• Restaurant Marketing

How AI is Revolutionizing SMS Marketing for Restaurant Operators

by: Allen Graves
7 min read

Restaurant owners and operators constantly seek innovative ways to streamline operations, reduce costs, and deliver exceptional guest experiences while juggling multiple responsibilities.

From managing inventory to training staff and ensuring consistent food quality, there’s often little time left to focus on marketing. However, marketing remains critical for attracting new guests and retaining loyal customers

Fortunately, one of the most transformative tools in their arsenal is artificial intelligence (AI), particularly when it comes to effective restaurant marketing.

AI-powered platforms like Bloom Intelligence are revolutionizing how restaurants engage with their guests, enabling them to easily craft personalized messages, automate campaigns, and deliver the right message to the right guest at the right time.

Here, we’ll explore how AI is helping restaurant owners save time, decrease costs, and improve the guest experience through SMS marketing.

restaurateurs using AI for sms marketing

 

The Power of AI in SMS Marketing

SMS marketing has long been a powerful tool for restaurants. With open rates exceeding 98% and response rates significantly higher than email, text messaging is an effective way to reach guests directly.

However, traditional SMS marketing often requires significant time and effort to craft messages, segment audiences, and schedule campaigns.

This is where AI and tools like Bloom step in, automating and optimizing these processes to quickly and easily deliver unparalleled efficiency and results. They leverage machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to simplify your SMS marketing.

These platforms can generate compelling messages, segment audiences based on behavior and preferences, and automate campaigns to ensure timely and relevant communication.

By harnessing the power of AI, restaurant owners can focus on other parts of their businesses while still delivering personalized, impactful messaging to their guests.

 

Saving Time with AI-Generated Messaging

One of the time-consuming aspects of SMS marketing is crafting the perfect message. Restaurant owners often struggle to find the right words, tone, and call-to-action to drive engagement.

AI eliminates this challenge by generating high-quality, personalized messages in seconds.

For example, Bloom uses AI to create SMS messages based on a single prompt. A restaurant owner might input a prompt like, “Promote our new summer menu to loyal customers,” and the AI will generate a tailored message such as, “Hey [Name], summer is here! Enjoy our new seasonal dishes like grilled peach salad and lemon herb chicken. Reserve your table now and get 10% off! Reply STOP to opt out.”

This capability not only saves time but also ensures that messages are consistent, professional, and aligned with the restaurant’s brand voice.

By automating message creation, AI saves precious time and allows restaurant owners to focus on other things such as food quality, staff management, and customer service.

restaurant owner training staff

 

Decreasing Costs Through Automated Segmentation and Targeting

Effective SMS marketing relies on sending the right message to the right audience. Traditional methods often involve manual segmentation, which can be labor-intensive and prone to errors.

Bloom can automate this process, using data analytics to segment guests into separate lists based on their behavior, preferences, demographics, and engagement history.

For instance, the platform can identify loyal patrons who haven’t visited in a while and send them a personalized offer to encourage a return visit. Similarly, it can target first-time visitors with a welcome message and a special discount to build rapport.

By automating segmentation, AI ensures that messages are highly relevant to each audience segment, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion.

This level of precision not only improves campaign effectiveness but also reduces costs. Instead of sending generic messages to a broad audience, restaurants can focus their efforts on targeted campaigns that deliver measurable results.

This minimizes wasted time and resources and maximizes return on investment (ROI).

 

Enhancing the Guest Experience with Personalized Communication

Today’s consumers expect personalized interactions that make them feel valued and appreciated. AI-powered SMS marketing enables restaurants to meet these expectations by delivering tailored messages that resonate with individual guests.

For example, a guest who frequently orders during dinner service might receive a message like, “Hi [Name], we’ve just added an amazing new seafood dish to our menu! Stop by this week and enjoy 15% off your order. Reply STOP to opt out”, along with a high definition image of the dish.

This level of personalization not only enhances the guest experience but also fuels repeat business.

Moreover, AI can help optimize the timing of messages to ensure they are delivered at the most convenient moments. For instance, the platform might send a questionnaire 2 hours after an online order, when guests are likely to have completed their entire experience.

By delivering timely and relevant messages, AI helps restaurants stay top-of-mind and build stronger relationships with their patrons.

restaurant guest getting AI generated SMS marketing message

 

Streamlining Campaign Management with Marketing Automation

Managing SMS marketing campaigns can be a daunting task, especially for busy restaurant owners. AI simplifies this process by automating every aspect of campaign management, from message creation to delivery and performance tracking.

Bloom Intelligence allows restaurant owners to set up automated workflows that trigger messages based on specific criteria. A guest’s birthday, a special holiday, or a milestone like their 10th visit can all serve as triggers for personalized messages.

The platform also provides real-time analytics, enabling owners to track campaign performance and make data-driven adjustments.

This level of restaurant marketing automation not only saves time but also ensures that campaigns are consistently executed without manual intervention. Restaurant owners can set up their campaigns once and let AI and automation handle the rest, freeing up valuable time and mental energy.

 

Driving Revenue with AI-Optimized Offers

AI doesn’t just improve the efficiency of SMS marketing—it also enhances its effectiveness. By analyzing guest data and behavior, AI can identify the most compelling offers and promotions for each segment. This ensures that messages are not only personalized but also highly persuasive.

For example, AI might determine, based on SMS or email marketing campaigns,  that a “buy one, get one free” offer is more effective for first-time visitors, while loyal customers respond better to exclusive early access to new menu items.

By tailoring offers to each segment, AI helps restaurants maximize revenue and customer satisfaction.

restaurant owner maximizing revenue with AI for SMS marketing

 

Building Long-Term Customer Loyalty

Beyond driving immediate sales, AI-powered SMS marketing plays a crucial role in building long-term customer loyalty.

By delivering these personalized, timely, and relevant messages, restaurants can foster a sense of connection and appreciation among their guests.

For instance, AI can identify high-value customers and send them exclusive offers or invitations to special events.

It can also track anniversaries and milestones, sending congratulatory messages that strengthen the emotional bond between the restaurant and its guests.

Over time, these personalized interactions contribute to a loyal customer base that consistently chooses the restaurant over competitors.

 

The Future of AI in Restaurant Marketing

As AI technology continues to evolve, its applications in restaurant marketing will only expand. Future advancements may include even more sophisticated personalization, such as predicting guest preferences based on external factors like weather or local events.

AI will also integrate with other marketing channels, such as social media and email, to create seamless, omnichannel campaigns.

Moreover, as AI becomes more accessible, even small and independent restaurants will be able to leverage its power to compete with larger chains.

This democratization of technology will further level the playing field, enabling all restaurants to deliver exceptional guest experiences and drive sustainable growth.

AI is transforming the way restaurant owners and operators approach email and SMS marketing, offering unprecedented opportunities to save time, decrease costs, and enhance the guest experience.

Platforms like Bloom Intelligence are leading the charge, using AI to automate message creation, segment audiences, and optimize campaigns. By harnessing the power of AI for restaurants, they can deliver personalized, timely, and impactful messages that drive engagement, loyalty, and revenue.

In an industry where every second and every dollar counts, AI-powered restaurant marketing is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity.

Restaurant owners who embrace this technology will not only stay ahead of the competition but also create lasting connections with their guests, ensuring long-term success in an increasingly competitive landscape.

restaurant group reviewing campaigns using AI for SMS marketing

 

Discover Bloom Intelligence

Bloom Intelligence is an AI-powered restaurant marketing platform. It includes a powerful customer data platform, automated guest data collection, one-click segmentation, marketing automation via email and SMS, reputation management, and reporting tools.

Data is collected from sources like WiFi logins, online reservation systems, online ordering platforms, POS systems, website forms, social media, and more. This makes it simple to analyze and segment your guest personas for your restaurant’s digital marketing and operations decisions.

Bloom makes guest data collection effortless, which allows you to quickly execute the strategies listed above, saving you time, increasing customer lifetime values, attracting new guests, improving your reputation, and boosting your bottom line.

Call us or schedule a free demo online and Bloom will show you how our restaurant marketing platform can help you save time and increase your customer lifetime values by automatically building first-party customer databases, unlocking important guest insights to trigger automated marketing at the right time and place, discover true guest sentiment, save at-risk guests, increase your current guests’ frequency, and find new guests.

Click Here to Schedule a Free Online Demo, or call 727-877-8181 to see how we can help you save time and drive tangible results for your restaurants.

Restaurant Marketing FAQs

What is Restaurant Marketing?

Restaurant marketing is the process of getting people to visit your restaurants. Restaurant marketing creates loyalty, provides data to research, analytics, and allows restaurants to gain a better understanding of their ideal customer profile. It utilizes all customer channels: guest WiFi, website, social, rating sites, mobile apps, email, text, and advertising.

Learn More About Restaurant Marketing Here

What is WiFi Marketing?

WiFi marketing is a marketing technique that uses guest WiFi to collect & clean customer data such as names, emails, phone numbers, customer behavior, and demographics. This data is used to personalize marketing campaigns to increase customer loyalty, build online reviews, and save at-risk customers. The performance of every campaign can be tracked down to the tangible ROI of a customer walking back in your door.

Learn More About WiFi Marketing Here

What is Restaurant Reputation Management?

Restaurant reputation management is the process for restaurants to manage customer feedback and creating systems to improve customer experiences, passively build positive online reviews, and save at-risk customers. It is a very important aspect of running a successful restaurant business.

Learn More About Restaurant Reputation Management Here

How Does Bloom Identify and Bring Back Lost Customers?

Bloom Intelligence uses machine learning to identify at-risk customers. When one is recognized, the system will send them a message with an incentive to get them to return and re-establish their visit pattern. Bloom users are seeing up to 37% of churning customers return.

Learn More About Saving At-Risk Customers Here

SAVE TIME, INCREASE CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUES, CREATE NEW CUSTOMERS

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“SaaS that covered so many bases for us instead of having to use multiple software products. Bloom Intelligence has simplified our responses to reviews, customer feedback, and more. I highly recommend Bloom Intelligence.”

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