Top Ten Ways Every Restaurant Should Be Using Text Messaging
Click on the button to listen to my interview with Jay Fairbrother:
to download, just right click on the title and then select Save As (or Save Link As) and select a location in your computer
These strategies are not mine, they have been created, after learning from many trials and errors, by Jay Fairbrother, a restaurateur (he owns a restaurant in Pittsburg) and business expert. Since they are very valuable, I wanted to share them with you all.
If you haven't done so yet, I strongly recommend you to listen to (or download to your computer, ipod or MP3 player) my 45 minutes interview with Jay. It is full of good advice about restaurant marketing and specifically how to use Text Messages to promote your business.
NOTE: THE PARAGRAPH BETWEEN LINES ONLY APPLIES IF YOUR RESTAURANT IS LOCATED IN THE USA:
Disclosure: I’ve just became an affiliate of YeeZ Mobile, the best available SMS service provider in the United States. If you own a restaurant in USA, I hope and ask that you consider choosing YeeZ Mobile (unfortunately this service doesn’t work in any other country for now, they are working hard to make it available in Canada soon…) when you’re ready to start SMS Marketing, and yes, I’ll make a small commission if you do. I can assure you that I have researched the market thoroughly, and YeeZ Mobile offers the best service…flat monthly fee, unlimited messages, unlimited keywords, and an easy web interface. (More on that later…)
IF YOUR RESTAURANT IS NOT LOCATED IN THE USA you can still benefit from this article by selecting a similar service available in your country.
Before I share my Top Ten Ways to Text, let’s review why text messaging is a great marketing investment for your restaurant:
Here are a few facts...
- 3.5 billion text messages are sent every single day- just in the U.S.A.…
- Open rates for text messages are at 97% (only 5-20% for email marketing)…
- 83% of Text messages are opened within the first 15 Minutes!
- Redemption rates for mobile coupons are 15-20% (on a bad day!)...
- In 2009, nearly 10 million digital coupons were redeemed…25% more than 2008…
- Cell phones are the ONE form of communication that most people are tethered to 24/7… The average person has their cell phone within 3 feet at ALL times.
- Text message campaigns are proven! More than $30 million dollars, at $10 per text, was raised for Haiti via text alone!
- Mobile marketing is a MASSIVE promotional tool for your business.
Here’s Why EVERY Restaurant, Should Be Using Text Message Marketing:
If you collect emails and then email coupons or offers to your customers, you might get a 10-30% Open Rate and a 3-5% Response Rate. You will DOUBLE or TRIPLE that with Mobile Marketing!
Your messages are INSTANT. 97% of text messages are opened, 85% within the first 15 minutes. Imagine an empty bar, on an off night, suddenly filled with customers! You can’t do that with email!
Your messages are INSTANT. 97% of text messages are opened, 85% within the first 15 minutes. Imagine an empty bar, on an off night, suddenly filled with customers! You can’t do that with email!
Rid yourself of SLOW TIMES of day or SLOW NIGHTS. Send your best customers text offers and incentives to come in during your slowest times. As you know, nothing draws a crowd like a crowd!
Increase loyalty from your best customers. It ALWAYS costs more to get a new customer in the door than to bring one back. Text message marketing is the BEST way to increase the frequency and consistency of your customers’ visits!
If you don’t, your competitors who do will EAT YOUR LUNCH!
Email response rates are dropping, and some of the newer mobile technologies (barcodes, location tracking, etc) are only available on certain phones (iPhone, Droid) and only being adopted by the under-25 segment. Text messaging, even for Oldsters like me, has become universal and the market is exploding!
Top Ten ways to use text message marketing:
Fill up a slow night by sending out a discount that expires in 4-8 hours! Let’s say Tuesday from 9pm-11pm is one of your slowest day-parts of the week. Offer a FREE drink to everyone who shows up at your place between 9pm and 10pm on Tuesday night. Let’s say you have 200 people on your “weeknight” list (more on list segments in a minute). Send out your free drink text offer Tuesday morning at 10:30am, right about the time people are starting to think about lunch (food and drink is on their minds), and before they’ve started to make plans for that evening. In my experience, you’ll get about a ten percent response, so now you’ve turned your near-empty bar into one that has some energy with 20-30 people! I’m a huge believer that in our business, NOTHING drives sales like warm bodies! Who wants to walk into a near-empty bar or restaurant. Anytime I walk into a crowded place, especially at an off time, it validates my choice.
Stop product waste… If you have ten steaks in your walk-in that won’t make it another day, offer them half-priced for the first ten customers that night. Think about it, no more waste! Anytime your chef needs to use something up quickly, send a text blast and offer the first people to respond a discount on those specific items! Putting a limit on the number of discounts (first 10, first 15) is a great way to drive results. The fear of loss is the biggest marketing motivator of all. This is also a good way to spur sales of a new menu item as well, tell people its new on the menu, you want their feedback and so its half-price for the first 15 people who order it. Now we’re cooking with gas!
Jumpstart an evening by offering free admission (no cover) for anyone that shows up with his or her text message alert before 9pm. Let’s say your VIP list has 500 people on it, and your club typically doesn’t get going until 10pm. So send out a text that offers the first 50 people, who show up by 9pm, free admission! Suddenly you have an hour or two head start to the evening and your lines will start cueing earlier!
Create a Flash Mob by offering a free drink to the first 30 people who show up, but only IF 30 people show up at the prescribed time. As popularized on YouTube and increasingly popular with the under 25 crowd, you’ve just created an instant scene by creating a Flash Mob! Send out a text that offers a free drink to the first 30 people who show up at a specific time, lets say 10pm on a Thursday, to create an instant Flash Mob. However, the offer is ONLY good if a minimum of 30 people show up! Here’s the power of virtual networking at its best. Your text alert may even be forwarded to your customers’ friends to make sure the minimum number of people is reached! Moreover, to really get bang for your buck, let them know you’ll be posting a video of the Flash Mob on YouTube, and sharing pictures on Facebook and any other websites where you normally post on. I find this idea works better if you also tie a specific action to the “mob”, like a Guinness toast or maybe tie in a vendor like Three Olives and create a mob where everyone does their best “O” Face. What a great video/photo op! And people will be talking about it for weeks.
Celebrate a rainy day… by sending a text offer good for as long as it rains! Here’s sample copy to use in your text alert: VIP Alert! It’s raining, it’s pouring…as long as you get here before it stops, your first drink is free! Unfortunately, in Seattle, where I live it wouldn’t be a good idea to make this offer or people would be drinking free 80% of the time! So I actually reverse it, and send out offers for as long as the sun is shining bright, which limits the amount of alcohol you are giving away! Offer a free Mojito or beer on a hot day, or just about anything free on a rainy day! You can have fun with this too, by taking advantage of strange weather like abnormally cold or hot days, maybe offering a free drink only if the temperature rises above a certain point.
Add a box for your website opt-ins – You may already have a Form or Pop-up on your website where people enter their name and email. Now you can add a cell phone field and add them to your text lists! You will be surprised at the number of cell phone opt-ins that will be coming from your website. You can make it a simple offer of a $5-Off coupon for opting in with their cell number. You can add a static form on your site to collect emails, but if you add a Pop-Up form to get cell numbers (ask your webmaster if you don’t know what I am talking about here), you’ll see how your website opt-ins increase.
Set up Mobile Giveaways – A powerful strategy where you can significantly and quickly build your customer lists by holding a giveaway contest or raffle and getting people to text a keyword (such as “enter”) to your own dedicated number. On Mothers Day, for example, you could put together a nice gift basket to be raffled off, and every diner that day could text the word MOM to a dedicated number and participate in the raffle. Your YeeZ Mobile system will automatically select the winner, will send them a winning text alert and also will notify the non-winners by text as well. And you could even offer a discount to all the non-winners to redeem on their next visit! In addition, you will compile a large list that you can use next Mothers Day for people you know were there the year before. There are tons of ways you can do raffles and contests (talk to your liquor vendors) and build your lists fast!
Establish Mobile Website Links – When you insert website links into your text messages, you’ve instantly created a new traffic source to your website, which of course we can help you “optimize” for mobile phones. This strategy has limitless possibilities for delivering any length message (you’re not limited to a text message length) to anyone at ANY TIME!
Cross-Promote to Multiply Your Results… by driving traffic back and forth between your website, Facebook page, Yelp listing, email list etc. Here is where you gain exponentially, when you start cross-promoting between all the various web options available. We reviewed how to drive traffic to your website (or any other web link you want people to go in Step 8), but lets get traffic going in both directions: First, if you have an email list, send an email inviting everyone to join your Text VIP Club, with an enticing offer of course, by texting “EMAIL” so you know where both where they came from AND that they’re on both lists (this is critically important because now you can either exclude these people if you’re sending the same offer to your email list, so they don’t get two offers).
Segment, Segment, and then Segment… by creating different lists for all of your different customer segments. That way, you can micro-target your message to exactly what your customers want, and most importantly, not offer things they don’t want.
I will use the example of Jay Fairbrother’s business to illustrate this point. Jay is a big fan and heavy user of SMS marketing. He owns a restaurant called: Magoo’s Bar & Bistro. This is a neighborhood place, with a dining room and bar that are separated by a half wall. Most of the time, Jay’s demographics in the dining room are far different than in the bar, and that’s certainly the case after 9pm.
If Jay only had one or two Keywords in his list, and everybody goes on one big text-message-marketing list, then his opt-out rates are going to skyrocket! For example, if he had the Coors Light Girls coming in from 10pm-Midnight as part of a bar promo, do you think the grandmother who was in his place for lunch the day before wants to hear about it? Imagine Grandma getting a text talking about free beer, free t-shirts, and free thongs from 10-midnight. Ouch! His opt-out rates are extremely low, and the reason is that he uses 12-15 different keywords (because he uses YeeZ Mobile, he doesn’t have to pay extra for each Keyword).
This feature gives Jay the ability to create an unlimited number of lists and segments. Aside from the differences in dining and bar guests, his lunch business is a totally different crowd than his dinner customers. So why “bother” his lunch guests with constant offers related to dinner or the bar?
Sure he can occasionally send something to entice one segment to try another: send a lunch special to his dinner list, for example… but for the most part, he keeps his messages on target, which also helps his response rates! He goes as far as giving each of his bartenders their own Keywords (their first names) so that he knows which bartenders are getting opt-ins and then he can even send offers out specific to that specific bartender’s clientele: Shane is serving up some mean Mojito’s tonight, so stop in and your first one is a dollar!
Jay has even separated his bar lists into two groups, at his bartenders’ discretion, roughly split at over and under the age of 35. Does he want to be sending texts to his more mature bar list offering $1 Jaeger Bombs? probably not…
The more you can segment, the better your results and the fewer people will decide to opt out of your text campaigns. To me, this is the holy grail of marketing, and it works very well.
If Jay only had one or two Keywords in his list, and everybody goes on one big text-message-marketing list, then his opt-out rates are going to skyrocket! For example, if he had the Coors Light Girls coming in from 10pm-Midnight as part of a bar promo, do you think the grandmother who was in his place for lunch the day before wants to hear about it? Imagine Grandma getting a text talking about free beer, free t-shirts, and free thongs from 10-midnight. Ouch! His opt-out rates are extremely low, and the reason is that he uses 12-15 different keywords (because he uses YeeZ Mobile, he doesn’t have to pay extra for each Keyword).
This feature gives Jay the ability to create an unlimited number of lists and segments. Aside from the differences in dining and bar guests, his lunch business is a totally different crowd than his dinner customers. So why “bother” his lunch guests with constant offers related to dinner or the bar?
Sure he can occasionally send something to entice one segment to try another: send a lunch special to his dinner list, for example… but for the most part, he keeps his messages on target, which also helps his response rates! He goes as far as giving each of his bartenders their own Keywords (their first names) so that he knows which bartenders are getting opt-ins and then he can even send offers out specific to that specific bartender’s clientele: Shane is serving up some mean Mojito’s tonight, so stop in and your first one is a dollar!
Jay has even separated his bar lists into two groups, at his bartenders’ discretion, roughly split at over and under the age of 35. Does he want to be sending texts to his more mature bar list offering $1 Jaeger Bombs? probably not…
The more you can segment, the better your results and the fewer people will decide to opt out of your text campaigns. To me, this is the holy grail of marketing, and it works very well.
BONUS TIP: One of the options available with YeeZ Mobile account is a Football Squares module, where you can have customer’s text to get their square in a Football pool or raffle. If you’d like to hear about YeeZ Mobile’s experience with the Houston Texans and Ford Motor Company, shoot me an email and I’ll send you the testimonial!
Why YeeZ Mobile’s Solution is the Best for Hospitality Businesses:
YeeZ Mobile is a full-service SMS Tex Messaging Solutions provider. And with YeeZ Mobile’s affordable, flat-rate monthly fees, ANY BUSINESS can enjoy the virtual gold rush that awaits the early entrants into the wide-open Mobile Marketing craze.
What You Get with a YeeZ Mobile Account thru this site:
Dedicated Text Long Code (10-digit Phone Number), allowing your business to have it’s own unique number where you can text an offer to your customers… no sharing the number, so you can use any and all Keywords you want!
Unlimited Incoming and Outgoing Text Messages. Unlike some services, your customers can market to as many people as they want… without worrying about extra charges… and you won’t get charged more he more successful you are building a huge list!
Unlimited Keywords. You can track your ad campaigns and promotions to quickly to evaluate which marketing campaigns are generating the biggest success and adjust accordingly. Segment your list in as many ways as you want!
Unlimited Groups/Lists. Segment your marketing and target valuable sub-groups…by age group, by sex, by interests, by…anything!
Text Blast Module. Provides your customers with a way to get a quick message or coupon out to your audience whether an entire list or targeted groups or sub-lists.
Auto Responder Module. Allows you to automatically respond by text with specific information to any inquiries or opt-ins from your customers.
Easy Web Interface. Allows you to control every aspect of your campaigns...no dependence on your service provider to add Keywords, send texts, set up lists, etc
Free Training and Forums. We offer webinars and online videos to help you learn how to use the system, and customer-only Forums where you can learn and share with other business owners who are using the system.
PLUS, as a Special Bonus for all Restaurant Marketing Strategies readers:
FREE Txt2Enter Module. Normally a $97 upgrade, this module allows you to set up raffles and contests where the system automatically picks the winner(s), at your prescribed date and time, and notifies both winners and losers of the results! And of course you have the ability to offer the “losers” an incentive to come back in!
FREE Txt2Ask Module. Normally a $97 upgrade, this module allows your customers to submit questions by text on any subject all! By starting their question with Who, What, Why, How, Does, etc, your customers can engage more actively in your business!
In addition, you can have access to optional modules based on your needs:
Web2Text Module – allows people to join your lists via your web page…
Txt2ShortCode Module – Allows you to do huge promotions that generate massive amounts of traffic almost instantaneously…yes, this is a Shared Short Code option just like all of our competitors are offering!
Txt2Vote Module – Customers can vote on their favorites and win prizes!
Reservations Reminder Module - allows you to send a text message reminder, with the option of requiring a reply (Y or YES) to confirm, saving hours of phone time trying to track down and confirm your reservations!
And much more…
And to help you get going quickly, YeeZ Mobile supports you by providing comprehensive training for via webinars and online videos. YeeZ is committed to making sure customers can quickly integrate mobile marketing into their current promotions so they can see rapid results…
"Any New Technology is only as good as the people managing it"
If you haven’t yet started using text messaging, you are missing a great way to reach your customers.
Text Messaging is the perfect marketing solution for ANY restaurant that needs more customers and more sales. And who doesn’t want that??
Click Here to Start Today with Mobile Marketing!
PS- If you have any questions, you can email me at Jose@RiescoConsulting.com.