Food truck advertising: how to get your business rolling

Good food truck advertising is not as easy as it sounds at first. Whether you’re in the middle of planning your mobile business or already in action. We’ll help you build and shape your food truck marketing. In this blog article, you’ll learn which advertising methods make the most sense for your individual food truck business.

Take off with the right food truck advertising

As a food truck operator, your advertising is very important. Through proper external communication, you can increase the awareness of your food truck and reach a wider customer base. In addition, your targeted food truck marketing allows you to stand out from your competition and gain a competitive advantage. Thus, advertising your food truck is one of the most important aspects to increase your sales and achieve long-term success.

But how do you stand out from the crowd and reach your target audience?

The right food truck advertising requires careful planning and a lot of creativity. After all, “marketing” is a very big area: you have to decide on the right advertising channels on which your target group is travelling, you have to develop creative and appealing messages to attract attention and, of course, your advertising budget has to be used efficiently. We have summarised the most important planning steps for you:

Step 1 – Analyse the starting position

Even if you prefer to start implementing creative ideas directly, you should carry out an analysis at the beginning. This will give you a better understanding of the market, your target group and the actions of your strongest competitors: Who is my main target audience? Which social media do they actively use? What values and preferences are important to them? Your marketing ideas can be as creative as you like. If your target group is not active on your channels, you will not reach the right people. The analysis is therefore the starting point for the further development of your marketing measures.

Step 2 – Set clear goals

After you have gained a little more knowledge about the market and your potential customers, you need to determine what you want to achieve with your marketing. This is part of goal setting: after the analysis, you need to determine where you want your marketing journey to go. Is the focus on increasing awareness? Is the focus on increasing sales figures? Or do you want to optimise your corporate image? Depending on your particular focus, you can develop your appropriate strategy and actions.

Step 3 – Set up a strategy

Depending on the nature of your mobile business and your target audience, it makes sense to consider whether you should rather focus on online or offline channels – or a combination. Offline marketing refers to traditional advertising methods used outside the internet. It includes activities such as print ads or attending events and trade fairs. Online marketing instead refers to promotional activities that you use to reach your target audience on the digital web. This includes, for example, building your food truck website.

So much for the theory – now it’s time for implementation. In the following, we will show you your options for using the different channels for your food truck advertising. We will also present you with some best practices on how to attract new customers with appropriate and appealing advertising measures.

Food truck marketing through offline measures

Stands, flyers and posters

Before the start of your mobile food truck business, you should start in the classic way by distributing flyers to surrounding businesses or supermarkets. This way you can inform your potential new customers about your offer. It is also advantageous for you because you can make the first personal contacts directly. It is also worth considering print advertisements in the local weekly report with an opening event where you can attract new customers with discounts.

Food truck marketing through events and trade fairs

In the offline sector, it is a good idea to go to trade fairs in your region as part of your food truck advertising. For example, you can participate in a street food festival as an exhibitor. Here you can clearly stand out from your competitors through the uniqueness and quality of your products. Once you have convinced people, they will keep your stand in mind and even recommend it to friends or acquaintances.

Positive word of mouth of your food truck

Speaking of telling friends about it: Word of mouth about your food truck is probably the key factor for every restaurateur. Most people trust the opinion of their circle of acquaintances.

Best of all, word of mouth is free food truck advertising for you! The power of complaints should not be underestimated: When you hear the word complaint, you probably associate it negatively at first. But as a food truck operator, you should be grateful to customers who point out deficiencies. Because as soon as you see complaints as an opportunity, you can improve your offer in this respect in the future. In this way, you also avoid negative word of mouth about your food truck: people are more likely to pass on bad experiences than positive ones. However, by taking the feedback seriously, responding to the customer and implementing improvements, the customer feels understood. You turn a bad customer experience back into a positive one.

By the way: you can also promote your image through loyalty bonuses or discounts, for example through stamp cards. On the one hand, this ensures customer loyalty and on the other hand, it encourages referrals. After all, who doesn’t love to be rewarded for their loyalty?

Local partnerships for synergy effects

Another option for food truck promotion is to partner with local businesses or venues. For example, you can approach cafés or bars in your area to park your food truck in front of their location on certain days or at certain times and offer your products. The cooperation has advantages for both sides – – you benefit from a cheap and highly frequented stand and your cooperation partner from an extended offer.

Digital Food Truck Advertising

The importance of your food truck website

In order to get your business off the ground and get found, you should not only rely on offline activities. The key factor in the online area is your own food truck website. When prospective customers want to gather information about you, the first step is usually to search the internet for a website. However, many people still underestimate the importance of having their own website. Unfortunately, it often happens that companies have a poor website or even no website at all.

Instead, you should rather invest some money in building up a website in your food truck advertising and thus secure your professional internet presence. With little investment and a little skill, you can create your food truck website on your own through a modular system provider. Such construction kit systems are easy to use and do not require a lot of previous knowledge, such as HTML. Alternatively, you may have someone in your circle of friends or acquaintances who can support you.

You should pay attention to the following for your website:

• A short, simple and memorable internet address,
• an appealing layout and design that matches your food truck,
• up-to-date content, such as locations or what you have to offer,
• good user-friendliness with easy navigation and functionality on mobile devices,
• the creation of trust through e.g. data protection information,
• as well as a legally binding imprint with contact details.

Google my Business, reviews and portals

Who hasn’t experienced it: You’re in a foreign city looking for a nice and quick opportunity to have lunch. So you get out your smartphone, open Google Maps and start searching for restaurants nearby. Therefore, you should definitely create a Google myBusiness profile. This will get you listed on Google and users will be able to find you in Google Search and Google Maps.

Here, reviews also play an important role. Hardly anyone today does not pay attention to the well-known stars in Google searches. Portals like TripAdvisor are also an important decision-making aid and provide valuable information about your food truck, such as prices and waiting times. Through positive reviews, you can communicate your high quality to the outside world.

Or you use the opportunity in personal customer conversations: Often you can find out if your customers were satisfied and ask for a review at the same time.

Food truck advertising through social media

Today, it is almost impossible to imagine life without social media. The younger generations in particular use them on a daily basis and look for new inspiration here. There are a number of social media – of course you don’t have to be present everywhere. Instead, it is advisable to be on the platforms where your target group can also be found. Here we have compiled an overview of the most used channels for you, which could be useful for the use of your food truck advertising:

• Facebook is probably the social network with the most users worldwide. However, younger generations are less and less likely to be found here, especially in Germany, where your content is more likely to be aimed at target groups of 30 plus.
• Instagram is known for aesthetic images and videos – ideal for ensuring the reach of your culinary specialities. The app is popular across all age groups.
• TikTok is characterised by entertaining short videos. If you jump on current trends here, you can go down well with young target groups in particular.
• YouTube is a social network for publishing videos. However, it might be a bit more difficult to achieve a high number of followers and reach on this platform alone. However, if you are planning longer videos, you can link to them from your other channels.

When choosing channels, be sure to orientate yourself towards your potential clientele. But be careful: unfortunately it is not enough to create a profile and hope that you will automatically attract customers. As part of your food truck marketing, it is important to post regular and relevant content and interact with other people or businesses. Make sure your content is informative, entertaining and aesthetically pleasing – with a bit of humour and appealing images. You can get a lot out of your tasty dishes. Advertisements can also be a reach booster, but it’s best to ask someone who knows the area for advice. In this way, you will increase your profile and also collect new contacts.

Three important tips for your food truck advertising

Tip 1 – Develop your individual corporate design

The starting point of your food truck marketing should be a corporate design – i.e. a uniform visual appearance. Unaesthetic designs often do not whet the appetite, while advertising media that are too small or inconspicuous unfortunately often go unnoticed.
A good corporate design includes elements such as your own logo, colours and fonts that you use throughout your food truck advertising. This promotes your recognisability and you also appear professional and authentic to the outside world.

Tip 2 – Think about a regular performance review

After a certain period of time, you should check whether you have achieved your goals with the food truck advertising measures you have developed: Have you increased your sales or are you getting more enquiries for events? By regularly checking the measures, you can optimise your food truck marketing to achieve a greater effect. If you notice that some measures do not achieve a noticeable success, you can make adjustments in time to use resources of time and money efficiently. But don’t give up too soon. Like everything else, marketing measures need time to get off the ground.

Tip 3 – Keep an eye on your advertising budget

In addition, effective use of your advertising budget is essential in your advertising strategy. As resources are usually limited, this ensures that you stay within your financial means. At the same time, in combination with controlling your advertising activities, you can avoid investing your budget in inefficient activities. One of the activities where it is worth investing a little more budget is the logo design or your corporate design. This is the foundation of your food truck advertising. Meanwhile, there are also some AI tools that can help you with this. You should also invest in your modern food truck website, because this is your best advertisement. Overall, however, it is best to start with a small budget that is well distributed, so you can see which options are most suitable for you.

Conclusion – Careful planning is essential for your successful food truck advertising.

As you can see, the advertising options are vast and at first glance seem overwhelming if you are new to the topic. Whether you should rather rely on online measures or classic offline marketing depends entirely on your target group. Pay attention to their characteristics and analyse your target group carefully. What are the needs of this group of people and what solutions can you offer? Based on the analysis, you can select your advertising measures in a targeted and effective way. In most cases, a mix of online and offline activities is recommended to maximise the potential. However, when planning and implementing your food truck advertising, be careful not to cover everything. Rather, concentrate on one or two channels and play them with a sophisticated and creative strategy. This is how your food truck idea goes from zero to awareness!