To boost business during lunch hours, Scotty P?s Hamburgers uses text-messaging campaigns to specifically target customers from any of its locations and has achieved astronomical return on investment.

If business is slow in one of the locations but not the others, they can send SMS coupons only to those customers that dine at that location. The result of one campaign was a 12 percent response rate with zero opt-outs, and since there were such minimal costs associated with the promotion, the restaurant experienced a 1,650 percent return on investment.

?Scotty P?s is a small regional chain, and we?re growing, but our marketing and technology budget is minimal, so we?re looking for cost-effective ways to put our name out there,? said Scott Pontikes, founder and president of Scotty P?s Hamburgers, Frisco, TX. ?We?re using text messaging to is a call-to-action to get customers to come into our restaurant, and we can track the correlation between our marketing spend and the dollars we get in return?our effort and the results we see.

?With email we see only a 20 percent open rate and only 4 percent redemption, which is not a great return, so we thought texting might be a more effective way to do that,? he said. ?We checked with radio stations but the cost was ridiculous.

?With Call Em All, it costs us seven-and-a-half cents per text, and we can see exactly what you?re getting back on it.?

Family owned and operated, Scotty P?s Hamburgers boasts that it is managed more with the business acumen typical of large multilevel corporations.

With seven locations, the restaurant blends a traditional, casual dining experience with a modern knowledge of restaurant management and customer service.

For more than 10 years, Scotty P?s has provided a family dining experience while steadily growing its business into a larger and increasingly more profitable enterprise.

Problem
Operating seven locations throughout Texas, Scotty P?s was looking to take an innovative and cost-effective approach for engaging with current and prospective customers.

Mr. Pontikes said that small businesses do not have an enormous marketing budget, so whatever they do needs to be creative enough to stand out and effective enough to drive revenue.

Wanting to specifically bolster business during the lunch hours, Scotty P?s needed to reach their customers using the most timely and cost-efficient method possible.

Solution
To accomplish this objective, Scotty P?s tapped into Call-Em-All?s SMS text messaging platform, and sent an initial email to 6,000 customers with instructions on how to opt in to receive exclusive text-message coupons.

An auto-reply instantly rewarded every opted-in consumer with a free soft drink and within 24 hours, 5 percent of the email recipients had taken advantage of the promotion.

At 9:30 a.m. on a Thursday, Scotty P?s sent out an exclusive text-message coupon offering customers a special ?lunchtime only ? buy a burger, get a burger free? offer.

The result of this campaign was a 12 percent response rate with zero opt-outs.

And since there were such minimal costs associated with the promotion, Scotty P?s experienced a 1,650 percent return on investment.

More text messaging strategies
Successfully completing its primary objectives of engaging with its customers and increasing sales during the lunch hours, the business?s mobile marketing campaign began to expand.

In addition to leveraging its email list, Scotty P?s uses in-store promotions to increase the number of customers that opt in to the ongoing text-message promotions.

For example, customers waiting in line can text a promo keyword to a short code to begin receiving exclusive SMS coupons, for example, a free soft drink upon reaching the register.

Using the Call-Em-All text messaging platform, Scotty P?s has segmented its customer list geographically to quickly and easily initiate text campaigns that specifically target customers from any of its seven locations.

Mr. Pontikes said that if business is slow in one of Scotty P?s locations but not the others, he can send text coupons only to those customers that dine at that location.

And since sending a text using Call-Em-All only takes about five minutes to set up, Scotty P?s can be quick and proactive in how it manages its various restaurants.

?One-hundred percent of the people who get the text messages are able to see them right away, and most people check their texts every 5 to 15 minutes,? Mr. Pontikes said. ?A consumer getting the text an hour before lunch, he?s likely to go to Scotty P?s and take his buddies with him.?