In today’s digital age, how can you cut through the noise to reach your customers directly and effectively? This blog dives deep into the world of SMS marketing, exploring its unparalleled open rates—98%, with 90% of texts read within three minutes—and its profound utility in customer relationship management. Discover how SMS marketing can transform your restaurant’s promotional efforts, from personalized messages and cost-effective campaigns to enhanced customer service and high-converting offers. Join us as we unpack the essentials of this dynamic marketing tool.

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing involves sending promotional or transactional messages to a large group of recipients via text. You can send different types of messages including announcements of special offers, events, or any other upcoming offerings in your restaurant. Unlike email marketing, SMS marketing campaigns work well as they have a higher opening rate. 

Importance of SMS Marketing 

Higher open rate and response rate 

One of the most compelling reasons that people use SMS marketing for promotion is that it has a higher open rate as compared to emails. SMSs have an opening rate of 90 % and are usually read within the first 3 minutes of reception. Whereas emails have an open rate of 20% and most people forget to check their emails regularly. 

Direct and personal communication

SMS marketing is a type of direct communication. Since text messages are directly delivered to the users’ phones they provide a sense of personal engagement. This can be helpful for you to build long-term relationships with your customers. You can send them personalized wishes on their special occasions like birthdays or anniversaries. 

Cost Effective marketing

Usually in other types of marketing campaigns, you may have to spend a lot of money. By using SMS marketing you can send a lot of SMSs at the same time to a larger number of people. This type of marketing has a higher ROI as compared to other types of advertising like TV or newspapers.

Increased Retention of Customers and  Engagement

Studies show that 40% of people are more likely to purchase after receiving offers through SMS. You can retain your customers if you regularly send them promotional SMSs. This makes sure that your restaurant stays relevant and sticks in their minds for a longer time. SMSs have a response rate of 45 % as compared to the 6% Response rate of emails. 

Enhanced Customer Service 

You can send messages like table reservation confirmation, waitlist updates, and replies to their feedback through SMS. This will help you show your customers that you care about them and their valuable feedback and this keeps them informed. You can send your customers coupons via SMS and the redemption rate of those coupons sent through SMS is 10-30%. 

SMS Marketing Best Practices 

Only send messages to those who have opted for it 

Make sure that you send messages only to those people who have opted for these options. You don’t want to send messages only to those customers who haven’t chosen this option as this might irritate them. There are a lot of brands that ask customers for their phone numbers while billing and then spam them with unnecessary promotional SMSs. Make sure that you ask your customers for their consent before sending them any sort of promotional SMS. 

Make it Easy for customers to opt-out

Always make the option of ‘No I don’t wish to receive any promotional messages’ visible to your customers. They should be able to unsubscribe whenever they want. You can also ask them to reply ‘ STOP’ if they wish to unsubscribe. 

Keep the messages Short

Remember those times when Twitter used to limit your tweets to 140 characters? You should also limit your SMSs to that many characters and make sure that you deliver quality messages to your customers within that limit. Keep your messages concise. If possible then try to be witty or funny. 

Throughout this blog, we explored the dynamic realm of SMS marketing and its significant benefits for restaurants. We delved into the essence of SMS marketing, highlighting its high open rates—90% of messages read within three minutes—and its superior engagement compared to email marketing. We discussed the importance of direct and personal communication, cost-effective campaigns, and how SMS marketing boosts customer engagement and retention. Additionally, we covered best practices, emphasizing the need for consent, ease of opting out, and the importance of keeping messages concise. SMS marketing stands out as a powerful tool to enhance your restaurant’s promotional efforts and customer relationships.