer who is vegan according to his/her previous order in your restaurant:

“Hi, John! As we know you like vegetables, try our new vegan menu items this weekend! Show this text for 15% off.”

Special Occasion Messages

If you can increase the level of your intimacy with your customers, you can strengthen your customer loyalty. For example, birthday discount SMSs are one of the best methods of customer loyalty programs.

Step 8: Find the Best Time to Send SMS to Your Restaurant’s Audience

Timing is a critical factor in SMS marketing, especially for restaurants. You need to find the best time to send your text messages with the highest chance of engagement.

Remember that you have to avoid sending messages late at night or early in the morning. Otherwise, your customers will be annoyed and the rate of opt-out will increase. 

There is no certain formula to find the best time for sending SMS. It depends on many factors like time zone, industry (restaurant), audience type, etc.

However, there are some dates and times that have been used many times by businesses and marketers and they’ve got positive results.

Look at the following timetable to find the best time for sending SMS. Also, remember that it’s good to send SMS just before lunch and dinner time to create a sense of urgency.

If you think you might forget the optimum interval for sending messages, you can use scheduling features of SMS marketing platforms like WP SMS.

It will provide you with an easy-to-use dashboard to set the date and time for sending your message without your interference. 

Step 9: Cross-Promote Your SMS Campaigns on Other Channels

Although SMS is effective for growing your restaurant, it shouldn’t be your only marketing tool! To achieve the best results, it’s important to combine SMS campaigns with other marketing strategies like social media.

For example, you can increase your SMS subscribers using your website and also combine your SMS marketing with your WordPress site. WP SMS does this without needing any code.

Also, you can promote your social media content using SMS blasts and encourage your subscribers to follow your social accounts.

Step 10: Analyze and Optimize Your Restaurant SMS Campaigns

Last but not least, you have to constantly track the performance of your SMS campaign to make sure you’re doing all the things right. Without analyzing the results, you can’t optimize your future marketing efforts.

After running a campaign, you need to measure the metrics you’ve defined in the first step and compare them with your goals. Then, it’s good to determine your weaknesses and strengths to be able to improve your efforts in the future.

You can also use A/B testing to make sure everything is fine with your messages. For example, you can consider message content, timing, and CTA to see how you can get better results.

Final Thoughts

Restaurants can take advantage of SMS if they build a strong SMS marketing strategy. We provided a complete guide to restaurant SMS marketing from defining marketing goals to analyzing and optimizing the performance. 

Of course, you need some trial and error to reach success in this field. You shouldn’t push too hard for it because sending too many SMSs might annoy customers. 

By using the right SMS platforms and getting feedback from your audience, you can reach a high ROI in your restaurant SMS marketing campaigns. 

WP SMS can help you in this regard so don’t hesitate to contact us for more information or use our demo.

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