8 Ways Domino’s Use SMS Marketing To Increase Sales

SMS marketing can help any business to drive sales. Particularly though, the food and drink industry is now thriving in the SMS marketing world.

In a recent study, Hitwise found that 72% of online search queries related to the Food & Beverage industry came from a mobile device. With restaurants and takeaways, users are likely to use their mobile device to find the nearest restaurants online, view reviews, browse menus, book tables, get directions and order food. Mobiles are essential to the marketing journey within this industry. SMS marketing is another great way to utilise mobile marketing and boost customer engagement with your restaurant brand.

To uncover the success capability of SMS within restaurants and takeaways, it’s always a good ideas to dissect how an industry-leader is actively using SMS marketing extremely well and use it as a basis for your own strategy.

Domino’s Pizza, most commonly known as Domino’s, is a US pizza restaurant chain and international franchise pizza delivery corporation. With a current revenue of over £2 billion, they are definitely doing something right and SMS marketing makes up a large proportion of the sales strategy for their individual franchises.

Here’s the top 8 reasons Domino’s SMS Marketing strategy is so successful:

Preparation is key. By allowing the time to plan out a strategy well in advance of an intended broadcast a successful text marketer is able to make sure everything about the campaign is thoroughly tested prior to sending.

Domino’s tactfully schedule their SMS marketing. A great SMS marketing campaign should be carefully planned to maximise success rates. Not only this, scheduling is a great way to save time and to plan all of your marketing ahead of time.

Every time you send a text message, chances are you’re going to interrupt what the recipient is doing as 98% of messages are read within 2 minutes, such is the power and instantaneous nature of SMS.

For this reason timing is everything. A successful text marketer like Domino’s won’t overload their customers with multiple text messages a week. Sending messages too frequently can decrease the effectiveness of your marketing as well as increase your opt-out rate. SMS marketing works best when spread out correctly.

Domino’s also understand their customers. They know exactly who their customers are, why they would want to order from them, and when. Most of Domino’s SMS marketing is scheduled for Friday or Saturday – the most popular days that customers tend to order. In particular, Friday at around 4 – 7pm is a perfect window to get the attention of Domino’s customers. At this time, consumers are often on their way home from a long, tiring week at work and therefore will be more open to the idea of ordering a takeaway. Finding the most optimised times to send SMS marketing for your brand may take research along with trialing and testing throughout different campaigns.

No matter your SMS marketing goal, you’ll need a great call to action. Domino’s goals are generally to get customers to order from them and this is clear from their SMS messages. Take this SMS for example:

It offers two clear call to actions – order via telephone or online on the Domino’s website. Most modern smartphones recognise a phone number or a web address within a text message and make it a tappable link – making it really easy for the customer to follow through with an order.

To increase the number of customers that act upon your SMS marketing, great language is essential. Domino’s use active verbs such as ‘buy’, ‘call’ and ‘order’ as well as words that specify immediacy like ‘now’, ‘today’ and ‘this week’. Using such words helps to maximise recipient engagement and drive a return on investment.

Another key to SMS Marketing success is personalisation and customer segmentation.

When collecting customer details, Domino’s segment their customers in regards to the area they live and the stores they frequently order from. This allows them to localise SMS marketing communication. Messages sent to their customers relate to the store that is closest to the customer. A text from Domino’s will often include exclusive local store offers as well as the store number and store name. This is an example of personalisation that goes way beyond knowing (and using) your customer’s’ names and offers a level of relevance that significantly increases conversions.

Domino’s are famous for their offers and discounted deals. Rather than sending generic marketing messages, Domino’s target customers with new and exclusive offers to drive sales. Marketing communication is more effective when it is focused on a particular message and call-to-action. Look at these examples:

Having specific deals with expiration dates adds immediacy. It gives the customers something specific to respond to and gives them a timeframe which encourages quick responses.

A lot of the Domino’s SMS marketing leads customers to order on their e-commerce website. Their website is optimised to work perfectly on mobile screens. If you too intend to include a URL within your SMS marketing, you should ensure your site is fully optimised for mobiles. Doing this will help to achieve your conversion goals. If your website doesn’t work on a mobile device, this could inhibit customers when they try to access your site and therefore not be able to complete your conversion goal.

Domino’s take advantage of the seasons and special events throughout the year. This helps to keep marketing fresh, exciting and relatable.

Here are just some of the ways Domino’s do this:

Utilise the weather: Domino’s often take advantage of the weather to promote different deals and food items. In winter, they tend to offer ‘Winter Survival Deals’ which include heavier food items, whereas in Summer they offer special deals that usually include refreshing drinks.

Capitalise on special events or holidays: If there are big events in the year such as the Olympics, large football games or even holidays like Valentine’s Day, Domino’s often send SMS marketing to correlate with these. Timing is key with SMS Marketing. For example, on a football match night, Domino’s might send an offer via SMS a couple of hours before kick off or run a tailored food deals especially for the event.

Although these show examples of how Domino’s have successfully mastered SMS marketing, they are ideas that can be adapted to any restaurant marketing strategy.

For more information on how you could be using SMS with your restaurant or takeaway business, simply get in touch with one of our experts on live chat or take a look at our SMS Guide for Restaurant Owners.