First Party SMS Marketing

Overview

First Party SMS Marketing is a feature that allows restaurants create, manage, and optimize targeted SMS (mobile text) campaigns. 

This feature enables restaurants to deliver personalized messages and promotions that drive engagement, repeat visits, and customer retention.

With this feature, you can:

• Increase Orders
  Drive repeat purchases and larger basket sizes through promotions.
• Re-engage Customers
  Reach lapsed customers with targeted, personalized messaging 
• Easily Build & Manage Campaigns
  Build, schedule, and optimize campaigns in one place.
• Strengthen Customer Relationships
  Communicate directly with your customers via SMS, reducing reliance on third-party platforms.

Campaign & Audience Types

You can create different types of campaigns for a specific group (or all) eaters for your business. Check out examples of different campaigns you can create and the different audiences you can choose for your SMS Marketing campaign. 

Campaign Examples

• Win Back Campaign Example
  
  Campaign Goal: Send promotion to customers that haven't ordered from your restaurant in the last 90 days.
  
  SMS Reoccurrence: Once
  
  Message Sent:

  

• Loyalty Exclusive Campaign Example
  
  Campaign Goal: Engage with customers enrolled into your restaurant's Loyalty program.
  
  SMS Reoccurrence: Every Monday at 11am, June through July

  
  Message:

  

• Customer Appreciation Campaign Example
  
  Campaign: Give a discount to customers that have ordered weekly for the past 4 weeks.
  
  SMS Reoccurrence: Once
  
  Message:

  

• New Product or Store Event Campaign Example
  
  Campaign: Let your customers know about a new product.
  
  SMS Reoccurrence: Once
  
  Message:

  

Promotion or Discount Not Required
You don't have to include a discount or promotion in your SMS Campaign— you can also just create and send an SMS campaign to make an announcement to your customers about new products or store events.

Audience Types

When setting up your SMS Marketing Campaign, you can select your audience type to target certain customers with your message or promotion. 

• Audience Type	Definition
  Recent Guests	Customers with an order last week
  Monthly Orderers	Customers who have ordered at least once a month for the past 3 months
  Weekly Orderers	Customers who have ordered at least once a week for the past 4 weeks
  Lapsed Guests	Customers with 90 days since their last order
  Loyalty Members	Guests who are enrolled in your Loyalty program.
  Active Guests	Customers with an order in the past 90 days
  All Guests	All guests from all time

Creating an SMS Campaign

An SMS Marketing Campaign can be created from the First Party Marketing homepage within the Otter Dashboard.

Follow the steps below to create an SMS Marketing Campaign from the Otter Dashboard.

• Step	Process	Image
  1	From the Otter Dashboard, click Apps > Marketing.
  2	Select the First Party Marketing tab.
  3	Click [Create Campaign].
  4	Name the campaign. Select audience type and locations for campaign to apply to.
  5	Select existing or create new discount to attach to the SMS campaign.
  6	An SMS draft will auto-populate with: Restaurant name Discount details Discount code (if applicable) Coupon URL However, you can edit & personalize the message by typing in the content box.
  7	Select the reoccurrence, date(s), and send time for the SMS campaign to be sent out.
  8	Check the Message preview before publishing & edit if needed.
  9	Click [Publish campaign] to save campaign to send to customers at set date/time.	Publish button Confirmation to publish
  10	Campaign will show on First Party Marketing homepage.

Editing an SMS Campaign

Once an SMS Campaign has been created, you can edit or duplicate that campaign from the First Party Marketing homepage.

• Step 1
  
  Click the 3 dots next to the campaign listed and select if you'd like to edit or duplicate.
   
  
• Step 2
  
  You can make edits needed to the campaign— If you selected to duplicate the campaign, you can publish as is or make small edits. 
  
  

• Step 3
  
  Once edits are complete, click [Update campaign] for editing or [Create campaign] for duplicating to publish.
  
  

   

FAQs

• No— Currently, there isn't a feature to create your own audience type/customer segment to send an SMS Campaign to. The audience types to choose from are pre-set.
• No— You can create an SMS Campaign without including a discount. You can create an SMS Campaign to let your customers know about a new product or special event without including a discount.
  
  When creating your SMS Campaign, just toggle the Include a discount option OFF.
  

Updated June 11, 2026 16:46