How to Grow Your Food Truck Business

Purchasing a food truck is an exciting way to enter the food industry. This fast-growing industry gives you the flexibility to serve diners anywhere in your area, allowing you to grow your loyal customer base. However, creating a successful and profitable food truck business is a lot more complicated than buying and outfitting a truck and parking it where you hope people will stop by. 

Check out these nine tips for food truck growth ideas to start seeing revenue increases today!

1. Work on Your Concept

Concept is paramount in the restaurant business. You must keep all branding elements consistent, from your color scheme and design to your logo and name. A unique idea stays at the forefront of customers’ minds, making them more likely to recommend your food truck to others. 

Word-of-mouth marketing is often underrated but highly effective. For example, 90% of people prefer purchasing products recommended by people they know and trust — or even people they don’t know. Creating a memorable and unique concept can help people organically spread the word about your food truck. 

2. Find a Gap in the Market

One of the best ways to grow food truck revenue is to identify a market gap and offer what no other food truck does. You can do this by conducting some market research about the food trucks that already exist in your area. For example, if there are already five food truck businesses in your city selling pizza, you might consider going a different route. 

Finding your niche will help your food truck stand out, which is essential, considering how food truck popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. 

3. Add Seasonal Choices to Your Menu 

You can change your food truck menu year-round by adding seasonal choices to your selection. Keep things exciting, and don’t rely solely on a few go-to items. For example, if you serve comfort foods, you can sell hamburgers and hot dogs in the summer and add soup and macaroni and cheese in the fall and winter. 

Changing your menu according to the seasons allows you to cater to people’s tastes at different times throughout the year, leaving your customers curious and excited about what they’ll experience next season. 

4. Partner With Other Local Businesses 

Partnering with local businesses is an effective way to gain revenue and support your community. You can start by messaging fellow entrepreneurs on social media or, even better, visit them in person to drop off menus and chat with owners. Some options for working with local businesses might include parking outside one of their events, providing snacks for a company-sponsored block party or offering weekly lunches for office workers. 

5. Attend Local Festivals

Food trucks thrive at local festivals. People want to walk around outdoors, explore exciting vendors and find new favorite shops. Parking your food truck at a festival can increase brand visibility and expose your food truck to a large group of people, possibly expanding your existing consumer base. 

You can also become a vendor at food-focused events like the Garland Food Festival in Garland, Texas. With free parking and admission, a hot-dog-eating contest, raffle prizes and more, this festival provides an excellent opportunity for attendees to explore local eating options. It’s the perfect time to dip your toe into the world of becoming a vendor at local festivals. 

6. Work on Your Social Media Presence and Local SEO

More than half the world’s population — 58.4% — uses social media, with average daily usage of about two and a half hours. Your social media presence can significantly impact your food truck’s success. You can create accounts on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn and post content such as daily drink specials, special offers and discounts, menu changes, hours of operation and daily location.

Another online marketing tactic you can take advantage of is local SEO. Local search engine optimization makes it possible for your food truck to appear in the top Google search results of people looking for the best local spots to grab a bite to eat. The top results on Google searches get the most web traffic, so concentrating on increasing your local SEO is crucial. 

7. Offer Catering 

One of the best ways to make your food truck profitable is to offer catering options. You can cater several different types of events, including office get-togethers, block parties, corporate events, graduation parties, holiday parties and — one of the most popular choices — weddings. 

Many people choose to have a food truck cater their event because they are a fun alternative to traditional catering services. Food trucks are also often more affordable, which is especially beneficial for expensive events like weddings where every dollar counts. Catering events can get your menu in front of a whole new group of people who may not have otherwise experienced your cooking. 

8. Visit Locations With a High Volume of Traffic 

Food truck owners have the unique opportunity to take their business anywhere. You can research where your customer base hangs out and whether the area gets a good amount of foot traffic. Here is where your branding comes in — once you find the best place to park your food truck, your concept will hopefully draw people to you while they’re walking by, finding a place to read, heading home from work or looking for an easy meal to bring home for the kids. 

9. Add Mobile Payment, Online Ordering and Delivery Options

Many people prefer the convenience of making mobile payments for food, as evidenced by the fact that mobile payments now make up 18% of payments at points of sale in the United States. Many people also enjoy ordering their food ahead of time or for delivery, especially at lunchtime during the week when they need to get back to work quickly. Offering these things can enhance the customer experience and bring more people to your food truck. 

Learn More About Revolving Kitchen’s Cloud Kitchen

If you need extra space to prep your food outside your food truck, consider becoming a Revolving Kitchen member. You can maximize space by pre-making specific menu items in one of our rental kitchen spaces. Our cutting-edge commercial cloud kitchen models are cost-effective, private and available for both short- and long-term use. 

Take your food truck business ideas to the next level. Contact Revolving Kitchen today to learn more about the cloud kitchen model or to schedule a visit to our facility!