Mailchimp success story · Fast-casual restaurant chain

How a fast-casual restaurant chain made text messages its top engagement channel in two months.

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Birdcall’s lunch deals were expiring before customers saw them on social media, and holiday emails drew out-of-office replies. Mailchimp SMS, segmented down to each restaurant, put offers in front of guests while they could still use them.

Business: Birdcall
Market: Colorado, Arizona and Texas
Goal: Time-sensitive offers seen in time

The results.

The 16.1% SMS click rate compares with the 1.5% email click-through rate Birdcall was seeing, about 10 times higher.

16.1%average SMS click rate
50%of total digital engagement from SMS
1.1%SMS unsubscribe rate

SMS launched in May 2025 and reached 50% of digital engagement by July 2025. 109,582 total SMS clicks since launch; the National Fried Chicken Day campaign peaked at a 17.4% click rate. Figures as reported in the story; Mailchimp does not publish how they were measured.

The challenge.

Birdcall, a Denver-based chicken sandwich chain with about 163,000 subscribers in three states, built its marketing around time-sensitive deals such as dollar sandwiches on National Fried Chicken Day. Social algorithms could hold a post for two or three days, long after the offer had ended.

Email had its own problems: holiday promotions drew floods of out-of-office replies, and app users switched off push notifications. Radio drove landing-page visits but not orders. Weather and events also differ by state, so one message for everyone rarely fit.

Capture the numberGuests opt in when they order at the kiosk.
Segment by restaurantState, territory and favorite location.
Text the offerA short, time-sensitive message from a dedicated short code.
Remind before it endsAutomated follow-ups catch the last-minute crowd.

What they did.

SMS short code · Segmentation by location · Automation flows · Analytics

A dedicated short code: Birdcall was one of the first brands on Mailchimp’s dedicated short code SMS, adopted in April 2025, with the first campaign in May.
Segments by state and by store: Segments and tags narrowed every message by state, by territory and down to the restaurant each guest visits most, so a store anniversary invite went only to people within driving distance.
Automated follow-ups: Automation flows sent local sequences and a last reminder just before each offer ended.
Watch every send: Reports on open, click and unsubscribe rates kept the frequency in check. Guests made it clear they wanted texts with offers, so messages without one were cut.

Why it worked.

Our read on the decisions behind the numbers, and what any business can take from them.

The channel matches the offer: A lunch deal needs to be seen before lunch. A text arrives on time, while a social post may not appear for days.
Local beats broadcast: An offer for the restaurant you actually visit feels like a favor. The same offer for a store an hour away feels like spam.
Guests chose their channel: Email opens fell about 2 points after SMS launched, but SMS engagement more than made up for it. Customers moved to the channel they preferred instead of leaving.
Exclusive keeps it valuable: Some promotions run only for subscribers, with no in-store signs, which gives guests a reason to opt in and stay subscribed.

How we would run this play for your business.

You do not need a national budget to use the same ideas. This is how Overtop Media Digital Marketing puts them to work in our mailchimp email marketing.

Collect numbers with consent: Order pickup, Wi-Fi, loyalty and table-top signs are natural places to ask, with clear opt-in language.
Segment by location: Every location gets its own offers, events and timing, from one account.
Build a promo calendar: Food holidays, slow days and local events, planned months ahead across text, email and Facebook and Instagram.
Count visits, not just clicks: We connect redemptions and orders to each send, and keep your Google Business Profile in step with every promotion.