Success Story
Blue Baker Increases Its Coupon Offer Redemptions By 162% With SMS
Overview
Company: Blue Baker is a family-owned restaurant that serves made-from-scratch breads, pastries, sandwiches, soups, salads, and stone-oven pizzas from its three locations.
Challenge: The team at Blue Baker wanted a new way to reach its predominantly Gen Z customers.
Results: A 1,900% higher click-through rate (CTRs) on its promotional SMS than email and a 162% increase in its coupon offer’s redemptions.
Just this year, Blue Baker celebrated its 19th year of baking in the College Station community. The three-location restaurant is considered such an institution in the local community that it even won the prestigious Restaurant Neighbor Award back in 2017.
Because of the three locations proximity to Texas A&M University and Blinn College, it’s also a mainstay with students who tend to make it a go-to study destination.
We spoke with David Fox, the restaurant’s owner, about its new text marketing program and how it complements its existing email program.
“There are about 70,000 students in College Station, so it’s no surprise that a lot of our marketing focuses on them.”
Why Blue Baker Decided to Use SimpleTexting
Blue Baker has a custom online ordering system that supports its catering and delivery orders. Built nine years ago, it sends text updates to customers on their order status.
This means that the restaurant collects both emails and phone numbers for every single online order and guest. The result is an impressive list of both.
While sending emails using Mailchimp, David had never sent any promotional text messages. Having signed up to receive texts from other restaurants, he knew that it was something Blue Baker needed to do.
After reviewing five different platforms, doing demos and free trials, the team picked SimpleTexting.
We looked at several different systems and wanted something just simple to use. SimpleTexting has all the functionality we need without being super complicated.
The Antidote to Declining Email Open Rates
Is email marketing dead? Not quite. But it’s not the same channel that it once was.
It’s especially true if your audience is primarily Gen Z. This cohort sees email as outdated and is three times more likely to open a message.
With the open rate of Blue Baker’s emails trending downward over the last four to five years, David’s experienced this first hand, despite including better offers.
“You get maybe one out of five people opening your emails on any given campaign. That’s especially true with younger people who tend not to open emails right away.”
However, instead of making an unnecessary either-or decision, David combines the broad reach of email and text messages 98% open rate.
He first sends out an email and then, about two days later, follows up with a text.
Here’s a FREE Maroon & White cookie from Blue Baker with any purchase. Use code 86015 thru 9/12. Order @ https://txt.so/HK3kFX
The Impact of Blue Baker’s SMS Promotions
Blue Baker’s last campaign offered customers a free cookie with any purchase. David first sent an email promoting it to its entire email list and then two days later sent an SMS campaign to a smaller segment of subscribers.
The result increased the number of coupon redemptions by over 103% on the third day and a 222% increase on days four and five.
The click-through rate on the text messages was close to 1,900% higher than the email.
“The redemption rate picked up on the day we sent the first text, and remained strong for the two days after.”
Combining Email and Text Promotions
Combining email and SMS marketing is a great way to supercharge your campaign’s results, and as Blue Baker’s experience shows, it’s much more effective than relying on emails alone.
If you want to see similar results, sign up for a 14-day, risk-free trial of SimpleTexting. And, if you have questions about getting set up, email us at support@simpletexting.net.
