Success Story
How Fabio Viviani Hospitality Generated Over $220k in 4 Months With SevenRooms’ Text Marketing
5 min read
May 15, 2024
5 min read
May 15, 2024
Texting is an instant — and intimate — way to reach customers. This is something Henry Kaminski, CMO of Fabio Viviani Hospitality, knows firsthand.
As an early adopter of SevenRooms’ Text Marketing, Henry had high expectations. He hoped the new feature would help him connect with restaurant guests, enhance their experience and increase revenue.
While the hospitality group already used SevenRooms’ Email Marketing software, text messaging was a natural progression — and an effective one at that.
The team generated more than $220,000 in revenue in just four months from their text marketing campaigns.
With remarkable results in such a short time, we knew we had to sit down with Henry to learn more. He shared how Fabio Viviani Hospitality is using text messaging to promote its venues and events — and his best tips for making it work for your brand, too.
With more than 35 locations and 20+ concepts across the U.S., Fabio Viviani Hospitality relies on technology to attract and retain guests.
“We're constantly looking for technical innovations to help generate more revenue and create an atmosphere that makes guests want to return and tell friends, family and colleagues about us,” Henry says. “So, when we discovered SevenRooms Text Marketing, I was extremely excited to dive in and try it out.”
Text messaging was especially compelling to Henry because it’s a direct line to customers.
“The biggest thing that excites me about text messaging is that it's very hard to ignore. When our phones beep, we are just driven to look at them. It’s easier to ignore an email than it is a text.”
Henry was right about texts being hard to ignore — text marketing has an average open rate of 98%.
“I’m thrilled because it means people are seeing our communications. And when reservations and revenue come with it, I know the campaigns are resonating with them, too.”
Henry notes that one of their first — and most successful — text campaigns was to promote Italian steakhouse LAGO’s Easter brunch.
It wasn’t long after pressing “send” that the hospitality group saw impressive results.
“Within an hour, $5,800 came in. So, we did one more blast after that because we only had a few seats left. And you know what? We sold the house out. This brought revenue in before we even served our first brunch plate. It blew me away. Text messaging is powerful stuff.”
The immediate ROI was encouraging for the team and paved the way for future campaigns, including an #EasterRecovery campaign that engaged tired guests on the day after Easter.
As Henry says, “The team was extremely happy, and the event was a hit. Text marketing brought in a tremendous amount of revenue in a short period of time.”
After launching text marketing campaigns across seven venues, Fabio Viviani Hospitality generated $220,000 in revenue and brought in 3,635 guests in just four months.
As a restaurant marketer with over 15 years of experience — and a natural talent for text marketing — we asked Henry to share his top tips for effective campaigns.
“One thing I love about SevenRooms is how easy it is to set up campaigns. And this is true whether it's SMS, email or event marketing — in just a few clicks, it’s done. With other platforms, setting up a campaign can take half a day.”
Whether you manage marketing for one restaurant or 50, a user-friendly platform is essential.
While an intuitive platform can make all the difference, Henry says integration capability and a unified dashboard are the real game-changers.
“The issue I had with the other platforms is that I had to log into each third-party separately. With SevenRooms’ integrations, it's all in one place, which is so much easier to navigate. This saves me time, money and energy.”
Take the time to understand exactly who your guests are.
Understanding your audience is the first step to text marketing success. This is why Henry suggests going directly to the source for valuable insights around topic ideation and timing.
“To understand what matters most to our guests, we conduct surveys and analyze feedback through the SevenRooms platform. Then, we integrate that insight into our messaging. If we can understand what matters most to our guests, we can craft a message that resonates with them. It's a match made in heaven.”
Henry notes that learning more about your audience will also help you get timing and frequency right, which can improve your ROI.
“When I first started, I was sending text messages and emails once a week, and that was way too much. So, we found a cadence of once a month for email and every two weeks for text. Immediately, we saw unsubscribes go way down. This cadence seems to be the right cocktail.”
Texting is informal by nature. Henry recommends using conversational language and a relatable tone when messaging diners.
“What we've noticed with our campaigns is if it sounds salesy, they don’t perform as well. If they sound like a friend is texting you, we get a much better response — and way better ROI.
If you can communicate your restaurant's voice in a way that resonates with your customer and use a tone that feels inviting, friendly and familiar, your response rate will go through the roof.”
But no matter what tone you use to speak to your audience, keep it brief to improve readability and conversions.
“Keep your messaging as short and concise as possible — even if your platform doesn’t restrict character count. Use images to make your texts stand out and include links to encourage reservations and event ticket purchases.”
Henry believes a multichannel opt-in strategy is a must for text and email sign-ups. After all, the more subscribers you have, the more opportunities to attract customers and drive revenue.
“Promote opt-ins from all different angles,” Henry says. “We use SevenRooms’ reservation widget to get more email and text sign-ups. We also cross-promoted text marketing via email and encouraged customers to sign up for SMS for more exclusive promotions.”
“We also use social media to get more subscribers. Our restaurants’ Instagram bios have opt-in links. We also have our staff encourage sign-ups in our venues and put banners on our venues’ websites. These components have helped tremendously to get more sign-ups.”
Knowing what works — and what doesn’t — is the key to a successful long-term text marketing strategy.
“One thing I absolutely love about SevenRooms is I'm able to track to the penny what was generated from each specific text message,” Henry says. “It also shows bounce rates and unsubscribes. We're always going to get unsubscribes as we grow. It just comes with the territory. However, I see those numbers getting lower and lower as we get more comfortable with communicating with our guests.”
Text marketing quickly became integral to Fabio Viviani Hospitality’s marketing strategy. But it was the deep understanding of their audience that solidified their success. Knowing customers’ preferences, behavior and demographics lets the hospitality group surprise and delight customers with every text.
By using a text messaging platform that integrates with CRM, email marketing and reputation management software, Henry and the team can collect and analyze guest data — and create tailored text campaigns that drive repeat business and revenue.
Ready to learn how SevenRooms’ text marketing can help you boost the customer experience, loyalty and guest spending? Book a demo today.
