Food truck marketing: Great ways to get noticed

Posted by Firouzeh Tahbaz

Lady M Dessert

While you would probably rather focus on your food than have to market your food truck , it’s something you can’t ignore. You can have the best food in the city but it doesn’t mean much if no one is coming to your food truck to try it. Marketing your food truck doesn’t have to be a full-time job. Use these 7 easy food truck and food truck marketing ideas to give your food truck a boost and start seeing more customers.

There are a lot of conflicting and confusing ideas floating around about how food truck vendors can promote their businesses.  Your business needs to grow organically as well as nurture your efforts. Starting with a limited promotional campaign is a good way to avoid devaluing your food truck brand. Don’t create unattainable expectations for your customers and build a solid foundation for your food truck.

In order to create interest in your food truck business, you need to interact with potential customers personally. Promotion can take place both inside and outside the truck since “potential customers” include existing customers who are likely to return. Here are some strategies you can use to promote your food truck business.

Get in touch with local organizations

For a list of contact information for organizations such as service organizations, unions, political parties, etc., ask the chamber of commerce or convention center. Let them know you have a truck to sell. Offer catering for their meetings and parties.

Inquire with the human resource managers or appropriate personnel at any company in your area about setting up a truck stop on their premises or catering an event on their premises.

Get to know the right people

Make friends with people who interact with tourists and large groups. Hotel staff, concierges, event planners at hotels and convention centers, tour guides, gas station attendants, and car rental employees are examples.

Employees should be trained in personal selling

Personal selling is a task that can be done by any employee of your food truck. The staff at your service windows and on your trucks should be trained to engage in personal selling outside of the truck. Distribute promotional materials to prospective customers such as business cards.

Keep in touch with customers

You can do this inside and outside the food truck. After the customer has finished their meal, the owner or truck manager should thank them and ask if everything was OK. If any concerns arise, the owner or truck manager should contact the customer. The customer who filled out the comment card could be contacted and apologized for the negative experience.

Participate in local events as a vendor

If you’d like to sell your products at a local farmers market, arts festival, or culinary celebration, you can sell samples there. Get in touch with the attendees at the event and suggest that they try your food truck. Even if you don’t make any sales immediately, it will bring awareness to your truck.

Be aware of your body language

Your mobile food business should be represented every time you are in public. Use good body language to make this happen. Be friendly and smile when you are in public. You will be able to hear your smile in your voice if you smile while on the phone.

Get involved in your community

Participating in more activities will enable you to meet more people. You’ll likely meet new customers almost every time you participate.

Distribute flyers, menus, and coupons

When promotional materials are directly from the vendor, people are more likely to respond to them. Try handing out flyers in person rather than sticking them on cars or stuffing them in mailboxes.

Getting local media attention

It is much better to get press coverage than to pay for an advertisement in a newspaper, magazine or website. Articles, as opposed to advertisements, are much more likely to be believed and less likely to be questioned. There are some who say that “any publicity is good publicity,” but that’s not always the case when it comes to  food truck s. In order to avoid negative press or reviews, make sure your food and service are consistently good before trying to get press.

The following ideas will help you get some good press for your  food truck :

  • Let the local media know about your story
  • Own a newspaper or magazine press release
  • Organize an event which can be catered by your truck
  • Make a donation of food or the services of your chef to a charity
  • Impress the critics by doing something

DESIGN A NEW MENU

In many cases, it is your menu that draws people to your food truck  in the first place. People may have the wrong impression about your  food truck  if it has an old and bland menu. Your  food truck ‘s menu planning, organization, and design are important factors in its marketing.

GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR WEBSITE

When looking for a  food truck  to eat at, most people turn to the Internet. It is imperative to have a good website if you want these potential customers to visit your food truck . If no one visits your website, just having one isn’t enough. These 7 simple local SEO tips can help you gain more visitors to your website and convert them into customers.

Around 60 percent of all online traffic comes from mobile devices, so having a mobile-friendly website is more important than ever before.

Upsell your products

It can be difficult to find new customers for a  food truck , so why not take advantage of those you already have? One of the best ways to increase sales is to increase the average ticket size of each order.

Listed below are a few suggestions for increasing your average order size:

  • Create an extra-large portion size to anchor your larger portions

  • Describe your desserts in a way that makes them sound too good to miss

  • To increase profits, upsell more expensive drinks like wine

  • Provide bottled carbonated water for a higher price than regular flat water

  • Start the meal with appetizers

  • Offer drinks before taking orders for food

  • Serve side dishes such as salads or shrimp skewers with each meal

LAUNCH YOUR OWN CATERED EVENT

You can use events to attract new customers and to keep your regulars coming back to your food truck .

You can host the following events in the future:

  • Tastings of the new menu

  • Meetings of businesspeople

  • Partying during the holidays

  • Live music performances

  • Fundraisers for charities

LEVERAGE SOCIAL MEDIA

It is more important than ever to use social media to market food truck s. By using social media, you can share the latest information about your food truck with your customers in a timely manner. You are much more likely to attract customers to your  food truck  if you build trust with your customers through an online community.

START BUILDING A MAILING LIST

A  food truck ‘s email marketing campaign is a fast, cheap, and efficient way of advertising to customers and getting them to come back. To gather your customers’ or potential customers’ email addresses for your promotions, simply set up an opt-in form on your website. You can keep your  food truck  on people’s minds when they’re thinking about where to eat out next by sending out a weekly newsletter with your latest specials, events, and menu items.