When you’re a food truck owner catering weddings, working festivals, and joining the crowd at food truck parks, it can feel like the business is booming. Consistency, however, is another story. There are going to be slow days, so why not use your downtime to increase your bottom line by going after more private events?
Whether it’s office parties, birthday soirees, or even class reunions, private events are a great opportunity for you to increase awareness of your brand and sales. Below, we’ve listed some marketing strategies that will help you get the word out about your food truck so you can focus on what you do best: serving delicious food to your growing customer base.
Leverage social media
Your social media accounts are a great way to let your audience know that you’re available to host private events. These tools allow you to keep your customers updated at the moment, and promote engagement between your business and the people you’re trying to reach. Remember to respond to any messages or comments and keep your pages updated with the latest information. Post photos from events that you’ve catered to boost awareness for your private events program.
Update your menus seasonally
Keeping your food truck menu fresh with seasonal ingredients will keep guests coming back for more. Whether you decide to make new dishes or simply revamp a couple of sides to highlight vegetables and fruits that are in season, seasonal menus can help you stand out to your event clients. Not to mention buying local, seasonal produce will often be cheaper and save you on your bottom line.
Hand out printed materials
When you make the transition into the catering business, it’s important to have professionally printed materials that you can hand prospective event clients, like pamphlets and brochures that will highlight your catering packages and prices. These event packets are a great way to show off all the hard work you’ve put into your food truck’s brand. It will be the first thing that a potential client sees, so you want to make sure you showcase menu options, photos, and how you stand out from your competition.
Get on a preferred vendors list
An easy way to get more event clients is to get placed on a venue’s preferred vendors list. So, how do you make this happen? The easiest way is to reach out to any venues you’ve worked within the past who you believe would vouch for your services. Venues often want to have worked with a vendor before putting them on their preferred list. Put any agreement you come to in writing. You’ll also want to decide the terms of your partnership, like whether or not you’ll give the venue a kickback for recommending you.
Make customer service a priority
Your customers and clients should be your first priority, which is why it’s important to focus on the service you provide them. You want to make it as easy as possible for them to book a private event with your food truck. Simplify this process with event management software, like Gather. Our software allows you to respond quickly to any event inquiries you receive. Not to mention our customizable proposals, contracts, and BEOs that allow you to keep your professionalism and branding in line for events.
Join a venue directory
Such as EventUp powered by Tripleseat or VENUES by Tripleseat. Together, as the Tripleseat Booking Network, it’s the largest venue and event spaces directories leading in organic searches. The Tripleseat Booking Network supports more than 4 million corporate and social event planners every year. They come to EventUp and VENUES to browse, secure and book the perfect venue for off of their event needs. Put your venue directly in front of event planner’s eyes, at the very moment they are actively searching for a space. The Tripleseat Booking Network acts as a hands-off marketing partner, generating and delivering leads directly to you.
Now that you know how to market your food truck for private events, see how Tripleseat can help you streamline the catering and event management process.
Editors Note: This blog post was originally featured on the Gather.com blog.
