SMS Marketing FAQ

In this Article:

SMS Marketing FAQ

SMS Marketing FAQ

SMS Marketing Features

What do I get through SMS Marketing?

A verified toll-free number for your restaurant group
The ability to grow a list of SMS marketing subscribers
One-time and automated SMS campaigns
The ability to insert shortened links, emojis, and promo codes in your SMS marketing campaigns
Campaign reporting to see the results of your SMS marketing campaigns

What automated campaigns are available for SMS marketing?

We Miss You Campaigns: Automatically send a ‘Miss you’ text to SMS marketing subscribers who haven’t dined with or ordered from you in the past X days.
Big Spender Campaigns: Automatically send messages to your top-spending SMS marketing subscribers.
Welcome offer Campaigns: Create a ‘Welcome Automated Campaign’ with a special offer that will be sent to all new SMS marketing subscribers. Promote this welcome offer through email, social, or in-store to encourage SMS signups (e.g., sign up for SMS marketing to access 10% off your next order).
Repeat Guest Campaigns: Automatically send messages to thank your guests and encourage their continued visits once they have hit your desired visit threshold.
Post-Purchase Campaigns: Automatically send messages one day after a guest visits to thank them for their order and encourage their next visit.

SMS Marketing Setup and Maintenance

What phone number will my restaurant use for SMS marketing?

Once all required information has been submitted on the SMS marketing onboarding page, your restaurant or business group will receive a unique, verified toll-free number for SMS marketing.

Note: Verifying and assigning your SMS marketing phone number can take up to 14 business days.

I am a Toast Multi-location Management (MLM) group. Can I have multiple accounts for SMS marketing?

Currently, we can only offer one phone number per restaurant group for SMS marketing. However, we have location-level subscriber lists if you would like to target campaigns to individual locations. When guests subscribe to SMS via Text to Join or another channel, they are added to a "Restaurant Group" SMS list and the location list for any location they have ordered. Their list membership changes if/when they order at additional locations.

Are there any requirements for me to get started?

Customers wishing to use SMS Marketing must be active Toast POS restaurants using Toast’s Marketing Essentials suite; no other Toast modules are required to leverage SMS Marketing. Your account also needs to be linked to an active and live website on a domain you own, which can be a Toast Website but does not have to be.

Can I change my sender name or have multiple sender names?

Your SMS sender name is collected during phone number registration and will appear at the beginning of each text message your Restaurant Group sends, regardless of the location your campaign is targeting. Sender names are 15 characters maximum and should be a version of your Restaurant Group's name that your guests will easily recognize. If you would like this name changed, please contact support. Sender name changes can impact deliverability of your campaigns so it is best to finalize your sender name at the time of registration to prevent carrier filtering of your marketing campaigns.

How many texts am I allowed to send with SMS marketing?

SMS Marketing comes with 500 texts per month per location, with no daily limits, up to 160 characters each. Up to 46,000 additional monthly texts per location can be purchased to add to your restaurant group’s total if you need to send more. Texts are pooled at the group level and shared by all group locations.

For multi-segment texts, the character limit is 153 per segment or 67 characters per segment if special characters/emojis are included. Each segment counts as 1 text towards your usage. If you choose to add pictures or GIFs to your text campaign, your message is converted into an MMS, which counts as 3 texts towards your usage. For example, if you send a text campaign message including a GIF to 400 recipients, it will count as 1,200 total texts.

Can I purchase a one-time boost to send more texts with SMS marketing?

Single-month text limit boosts are not available at this time for SMS marketing.

What happens when I reach my limit within SMS marketing?

When you reach your limit of texts within SMS marketing, no more messages can be sent. Partial campaign blasts to use up the remaining balance of texts are not supported. You have the opportunity to add more texts to your recurring Toast agreement via Toast Shop.

SMS Marketing Subscribers List

How can I grow my SMS marketing subscriber list?

There are several ways to grow your SMS marketing subscriber list:

- Text to join: Guests can text the word JOIN to your SMS marketing phone number to subscribe. Promoting your phone number + text to join keyword cross-channel is a great way to grow your subscriber list.
- Toast Online Ordering: When ordering online through Toast Online Ordering channels, guests will be prompted to subscribe to your SMS marketing program.
- Toast Loyalty Sign-up: Guests will be prompted to subscribe to your SMS marketing program on your online Toast Loyalty sign-up page and while checking in for loyalty on your POS.
- Toast POS text receipt: In-store, guests who choose to receive a digital via text will be prompted to subscribe to your SMS marketing program.

Will guests have the option to subscribe to my SMS subscribers list while signing up or checking in for Toast Loyalty on the POS?

Guests will be prompted to subscribe to your SMS subscribers list while they are on the Loyalty sign-up screen or checking in on the POS. The option to sign up will be shown on the sign-up screen or will be displayed together with the digital receipt.

I have opted-in phone numbers from my other SMS marketing platform. Can I bring them over?

Yes, in the Bulk Upload Settings in the product, you are able to upload contacts that you have obtained through a third-party SMS marketing provider. To upload these contacts, you must have a record of their prior SMS marketing consent, as required by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and any and all applicable laws and regulations. You may not upload contacts for recipients who have revoked their consent.

Can I import phone numbers from other Toast products (guestbook, online ordering) as SMS marketing subscribers?

No. Due to federal regulations and industry standards, guests must explicitly opt-in for your SMS marketing program through Toast. Having their phone number is not enough. Once you activate SMS marketing, guests will have the option to subscribe while placing an online order and on other Toast-powered surfaces. See for more details.

Can I import my Toast Loyalty program phone numbers? Why aren’t these guests SMS marketing Subscribers?

No, your loyalty members must explicitly consent to join your SMS marketing list. This is separate from joining your loyalty program. If you do not see your loyalty members on your SMS marketing list, your guests have not yet opted in for SMS marketing. Once you activate SMS marketing, guests can opt in for SMS marketing while signing up or checking in to loyalty.

What happens if I contact guests who have not opted in?

In addition to violating Toast’s applicable terms, using the service to send marketing messages to guests who have not opted in may violate the TCPA and other applicable laws and regulations. Doing so could lead to lawsuits, statutory penalties, damages, or other consequences and may result in your obligation to indemnify Toast. Additionally, high unsubscribe rates and messaging invalid phone numbers may impact your SMS campaign deliverability, with increased carrier filtering or blocking of your traffic even to valid subscribers. If there is a large number of unsubscribes after your upload, Toast may suspend your access to the upload service or the SMS Marketing product.

SMS Marketing Compliance

Are there any time restrictions for sending SMS marketing messages?

Toast’s SMS marketing tool allows you to send and schedule text campaigns between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in your time zone. SMS federal regulations and industry standards require that marketing text messages are only sent between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient’s time zone, and certain states have more restrictive rules. You are responsible for ensuring you only send campaigns outside of quiet hours in your recipient’s timezone. See for more details.

Are there any restrictions on the type of content I can include in my SMS marketing campaigns?

Yes - SMS marketing campaigns are subject to , applicable laws, and industry and carrier guidelines. The following are a non-exhaustive list of examples of restrictions that apply to your use of SMS Marketing:

- No promotion via SMS of content known as “SHAFT-C” content (which is short for sex, hate, alcohol**, firearms, tobacco/cannabis), any federally illegal substance, debt collection, high risk loans, and/or gambling.
- **Promotion of alcohol is allowed only IF your website has appropriate age-gating technology that requires the visitor to input their birthday before they can view or purchase alcohol-related content ). A simple yes / no to “Are you 21?” is not sufficient.
- Toast is not responsible for messages blocked by mobile carriers or SHAFT-C enforcement. Accordingly, Toast cannot tell you how to modify any specific campaign or practices in order to be compliant with SHAFT-C rules.

SMS Marketing Functionality

Can our guests reply to our SMS marketing text messages, and can we continue the conversation?

Guest replying to SMS marketing text messages is not available at this time.

How can I include a Promo Code in a one-time SMS marketing campaign?

Once you create a promo code in your Offers Dashboard or the discounts and promotions codes page, that promo code will be available to use in a SMS marketing campaign via a dropdown of your active Offers. To learn more about creating Offers, visit .

Is any segmentation available in targeting or reporting for SMS Marketing?

At this time, you can target guests for SMS marketing who have dined at specific locations (for groups with multiple locations) or create auto-campaigns for three specific target audiences (new signups, lapsed guests, and big spenders), but additional segmentation is not available.

What are the size specifications for images and GIFs for SMS marketing messages?

Images and GIFs for SMS marketing messages must be a jpg, jpeg, png, or gif file with a max size of 1MB

Additional Resources for SMS Marketing