How One Chain of Pubs Uses Text Message Marketing to Skyrocket Repeat Customer Visits

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Dave. Dave is the independant marketing manager for Sammie’s Pub & Lotto, Blackjacks On Commercial, Cheers of Salem & the newly opened Sammie’s Pub & Lotto West in Salem Oregon.

Salem is the capital city of Oregon, and is an hour south of Portland and an hour north of Eugene.

How Dave is using text message marketing is fascinating… so I asked to do a case study on him, and share some of his tips and tricks.

Dave is responsible for everything marketing related for the bars. He does social media, print ads, comes up with contests, and markets online. Best of all is his use of text message marketing.

To say he’s a marketing genius isn’t far off… in the hour we talked, I heard about 20 different ideas for marketing his business, all of them new and original. And today, I’m going to share with you as many of his great Ideas as I have room for!

Let’s start at the beginning.

Dave mentioned he’s got a very specific goal with his marketing… get people in the door.

It’s easier said than done sometimes.

For example he does collect email addresses… but open rates were limited. He started out by looking for ways to augment his email campaigns.

He jumped on Google… and that’s how he found Betwext. “I thought the idea of text marketing could be really good!” said Dave.

He said he looked at a number of different texting solutions… and picked us because there were “Limited barriers to entry” and “Betwext.com is cheapest on Keywords.”

Before deploying Betwext text marketing, Sammies had done email marketing haphazardly… and they weren’t very aggressive about it.

But that’s all changed now.

Daves set up a very detailed 6 week cycle for promotions and contests. And that’s one of the first things I want to highlight about Dave’s marketing efforts… he plans his marketing weeks in advance. This helps him identify and market events well in advance of specific events… and capitalize on current events.

Sports are a big draw for the bars, so Dave uses special sporting events as a key way to market.

The second thing that Dave highlighted was consistency.

His biggest success came from a consistent, steady flow of marketing messages.

By staying in front of customers, he’s able to remain “Top of Mind” and bring them back into the bars over and over again.

The third thing Dave mentioned was using texting in conjunction with other marketing. Dave uses his text marketing in conjunction with in store promotions, email promotions, social media, and even print media too!

You can’t remind a customer too many times in today’s day and age!

When Dave started, the bar’s owners only had one location and a small marketing list, and it was a mess.

A few short years later, the owners have opened three new locations, and the email list has thousands of names.

Dave added a very creative way to gather opt-ins for his email and text marketing lists… When he started working with Sammie’s, they were using business card sized signup forms… They used these forms to not only capture customer information… but also for contest entries.

How does he get all the signups?

His most successful effort is with Contests.

Yep – Contests.

Every 6 weeks they run a new contest giving away numerous gifts… one of the most popular was an Apple iPad!

Once he gets their information opted in, he then sends a welcome email and midweek pushes out a list of specials. They will also text out menu specials for service!

Dave loves sending customers deals, discount off coupons… and sales notices. Those tend to get the biggest engagement. What’s amazing is Dave is rotating through a huge list of promotional material each and every week… so he’s always changing up his offers and making his messages interesting!

Dave’s what I’d call an advanced marketer.

He’s working on ways to segment his lists based on specialized knowledge. For example, he’s looking to segment his users based on their favorite sports… and even sports teams! He’s further looking to refine his offers for money off coupons, and special discounts.

The more focused his marketing becomes, the better response rates he sees!

If you find yourself in Salem, Oregon, stop by one of the bars and see how they put text message marketing to work. http://www.sammiespub.com/

I hope today’s case study gave you some great ideas on how to integrate text message marketing for your business. To learn more about getting started with text marketing, or to learn how to promote your small business check out our special report… “The Ultimate Guide to Mobile Marketing”

You can download it free – right here: http://text.betwext.us/ebook-mobile-marketing/

Remember text message marketing is very powerful… and it’s a tool that anyone can use to grow their business! Try text message marketing today with Betwext.com.

Note: all customers participating in case studies receive additional account credits for their time.