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If you run your own restaurant (or even something outside the dining industry), then it’s time to start serving up some SMS marketing campaigns.

That’s right; restaurants all across the country are using SMS marketing to better reach their patrons.

Here are a number of restaurants going the SMS route and a few ways your restaurant can do the same:

Restaurants Using SMS

SMS marketing is a great way to reach customers when it counts most: in the moment.

No industry benefits more from this on-the-go marketing platform than the restaurant industry. That’s why a growing number of restaurants/fast food eateries nationwide are already using SMS marketing to their advantage.

Among them:

Taco Bell – In order to increase customer outreach, Taco Bell began an SMS campaign that offered free food items with each opt-in. The mobile marketing campaign resulted in more than 13,000 opt-ins within a five-week period.
Carl’s Junior – In an attempt to compete with the larger burger chains, Carl’s Junior began an SMS opt-in deal that offered a $6 combo meal for just three bucks. The campaign not only had a 19% redemption rate, it also increased sales and generated a huge following for the fast food chain.
Papa Murphy’s – This new take-and-bake pizza chain is in the process of franchising across the country. To increase its visibility, Papa Murphy’s began an SMS campaign that offered five-dollar pizzas to first-time customers. The campaign resulted in a 17% redemption rate and more than 100,000 new mobile subscribers.

Now that you have an idea of how the major restaurant chains are using SMS, here are a few ways your restaurant can take advantage of mobile marketing:

Promoting New Menu Items

Whether your restaurant is new or established, it’s always a good idea to get the word out about new menu items. This is exactly where SMS marketing comes into play.

The article “We’re Open: How to Use SMS Marketing to Give Your New Restaurant a Boost” mentions the importance of engaging customers.

With SMS marketing you can feature new menu items in your campaigns as well as announce exciting menu changes.

Promoting your menu items will put your restaurant on your customers’ radars, which is especially effective when it comes to recipients who are already out and about.

Spreading the Word About Specials

Food specials are the restaurant industry’s bread and butter.

When you take an SMS approach to your restaurant marketing, you can promote your food specials like never before.

Whether it’s a buy-one-get-one deal, a drink special, or a blue plate special, using SMS marketing is a great way to keep your patrons updated on all of your delicious deals.

Gathering Feedback

The key to feeding your patrons the food they love is by gathering feedback on their dining experiences. SMS marketing allows you to send text surveys to your patrons while their meal is still fresh on the mind.

You can send a brief questionnaire, a multiple-choice survey, or you can simply ask patrons to describe their dining experience.

No matter which route you take, SMS surveys make it possible to gather feedback that will help your restaurant thrive.

If you’re ready to get more diners through the door, then satisfy their appetites with SMS marketing.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including the restaurant industry and mobile marketing.

If you’re a restaurant, fast-food establishment or local eatery owner, you know that getting customers through the door is a constant focus of your business.

Even when business is good, there are always those quieter times of day when it can be hard to get enough patrons into those seats.

Using mass texts is one way your eatery can draw in more customers, get people excited about your food, and entice them with special offers and exclusive deals.

So just how can you use text marketing to increase your eatery’s revenue? And what are some examples of restaurants that are already doing just that?

Text Marketing Gets Customers’ Attention

As the article “Mass Consumer Texts Driving Up Sales At Restaurants” points out, using text marketing means you can reach a large number of potential customers in your immediate vicinity.

A text message has a personal feel. Unlike an online ad or billboard, a text message arrives directly in front of each customer, inviting them to open and read it, and grabbing their full attention for a few minutes.

Text marketing gives you the chance to start a personal interaction with each customer, putting your restaurant and food at the forefront of their mind, and ensuring they’ll think of you when it’s time to grab lunch or dinner.

Text Marketing Gives Them a Reason to do Business

The beauty of text marketing is that you can use it to entice your customers to eat with you. Text marketing is the perfect vehicle for sending them delicious offers, such as buy one get one free deals, or money off coupons.

If you particularly want to increase revenue at a quieter time of the day or week, you can use text marketing to send out time limited offers for those periods, encouraging people to come and eat with you at that time.

In addition, why not consider sending out weekly specials, daily discount coupons, text-to-win sweepstakes, or even conducting surveys to find out what your customers think of your restaurant, what works and what doesn’t.

Eateries Finding Success with Text Marketing

Several big-name eateries have already seen success with text marketing:

McDonald’s used a text-based sweepstakes competition with a wide range of prizes. 1.5 million customers joined in, showing that text marketing can be very effective indeed;
Chuck E. Cheese used text message marketing to encourage customers to join their email list – not only did it become the most successful method for getting customers on the list, but customers who joined via text were more likely to open the emails than any other customers;
UK pizza place Papa John’s sent out text offers for cut-price pizzas to customers on their text list, and saw a 33% jump in revenue for the duration of the offer;
Dunkin’ Donuts asked their customers to join their mobile marketing list, and got a fantastic response, with stores in the Boston area seeing 21% more customers walk through their doors;
Taco Bell branched out into using mobile marketing to connect with their customers, offering a free drink to those who opted in to their mobile marketing list. As a result, they garnered 13000 subscribers.

Text marketing is an immediate way to reach many customers quickly and easily, and it’s frequently more cost effective than other forms of direct marketing.

By reaching your customers when they’re out and about you can encourage them to stop off at your establishment and take advantage of your special offers.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Tristan Anwyn writes on a wide variety of topics, including social media, SEO, restaurant businesses and SMS marketing.