Restaurants & food service
Text messaging for restaurants
Fill the tables that would otherwise sit empty tonight. A text lands while someone is still deciding where to eat, which is the only window that matters in this trade.
- From
- (415) 555-0134 · your number
- To
- 920 diners · “Regulars”
Two-for-one on the wood-fired pizzas tonight until 9. Walk-ins only, first come. Reply STOP to opt out.
What you would actually send
Quiet Tuesday: half price on all starters until 8pm. No booking needed.
On tonight: halibut with brown butter, and the last of the summer tomatoes. Book: ponyx.co/bk
We are closed Monday for a staff day. Back Tuesday at noon. Sorry for the short notice.
Examples of what restaurants & food service send. One credit per 160-character segment; STOP and HELP are handled automatically on every message.
Restaurant marketing has a timing problem that most channels cannot solve. The decision about where to eat tonight gets made in a window of maybe an hour, usually late in the afternoon. An email sent at 4pm is read tomorrow. A social post reaches whoever happens to be scrolling. A text is read in minutes, which is why a half-empty Tuesday can be turned around on the day rather than analysed the following week.
What restaurants actually send
The messages that work in this trade are short and expire quickly. A same-day offer to fill the room. A specials drop when something good came in. A closure notice when the kitchen has a problem, which saves you the one-star review from someone who drove across town.
What does not work is a weekly newsletter delivered by SMS. People give a restaurant their number expecting something useful and occasional. Send three texts a week and you will watch your list unsubscribe itself.
Replies come back to you
Your number is a real number. When someone replies asking whether you have a table for six, that lands in the inbox and anyone on your team can answer it. You do not need a separate reservations tool for a question that takes one line to resolve.
Collecting numbers without annoying anyone
A table tent with a keyword works better than a clipboard. Someone texts a word to your number, they are on the list, and the consent is recorded automatically, which is what keeps you the right side of the rules. The web opt-in widget does the same job on your booking page.
Nothing here is a subscription. You buy credits, you send when there is something worth saying, and a quiet month costs you nothing.
Send your first dispatch to restaurants & food service tonight
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