Save 50% on a 3-month Digiday+ membership. Ends Dec 12.
In the app era, texting is sometimes forgotten. It’s not very flashy, at least compared to HTML5, QR, Foursquare and other belles of the ball. Here’s the thing about SMS marketing: it works and reaches a very broad audience.
Pizza chain Papa Murphy’s is proof. The brand first got into the text-message game in 2010, when it set up a dedicated short code and various keywords to get consumers to opt-in to its mobile database. Nearly 550 of Papa Murphy’s 1,300 locations in the United States are printing text message calls to actions on in-store signage, tent pop-ups, coupon mailers, and via Facebook Web opt-in forms to get consumers to sign up.
Two years later, Papa Murphy’s has 100,000 customers in its SMS database, which it uses for couponing. According to Lindsi Taylor, director of marketing at Papa Murphy’s, it is seeing an impressive 18 percent redemption rates for offers it texts, like free soda with a pizza purchase or a discount on a pizza. Customers with texted coupons tend to order more than the typical customer, according to Taylor.
“Mobile marketing is helping us increase sales and enhance customer relationships,” Taylor said. “We are very event-driven, and in the future, I foresee us turning to SMS as a means of letting people know about our events and potentially driving them to attend.”
SMS penetration in the United States is at around 73 percent, according to Pew research. That’s even higher than smartphone penetration, which is about 47 percent, according to ComScore.
Papa Murphy’s tracks which calls to actions work best. It also uses the coupons to even out its sales, pushing out more on typically slow days like Monday and Tuesday.
The brand doesn’t have a smartphone app, and right now doesn’t have plans for one, according to Taylor.
“SMS has bee a really good sales driver, especially during the summer, which is a slower time for us,” she said.
More in Marketing
‘We just did the math’: The new baseline for ad tech transparency
Ad execs said the industry is shifting toward a renewed transparency push driven as much by day-to-day operational pressure as by principle.
In Graphic Detail: Here’s what the creator economy is expected to look like in 2026
Digiday has charted its expected revenue, key platforms for creator content as well as what types of creators brands want to work with.
Ulta, Best Buy and Adidas dominate AI holiday shopping mentions
The brands that are seeing the biggest boost from this shift in consumer behavior are some of the biggest retailers.