After running a pilot program that generated redemption rates as high as 17%, we’re excited here at Tatango to hear that Papa Murphy’s, the world’s leading take ‘n’ bake pizza franchise, is now rolling out their SMS marketing campaign nationwide. Papa Murphy’s SMS marketing campaign is being implemented at a corporate level, and at an individual franchise level, with Papa Murphy’s reporting that all franchisees will be onboard by the end of 2015.
By implementing this two-tiered approach, Papa Murphy’s corporate headquarters is able to get visibility into the SMS marketing efforts of each franchisee, but also allow each franchisee the flexibility to plan and execute their own SMS marketing campaigns. By using both SMS and MMS messaging, Papa Murphy’s hopes to drive foot traffic into physical store locations, in addition to increasing online orders.
What’s exciting here at Tatango about Papa Murphy’s rollout of their SMS marketing campaign, is that the pizza franchise has been heavily promoting the campaign, advertising it to customers in-store, online, on Facebook, and even on Twitter. Ok, let’s get into the mechanics of how this SMS marketing campaign works, and the strategies Papa Murphy’s is using.
First off, the entire SMS marketing campaign is based around customers’ location, which is done by collecting the zip code of mobile phone opt-ins. There are two different ways Papa Murphy’s is collecting customers’ zip codes during the opt-in process. The first is through their web form.
After Papa Murphy’s customers submit their information on the web form, they’ll receive a text message on Papa Murphy’s dedicated short code 90421. This text message as you can see below, asks the customer to reply “Y” to join Papa Murphy’s SMS marketing campaign. This SMS message is required by the CTIA, as it ensures that the mobile phone number entered on the web form, is owned by the customer.
After customers reply “Y”, they’re sent an SMS confirmation message. To reward customers that opt-in to Papa Murphy’s SMS marketing campaign, after the SMS confirmation message is received, customers then receive an SMS coupon for free cookie dough, with the purchase of any pizza. Providing an incentive for customers to opt-in is a great strategy to grow new subscribers, as a recent study showed that it can grow new subscribers by as much as 520%. To incentivize customers to use the coupon, the text message tells customers the offer expires in 2 days. As you can also see in the text message below, Papa Murphy’s is customizing each SMS coupon by placing the customer’s city name in the text message, telling customers at which locations the SMS coupon is valid.
The second method Papa Murphy’s is using to collect their customers’ zip codes is being implemented when a customer opts-in to the SMS campaign on their mobile device. As we said earlier in the post, Papa Murphy’s is advertising their SMS marketing campaign everywhere, including in-store, as you can see in the call-to-action below, found in one of their store locations.
The call-to-action encourages customers to “Join the Papa Murphy’s Text Club”, for “coupons and special offers”, by texting “PAPAMURPHYS2” to their dedicated short code 90421. Each Papa Murphy’s franchisee uses a different SMS keyword in order to segment their mobile subscribers in the SMS marketing software. The SMS keyword “PAPAMURPHYS2” is being used by a franchisee in the Orlando area.
As you can see in the text message below, customers that are opting in on their mobile device will text a Papa Murphy’s SMS keyword to their dedicated short code 90421. The first text message customers receive back is an opt-in confirmation message, asking the customers to “Reply Y for mktg txt msgs from autodialer to this #”, while also including the following TCPA & CTIA language “Consent not req’d to purchase. Msg&DataRatesApply. Text STOP to end; Text HELP for help.” After a customer replies “Y” to Papa Murphy’s short code 90421, they’re asked to reply with their 5-digit zip code, to receive local offers based on that zip code.
Similar to when customers opt-in through the web form, customers that opt-in on their mobile device through the dedicated short code 90421, will receive an SMS coupon for free cookie dough with any regular priced pizza purchase. As with the web opt-in form method, the SMS coupon is customized to the customer’s location (in this case Orlando), based on the SMS keyword that was used. This franchisee also has an expiration date for their SMS coupon and is displaying it in the format of MM/DD/YY, rather than saying “Exp. in 2 days” as the Seattle franchisee had.
Remember how we said that Papa Murphy’s is doing a great job of advertising the SMS marketing campaign to customers? To prove our point, check out how the campaign is being advertised on the web, on Facebook, and on Twitter below (above image is of in-store advertisement). Lets first start with Papa Murphy’s website, which you can see in the image below. Look at the double placement in the image slider, and on the bottom right, both encouraging web visitors to join the new text club. Both of these advertisements link to the web form.
Now let’s move onto how Papa Murphy’s is advertising their SMS marketing campaign on Facebook. As you can see in the screen capture below, Papa Murphy’s is using a Facebook photo on their fan page to encourage fans to join the text club. What’s great to see from Papa Murphy’s is that they’re not only posting once to their Facebook fan page about their new text club, but they’ve been posting consistently about it. As you can see in the screen capture below, they’re linking fans interested in joining the text club, to their website, and using a link shortener to track the results of each Facebook post.
Let’s not forget Twitter! As you can see in the tweet below, Papa Murphy’s is using a Twitter photo to encourage fans to join the text club. Like with Facebook, Papa Murphy’s is regularly tweeting from their Twitter handle @papamurphys about their new text club. Similar to how they’re promoting the text club on Facebook, in Papa Murphy’s tweets they’re directing followers to their website form, and using a link shortener to track the results of each tweet.
So how’s the SMS marketing campaign doing so far? We’d say pretty good, being that Papa Murphy’s is seeing double-digit response rates for such SMS promotions as a spin-to-win campaign, where text club participants were encouraged to spin a virtual wheel on their mobile device to win prizes. Double-digit response rates!
Are you a restaurant looking for SMS marketing case studies, and strategies built specifically for restaurants? Download Tatango’s free guide to restaurant SMS marketing here.
