Filling Empty Seats Cheap!

Mobile Marketing is a Proven, Cost-Effective Means to Increase Store Traffic and Profits
By Conrad Carney II

A customer and her family visit a restaurant on an otherwise slow night.  She shows her cell phone to her server and shares that she had received a mobile promotion on her phone that day from the restaurant offering free kids meals with each adult entree purchase.  “With three kids that’ll save us over $10, which is great,” the customer says, adding that her family had planned on going to another restaurant until receiving the mobile promotion.  The manager and owner are happy to hear about this exchange as they were able to reach this customer for just a few cents compared to the significantly higher per-customer cost of traditional advertising.

Many restaurateurs hear of mobile text marketing and wonder, “How can I get started?  What do I need to do?”  Relax!  It’s not rocket science and you don’t have to be a “Techie” to have a mobile media presence for your restaurant.  

The decision to add mobile to your advertising and marketing mix is an easy one.  Nearly all of your customers, and potential customers, carry a mobile phone.  As an ad medium, over 95% of text messages are read by the consumer within 4 minutes of being received.  Furthermore, mobile coupons have an average redemption rate of 10-30%, compared to the less than 1% redemption rate of traditional paper coupons. The convenience can’t be beat, as the coupon is always available to the customer on their mobile phone.  As you can see, it’s hard to argue the effectiveness and ease offered by text-based mobile promotions and its ability to increase store traffic and profits.

It’s fast.  Text message marketing offers restaurants the ability to deliver exclusive offers, promotions and coupons directly to their customers’ mobile phone in seconds.  Compared to print, radio, television or other traditional kinds of advertising, mobile marketing is inexpensive and immediate… it’s real time marketing.

By way of example, assume you’d like to run a “Buy 1 Get 1 Free” special due to excess stock, or you wish to run an offer to coincide with a local event.  Perhaps it has just been slower than usual that day and you want to do something to immediately increase customer traffic (e.g. a free appetizer with the purchase of two regularly priced entrees).  These are time-based examples to which traditional ad media simply does not lend itself.

In less than 5 minutes you can create your mobile offer and send it to every customer in your database.  As noted earlier, within 4 minutes of sending your offer the majority of your customers will have seen it on their phone.  Within an hour, people are filling up your restaurant.  There are no spam filters or ignored messages.  Simply put, mobile marketing provides something no other form of advertising can – instant traffic.

How do you get started?  It is vital that you find a mobile marketing company that has experience in the casual dining and/or fast food space that can guide you by sharing what types of promotions work and which ones to avoid.  It’s essential that they provide you responsive support. Be sure to ask for references so that you know they have the ability to deliver what they promise.

Once your mobile marketing campaign is underway, here are some additional suggestions to consider:

Have your staff engage your customers by inviting them to join your “Mobile VIP Club”.  The more people you have opt-in, the more revenue you’ll see with each promotion.  Staff engagement is a critical aspect of building your database.

Post signs and table toppers that invite your customers to join your “Mobile VIP Club”.  Thanks to the ease of joining, many customers will do so immediately while sitting right at their table!

Make sure that any mobile coupons you send offer genuine value.  Customers will quickly see through “bait and switch” or difficult to redeem offers.

Have a “Text to Win” contest:  When a customer joins your text club they get a chance to win a free gift card or menu item such as a “Free Appetizer”.

Send a text promoting a new menu item or special.

Don’t wear out your welcome. No more than once per week!

Competition in the restaurant industry is fierce.  Any edge you can gain over your competitors to build your customer base is indispensible.  Mobile marketing is proven to be a successful, cost-effective means to increase store traffic and profits.  The important thing is to get started today!  It’s inexpensive and it works!

Conrad R. Carney II started work at McCaw Communication “Cellular One” in 1987. At age 23, Mr. Carney headed a sales division in Kentucky and was one of the youngest mangers at McCaw, now AT&T mobile. 

Conrad has been a featured speaker and is considered an industry leader on mobile and social media marketing.  He was instrumental in developing a portfolio of Intellectual Property Patents which support the SMS technology.