Operations
Restaurant Text Marketing Guide: 6 Must-Know Best Practices
7 min read
Sep 29, 2025
7 min read
Sep 29, 2025
You text your friends and family, but what about your guests?
With direct access to diners and high (really high!) engagement rates, text messaging shouldn’t be limited to personal use. In fact, the majority of customers actively want brands to text them. Our latest findings reveal that nearly half (48%) of customers prefer to connect with restaurants via text (SMS), especially when it comes to last-minute offers.
But not just any old text will do.
Whether you’re already texting guests or interested in starting, this guide to restaurant text marketing will explain everything you need to know to ensure your guests eat up every word.
Every channel has its perks, but have you met text marketing? Allow us to introduce you to some of the most impactful benefits of messaging restaurant patrons.
If you want your marketing messages to be seen (and who doesn’t?), text your customers.
Check out these impressive SMS marketing industry averages:
Now, let’s compare that to email marketing industry averages:
While both marketing channels are undeniably effective ways to reach customers, SMS and email marketing are great for different use cases (keep reading to find out why).
Text marketing is almost guaranteed to reach customers. After all, your message goes right to recipients’ mobile phones, making it virtually impossible to ignore.
This is why it’s the perfect marketing platform for the restaurant industry. It lets you send last-minute offers to fill tables on a slow day and keeps brand awareness high.
SMS marketing is an effective way to share updates on customer loyalty programs, engage customers with interactive content and send highly targeted offers on birthdays and other occasions.
By making your customers feel special, you can boost customer engagement, loyalty and retention.
Restaurant SMS marketing can also significantly contribute to revenue growth. This is because SMS text encourages immediate action.
SevenRooms operators using text messages report:
Sending time-sensitive offers, like happy hour specials or tastes of new menu items, creates a sense of urgency that encourages impromptu reservations and walk-ins. This can increase your restaurant’s foot traffic and boost sales.
The top revenue-generating text campaigns, per our data?
After implementing SevenRooms’ Text Marketing across seven venues, Fabio Viviani Hospitality generated over $220,000 in revenue and brought in 3,635 guests in four months.
Ready to create, or refine, your text marketing strategy? Follow these best practices to improve your results.
A more intimate, friendly tone is better for forging a connection via text than spiffy sales lingo.
Here’s an example:
Fabio Viviani Hospitality uses SevenRooms’ Text Marketing to message customers about upcoming events and drive ticket sales.
Henry Kaminski, CMO of Fabio Viviani Hospitality, says keeping it casual is the key to text marketing success:
“What we've noticed with our campaigns is if it sounds salesy, they don’t perform as well. If they sound like a friend is texting you, we get a much better response — and way better ROI. If you can communicate your restaurant's voice in a way that resonates with your customer and use a tone that feels inviting, friendly and familiar, your response rate will go through the roof.”
Whether you use emojis and language like “hey there” will depend on your target market and restaurant’s brand. No matter where you land on matters of formality, talking to your customers like a friend instead of a sales rep helps build long-lasting relationships.
Texts work best when they’re quick and easy to read. Use a conversational tone and try to keep messages under 160 characters. A few well-placed emojis can also grab attention and highlight your call to action.
Nobody wants to read a novel over text; clarity wins.
Most text messaging platforms have character limits, but SevenRooms’ Text Marketing offers unlimited text. While it’s a best practice to keep it concise, we don’t restrict you if you have more to say. Our platform also automatically optimizes every text for images and deliverability.
Timing is everything in text marketing. To get the best results, carefully consider the day, time and frequency of your SMS messages.
According to Omnisend research, the best time to send texts is from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesdays and Saturdays, as these times have the highest conversion rates. That said, these guidelines work best for texts that don’t need an immediate response (like loyalty invites).
For time-sensitive messages (like reservation reminders and last-minute seating offers) sending a text a few hours before meal time is preferred. Weekends are a great time to remind diners about your brunch special or all-day Sunday happy hour.
Base your texting schedule on these factors to determine the most effective times for your restaurant.
A balanced frequency of 2 to 4 texts per month is optimal, enough to engage, but restrained enough to avoid subscriber fatigue. However, the right cadence will depend on your restaurant’s needs, seasonality and target market. And it may take some testing to determine.
To set expectations and reduce unsubscribes, tell subscribers how often you’ll send messages on your opt-in form. For example: “We send up to four messages per month.”
Use these formatting tips to help improve the impact of your SMS marketing campaigns:
Personalization goes beyond calling customers by name. By using CRM software like SevenRooms that integrates with text messaging, you can send hyper-targeted messages based on customer preferences.
Segment your audience to specific customer groups. This helps increase the effectiveness of your messages by making diners feel valued and appreciated
For instance, if you’re having a wine promotion, segment your subscriber list by diners’ varietal preferences. Here’s what that could look like:
SevenRooms CRM software integrates with text messaging, email marketing and more. With our guest tag feature, you can identify guests as “big spenders,” “beer drinkers” and “positive reviewers” to create highly targeted offers and VIP invites that boost your ROI.
Text message marketing isn’t complete without a CTA that drives your recipients to act. Place it at the beginning or end of your message (or both).
For example:
Include a shortened link to your reservation platform so customers can easily book a table, buy tickets or view menus. SevenRooms’ Text Marketing offers branded short links to improve readability, enhance tracking and help you maintain a consistent brand identity.
Before you send any text messages, obtain explicit, legal consent from your customers.
Fabio Viviani Hospitality uses SevenRooms’ booking widget to get text and email subscribers during the reservation process.
The form includes checkboxes for SMS and email so guests can easily opt-in to receive news and exclusive offers, and a third checkbox to ensure customers know what they’re signing up for. This is an effective way to grow your subscriber list and boost retention while adhering to text marketing consent guidelines.
It’s also crucial to provide clear instructions on how customers can opt out of the subscription. This not only ensures legal compliance but also respects your customers’ preferences.
With a simple and transparent opt-out process, you can maintain a positive relationship with existing and new customers while ensuring your text marketing efforts are ethical and respectful.
More than 8 in 10 consumers, and 95% of millennials, are open to signing up for restaurant marketing updates, especially if it means exclusive access to unique experiences and events.
To encourage opt-ins to your SMS marketing, offer a promotion or exclusive access to experiences like cooking classes, seasonal menu pairings or birthday deals. SevenRooms’ trends report found that more than 1 in 5 consumers would sign up for restaurant updates for access to ‘secret’ menu items.
The takeaway? Diners want the inside scoop on accessing personalized guest experiences.
While both text and email marketing are effective strategies, they excel in different areas.
When to choose SMS:
Restaurant text messaging is ideal for limited-time offers, such as daily specials and last-minute deals. Reservation reminders are helpful to reduce no-shows. Its high open rates ensure your message is seen almost immediately, making it perfect for sending promotions that require quick action from customers. For example, you might send a text in the morning to promote a lunchtime offer, knowing that the message is likely to be read soon after it's received.
When to choose email:
Email marketing is better suited for more detailed and less urgent communications. This includes newsletters, detailed event invitations and long-form content like chef interviews and food and drink announcements.
The longer format allows for richer storytelling, which can enhance the customer experience.
Ideally, you’ll pair these multichannel marketing strategies together to engage customers at just the right time and for every occasion.
Customize hospitality-themed text templates from our growing library and add your unique brand flavor.
Automation takes the hassle out of SMS marketing. Start with ready-to-use, hospitality-themed templates, add your restaurant’s personality and let technology do the rest. With just a few key guest details, tracked in SevenRooms’ robust restaurant CRM, you can instantly send personalized texts to the right guests or segments like birthday and anniversary rewards, VIP event promotions and last-minute availability for your “Tuesday regulars.”
If every message you send is purely transactional, your texts can start to feel like a pushy sales feed. Include a mix of transactional, creative and promotional messages to keep things fresh for your customers and see what resonates best with your audience.
Here are SMS marketing campaign ideas that help boost revenue and strengthen relationships:
Don’t forget to include your venue name in each text in case customers don’t have you saved in their phones.
SevenRooms’ client Barrio Costero uses relatable language and tempting imagery in their text campaigns.
Track the ROI of your text campaigns to see what drives the most revenue and engagement. SevenRooms’ Text Marketing makes it easy for you to track reservations, revenue and covers for every text.
An SMS marketing strategy lets you reach customers almost instantaneously, providing ample opportunities for connection, retention and revenue.
But with great power comes great responsibility, ensure your messages adhere to best practices regarding length, frequency and opt-in policies to reduce unsubscribes.
Schedule a demo today to learn how SevenRooms’ restaurant Text Marketing and Email Marketing can help you connect with customers, improve retention and drive revenue.
