Food Truck Marketing: 5 Ways To Grow Your Food Truck
Your Food Truck business cannot rely on the same marketing tactics that a brick and mortar restaurant does, so you need a proven food truck marketing strategy for attracting new and returning customers.
The secret ingredient to an effective food truck marketing plan will always be the FOOD. And when you add a powerful food truck marketing strategy to the mix, you’ll get proven results that will scale and grow your food truck business.
Here are 5 powerful ways to market your mobile food truck business!
1) Location, Location, Location
When and where you park your food truck is critical to your success. While knowing the best time to park your truck is important, you can’t know the WHEN unless you know the WHERE. Not only do you need to scope out a location for your truck, you need to get approval from the city or town before you park. There are cities who promote food trucks more than others, so make sure you check in with the local officials before you proceed.
Here is a list of great places to consider parking your food truck.
- Farmer’s Market
- College Campus
- High School Sports Events
- Public Parks
- Hiking Trails
- Fairs and Carnivals
- Car Shows
- Hospital Campus
- Golf Outings
Get creative and follow others food trucks online to see where they are going. There’s no need to worry about competition, as there are plenty of mouths to feed.
2) Easy to Use Website
Having a website is key to food truck marketing. Having a well-designed and easy-to-navigate website is key to helping your visitors find what they are looking for quickly. When designing your website, think about what is most important about your food truck business.
- Your menu (the type of food your serve)
- Your location (where are you going to be)
Making those key pieces of information easily accessible is how you want to design your website. Avoid having visitors scroll too far or click through menus. And give them the option to follow or subscribe in order to get updates send directly to them.
Here’s 5 pages your website must include on your food truck business website.
- Home – Make it clear what type of food you serve, and where you serve it.
- Menu – Use our Menu Sync platform like our customers Steaming Tender does to save time.
- About – Tell your story and what people will experience when they dine at your truck.
- Locations – Keep a detailed and accurate list of locations, times, and where to park.
- Contact – Provide easy ways to reach your business by phone, email, forms, and social media.
You can add more content and pages later. For now, let your website be the authoritative sources for all information about your business. Link back to it from all your social networks, and use it on all your menus, brochures, and marketing materials.
3) Email List
On your website, make your primary call-to-action be for visitors to join your email list. Why? So they can benefit from getting information about your food truck directly to their inbox! This includes menu changes, location changes, and special offers that will save them time and money.
When the opportunity comes to park your food truck at a special event, make sure to message all your email subscribers first. That way they are the first to know about what is happening. You can then later update your website, and social channels for the general public. It’s important to provide your email subscribers with exclusive and special content. This is where discounts and coupons can go a long way.
To help you along, below is a short list of easy-to-use email marketing platforms you can start using.
It is free to start using these email marketing platforms and several come with built-in website platforms.
4) Social Networks
Social marketing is important for any business, and especially for food trucks. Why? They give you access to a large food truck fan base who is always looking for a new experience. Regularly posting to your social networks with updates about your menu, your location, and what is happening with your business will keep your business in the minds of your audience.
Don’t expect social network followers to like and share every post. Remember that those who are really engaged with your business will find your content helpful, and will likely take the next step and become an email subscriber. Posting regularly with video and images is a really fun way to grow your audience.
In order to get started, here are several social marketing tools to help you schedule posts and manage all your social networks.
We offer done-for-you social marketing for when you’re looking to save time and focus on other aspects of your business.
5) Sell Merch to Boost Food Truck Marketing
Having an ecommerce website where you can sell branded merchandise is a great way for fans to promote your brand. Selling merch like tee shirts, hoodies, umbrellas, and more online and off-the-truck will grow brand awareness in those who see the merch. This is especially true if you add a website address for people to visit and learn more about your food truck business.
Creating a selling merch is not easy! However, using a platform like WooCommerce integrated with an on-demand fulfillment services like Printful will result in an effective merch marketing campaign. No matter the size of the order, your website and fulfillment can handle orders of 1 shirt to 1000 without taking any of your time to fulfill.
Here are a few other online fulfillment services to look at.
Food Truck Marketing
Taking the steps to add at least one marketing channel will attract more customers, and grow your food truck business. Remember that letting customers know what you offer, and where you’ll be is most important. Take advantage of the opportunities today or contact us for more information.
