Family-owned restaurants can be extremely profitable. Once they establish a solid customer base, many can turn them into regulars that serve as the support the business needs to succeed. That's the easy part. The difficult part is finding those customers in the first place.
It's exceptionally hard for restaurants of this ilk, given the small nature of the company. These types of organizations lack proper resources to formulate extensive marketing campaigns that could include print, television, radio and online advertising. Instead, these businesses must find simple, cost-effective ways to spread the word about their eatery.
An article in Technical Cocktail discusses the challenges often encountered by small restaurant owners. Will Schmidt, the article's author, spoke with a number of food and beverage industry marketers such as Ola Ayeni, founder of Eateria, an agency designed to help restaurant owners with their digital marketing efforts.
Ayeni explained that the rise in new technologies has changed the marketing game, and businesses that lack the resources to keep up may suffer.
"Independent restaurant operators and small chains do not have the time, knowledge and resources to effectively promote their business in this digital age," he said. "As a result, many people stick to the traditional antiqued marketing techniques, which no longer work."
Text message marketing is an ideal solution because it allows organizations to stay in front of the digital trend, but it is relatively inexpensive to execute. Sending text coupons such as "20 percent off the next meal" is a great way to promote the business and attract customers. Texting is simple and it is incredibly effective. In fact, given the fact that 98 percent of all texts are opened, this strategy could prove to be more successful than more expensive marketing initiatives.
Swift SMS Gateway offers the tools businesses need to launch simple, yet effective marketing campaigns.
