Nashville-based marketing technology firm TL Connects is offering all restaurant and food service companies throughout Nashville and Middle Tennessee free use of the latest edition to its platform during April and May. Companies interested in signing up for the service can visit tlconnects.com.
Restaurants have been among the hardest hit businesses by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dine-in sales, the vast majority of most restaurants’ revenue, have plummeted due to state and local “safer at home” and social distancing mandates. The National Restaurant Association said restaurants will lose $225 billion over the next three months and eliminate five-to-seven million jobs. In Tennessee, the restaurant industry employs around 330,000 people and generates $14 billion in sales.
TL Connects’ platform helps companies generate revenue by allowing merchants to text special offers about their restaurant to an audience of local consumers who have opted in to receive news from neighborhood businesses. Examples include the opportunity to buy gift cards, receive discounts on dine-out and delivery orders, or donate to help their favorite restaurant during the crisis.
Restaurants can use the company’s digital platform to text an audience of 1,500 consumers for free. Should a restaurant wish to contact more than 1,500 people, businesses would pay per message. TL Connects has a database of more than 350,000 people in Nashville and Bowling Green, Kentucky, who have opted in to receive the text messages.
“We are facing challenges like never before as we all continue to navigate through the outbreak of the coronavirus. Restaurants especially are facing unprecedented financial challenges during this crisis,” said Joe F. Brannon III, TL Connects co-founder and CEO. “We’ve been building a community of consumers who want to hear from local businesses, but we’ve never built the tools in our software for local restaurants to take advantage of this database.
“In response to the pandemic, our team was determined to build a product that helped the industry that has made our company exist. People who have opted in to receive texts are proven customers spending money in your neighborhood and they are ready to support the restaurants they love. This is our way of pitching in to help business owners whose companies are essential to the economic health and social fabric of our city.”
About TL Connects
TL Connects partners with brick and mortar businesses of all varieties and sizes, providing a complete marketing, communications and digital loyalty platform. The company provides businesses with an easy, effective method to automate and enhance relationships with customers. TL Connects was founded in 2010 by Joe F. Brannon III and Chris Jarratt and works with companies in 45 states. TL Connects is a partner with some of the country’s most well-known brands, including Smoothie King, Dairy Queen, Jet’s Pizza, Long John Silver’s, IHOP, Juice Bar, Rafferty’s and many more. Visit https://tlconnects.com/ for more information.
