Text Message Marketing for Restaurants

October 29, 2018 Posted by Pocketstop in Text Message Marketing - M360 Social Share

The advances of modern technology have made mobile the primary channel of communication, leading businesses to implement significant upgrades to the way they are presenting their messages to customers. And although a lot of them have turned to text message marketing, this solution is sometimes wrongfully seen as the go-to marketing method for retail businesses, with other industries typically being left out of the loop. Yet people utilizing the services of businesses across all industries and sectors have a mobile phone, and appreciate the cleanness, efficiency, and urgency of a text message, especially when it comes to interacting with the hospitality industry and the restaurant sector.

Modern Marketing for Restaurants

Marketing strategies for restaurants need to reflect the fierce industry competition. Nowadays, restaurant managers need to implement diverse strategies to keep up with the high demands of customers looking for more assorted and useful information. It’s not just about address and phone number to make a reservation to. Today, customers are interested in social media photos of menu and events, other types of visual content, loyalty programs, and others. With more than 95% of Americans owning a mobile phone, and 75% of people searching for restaurant information using a mobile phone to conduct the search, turning to a text message marketing solution for your restaurant is not only a wise business decision, but also a mean to stay up-to-date with constructive industry changes.

Benefits of Text Message Marketing for Restaurants

Visual content is appealing but it’s not all it takes to engage with your customers, find new ones, and grow your business through marketing strategies. And although a lot of restaurants are implementing email marketing strategies, receiving email coupons and missing them either due to not having time to check all your emails or to email providers automatically hiding commercial content is not that ideal. You can advertise on billboards, in newspapers, in magazines, yet there is a simpler and more effective way of getting the attention of current and new customers: text message marketing.

Reach Customers in Real-Time

With the help of text message marketing you can interact with customers anywhere and at any time. Reaching your target demographic in real-time and knowing that the message you sent has a higher chance of being opened than an email is a great benefit when it comes to an industry governed by the flow of our day-to-day lives. Implement a text message strategy allowing you to always be one click away and customers will never forget your name.

Simple, Effective, and Personalized Customer Experience

A text message can be utilized in a number of ways, from sending coupons for special deals, or letting customers know when their table is ready, to conducting surveys, or having customers text take-out orders. Text message marketing provides restaurants with a simple, effective and most importantly, easy to personalize customer experience, therefore improving customer engagement and strengthening the relationship you have with the people who love to visit your venue.

Text Message Marketing Helps You Develop Brand Identity

By creating programs in which you are engaging with customers by providing them with the services they need – services which you are personalizing according to their needs and to the objectives of the restaurant – you are contributing to the development of your brand identity, which can have a major effect on the growth of your business. In the hospitality industry, especially in the food sector, making a name for oneself and being able to provide services to the high standards expected by a good reputation are what separates successful venues from everyone else.

It Is Ideal for Testing the Impact of New Menu Items or New Services

If you are adding items to the menu or thinking about changing or implementing new services such as adding special events, text message marketing is the ideal way for doing so. It will not only let your customers know about the changes and provide them with special offers for trying out your new additions, but it will also give you a clean and simple way of gathering and analyzing feedback.

Use Text Message Marketing to Improve Customer Services

Keeping the communication lines opened with all customers is of utmost importance in all industries, and the restaurant sector is no an exception. In fact, providing excellent customer service and always having a simple and immediate way of responding to your customer’s feedback, questions, or concerns is mandatory for all restaurants. Text message marketing allows you to do that cost-effectively and in real-time.

Text Message Marketing Drives Sales

Integrating text message marketing with your other sales strategies is a great business decision. People usually need to see a promotion a few times before deciding to take advantage of it. Text message marketing makes sure that the channel through which they see it is comfortable, intimate, and more likely to drive to an active engagement from the customers’ part.

What You Can Do with Text Message Marketing

• Send text messages with special offers such as weekend discounts or 2 for 1 deals
• Remind customers of their reservation and offer them a contact method in case they can’t make it
• Promote contests, social events, or other brand-interaction actions
• Create a text message loyalty program
• Implement booking and take-out ordering via text messaging
• Gather customer feedback
• Deal with customer complaints in a faster and simpler way
• Send reminders to your old customers when times are slow
• Invite customers participate in competitions on other platforms, such as social media
• Reward customers with a coupon after a visit
• Update customers on the status of their delivery

The benefits of modern marketing strategies in general, and of text message marketing for restaurants in particular are numerous and welcomed in such a dynamic industry. Therefore, all businesses should be up-to-date by implementing and integrating text message marketing strategies alongside their other marketing and sales strategies. Advertise your restaurant’s short code on your restaurant’s website and social media pages, but also let customers know about it when they are checking out. For a more successful implementation, make sure to let all the members of your staff know about your text message marketing strategy and what their roles are in employing it.

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