Food for Thought

Award-winning restaurant Shelly’s, based in Warrington, UK, has seen a substantial increase in bookings due to recent SMS campaigns run through Txtlocal, in some cases seeing a sales return of 14 times the initial investment.

Within five hours of sending one promotional offer via SMS to its database of opt-in contacts the restaurant had received more than £400 worth of bookings, at a campaign cost of just £28.

“Over the years we have spent hundreds of pounds on various advertising campaigns via press and radio, but using SMS has been the most cost-effective method we’ve ever used,” says restaurant owner Shelly Butterworth.

Restaurants usually work with Txtlocal to advertise special offers, send through images of menu specials using multi-media messaging, or to send courtesy ‘thank you’ or confirmation texts after customer bookings. Txtlocal says that restaurants typically see a huge increase in customer bookings using SMS, due its powerful viral capabilities. New bookings often come from friends and family who have been forwarded the SMS. These customers can then be added to the SMS database.

“The food and restaurant industry is definitely one that benefits from working with us,” says Txtlocal managing director, Darren Daws. “We have experience working with many different companies such as pizza delivery franchises like Papa John’s and Perfect Pizza through to fast-food chains like Subway.  Some of these brands have seen sales increase by more than 30 per cent as a result of an SMS campaign.”