5 summer strategies for food truck owners

When you own a food truck, summer brings both challenges and opportunities. Although some of your loyal customers might not be in the area as often, the beautiful weather and flexible schedules mean that you have a greater potential to attract new diners. 

Employ one or all of the following tried-and-true strategies to make your food truck sizzle all season long.

1. Review your payments infrastructure.

Incorporating a top-notch POS system is important for any business whether it operates online or in-person. However, it is especially crucial for mobile entrepreneurs like you to provide customers with a fast and reliable way to pay. 

While accepting only cash may have worked fine in the past, people just aren’t carrying bills and coins these days.

A POS system for food trucks has special features that can optimize your business. You can not only use it to keep track of inventory and payrolls, but also the system allows you to securely take payments offline for those times when you can’t connect to the internet. 

Furthermore, a good food truck payment services company should furnish you with a space-saving mobile card reader that can accept credit and debit card payments with speed and efficiency. If your current system falls short of these requirements, it’s time to upgrade to a modern solution.

2. Polish up your website.

Your truck might not be moored to a specific restaurant location, but it should still have an updated website that is optimized for searches in your local area. After all, people look online for food trucks as well as standard restaurants, and you can’t afford to be left behind. 

This is particularly true during the summer when fewer of your regular customers might be stopping by.

Think of your website as the face of your food truck, the first experience that many potential customers will have of your business. Use it as a forum to showcase your products by employing vivid photography and video testimonials. 

Then provide customers with easy ways to order right from the site so that their meal can be ready and waiting for them when they get to your truck.

Your website also provides a highly effective conduit to the rest of your business. Use it to give directions to your truck’s location and gather customer contact details that you can use later to communicate and entice. 

If you also provide catering, create a landing page on your site that describes what you have to offer and captures contact details.

3. Harness the power of social media.

Summer is a time for fun happenings such as farmer’s markets, fairs, music festivals, and picnics. Many food truck owners take full advantage of these seasonal events to experiment with new products and try out alternative locations.

Social media gives you the perfect way to stay in touch with your biggest fans about what’s going on in your busy summer schedule. 

Be sure to update the pages that your patrons use the most with the latest news, and encourage your besties to make their way to your truck with some special free treats and promotions.

4. Create a series of summer videos.

The vertical videos seen on TikTok and in Instagram stories have quickly become the chief way for many customers to plan their dining and shopping experiences. 

You don’t need to be a Hollywood movie director to make this digital content; just capture shots of the menu items you want to promote, your staff cooking up the good eats, or the long line of hungry patrons waiting to enjoy your entrees.

These dynamic videos can show viewers in a quick glance everything they need to know about the happenings at your truck. Of course, the video should also include vital facts such as where you will be located, the relevant dates and times and any daily specials. 

It’s a great way to drum up interest in your mobile restaurant.

5. Cement your brand and optimize it for summer.

Because food trucks are mobile by nature, it is crucial that you find ways to solidify your brand identity so that it sticks in the minds of your customers. To that end, come up with a logo and merchandise such as T-shirts, signature sauce, etc. that are uniquely your own.

Once you have these elements in hand, it’s easy to augment them with a summer theme. Dress your brand mascot in sporty summer shades or picture them chilling on a beach chair with one of your homemade lemonades in hand. 

When you do, you will be letting everyone know that your truck is ready for business even if school is no longer in session.

One of the advantages of running a food truck is that you don’t have to deal with the overhead costs and stresses that come with a physical building location. 

Use your mobility, artistic streak, and social media capabilities to their fullest extent this year, and you just might begin the fall with more happy customers and better menu offerings than you ever dreamed possible.