When you add Text Messaging to your marketing mix you have the ability to drive business through your doors today. 

No other form of advertising is this powerful and can drive a targeted offer to your customers to turn a slow day into a profitable one. 

Here's how...

Here are a few of the many options for creating an opt-in contact list:

1. Tabletop signs promoting the availability of special promotions through text messaging.  Signs request that customer signs up by sending a key word like "join" to a short code.  Customer is added to your list.
2. Tabletop signs or cards presented with check that request feedback from customers on their experience at your restaurant.  Something like "Feedback is a gift.  Please give us yours by texting "1-5" star rating to a short code.  Customers provide feedback and a reply message asks if they would like to receive special offers and promotions via text message:  Reply "yes" to join.
3. Promote your text message offers on your website.  Mobile River will provide you with a widget to put on your page which allows customers to opt-in to your campaign.
4. Print text message coupons in your print advertising to have customers request their first coupon:  Then add them to your database for future offers.

The best thing about mobile marketing is being able to market to customers when you need them most.  Are you a restaurant and your reservations for tonight looking a little light?  No problem: put together a special exclusive offer for your customer list and send it to them via text.  They will receive your offer within minutes and you can incorporate a click-to-call with your reservations line to make it easy for them to respond.

Here are a few suggestions of the many kinds of offers you can develop:

1. Free desert tonight with any reservation received by 3:00.  Click here to call us.
2. Buy one appetizer get one free. Only tonight when you show this coupon at the door.  Forward to friends if you like.
   
3. 10th one to show this coupon tonight gets a free meal! Excludes drinks of course :-)

Have some fun with it, you know your customers best and you know what they will respond to.  If you don't get enough responses from one campaign, try another angle next time.  And because you aren't broadcasting this to the world, you can offer some really enticing specials that wouldn't be feasible through any other form of advertising.

Text-To-Win and Text-To-Vote:

These campaigns can be fun for you and your customers.  They can be used in the restaurant or to help promote the restaurant.

1. Text-To-Vote on tomorrows special.  Reply "1" for burger, "2" for hot dog, "3" for fillet mignon.  Watch the votes come in, and send out text notifying everyone of the winner.  Chances are those that won will come in for the special!
2. Text-To-Win:  Reply to this text and be entered to win a free entrée.  Show this text at door to find out if you are one of 10 winners.  This drives people to the restaurant to see if they have won: if they haven't they will likely eat there anyway.

You get the idea.  For the right business this can be a fun way to interact with your customers and keep your business on their mind.

 

If you use Constant Contact or another email marketing service, you may want to build up your email list and ensure that everyone you are texting is also receiving your email advertisements.

This is easily accomplished by having people who that opt-in to your text messaging campaigns provide the Mobile River servers with their email address.  You can then use those addresses for email marketing.