In 2021 there are more marketing channels than ever before. Whereas everyone would like to have the bandwidth to be “omnichannel” marketers, most small businesses need to zero in on the channels that deliver the biggest band for the buck. The good news is that there is one marketing method businesses can use to engage with consumers that is quick, reliable, not to mention cost effective, but yet remains underutilized: SMS.

SMS Marketing: Interact directly with your customers
Ding! or perhaps it’s a ping, or a beep, a click or some other sound effect that alerts you of new message. Whatever your tone choice, one thing is for sure is that it’s a sound you hear on regular basis. And chances are, that when you hear that well-known text notification sound coming from your phone, you pick it up to check out who sent you a message. In fact, most people (90%) read new text messages within 3 minutes – 98% of texts are read within the hour.

It is thought that more people send text messages than own personal computers or landline telephones. 92% of U.S. adults carry text-enabled phones and 98% of smartphone users use text on a regular basis. While we spend a lot of our time on social media – and looking at memes among other things, the number one thing most people use their mobile devices for (88%) is for checking, sending, and answering of text messages.

Going by the statistics on mobile SMS use, there is undoubtedly a huge (if not obvious) opportunity for businesses to interact directly with their customers on the devices they’re already using regularly. SMS marketing comes with real, tangible benefits and can provide businesses with a way to create additional revenue they so badly need.

The response to restaurant SMS marketing
Mobivity Holding Corp.’s recently release its 2021 Restaurant Text Marketing Benchmarks Report. From analyzing its network data of 15 million subscribers and 500 million transactions from 2018 to 2021, their data showed that restaurant customers who receive a SMS offer, an overwhelming 60% of customers redeemed the offer within the first 24 hours.
In addition, customer who sign up to a restaurants SMS or text message marketing visit restaurants 44% more frequently than non-subscribers, and once a consumer joins a restaurant’s text messaging program, the spend increases 23%. A text subscriber can be valued at $12.15 on average in incremental revenue, measured over six months, and brands with incremental text subscriber had revenue as high as $16.59.

Speaking about the findings, Mobivity chairman and CEO Dennis Becker said, “Restaurants of every kind were particularly hit hard at the onset of the pandemic and continue to experience staffing, supply chain and traffic issues. The No. 1 takeaway they’ve learned is that building an efficient, direct to consumer owned media channel is critical — and text messaging enables that.”

There is a tremendous opportunity for businesses to leverage SMS to send tailored promotions, distribute coupons and loyalty rewards to increase in-store visits and purchases. If you are currently not using SMS as part of your marketing, don’t worry, you are not the only one. Upward of 65% of brands don’t use or have any sort of formal strategy in place for SMS messaging. But it doesn’t have to remain that way.

Here is how to approach it. Your promotional campaigns should reflect seasonal demand generators and business needs. For example, you might want to leverage the 4th of July to encourage customers to take advantage of a BOGO special (buy 1, get 1 free). You create a coupon and then you apply it to each channel. Most operators should already be creating subject lines and promotion descriptions for their email campaigns. The good news is that same content can easily be re-used for SMS promotions.

The latest version of Target Market, FoodTec’s e-mail marketing, now includes an SMS module in the same application. You can push your SMS promotions out at the same time as your email promotions, using the same coupon “macros” (meaning you get smart coupon promotions!). Plus, you can push them to a landing page of your choice.

Want a demo? Contact FoodTec Sales today at 1-800-350-3339.