An increasing number of food trucks are looking to boost their sales with deals to lure customers back to their service windows.  One way you can do this is to randomly award free meals to a customer every week.

The primary reason this marketing ploy works is that it helps build brand recognition and loyalty, which in turn can boost positive word-of-mouth marketing. The cost of a single meal, entree or side dish is far outweighed by the amount of marketing traction you can get from running a free meal campaign.

How To Use Free Meals To Increase Your Food Truck Sales

There are many ways to creatively offer free meals to your own food truck no matter how big (or small) your current sales are:

  • Encourage customers to sign up for your email list. Then randomly select a monthly winner from new signups to receive a free meal.
  • Give away a free meal randomly per day or shift.
  • Give away a free entree or side dish in exchange for filling out an online or paper survey. Just make sure they are providing an email address.
  • Hold “happy hour” specials featuring a buy one, get one free entree or side dish.

Run these offers on the social media platforms you are subscribed. This type of promotion works well on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Post them and see how quickly they end up retweeted or shared. Even if someone doesn’t enter your contest, your brand is being shared among many people within your community…for what…$2.50 in food cost?

RELATED: Know When Your Food Truck Shouldn’t Provide A Free Meal

The Bottom Line

The best way to leverage free meals is to gather some information from your customers. Do this when they take advantage of your discount.  The more you know about your customer, the better you can target them for repeat business in the future.  And the more you build your customer base, the more likely you are to survive hard times.

RELATED: 5 Tips For Creating Food Truck Daily Specials

Does your food truck offer free meals? Share any insight you have on this topic in the comment section or on social media. Facebook | Twitter