The prospect of owning and operating your very own food truck proves to be too magnetic for many a chef to ignore, which is why there appears to be a growing food truck culture adding to the already vibrant food truck market. Food trucks aren’t necessarily operated by “rogue” chefs whose larger-than-life personality was just too free-spirited to have them operating within the rigid confines of the traditional dining and hospitality industry, however. Some food truck owners sell so-called fast food or they just have a passion for cooking and so they decided to turn their passion into profit. Many food truck owners tend to get in touch with a restaurant startup consultant who could give them better ideas on how to brand and increase their market.
However, it’s one thing being employed to serve food off of someone else’s food truck and earn a salary or some commission from that, but running your very own food truck presents you with a whole new set of behind-the-scenes dynamics and challenges which can make for a source for some real stress. For one, there is that slump most food truck owners seem to go through following an initial period of some great sales when you’re still new to the market and you’ve just launched your particular food truck. This can be incredibly stressful for any food truck owner, especially when they’ve invested a lot of resources in affordable freezer vans, food licenses and ingredients.
If sales pick up again after the slump then you’re doing something right and you should keep it up, but you can do everything by the book and still not quite seem to recover from that initial slump in sales or any other slump for that matter.
When that happens you need to put the “mobile” back into the operation of your mobile food truck business and get moving, among other things in a bid to bump up the sales.
Move Around
The “money” feature of operating a mobile food truck is indeed the fact that it’s mobile and can be driven around and parked just about anywhere where you have a clearance to do so. Moving your food truck around in a bid to find the perfect spot only constitutes half of what it entails to take full advantage of the mobility of your food business, however.
You need to incorporate some long-term, creative marketing engagements with your existing customers as well as your prospective customers. One way to achieve this goal would be to use interactive content. There are different types of interactive marketing techniques you can use, and you might want to look at them, before investing in traditional advertising strategies.
Long-Term and Creative Marketing Engagement
There are many angles you can pursue to generate a buzz around your particular mobile food truck brand, one of which is taking every opportunity to slip in a reference to your offering. For example, if you have a mailing list of customers who have bought your food at least once (if you don’t, make means through which to build one through email subscriptions or something like that), don’t just bombard them with this month’s specials and the likes. Send them something like your updated terms of service in which you clearly demonstrate your commitment to their safety and well-being, such as perhaps if you’ve drafted a new clause covering personal injury prevention and indemnity.
Perhaps you can even solicit the services of a few motorbike owners and partner up with them to serve as delivery staff for those of your customers who can’t even walk a few blocks to get to your food truck. There’s a lot you can do to drive up your sales.