SMS Marketing for Restaurants: Top Benefits, Use Cases & Tips

12 popular use cases for SMS-based mobile marketing for restaurants

There are two main types of messages you can send with a restaurant texting system.

Promotional messages

These essentially tell you how to advertise restaurants to the intended target audiences. They can include announcements about:

• New items you're adding to the menu

• Special events, such as a party for when a new item is launched

• Happy hour timings

• Curbside pickup facility

• Exclusive deals or promotions for holidays and special occasions

• How customers can join your SMS loyalty program

• The process for online booking, including a link to the ordering website

• Introducing your new SMS ordering system outlining how customers can text restaurants with their order details

Transactional messages

These are less about promoting your restaurant and more about providing them with a smooth customer experience by facilitating them when required. Such texts are sent for communicating:

• The confirmation of a reservation, made online or via text or phone call

• One-time PIN codes for verification, for when new customers sign up on your website or place a new order online, for instance

• Order confirmation, with text messages containing a summary of the order details

• The status of an order, such as when it's been dispatched or is ready for pickup

SMS marketing for restaurants: Getting it right

There are a few important tips you should follow to ensure you get the most out of your restaurant text message marketing campaigns. Let's go over them one by one.

1. Avoid overkill

Use SMS wisely – you don't want to annoy subscribers by sending too many texts in a short space of time. This is a mistake many businesses make once they start seeing positive results from their SMS marketing campaigns.

The problem is that too many texts come across as spammy and will cause people to unsubscribe. Start with one text message per week and only when you have something valuable or time-sensitive to communicate to potential diners. Sometimes it's more appropriate to use softer channels. For example, an interview with your new head chef would be better as a blog on your website, with an email campaign and social media posts to promote the article.

Also, pay attention to what times you're sending your text messages. Don't text at odd hours, like 2 am or 7 am, when your audience would hate being disturbed.

Read our blog on the best time to send text messages.

2. Craft compelling text message marketing copy

While text messages beg to be opened, if your marketing copy is poor, you won't capture your recipients' attention for long. A good rule of thumb for writing impactful copy is to follow the three Cs: Clear, Crisp and Concise.

• Clear – tell the recipient about your offer or news and then tell them what action to take, e.g. 'Book a table' or 'View the menu'.

• Crisp – use interesting language to make your copy punchy and bring it to life. Avoid boring, overused words.

• Concise – get your message across in just one text (160 characters). This is better for the recipient who just wants to scan your content. It's also better for your budget because if you exceed the character limit, your text will count as two messages and thus cost double.

You can get inspiration for SMS marketing ideas by observing online trends, current affairs and memes. Incorporate humour and wit (everyone loves a chuckle) or use suspense to make your audience curious and motivated to read your message and click through to your restaurant's website.

If you have something amazing to show off, like a new heated outdoor dining area, take photos and send an MMS marketing campaign instead. A picture speaks a thousand words! You could also create graphics or videos to add to your message.

3. Don't be invasive

Always follow text message marketing rules – like never texting someone who hasn't given their consent and opted in.

Use your SMS subscribers' personal data sensibly too. You might well have a stack of information at your fingertips, like birthdays, food preferences, average spend per visit, the number of bookings per year, etc. But if you use some of this information in your restaurant text messaging campaigns, it might weird out your customers. To put it simply:

• What's ok – reservation confirmations and reminders, dining offers, restaurant news and holiday wishes.

• What's not ok – anything that uses data your customers haven't explicitly given you for SMS marketing.

For example, you might know that it's a customer's birthday because they booked a birthday meal the previous year, and you noted it in the diary. But if you haven't told the customer you'll remember that information for when their birthday rolls around again, they may be surprised (or even alarmed) to hear from you!

Bonus tip: Give customers the option to unsubscribe with every text message you send. Not only does this promote customer loyalty and trust, but it's also one of the golden rules you must follow.

Using your restaurant text messaging system to its full potential

SMS marketing for restaurants is highly effective. Even basic mobile phones can send and receive texts, broadening your reach to include people of all ages and those that aren't tech-savvy. Because texts are delivered fast, they're ideal for time-sensitive dining offers and boosting engagement, restaurant bookings and revenue.

If you want to run a successful campaign, follow these three smart tips:

1. Don't overdo it – start slow and monitor campaign performance to check you're striking the right frequency. A spike in unsubscribes is a red flag that your texts aren't well-received.

2. Use the three Cs – make your copy clear, crisp and concise to hold your subscribers' attention.

3. Don't be creepy – only use personal data insights that subscribers have explicitly provided for SMS marketing purposes.

Want to know more about using SMS for restaurants? Get in touch today to learn how Messente can strengthen your marketing efforts.