The competition among food trucks is growing, and you’ll need to give your all to be successful. Today we’re helping you out with 10 food truck marketing strategies that will help you improve your mobile food business and get attention from hungry consumers.
10 Food Truck Marketing Strategies
Food Porn
The first of our marketing strategies to get into taking photos of your food. If you’ve ever logged onto Instagram, you’ll understand that food porn is alive and well. Arguably the very best way to promote your food truck online is with high-quality photos. Consider hiring a pro or try it DIY style with your smartphone.
RELATED: Food Truck Food Photo Guide For Beginners
Having a strong Instagram presence is another obvious food truck marketing tip. Use Instagram to promote your truck’s best visual content. Show off your truck, get up close with your top dishes, and use this social media main stage as a place to play around with your food truck brand.
Loyalty Programs
Online food apps should definitely be part of your food truck marketing plan. Signing up with online app companies encourages visitors to check out your food truck through loyalty programs which offer visitors a free purchase or discount for visiting a certain number of times.
Popular loyalty program apps:
You could also hand out punch cards. While they aren’t as modern as apps, they still show that you value your food truck customers.
Yelp
Yelp has tremendous power in the food service industry, and having a strong backing of positive Yelp reviews can do wonders for your mobile food business.
The most important thing to understand about Yelp is that people can and will review you, even if you don’t set up an account. For that reason, as a food truck owner you should take control of your account.
This means adding as many details as possible, such as:
- Photos
- Typical hours
- Typical locations
- Menu
- Price Range
The other big thing to keep in mind when it comes to Yelp is how you handle feedback. Thank Yelpers for their review; positive or negative. If you get negative feedback, always answer in a polite, professional manner.
Google+
Setting up your food truck’s Google+ account is as important as setting up your Yelp account. When you search a business within Google, Google’s Knowledge Graph provides the business’s details in the sidebar. Google’s Knowledge Graph gathers a large chunk of its info from Google+, so having your food truck set up on Google+ is a huge bonus.
While we’re discussing Google, make sure you set up some Google Alerts. Google Alerts notify you when your food truck’s name appears in a new piece of content on the web. This makes it easy to keep tabs on who is talking about you.
Send Out An Email Newsletter
Remember, your food truck newsletter doesn’t have to be weekly – in fact, users will probably appreciate a less flooded inbox if you simply send them a newsletter every month or so. Use your email newsletter as a chance to celebrate your success, discuss new menu items, or share special discounts.
RELATED: Creating An Effective Food Truck Newsletter
Monitor Your Social Media Presence
Social media marketing strategies are an undeniable force in today’s world. Often, the food truck with a strong social media presence as part of their marketing plan are the ones that fare the best, and in the competitive mobile food industry, ignoring social media is a death sentence.
You’ll want to create a Facebook business page and a Twitter account to share your next location, special discounts, exclusive coupons, and photos of your newest dishes. But setting up your accounts is only half the job; it’s also essential you keep up with activity happening on your social sites.
There are many great free and paid social media management tools. A popular free option is HootSuite, a dashboard for keeping tabs on all your social media networks.
Food Blogger Outreach
When you’re a new food truck, you may find it difficult to generate reviews and hype about your mobile food business. One great way to get reviews and press on the web is to invite food bloggers to your truck to give you a try, and consider offering a free meal or appetizer to get them in line at your service window. Politely ask if they’d be willing to review your food truck and share their experience online.
Some food bloggers have big followings, and getting their attention can have a huge influence on your food truck. Even just one write up or mention from a major foodie can be a huge for your promotional efforts.
Offer Coupons and Discounts
Providing coupons and discounts for your food truck is always a surefire way to bring customers running. Offer a free dish to your new email newsletter subscribers.
Fish Bowl Business Card Giveaways
The last of our food truck marketing strategies ties into old school restaurant marketing; the fish bowl promotion. Let customers drop their business cards into a bowl for a raffle. The reward can vary. Not only are these raffles fun, but you can also make use of those business cards by emailing customers. Let them know that while they didn’t win this time, they can sign up for your newsletter to be notified of their next chance to enter.
The Bottom Line
That sums up our food truck marketing strategies for today. Hopefully you can put these food truck marketing tips to good use. Do you have any food truck marketing strategies that we missed? Share your thoughts in the comment section, our food truck forum or social media. Facebook | Twitter
