I put the following together for the owner of a group of restaurants here in New Hampshire, but it’d be a shame if I didn’t multi-task the content and share it with the rest here, so that other restaurant owners considering a jump into the world of text marketing and/or social marketing can get access to these resources all in one place.
Regarding text marketing: The gist is you have to get folks to opt-in to receive your text messages, and you have to sign up with a company that can manage your list and deliver the messages (like Jittergram). I’ve pasted a couple of case study examples (from Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s) below.
Also, I’ve found a great case study about a restaurant successfully using social media marketing, along with a few other relevant resources. Spoiler alert: Here’s the meat (pun intended) of that case study:
“Being only an 1 ¼ hrs or so away from Boston and 45 minutes from central Connecticut, as well as being a high end steakhouse, our Google rankings are very important to driving new business. My goal was that when someone would do searches for steakhouses in our general area, we would appear multiple times on the front page. We index better than some of the biggest names in our area, restaurants that have much bigger marketing budgets, high end websites, etc. In my opinion, if I saw a steakhouse appear multiple times on the front page, with little or no understanding of Google rankings, I’d think that must mean that they’re really good and I should check them out.
As far as our ROI on social media efforts, of course it’s always hard to determine that. But, what I do know is that since we turned our focus to social media, attracting inbound links, more internet marketing/less print advertising, etc., we have seen an approximate 30 percent boost in sales (year to date) in a time where a lot of restaurants are down 10-20 percent. Not all of that can be attributed to our online presence but I’m sure a good portion of it can. The blog and social media outposts help us reach and interact with our community as well as show our expertise in our space. I have done some research and can’t find anyone in our area (or in general) that’s doing what we’re doing as a restaurant.”
I’m in California meeting with clients and celebrating my mom’s 60th birthday, so I’d be happy to talk about this and whether we can help with your goals on Thursday or Friday this week.
Best,
Allen
P.S. Re: Twitter, your followers can choose to have your updates sent to their cell phones (in addition to seeing your updates online), and your Twitter feed is RSS-enabled – so your updates could go just about anywhere you want to put them online.
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From http://www.textsmsmarketing.com/sms-text-marketing-case-studies.php:
Dunkin Donuts SMS Text Message Campaign
GOALS
- Entice trial of Dunkin’ Donuts hot lattes to high school/college age students in the Boston area
- Drive in-store redemption of $0.99 small hot latte mobile coupon in month of October
MECHANICS
The SMS offer was sent to 7,500 targeted opt-ins. Boston radio DJ’s invited participation; “text in to DD-123” each Thursday morning. In addition, 400,000 Mobile Internet (WAP) ads ran in Boston targeted content. Over 1,000 Dunkin’ Donuts franchise owners and workers were educated with marketing materials about how to help consumers redeem the SMS coupons.
RESULTS
The targeted WAP and SMS messaging coupled with radio created a 21 percent increase in store traffic and redemption of the mobile coupon. The SMS message promoted the viral element of the coupon. This proved to be a very beneficial aspect of the campaign, in that 17 percent of participants forwarded or showed the message to a friend. In the research subsequent to the campaign, 35 percent considered themselves more likely to buy lattes and coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts.
Source: Mobile Marketing Association
McDonalds Text Message Holiday Promotion
GOALS
Create a new mass market sweepstake mechanism for McDonald’s Italy where consumers can participate and win directly in the restaurant. Bind winning a prize to the purchase of the product & activate POS to increase response.
MECHANICS
Print unique codes on cups for consumers to send in with 1 text message – right in the restaurant. The revolutionary idea: Every code wins – for the first time even physical prizes. Presents ranged from mobile content such as personal calls from Santa, sending postcards to friends, personal photos with Santa to attractive physical prizes like prepaid credit cards with 20.000 Euro, 13.000 x free airtime and 150 mobile phones. This innovative prize pyramid combining physical prizes with millions of digital presents was shown on TV and in the restaurants (on products, traymats, menu boards, etc.). SMS & WIN granted customers a very Merry Christmas!
RESULTS
A stunning 25% response rate – with more than 1.5 million participations in five weeks. The best result of a McDonald’s mobile marketing campaign ever. Source: Mobile Marketing Association
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Other resources:
Local restaurant’s ‘Twitter Tuesday’ draws social networking fans
http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081111/NEWS/711119929/1001/NEWS
Restaurants using Twitter
http://onlinerestaurantmarketing.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/restaurants-using-twitter/
If I were a restaurant, I’d use Twitter to…
http://www.conversationalmediamarketing.com/2008/12/if-i-were-a-restaurant-id-use-twitter-to.html
