Food truck marketing with The Food Truck Scholar | Ep. 28
Last updated on May 17th, 2023 at 04:41 pm
Food truck marketing doesn’t have to be hard or time-consuming.
Ariel D. Smith, Ph.D, The Food Truck Scholar, has quick & easy tips to help you market your food truck and keep your social media updated.
In this podcast episode, Ariel and I also chat about:
- How she created an audio diary for food truckers using her podcast (~16 min timestamp)
- Opportunities for current and future food truck owners (~35 min timestamp)
- The importance of insuring your deposit for events (~33 min timestamp)
Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I’ll earn a commission at no extra charge to you. Read more on the Disclaimer page.
Listen to this podcast episode on how to market your food truck
Food truck marketing: Social media
Social media is absolutely crucial to your food truck marketing plan.
This includes posting on social media and engaging with people (current & future customers) when they leave comments and send you DMs (direct messages).
No need to feel anxious about social media marketing. Remember that you own/run a food truck. You’re not trying to be an influencer or content creator. Your job is not to post constantly.
But your job is to make money and you’ll do that by making it easy for people to find your food truck.
Here’s how to use social media as part of your food truck marketing plan:
Updates you need to make right now to your social media profiles
- Post your menu. And provide a link to your menu on your website, if applicable.
- Include food allergy information. Do you cook or bake with soy, gluten, dairy, etc? Make sure you disclose this information.
- Update your bio. What kind of food do you sell? What city are you located in? What’s the link to your website? How should people contact you – email or DM? Do you cater? Can you be booked for events?
Schedule time every week for social media marketing
- Start with 30 min to 1 hour every week to plan and create your content. Increase or decrease that time as needed.
- Engage with your customers! Respond to people’s comments and direct messages.
Tools that can help you get started
- Create a template or use templates in Canva to help reduce the amount of time you spend creating social media content.
- Tools such as Planoly and Later can help you with scheduling posts for social media.
Don’t be afraid to get help
- If you don’t want to be bothered at all with creating social media content, then consider hiring a college student or a freelancer.
Food truck marketing: Online ordering
One of the biggest food truck marketing opportunities has been and will be online ordering. Your customers want to place their order online and choose between takeout or delivery.
This is a win for your customers because they can skip waiting in line. This is a win for you because providing this service helps more customers find you.
Some of the most popular online ordering services in the U.S. are DoorDash, UberEats & GrubHub.
Online ordering can help you grow your food truck business, but there are also cons for you to be aware of and for you to research further. This includes but isn’t limited to:
- High commission fees & structures
- Incorrect orders & missing orders
- How easily the online ordering integrates with your current POS (point of sale system)
Ready to start a food truck?
Aspiring food truckers have so many questions. How do I start a food truck? How much does it cost to start? How do I market my food truck?
With Before you Launch a Food Truck, Ariel covers the top questions you need to ask before you start your food truck to set yourself up for success.
Buy the e-book or paperback at TheFoodTruckScholar.com or Amazon.
Mentioned in this episode
- The University of Alabama at Birmingham Collat School of Business
- Vanderbilt Master’s Program M.Ed.
- Purdue University American Studies
- Psyche Williams-Forson
- Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday and Master Class
- Diners, Drive Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri
- Harold’s Chicken
- Deundre Zachery Ragin Cajun Returns – The Food Truck Scholar Podcast episode about insurance for your food truck deposit. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
- Planoly – Visual planner & scheduler for Instagram posts
- Later – Instagram marketing platform
- Canva – Graphic design tool
- Fiverr – Marketplace for finding freelancers
Need more ‘food truck marketing’ content?
- How much does it cost to buy a food truck? w/Houston Sauce Co. | Ep. 25
- Navigating social media to grow your brand with Geo’s Table | Ep. 26
- How a Howard alum runs a pop up soul food restaurant around the world | Ep. 14
Connect with Ariel D. Smith, Ph.D & The Food Truck Scholar
Instagram: @thefoodtruckscholar
Twitter: @FoodTruckSchola
YouTube: The Food Truck Scholar
Clubhouse: All Things Food Trucks room
Website: thefoodtruckscholar.com
Pro Food Maker on social media
Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
