Hospitality businesses, perhaps for the first time, have the same resources to attract customers to their bar or restaurant.
Mobile technology allows everyone, especially restaurants, to reach customers while they are on the move, instead of waiting for them to come with a large sign on the door and it is wide open, large and small, it does not matter. .
Mobile phones, of course, have become the target of all kinds of marketing: email, online, gastronomic … but it should also include sending SMS. Yes, those 140-character messages that used to have a cost. Everyone uses them, even Google.
Why use SMS? Because they make your restaurant, because it will make your diners remember that you and your restaurant are in contact with them, and reminding them of the existence of your restaurant … you know, we have little memory.
Does it seem dated? It is not, not at all. Large restaurants are increasing their profits through SMS marketing. An example is Taco Bell, a restaurant chain that sells, as the name suggests, tacos. Send 15.000 SMS more or less per month.
What to say in an SMS?
SMS provides many benefits, in addition, they are short, and why not say it, sweet.
The difference is made by a simple SMS wishing a happy birthday … it will delight the customer, because it is not an email or anything, it is an SMS, nobody uses them!
Another message could be: “Today the weather is excellent in Madrid. It looks like spring in autumn! Go for a walk, and take the opportunity to come to “XXX” to have a few beers “. They make the difference to an impersonal and saturated way like email.
You have no limits … well, yes, 140 characters.
Why is your restaurant interested in this type of SMS marketing?
El gastronomic marketing seeks, and we all seek, direct and intimate contact with the client as possible, and few means provide us with this. This is what SMS offers us.
Keep in mind that the promotion with an SMS is sent directly to your client’s mobile. Imagine that you have a new menu that will be available next winter, and with it come special dishes and desserts for one day, exclusively for the inauguration of the menu. You can invite all diners by SMS. An event for your best clients. What do you think?
Contests are also a great way to create a means of communication with your clients. You can give an unlimited dinner to your best client. You send him an SMS letting him get the news… It’s great.
You can also do an event or a massive campaign, for example, by sending an SMS for example:
“At your next meal with us, you can refill your soda as many times as you want, just by being you.”
The key to success in sending SMS is to capture the customer’s attention. You may have, next to your client’s mobile, information such as their favorite meals, if they pay by card or cash, if they are going to have dinner normally, or to eat… etc.
With all the information you have on your customers and your creativity, there is no reason why your SMS campaign should not be successful.
Email Marketing vs. SMS
Let’s face it: we are a generation addicted to mobile. Most of us are permanently attached to a cell phone, and, according to experts, we check their screens an average of 67 times a day. Your restaurant can take advantage of this dependency.
Do not think that this displaces any other marketing you may have, for example, that worked campaign on social networks or email marketing. Each one has its place.
SMS has the advantage over others, that it reaches directly to the mobile phone, and we check the mobile phone more frequently, than opening email, or entering Facebook or Twitter, right?
For that reason alone, the open rate of an SMS is higher than that of an email.
Where to do SMS marketing?
You should know that an SMS is not expensive, although the rates are a little higher than, for example, email marketing, but its opening rate is much higher, and you reach your client’s device directly, not their email, neither to his Facebook wall nor to his timeline on Twitter.
We give you some options for you to consider:
- SendinBlue: It is an email marketing company, but it has also implemented SMS Marketing. It is very economical, the minimum package is 100 SMS for € 7
- MDirector: Allows the sending of SMS to any country in the world, in a very simple and fast implementation. They do not have published prices, since they are previous study
- Digitaleo: It is a Spanish company, and has as proof, 100 free SMS so that you know its services and the advantages of a campaign with SMS
- SMSArena: A solution, also Spanish, that offers automatic and transactional SMS, and very cheap, at € 0,04 each
Implementing SMS marketing is very useful, and cheap. Use it, you will see how the relationship with your customers increases and improves.