Restaurants thrive or die through their ability to get people in the door. While traditional methods of advertising like flyers, radio ads, commercials, and email have their place, they are expensive and increasingly getting fewer results. That’s why businesses are turning to SMS marketing for restaurants in order to get more customers interested and promote their specials more effectively. In this blog we will cover 7 great ways businesses can use SMS marketing for restaurants and bars.
Use SMS to Get More People in the Door
When it comes to communicating with your patrons, one of the greatest advantages of text messages is that it allows you to connect with customers in real time. This is great when you send a marketing text message about timely deals and promotions, especially since the average response time for a text message is 90 seconds! You can quickly send relevant messages alerting only local customers to special promotions for dinner or lunch.
Move Specials Quickly
Restaurants need to use their ingredients at the peak of freshness, otherwise they are throwing money down the drain. Using SMS messages for your restaurant, promote weekly specials in order to increase the number of customers to cut down on food costs. At times, a restaurant may have too much of a certain ingredient or dish. An efficient way of getting these dishes is by sending a mass text with your daily specials. Each day you will effortlessly push out your specific dishes to increase sales, reduce spoilage, and keep ingredients fresh.
Harness the Power of Mobile Coupons
Mobile coupons for restaurants are redeemed ten times more often than paper ones, meaning your offers will actually get you more customers to come in to redeem them. Send past customers specialized coupons and offers that are most relevant to them, this will increase the chances of them being a return customer giving you a more stable revenue stream of loyal customers.
Text Customers About Reservations
People are busy and plans often change, so it is important for restaurants to make sure reservations are kept. When you send a text message to your customers, a text message reservation reminder an hour or even the day before will make sure your customer doesn’t forget about their reservations. By adding two-way texting, allow a customer to cancel their reservations which means you are able to eliminate empty tables, allowing your revenue to be more consistent on nights where you are booked.
Get Better Feedback
Feedback from your customers is crucial, but you also want to address any issues with your restaurant before they end up on review sites like Foursquare or Yelp. Through text message surveys, you can gather information from your customers about what your restaurant is doing well and where you can improve. You can also use text message polls to ask about what type of menu items customers would like to see or what types of promotions would bring them into the restaurant. For best results, offer customers some incentive for completing the text message surveys.
Make It Easy To Find A Table and Make A Reservation
To quickly get consumers through your doors, send out notifications of real-time table opening and allow your guests to use text message to reserve their table. Once a guest makes a reservation through texting, give them a taste of their dining experience to come by sending a picture of their specific table, menu selection, and live entertainment.
MMS Messaging for Menu Promotion
Any restaurant, diner, or café can post a list of their top selling items or dishes. Text-only promos tell diners what they can expect when visiting a restaurant, but a beautiful MMS message can get mouths watering and drive consumers to the table. Combine MMS messages with coupons or offers on your specials and you can see a sizable increase in customers ordering that food either online, through text, or in your restaurant.
New to SMS marketing? That's okay! Click on the link below for a free SMS marketing guide of how your business can get started on SMS Marketing today!
