Restaurant SMS Marketing: A 30-Day Setup Playbook

Short version: SMS marketing for a restaurant is four jobs in order: register the sending number with the carriers, collect opt-ins where customers already are, send a short run of launch messages, and stay inside the consent rules. This is the method. What it earns depends on your list, your offers and your customers, so this post promises no number.

Why would a restaurant use SMS as well as email?

A text is read sooner than an email, which matters for an offer with a short window, such as a Friday lunch special. It also costs money per message and wears out faster: people unsubscribe from a number that texts too often. So text the few messages that are time-sensitive and let email carry the rest.

Step 1. Where will the texts be sent from?

Use the SMS feature of the system that already holds your customer list, so a text can link to your own ordering site and the order can be traced back to it. If your ordering system has no SMS feature, a dedicated SMS tool that imports opted-in contacts does the same job. Compare current prices on each vendor's own pricing page before you choose.

Step 2. Register the sending number first

US carriers require a business to register its brand and its messaging campaign before it sends marketing texts from a local number (the A2P 10DLC registration, run through The Campaign Registry). Unregistered marketing texts are filtered or blocked. Registration asks for the legal business name, the EIN, the opt-in wording and sample messages, and approval is the carriers' decision and timing, not yours.

Start it on day one. Everything else in this post can be built while you wait, but nothing can be sent until it clears.

Step 3. Where do you collect opt-ins?

1. Checkout on your own ordering site. A checkbox the customer ticks, never pre-ticked, with wording such as: "Text me offers from [restaurant]. Up to 4 msgs/mo. Msg and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out."
2. Printed material. A QR code on a receipt or a bag that opens a one-field sign-up page with the same wording.
3. At the counter. Staff ask, and the customer types their own number.
4. Your email list. One email inviting subscribers to join the text list. An email address is not consent to text.

Step 4. What are the first six messages?

Do not blast a new list. The first messages show what kind of sender you are.

1. Confirmation, sent at once

"You are in. Reply STOP to unsubscribe." Confirms consent and shows the way out.

2. Introduction, a few days later

"We text two or three times a month with specials and new dishes. Try the new harissa chicken plate this week: [link]" Sets the expectation.

3. First offer

"Friday lunch combo this week: gyro, fries and a drink. Order here: [link]" Send it the evening before the window opens.

4. Win-back

"We have not seen you in a while. Here is a code for your next order: [code] [link]" Send only to subscribers who have not ordered recently.

5. News

"New: catering trays for offices. See the catering menu: [link]" Not every text has to be a discount.

6. Weekend push

"Saturday only: a free dessert with any order. Order here: [link]" One clear, time-boxed offer to close the month.

What does the law require?

• Written consent. Under the TCPA, marketing texts need the recipient's prior express written consent. Statutory damages are $500 per message and up to $1,500 for a willful violation. This is general information, not legal advice; ask a lawyer about your own program.
• STOP and HELP. Every program must honor them. Check that your platform does before the first send.
• Hours. Federal rules bar marketing texts before 8am and after 9pm in the recipient's local time, and some states are stricter. Follow the strictest rule that applies to you.
• No imported numbers. A phone number collected to coordinate a delivery is not consent to market. Do not import it.

What should you not send?

• A message with no offer, no news and no link.
• Long messages when a short one says it.
• More texts than you told people to expect when they signed up.

What do you watch each week?

• Opt-ins: how many customers join, and from which of the four places.
• Opt-outs per send: a rise after a message means the cadence or the content is off.
• Orders per send: use a separate code or a tagged link for each message so you can tell which one worked.

Judge the program on your own numbers after a month or two, not on a benchmark from someone else's restaurant.

How does it fit with the other channels?

SMS needs a customer list, and the list comes from direct orders. The order we would work in is in the ten channels post, and the email side is in the email, SMS and social playbook.

Zayos includes email marketing, and SMS marketing is set up per restaurant on request, because US carriers register each restaurant before it can text. Call or text 954-807-1509.