Text message marketing for food trucks

Text marketing is the perfect tool to keep your food truck connected with customers, from sending out location info to sharing deals or special offers via SMS. Learn how in this guide.

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The overall industry revenue of food trucks has grown 300% in the last three years. Food truck growth is even outpacing overall commercial food service, such as restaurants, at a growth of 5.4 percent versus 4.3 percent! But they haven’t stopped there.

The rise of gourmet food trucks has taken fine dining out of the white tablecloth and china era and instead put it on wheels. In short, food trucks have taken what people thought about the restaurant industry and turned it on its head in the best way possible. And its unparalleled growth is only the beginning.

The moral of the delicious story is, food trucks are hot right now. And they show no sign of slowing down. To keep up with the demand, it’s important for your food truck to find new and nimble ways to reach your audience with effective marketing techniques. Social media is great, but it’s not the quickest way to reach folks.

For food trucks, it’s important for your marketing strategy to incorporate the following attributes:

  • Speed
  • Personalization
  • Time-sensitive
  • Creative
  • Effective
Text marketing is one of the best ways for a food truck marketing strategy to successfully hit all of these goals!

Why does text marketing work so well with food trucks?

It’s no secret that most people keep their phones within arm’s length at all times. In fact, research has shown that Americans check their phone on average once every 12 minutes! When it comes to texts, around 95% of the messages sent are read within 3 minutes!

With that kind of response rate, think about the possibilities:

  • Drive customers to your truck during slow periods with time-sensitive offers
  • Share mouthwatering photos of your specials that look too good to resist
  • Take advantage of the element of surprise by sending texts sharing your location for a limited time
  • Reach a food truck’s most active audience (millennials) who favor texting over every other communication medium

SMS is a great tool for driving revenue for your food truck by helping you…

  • Increase foot traffic
  • Enhance brand awareness
  • Increase offer redemption and CTR
  • Improve customer engagement

If this feels too good to be true, we wouldn’t blame you. We’ll show you how these outcomes are made possible with some example texts.

Six examples of food truck text marketing messages

Eager to see what your content could look like in action? Here are some examples of texts that any food truck can start sending as an easy introduction to the tool.

1. Send coupons or discounts
Invite customers to come by your food truck by extending exclusive coupons to members of your text club. Because texts are read so quickly, this is the perfect tool to drive traffic to your truck during notoriously slow periods.

Papi Queso will be a Sycamore’s Fall Fest this weekend, come join us! Show this text for $5 off your oder.

2. Share your photos
Your customers love to share photos of your truck and food across social media. Extend that visibility by sharing your favorite photos with all your contacts! As humans, we’re extremely visual consumers, but we truly tend to eat with our eyes when it comes to food! Showcase your products by texting out mouthwatering teasers of specials or fan favorites.

Image for sending MMS
It’s Friday, you deserve this…Guy’s Chicken Wagon is open until 10 PM. You know where to find us 😉

3. Run contests and giveaways
An exciting way to drive repeat business is by running a contest. SimpleTexting’s text-to-win app makes it easy to enter contacts through keywords! Contests are not only a great opportunity to reward loyal customers, but it can be an exciting way to draw in first-timers as well!

Pickles2020
Thanks for entering for a chance to win a private pickles food truck party! Winner will be announced 9/15.

4. Share your location
Not every food truck operates out of the same spot. In fact, many thrive off of the mystery of where they’ll appear and when! If you’ve established loyal followers who are willing to come to you, texting them with your location is an exciting and easy way to stay in touch. Simply send out a text blast to all your contacts with your location and watch the eager lines form!

Image for sending MMS
Alright Tim’s Donut Army! Get hungry, we’re serving donuts starting at 6 am tomorrow at 1010 Main Street in the heart of Alberta. We’ll stay until we’re sold out!!

5. Share your menu
Similar to sharing your location, sharing your menu is a great way to stay top-of-mind with your customers. If your menu doesn’t rotate, use this as a chance to share any specials you may be serving up! Texts that add value for a customer perform the best, and using SMS as a medium for sharing this kind of information is a guaranteed way to start growing a contact list.

Image for sending MMS
Weekly dumplings have been chosen! See what we’re cooking up this week on the Dumpling Lady truck: https://txt.st/VugLNd

[Read: How a Healthy Food Delivery Service Drives More Orders Using Text Alerts]

6. Send updates on hours
The food truck life can become unpredictable. A freak storm or power outage could put you out of commission. In that case, it’s important to communicate changes to your customers as soon as possible. Phones already receive emergency weather push notifications, so why shouldn’t your food truck operate in the same efficient way?

We hate to say it but this storm has us shutting down early. We hope to have Mama Ricottas back up and running on Monday. Stay tuned for updates and stay warm ❄️

How to get your food truck started with text marketing

If you’re feeling excited about giving text marketing a try, here’s the good news—getting started is so easy you can do it in mere minutes!

To help give you an idea of what it would look like to start text marketing, here are the first few steps you would take.

1. Pick your number
When it comes to text enabling your food truck, the first step is to pick the right phone number. If your business has an existing 10-digit landline, we can help you text-enable it!

We can also help you choose and verify a new toll-free number, just for your food truck or provision a dedicated short code. Finally, you can also opt to pick and register a new local 10-digit number, for added trustworthiness.

2. Create your first keyword
Once you have a number squared away, you want to create a keyword. This is a short, memorable, word or phrase unique to your food truck.

An example of a keyword that might work for you is a combination of your name and specialty: GigisGumbo, FranksGyros, etc.

You can then invite customers to text in this keyword to your number in order to receive all your awesome texts. Your keyword confirmation, which can be an SMS or MMS message, also gives you a great opportunity to welcome new contacts right off the bat!

3. Advertise your text marketing service
Now that you’re up and running, the next step is letting the world know that they can text with you! Visibility is key here— we’re talking a full marketing blitz. Advertise your keyword on social media, on your menus, and on the bottom of receipts.

Anywhere your brand appears, you should be advertising your text marketing program. In no time you’ll watch your contact list grow and grow!

Food trucks around the world embody the spirit of fun, social, shareable food. Carry that energy through to your marketing by connecting with your audience through the most intimate digital medium: texting.