SMS vs email for bars and pubs: which channel brings guests back
You will be able to decide which bar and pub messages belong in SMS and which belong in email, and work out what each send costs. You will also see how to run both channels from one consented, first-party list built from guest WiFi logins, with a separate opt-in for each channel.
Pubs and bars should use both SMS and email to bring guests back. Send immediate offers via Twilio using the 160 character limit of the 3GPP TS 23.038 standard. Use email for visual menus. Purple helps 80,000+ venues coordinate both channels from a single consented WiFi login list.
Should a pub or bar use SMS or email to bring guests back?
Use both, for different jobs. The real decision is not the channel. It is the moment the message has to land.
SMS fits a message that expires tonight. A guest sees it on the lock screen, taps one link and decides whether to come in. Email fits a message that needs a picture, a menu or a booking link. It gives a guest a reason to plan Sunday lunch, a birthday or the Christmas party.
Pubs tend to get the split wrong in one of two ways. Some send everything by email, so a same-day offer sits unopened until it has expired. Others send everything by SMS and pay per message for content that needed a page, not a text.
The outcomes to measure are the same for both channels: repeat visits, opt-in rate and revenue per send. What makes either channel work is the list behind it. A list built from guest WiFi logins gives you one consented, first-party record behind every SMS and every email. A sign-up card on the bar rarely gives you enough of either.
Purple runs guest WiFi in 80,000+ live venues, including pub operators such as Stonegate Pubs. Across the platform we recorded 440 million logins in 2024 (Purple's own data). Each login is a chance to ask a guest, plainly, which channels they want to hear from.
Where do SMS and email genuinely differ for pubs?
They differ on five axes that matter to a pub: length, content, cost, timing and consent. The table sets them side by side as they work in Purple Engage.
| SMS | ||
|---|---|---|
| Best job | Same-day, time-bound nudge with one action | Planned visits, menus, events and bookings |
| Length per message | 160 characters per segment (GSM-7), 70 with any emoji | No practical length limit |
| Content | Plain text and one short link | Colors, title, text, images, ribbon banner, date range, or your own HTML |
| Cost per send | Per-segment charge from your SMS connector, such as Twilio | No connector charge; sends under your Engage license |
| Sending options in Engage | Real time, to guests in the venue or who visited before | Visit based, online now, or a LogicFlow |
| Consent | Separate SMS opt-in under the TCPA and CAN-SPAM | Separate email opt-in under the TCPA and CAN-SPAM |
| Reporting in Campaigns | Clicks on campaign links | Views and clicks |
| Suits | Wet-led, sport-led and late-night bars | Food-led pubs, pubs with rooms, private hire |
Length decides cost
A standard SMS segment holds 160 characters in the GSM-7 alphabet. That is the basic character set defined in the 3GPP TS 23.038 standard. Add one emoji, or a character outside that set, and the whole message switches to UCS-2 encoding. A UCS-2 segment holds only 70 characters.
Longer messages split into joined segments. Each joined segment loses a few characters to a header: 153 remain for GSM-7 and 67 for UCS-2. Twilio documents the same rules in its messaging documentation and bills each segment as a separate message.
Email has no equivalent limit. The cost of a longer email is the guest's attention, not your budget.
Timing decides relevance
In Engage, SMS goes out in real time to guests who are in your venue now or who have visited before. Email communications run on one of three parameters:
- Visit based sends on a guest's first WiFi visit or on how often they visit.
- Online now sends to everyone connected to your WiFi at that moment.
- LogicFlow, Purple's rules builder, decides which guests receive the email through an E-shot action node.
The Communications (Legacy) support article walks through each setting step by step.
Content decides the job
An email can carry your brand colors, title and text blocks, images, a ribbon banner and a date range showing when an offer runs. You can start from a ready-to-go template or upload your own HTML. Every layout is responsive, so it fits the device the guest opens it on.
An SMS carries a sentence and a link. That gap is the clearest guide to which channel a message belongs in.
Consent decides who you can reach
Both channels count as electronic marketing under the TCPA and CAN-SPAM. The TCPA and CAN-SPAM sits alongside CCPA/CPRA. You need a guest's consent before you send either.
The FTC and state attorneys general guidance on direct marketing asks for consent to be specific about the method of contact. In practice, collect it per channel. A guest who checks email has not agreed to texts.
When is SMS the right call for a bar or tavern?
Send an SMS when all four of these are true:
- The offer expires within a day, usually within hours.
- The guest needs to do one thing: book, reply or turn up.
- The guest is close by, either in the venue or a regular who lives or works nearby.
- The message fits in a single 160-character segment with no emoji.
Typical bar uses pass those tests easily. A table released by a cancellation before a big game. Quiz team spots left tonight. The patio open after a wet morning. A happy hour starting for guests already connected to your WiFi.
That last one matters for bars. Engage sends SMS in real time to guests in the venue, so the offer reaches people who can act on it at the bar.
When SMS is the wrong call
- Anything with a menu, a price list or more than one offer.
- Any guest who opted into email but not SMS.
- A regular newsletter. A text is personal, so keep it for news that cannot wait.
- Late at night. Set your own sending window and hold every site to it.
Worked scenario: game-day tables at a downtown bar group
The figures in these scenarios are illustrative and show the arithmetic. Your own Campaigns report supplies the real numbers.
Situation. A six-site bar group shows live football. Game-day cancellations leave tables empty at kick-off. The marketing team had been emailing a "tables available" alert at lunchtime. Many guests opened it after the game had started.
What was done. The team filtered guest records in the CRM for frequent visitors who had opted into SMS. 1,800 guests qualified. They wrote one plain-text message of 148 characters. It named the fixture and kick-off time, and carried a short booking link run as a campaign and an opt-out line. They removed the soccer emoji from the first draft.
The outcome. The first draft, at 182 characters with one emoji, needed three UCS-2 segments per guest. That is 5,400 segments for one send. The final message needed one GSM-7 segment per guest, or 1,800 segments. The group reached the same guests for a third of the connector spend.
Link clicks in Campaigns, set against bookings at each site, gave the team a cost per filled table for the first time.
When is email the right call for a bar?
Send an email when the guest needs to see something or plan something:
- Seasonal menus, Sunday roasts and set menus, where the picture sells the plate.
- Events booked weeks ahead: Christmas parties, private hire, beer festivals and live music.
- Welcome messages after a guest's first visit, set on a visit-based trigger.
- Thank-you offers after a set number of visits, also visit based.
- Anything with more than one offer, or a call to action that needs explaining.
Email also gives you more to measure. Attach a URL to an image, select run as campaign, and Campaigns reports clicks against that offer. Add a date range element and the guest sees exactly when the offer is valid.
When email is the wrong call
- Same-day news. An email opened tomorrow sells nothing tonight.
- Guests who gave SMS consent only.
- A single short reminder, where a one-segment text does the job in fewer words.
Worked scenario: Christmas bookings at a food-led bar with rooms
Situation. A rural bar with 12 rooms and a 90-cover dining room relies on December trade. Its Christmas menu runs to about 750 characters, and the dining room photographs well. The previous year, the owner texted a shortened menu to regulars.
What was done. The owner moved the menu into an email built in the Engage email designer. It used the bar's colors, a photo of the dining room, the menu as text and a date range for the booking window. The booking image ran as a campaign, so Campaigns counted every click. The email went to every guest with email consent, about 2,400 people.
One 120-character SMS then went to SMS opt-ins in the final week of the booking window. It carried the deadline and a booking link, nothing else.
The outcome. Texting the full 750-character menu would take five GSM-7 segments per guest. For 2,400 guests, that is 12,000 segments. The email carried the same menu with a photo and no connector charge. The one-segment reminder cost a fifth per guest of the long text it replaced.
The owner could then set views and clicks against December covers, channel by channel.
How do you split one WiFi-built list across both channels?
The split starts at login, not at send time. These five steps turn one list into two channels without doubling your work.
1. Ask for each channel separately
On your Guest WiFi login page, offer email and SMS as two separate, unchecked choices. Purple calls these conscious-choice opt-ins.
Under the CCPA/CPRA, consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous. Industry best practices suggest that pre-checked boxes do not count. Regulatory frameworks require that withdrawing consent is as easy as giving it, meaning every message needs a simple opt-out.
2. Keep one record per guest
Both opt-ins come from the same login. Each guest therefore has one profile holding their consent for each channel. You can search, filter, view, and download those records in the CRM.
This is the difference from a Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or HubSpot setup. Those platforms send campaigns, but they do not build the list. You fill them with sign-up forms and imports, and the consent record lives wherever the data came from. Purple Engage builds the list from WiFi logins and sends to it from the same place.
3. Give each channel a job
Make email the default for anything planned. Reserve SMS for messages that pass the four tests above. Write the rule down so every site manager follows the same one.
4. Set a contact budget
Decide how many messages a guest receives per month across both channels, then stick to it. A guest who opted into both should not get the same offer twice in one day. Send the email first. Follow with a text only when the deadline is close.
5. Measure return visits, not just clicks
Campaigns reports views and clicks for each communication. Your WiFi visit data shows who came back afterward. Set the two side by side, and you can see which channel turned a send into a visit.
The Marketing (Legacy) article lists the related tools, including CRM, Campaigns, NPS surveys, and micro surveys.
What do SMS and email cost to run?
The two channels have different cost shapes. SMS costs money every time you send. Email costs time before you send.
SMS: per segment, every time
Engage sends SMS through a connector such as Twilio, which you set up and pay for. The connector charges per segment, and its published rates differ by destination country. Your cost per send works out as:
segments per message × opted-in guests in the segment × the connector's rate per segmentThree habits keep that number down. Write to 160 characters. Drop emoji and special characters. Send to a filtered segment, not the whole SMS list.
The SMS marketing for restaurants: costs, consent and what to send guide covers the same math for food-led sites in more detail.
Email: license and design time
Email needs an Engage license and no separate connector. The main running cost is staff time: writing, design and sign-off. Ready-to-go templates cut that time. Uploading your own HTML suits groups with an in-house design team.
The list: the cost most comparisons leave out
SMS and email both need a list before they earn anything. A paper form or a paid sign-up campaign costs money and effort for every contact. A list built from guest WiFi logins grows each time a new guest connects and opts in.
That is why revenue per send looks different with Purple Engage. The send cost is the same math as anywhere else. The cost of acquiring the guest who receives it is far lower.
Revenue per send
Work it out per channel. Take the revenue you can attribute to a send and divide it by the number of messages sent. For SMS, divide the connector cost by the same number. If a text earns less than it costs, move that message to email.
How should you decide for your venues?
Start with how your trade works, then match the channel to the moment. This matrix maps common bar and tavern situations to a lead channel and an Engage setup.
| Your situation | Lead channel | Support channel | Engage setup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wet-led sports bar filling same-day tables | SMS | Monthly fixtures email | SMS to opted-in frequent visitors, sent in real time |
| Food-led tavern taking bookings weeks ahead | One SMS before the booking deadline | Email designer with a date range; booking image run as a campaign | |
| Late-night bar with guests already inside | SMS | Email for event line-ups | Real-time SMS to guests in the venue |
| Inn with rooms welcoming first-time guests | None until the guest opts into SMS | Visit-based email on first visit | |
| Regulars reaching a set number of visits | SMS for a same-day thank-you offer | Visit-based email on visit frequency | |
| Multi-site group mixing local and group-wide news | SMS per site | Owner level set per site or group; LogicFlow for targeting |
Then answer three questions for each site:
- How much of your trade is booked, and how much is walk-in? Booked trade leans to email. Walk-in trade leans to SMS.
- How many guests have opted into each channel? If SMS consent is thin, fix the login page before you plan a text campaign.
- What is your monthly SMS budget? Divide it by your connector's per-segment rate. That is your ceiling on texts per month.
A group with mixed estates will land on different answers per site, and that is fine. One list and one rule per site keep the whole estate consistent.
If you are weighing a third channel, the WhatsApp marketing for hotels: opt-in rules and a setup checklist guide covers the consent rules. For the full picture of how Purple Engage builds and sends to your list, see the Purple Engage Product overview.
Frequently asked questions
Does Purple Engage send SMS without a separate provider?
No. Purple Engage sends SMS through an SMS connector that you set up, such as Twilio. The connector carries each message and bills you per segment at its published rates, which differ by destination country. Email needs no connector and sends under your Engage license. Set up the connector before you plan any SMS campaign. Check its pricing for the countries your guests' cell phone numbers come from.
Can I use guest WiFi data for SMS and email marketing under CCPA/CPRA?
Yes, provided each guest gave valid consent for each channel at login. Under the TCPA and CAN-SPAM, consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous, so pre-checked boxes do not count. Offer email and SMS as separate, unchecked choices on the WiFi login page. Include a simple opt-out in every message. Purple is CCPA/CPRA compliant and ISO 27001 certified.
How is Purple Engage different from Mailchimp or Klaviyo for a bar?
Purple Engage builds the list as well as sending to it. Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and HubSpot send campaigns to contacts you collect elsewhere, through forms or imports. Engage collects consented, first-party data from guest WiFi logins, then sends email and SMS to those guests. It can trigger messages on WiFi visits, such as a first visit or a set visit frequency.
Do I need new WiFi hardware to use Purple Engage?
No. Purple is hardware-agnostic and runs as a cloud overlay on the access points you already own. Supported hardware includes Cisco Meraki, HPE Aruba, Ruckus, Juniper Mist, Ubiquiti UniFi, Cambium, Extreme, and Fortinet. Your guest WiFi login page becomes the place where guests opt into email and SMS. Engage then sends to those guests from the same platform.
Can I send a text to guests who are in the bar right now?
Yes. Engage sends SMS in real time to guests who are in your venue, so an offer lands while they can still act on it at the bar. Use it for a happy hour starting, trivia spots left, or a table freed by a cancellation. Send only to guests who opted into SMS. Keep each message to one 160-character segment.
What do I need in place before the first SMS goes out?
You need three things: an Engage license, an SMS connector such as Twilio, and SMS consent from your guests. The license unlocks email and SMS communications. The connector carries and bills the messages. Consent comes from a separate, unchecked SMS opt-in on your guest WiFi login page. Without that third piece, the first two have nobody to send to.
How do I measure which channel brings guests back?
Measure clicks first, then return visits. Campaigns reports views and clicks for each communication, and images or links run as campaigns show which offer was clicked. Set those clicks against the WiFi visits that follow to see which guests came back. Compare each channel's cost per send, including SMS segments, with its revenue per send.