SMS marketing is a fantastic tool for restaurants.
You can send offers and promote special deals, and people genuinely love receiving texts from their favorite places.
The open rate is sky-high compared to email, and it’s an easy way to keep your guests engaged.
However, with so much potential, it’s easy to fall into common traps.
Whether it’s spamming customers with too many messages or failing to meet legal requirements, these mistakes can hurt your business more than you realize.
Today, we’ll walk you through the most common SMS marketing mistakes and explain why you should avoid them at all costs.
Failing to get explicit opt-in consent from customers is one of the biggest SMS marketing mistakes restaurants can make.
It goes beyond just being annoying—it’s a legal issue that can have serious consequences.
In the U.S., regulations like the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) require businesses to obtain written consent before sending marketing messages.
Ignoring this rule can result in hefty fines and lawsuits, as well as significant damage to your restaurant’s reputation.
Take Domino’s as an example.
Between 2006 and 2010, a Domino’s franchise bombarded thousands of cell phone users with unwanted SMS texts in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi promoting pizza delivery.
The result?
A class-action lawsuit that cost the company nearly $10 million in settlements—and lots of free pizzas.
Illustration: Tablein / Data: HO&P Law
This disaster could have been avoided by simply securing proper consent.
But Domino’s is not the only business that made this mistake.
Pizza Hut, for instance, also had to pay $6 million to resolve a TCPA class action lawsuit for the same thing—sending unsolicited text messages to consumers.
Aside from legal trouble, restaurants that ignore opt-in procedures risk irritating their customers, causing them to opt out or, worse, spread negative word-of-mouth about your establishment.
So, ensuring compliance really isn't just about following the law.
It’s also about protecting relationships with your guests.
If you don’t want to make this mistake and stay compliant instead, you need to follow a few key steps:
And finally, make sure to include all this information on your website in a privacy policy, as they do in Mon Chéri, a French restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona:
Source: Mon Chéri
With these simple guidelines in place, you will not only avoid potential lawsuits but also show your customers that you respect their privacy and preferences.
Bombarding guests with frequent messages is a surefire way to frustrate them and drive them away.
And statistics back this up.
According to the State of SMS Marketing research by Validity, 49% of people are likely to get annoyed with a brand if they message too often.
Moreover, almost all of the respondents said they’ve felt irritated by SMS marketing at least occasionally.
Illustration: Tablein / Data: Validity
These negative experiences lead to high opt-out rates and lower engagement, which ultimately cuts into your restaurant’s reach and revenue.
In other words, this frustration directly impacts your bottom line.
How so?
Well, as it turns out, more than half of those surveyed said they’ve either bought less or stopped purchasing from a brand entirely due to annoying SMS messages.
Illustration: Tablein / Data: Validity
Even the most loyal customers can be driven away.
One Reddit user mentions that aggressive texting could turn their favorite restaurant into their least favorite.
“If my favorite restaurant starts texting me, they’ll start becoming my least favorite restaurant.”
You definitely don’t want that!
So, the lesson here is quite simple: over-messaging pushes customers to unsubscribe and risks long-term damage to your brand.
To avoid this, you should establish a balanced schedule for sending messages.
According to Attentive, a platform that helps brands interact with their mobile audiences, you should send around eight messages a month, and the best times to send them are 12 PM and 8 PM.
Illustration: Tablein / Data: Attentive
These hours coincide with lunch breaks and evening wind-downs when customers are most likely to be active and receptive.
However, the before-mentioned research by Validity also revealed that 25% of people say brands often or constantly send messages at inappropriate times, like late at night, which further drives them away.
Be mindful of that and set quiet hours so you don’t intrude on your guests’ personal time.
It’s all about striking the right balance here—with both the frequency and the timing.
But beyond frequency, what you say in your messages matters, too.
And sending irrelevant promotions that offer no value to your customers is another major mistake in SMS marketing.
If your texts lack relevance or incentive, customers will quickly lose interest and opt out.
Podium, a tech company that develops messaging software, has found that 67% of people would unsubscribe from promotional text messages if they received content that wasn’t meaningful or useful to them.
Illustration: Tablein / Data: Podium
And rightfully so.
After all, the purpose of SMS marketing is to provide guests with valuable information that encourages action.
So, it should be clear that general announcements without any special deals or exciting news won't cut it.
Instead, focus on offering exclusive promotions, such as same-day discounts, limited-time contests, or new menu items.
Source: Tatango
These are the types of SMS that entice customers and keep them engaged.
Another great example of valuable messaging is using SMS for reminders.
Although it’s not promotional, it still delivers value.
Much of it, it seems.
Namely, Zipwhip’s 2021 report found that 64% of consumers said appointment reminders were the most valuable texts they received from businesses.
In the restaurant industry, such reminders can reduce no-shows and late reservation cancellations.
Zonal's research shows that 36% of customers who missed a reservation said they would have likely shown up if they’d received a simple SMS reminder.
Illustration: Tablein / Data: Zonal
This begs the question, what can you do to ensure your guests don’t forget about their table bookings?
Our reservation system, Tablein, is the answer.
Tablein can, for example, automatically send a reminder SMS to your diners one day before the reservation at 12 PM, so they never forget they made a reservation!
Source: Tablein
Other SMS you can automatically send through Tablein that also bring immense value to your customers—and your staff—include:
So, whether it’s sending a birthday promotion or reminding someone of their reservation, make sure every message offers something of genuine value.
This way, your customers will appreciate your communication and stay connected to your restaurant.
Sending generic, one-size-fits-all messages to your guests is another recipe for disengagement.
Today’s consumers expect personalized experiences, and when they don’t get them, they lose interest fast.
Research shows that 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that tailors their offers, while 91% are more inclined to stick with brands that provide relevant recommendations.
If you rely on automated, impersonal SMS marketing, you’re missing a critical opportunity to connect with your audience.
Podium’s report again confirms this, revealing that 41% of consumers would unsubscribe from promotional messages if they felt too automated or irrelevant.
Illustration: Tablein / Data: Podium
Luckily, restaurants have a unique opportunity to leverage guest data, segment their audience, and send tailored messages based on preferences like past orders or dining habits.
For example, Blaze Pizza, a quick-service restaurant chain, uses a loyalty program integrated with SMS marketing to target subscribers with personalized offers.
They do that based on audience segmentation, as Mason Sergent, their former Digital and Content Manager, pointed out:
Illustration: Tablein / Quote: Attentive
As a result, they’ve seen higher conversion rates and increased revenue.
A restaurant manager in Tacoma shares a similar approach on Reddit, explaining how they send exclusive breakfast offers to regular brunch guests based on audience segmentation:
“We don't send messages every day. Only by segments and for events that will be of interest to segments. For example, for those who come to us for brunches, we send out campaigns twice a month with an offer of an exclusive menu for breakfasts on weekdays.”
This simple strategy increased their breakfast visits by 15%.
When done right, personalized SMS campaigns can make your guests feel valued and drive them to take action.
But without personalization? You risk becoming just another text they ignore.
A clear call to action (CTA) is essential for guiding your guests to take advantage of your offer.
Without it, even the best promotion can fall flat because customers won’t know what step to take next.
You can write a perfect message with the most tempting deal, but if there’s no clear instruction, the customer is left wondering what to do with that information.
Just take a look at these two SMS examples:
Source: Tablein
In the second example, the offer is tempting, but there's no clear instruction for the customer to act on, which can lead to missed opportunities for the restaurant.
On the other hand, a CTA like “show this text to your server”, “order here”, or “call to reserve” is an easy way to boost conversions and lead guests to actual engagement.
Then, there is also the sense of urgency.
If your guests are excited about an offer but don’t know how to claim it, the message becomes less effective.
But when you make it easy for them to act, you reduce friction and make it more likely for them to take the next step.
Again, data confirms this.
Research shows that around 33% of SMS recipients react to CTAs in SMS marketing messages, and almost half of them end up making a purchase.
Illustration: Tablein / Data: Groove Commerce
All in all, the lack of a clear next step can be the difference between a message that drives revenue and one that gets ignored.
So, always ensure your messages include a direct, actionable CTA to maximize your results.
How will you know if your SMS campaigns are actually working if you’re not tracking their performance?
Ignoring metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions means you’re missing valuable insights into what resonates with your audience and what doesn’t.
Without this data, you’re essentially flying blind, making it impossible to fine-tune future campaigns or understand which offers drive the most engagement.
To avoid this, restaurants should regularly review their SMS marketing performance.
Tracking shows you which promotions are the most popular, which ones fall flat, and how often your customers take action.
By doing this, you’ll send only the messages that bring value to your audience, saving both time and money.
A great way to fine-tune your strategy is through A/B testing, where you test two variations of a campaign to see which performs better.
Blaze Pizza, for instance, compares different discount models to see which offer gets more clicks and conversions.
They compare:
This kind of testing allows them to create campaigns that align with customer preferences and boost engagement.
Of course, you can run many other A/B tests to see what works best among your customers.
For example, you can compare SMS with and without emojis to see how people react to them or how different CTAs perform.
Below is a list of more ideas on what to run A/B tests:
Illustration: Tablein / Data: Attentive
In the end, tracking your SMS campaigns is the best way to see what works.
And with the insights you get, you can build more effective marketing strategies over time.
SMS marketing can be powerful for restaurants when done right, but it’s easy to make mistakes that hurt your brand.
However, when you understand the potential consequences of each misstep, you put more effort into avoiding these mistakes.
Focus on consent, personalization, and value, and don’t forget to track performance to stay on top of your campaigns!
When you make thoughtful, data-driven adjustments, your messages will engage and delight your customers, so you will build stronger connections with your guests and boost revenue—one SMS at a time.