If you are looking for food truck marketing strategies to grow your business and increase sales in 2020 then read on......
The food truck industry has been will us for quite a while now and is still continuing to grow and evolve. Start-up street food stalls evolve into food trucks and food trucks take the leap into a brick and mortar restaurant.
An effective marketing strategy is important for driving this growth and there are a few things like having a website and utilizing social media. But there are also a number of other creative and very effective marketing ideas to increase food truck sales.
in this article, I have put together a list of 19 easy food truck marketing strategies to increase sales in 2020.
1. Build a website
Building a website for your food truck business is as difficult or costly as you may think these days. If you have a bit of time to spare there are a number of user-friendly website builders to choose from.
Sites such as Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress offer good functionality and are relatively easy to use
This is the first step to promoting your food truck and getting found by new customers.
2. Social media
Food pictures are one of the most shared and searched for types of images on Instagram. This makes your food truck a perfect fit for sharing your eye-catching and food on this platform
On Facebook, you can create a page for your food truck business, invite people to like and build a community. You can share recipes, tips and just let people know your plans for the upcoming months.
You can also run targeted ads in a specific location. Handy for letting people know where you will be serving your food.
Good for building a community, creating hashtags for your food and letting your customers know where you will be in the coming months.
It's worth noting, managing all of these media platforms to promote your food truck can be time-consuming so it's advisable to find one or two that works for you and focus on that.
3. Pop-ups at locals pubs
If you are looking to increase your food truck sales, partnering with a local microbrewery or pub to serve their customers is a good marketing strategy to get your name out there.
You will often have to give a percentage of sales to your host but will have access to an already established customer base.
4. Promotional material (flyers and business cards)
Handing out your business card or flyers is an effective way of getting people to know who you are; where you are; and what you do.
This is especially important for marketing if you are a new food truck in a business district where there are a lot of high rise offices and hence a lot of customers.
5. Loyalty cards
Once you get the customers to your food truck you want to keep them coming back.
One way to do and increase sales is to create a loyalty scheme, where you give a free meal for every say 10 meals that are paid for.
6. Prize draw
If you have a Facebook and Instagram following you can run weekly or monthly competitions with a free meal for the winner.
So, for example, you could post an image and ask people to comment. You can then pick a random comment for the winning meal. This gets people engaged in your brand.
7. Pay it forward initiatives
A creative marketing strategy for your food truck is to adopt a "Pay it forward" initiative.
The idea is very simple in that you give away a few free meals per day on the condition that a person does a good deed for someone else, like buying a homeless person a cup of coffee.
You can get pay it forward cards to hand out to customers along with the free meal, which helps to explain the concept
8. Invite your local newspaper
Inviting your local newspaper is a very effective marketing strategy to increase your food truck sales. This is especially true if you are a new food truck business offering a little something different.
There is always a buzz around something new!
9. Sponsor an event
This is all dependant on what sort of marketing budget is available, and if you are a small independent company may not be viable.
But if the funds are available sponsoring and a small event can be a very good idea for marketing your food stall or truck. It gets your name out there and helps build your brand.
10. Do a charity event
This is a more cost-effective way than sponsoring an entire event. All you need to do is provide your services for the day in the name of a good cause.
Again this marketing strategy is not only good for the charity but also your image as a food truck business and helps to build your brand.
11. Effective branding
A clear brand is very important for getting your message across and letting people know what you are about. Try and stay away from ambiguous names and logos, which can lead to customer confusion.
A clear, concise and consistent message is probably one of the most effective ways to market any business.
12. Make your products custom brandable
This is a very good way of how food trucks attract more customers. I have personally had a lot of success in partnering with other companies for private and corporate events who want to brand my products.
13. Corporate events
This leads on nicely to private and corporate events as a way to increase sales as a food truck. You definitely need a website for this one as when dealing with other often large companies you want to come across as professional.
This is a very big industry and if you can get your foot in the door, it can lead to a lot of growth and sales.
14. Engage with national days (meat-free week)
If you are a vegan food truck this may not apply to you, but you get the idea. Many large companies now promote or create products for certain national days or holidays.
So serving vegan food for a day or a week is a good marketing strategy to promote your product and food truck business.
15. Create a "behind the scenes" video
People like to see what is going on behind the scenes, especially would it comes to food preparation and cooking in a food business.
You can easily create a 2-5 minute video of how you prepare and cook your food and maybe a chance to introduce your team.
The video can then be posted on your Facebook page or on Instagram and Instagram stories.
16. Create an interesting "signature dish"
Having an interesting signature dish is a very good way of piquing people's interest and drawing attention to what else you have on the menu.
If its a signature dish it must be really good right?
17. Sign up to an event platform
There are a number of event platforms now where customers go to book street food stalls and food trucks for all types of private and corporate events.
Along with a website and a social media presence that is an additional way to market your food truck business and get found by new customers.
18. Feed the homeless
Giving away free stuff may seem counterintuitive and the last thing someone would think of as a marketing strategy to increase food truck sales.
However, helping the homeless will not only make you feel better but can help with your bottom line and boost your profile.
People like to be associated with companies that have a social conscience.
19. Advertise on a wedding platform
Street food and food trucks are now big business in the wedding industry. Therefore, advertising on a wedding website or in a magazine can bring in additional revenue for a food truck business.
We may live in an increasingly digitalized world but there is still room for effective offline marketing strategies for your food truck or food stall.
A website and a social media presence are important but creative and smart marketing ideas such as effective branding of your food truck and handing business cards to local companies can help to increase food truck sales.
In reality, most food trucks and food stalls adopt a mix of marketing strategies and ideas, which hopefully can work for you too.
Comments