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Is it my menu or marketing?

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ByTheSlice

New member
I have a mobile food truck that does slices, steak hoagies, and cheesy bread sticks. I also do pops and bottled water and chips. My marketing is mostly well placed signage and social media. I’m toying with the idea of advertising in the local metromix. I try and keep things simple with the menu. I offer pizza sauce or mushroom sauce, onion,cheese on the hoagies. I do cheese slices and pepperoni slices. I do four different locations mon-fri for lunch. My sales at each location are inconsistent from week to week. How can I improve?
 
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I sell my slices for $2 and my hoagies for $5. My breadsticks go for $3.50 for 3 sticks. I started doing a lunch combo for the slices in hopes to move more. The combo is $3 and you get a slice, drink,and chips.
 
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A couple of things. You say 4 different locations…one a day? Depending on how large of a city you cover…maybe setting up in one busy location to let people know they can count on you as a regular option m-f instead of just one day a week. Also…are you at the same spot every Monday? Tuesday? Etc…??? People look for consistancy in your food but also at your location. My favorite hotdog stand is on the corner of Main Street and 1st. Wait…it’s not here today? You might be confusing the passerby and since they do not see you enough…they might not take the risk on just a random truck on the corner. Kind of see the picture here? I might be way off since I am not a truck vendor…so maybe someone that does please chime in here…but that is just an outside perception of things. Good luck!
 
I go to four different locations throughout the week. Same place every Monday, same place every Tuesday, etc. I’ll serve lunch from 11-2. So from. 11-2 every Monday you can find me @ linden pointe in Norwood. Hope that helps.
 
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As I am not familiar with the area…I would maybe suggest direct marketing to some of the major employers in the area. Bring in free lunch samples for some of the large ones. Offer some exclusive lunch deals for their employees. Get your food and name out there. Is there one place that business is a lot better than the others? Maybe try one full week at the same place and see how sales go. Just a thought. :idea:
 
I love the business angle. Office work people are always looking for new places to get out in fresh air and eat good food. Be strategic about this. Drive your various service areas, or look at a map, and look for marketing opportunities. “If you are duck hunting, you gotta find out where the ducks are”. Identify potential high value targets for food drops and literature/flyer/menu drops. High concentrations of people who are likely to want nearby lunch opportunities. You may figure out that one or more locations are low value locations and need better strategic placement.

Another angle is Radio stations. If you show up in the middle of the morning show time slot with a couple pizzas and some hoagies telling the “gatekeeper” they are for the staff and on air guys . . . you got a good shot at getting free on-air mentions. It better be the best food you ever produced, and looking perfect. Give menus, and a single, well spaced information sheet the personality can read and pick key info off when on air. Locations, times, specialties.

Another place to hit is Public Safety houses nearby: fire stations, police precincts, and the like.

Take food with some literature/menues/flyers each place. Then follow it up three to seven days later with more literature.
 
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Thanks Nick!
I actually park outside of a building on Mondays that houses about seven radio stations and a community college. The traffic guy has come by and bought from me and we spoke for a bit. Apparently you have to pay just to bring food up to the DJs . I did give him some business cards. I’m currently tweeking my menu to state days and times so I can pass it around . I’ve noticed the heat puts a good dent in my business. I guess people don’t like hot pizza when the temp hits mid to high 90s.
 
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You have to pay money to give DJs free food…Radios stations never seem to miss a beat when extracting money from advertisers…In my DJ days, when ever I was hungry I just announced it on the air and the food would arrive shortly thereafter…We were just required to rotate so the same places were not used too often…
 
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If you have a loyal following already, one thing you can do is start a cell phone marketing program. All you have to do is have your customers text a word to a five digit number and then you can send them messages such as where you are currently located or even special promotions just for them. It isn’t spam because the customer signs up to recieve these messages and there is usually an option for them to cancel at anytime. This could really work since people might forget where you are located from day to day and everybody always has their cell phones on them.
MenuDrive
http://www.menudrive.com
877-787-6368
 
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