Are you a restaurant looking for mobile marketing ideas? If so, we’ve got you covered! Below are 10 great examples of restaurants — including Boston Market, Chili’s, Papa Murphy’s, Subway, Sonic, Round Table Pizza, and many more — that are using SMS marketing to attract new customers and build loyalty with existing ones. You’ll also find a ton of case studies and resources to get ideas for your next restaurant text message marketing campaign. Read (and watch!) below.
Restaurant SMS Marketing Examples
Check out the actual examples below of restaurants using SMS marketing to connect with their customers.
Boston Market
Boston Market, known as Boston Chicken until 1995, is a chain of American fast-casual restaurants headquartered in Golden, Colorado. Boston Market uses SMS marketing to distribute their coupons, promote exclusive offers, and drive traffic to their restaurant. Boston Market sends messages roughly every three days, and uses SMS messages exclusively, compared to MMS messages. For more information about Boston Market’s SMS marketing alerts, visit their SMS Archives page here.
Chili’s
Chili’s Grill & Bar is an American casual dining restaurant chain founded in Texas in 1975. Chili’s serves American food influenced by Tex-Mex cuisine, such as spicy shrimp tacos, quesadillas, fajitas, bacon burgers, and steak. Chili’s uses SMS marketing alerts to send their subscribers promotional offers and coupons, and update subscribers about ordering options. Chili’s sends SMS marketing promotions roughly every 4 days. For more information about Chili’s SMS marketing program, visit their SMS Archives page here.
Papa Murphy’s
Papa Murphy’s is a take-and-bake pizza company based in Vancouver, Washington. It began in 1995 as the merger of two local take-and-bake pizza companies: Papa Aldo’s Pizza and Murphy’s Pizza. In the SMS marketing messages above, Papa Murphy’s uses SMS marketing as a way to distribute their weekly deals and offers, as well as incentivize online orders. Papa Murphy’s sends messages roughly every 2 days, and sends 100% SMS messages, compared to MMS messages. For up to date information about Papa Murphy’s text message program, visit their SMS Archives page here.
Olive Garden
Olive Garden is an American casual dining restaurant chain specializing in Italian-American cuisine. The restaurant serves several types of Italian-American cuisine including pasta dishes, steaks, and salads. Olive Garden uses SMS marketing to send its subscribers exclusive SMS offers, restaurant news, and MMS coupons. Olive Garden sends text coupons roughly once per week, and uses a mix of 90% SMS messages and 10% MMS messages. For more information about Olive Garden’s SMS program, check out their SMS Archives page here.
Subway
Subway is an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells sub sandwiches and salads. It is one of the fastest-growing franchises in the world and, as of October 2019, had 41,512 locations in more than 100 countries. Subway uses SMS marketing alerts to distribute its app, share exclusive discounts, and update its subscribers about order options. Subway sends text coupons about every five days, and sends a mix of 93% SMS messages and 7% MMS messages. For more information about Subway’s SMS marketing program, visit their SMS Archives page here.
Sonic
Sonic is an American drive-in fast-food restaurant chain headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Sonic’s menu consists of hamburgers and French fries, as well as onion rings, corn dogs, chili dogs, and breakfast toaster sandwiches. Sonic uses SMS marketing alerts to promote its app, share information about new products via MMS marketing, and distribute exclusive offers.
Sonic sends text coupons roughly every four days, and uses a fairly even split between SMS and MMS messages. We think that’s a great strategy because nothing makes us want to visit Sonic more than seeing mouth-watering images of their cones, burgers, and fries! For more information about Sonic’s SMS marketing alerts, visit their SMS Archives page here.
Round Table Pizza
Round Table Pizza is a chain of pizza parlors in the western United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Round Table Pizza uses SMS marketing to send its subscribers exclusive SMS offers, restaurant news, and SMS coupons. Round Table Pizza sends exclusively SMS messages, versus MMS messages. For more information about Round Table Pizza’s SMS program, check out their SMS Archives page here.
Papa John’s
Papa John’s is an American pizza restaurant franchise. It is the fourth-largest pizza delivery restaurant chain in the United States, with headquarters in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, a suburb of Louisville. Papa John’s uses SMS marketing as a way to distribute their weekly deals, SMS coupons, and incentivize online orders. Papa John’s sends messages roughly once per week, and sends a split of 93% SMS messages and 7% MMS messages. For up to date information about Papa John’s text message program, visit their SMS Archives page here.
Restaurant SMS Marketing Case Studies
Can’t get enough restaurant SMS marketing examples? Check out these other restaurants are using SMS marketing below.
- Taco Bell – SMS Campaigns Gains 13,000 SMS Subscribers in 5 Weeks
- Papa Murphy’s – SMS Marketing Generates Redemption Rates As High As 17%
- Subway – SMS Marketing Gets 9% Redemption Rates
- Pizza Hut – SMS Marketing 2.6X More Effective Than Online Advertising
- Carl’s Jr. – SMS Marketing Generates 19% Redemption Rate
- Dunkin’ Donuts – SMS Promotion Increases Store Traffic 21%
- Bulmers Irish Cider – 73% of Recipients Purchased Product
- Chuck E. Cheese’s – 5% of Chuck E. Cheese’s Emails Come Text Messaging
- Texas Roadhouse – SMS Marketing Averages 17% Redemption Rates
- Papa John’s – SMS Marketing Increases Sales 33%
Restaurant SMS Marketing Resources
Still hungry for more? Want to see more restaurants using mobile marketing? Click here.
Interested in figuring out how many SMS subscribers a restaurant should be able to acquire for their mobile marketing campaign? For the answer, check out this blog post.
Want to know what the average opt-out rates for a restaurant mobile marketing campaign is? For the answer, check out this blog post.
If you want a complete breakdown of Restaurant SMS Marketing, please check out our comprehensive master post on the subject!
Already running a mobile marketing campaign for your restaurant? Check out this blog post where you can learn four ways to quickly improve your mobile marketing promotions.