9 ways to make Your Vegan Food Truck brand stand-out!
1.) Having a niche will help differentiate your brand and make it stand out.
Even if your food business is vegan…that is a niche but the vegan food space is becoming more mainstream, so it’s less of a niche nowadays.
Having a specialty niche will help your food truck stand out from the competition. Although in the vegan food space it’s more about comradery than it is about competition, one still needs to pay the bills!
If you try to cater to everyone it makes your job a lot harder, so specializing is key to bringing in more business.
2.) Food trucks rely on brand recognition to stand out.
Hiring a designer who works in the vegan food space is key to having a brand that represents your business personality. After all, you’re a culinary artist, not a designer!!
Because design software is more available to the public, many people are attempting to come up with their own brands, which I think has its place.
But In the vegan food truck space, it’s a bit trickier and much more difficult to DIY because it’s all about design aesthetics. The food truck brand design is what draws people in. It’s what distinguishes your food truck from the one next door to you!
Design Is what attracts buyers, so having a well-thought-out strategic brand for your food truck is key!
If there are a bunch of food trucks lined up at a festival, or on a street, people are going to naturally gravitate towards the more attractive business.
3.) Dish out amazing customer service!
Did you know a brand is more than a logo and nice-looking graphics? A brand is all of the things rolled up together!
Is your staff upbeat, friendly, and enthusiastic?
How customers get treated will have an effect on your business. If staff treats clientele like they are bothering them or interrupting their conversations, then it will affect your overall brand.
So in essence customer service is also a part of your brand!
People can feel when they are not welcome somewhere. It’s a vibe. So it’s important to pick the right people to represent your business.
Your food truck brand will be more memorable and bring in more business if all customer touchpoints are thought out carefully.
4.) Try to be environmentally conscious.
After all, being aware of the effects your food biz has on the planet is important!
Do you source locally and compost your food waste? Do you buy foods in bulk? What kind of packaging do you use for your customers?
All of these things also make up a brand. People want to support environmentally friendly businesses, so be sure to have a strong mission statement about what you believe in and what the goals are for your business, and so on.
Most people who are in the vegan food space also care about the environment, the two pretty much go hand in hand, so be sure to incorporate that into your brand, and use best practices that help protect the planet.
5.) Use healthy food ingredients when possible.
It’s difficult to use the finest and most healthy ingredients in your food biz all the time.
But by taking the time to source quality food ingredients and that also use fair trade best practices will help distinguish you from other brands.
The ingredients in the food are super important to customers in the vegan food space. It’s why someone chooses one place instead of another.
So by using quality ingredients that are local and organic, it will add to your overall brand and mission.
6.) Web Presense is Essential
Social media should be used to leverage your business and not necessarily as an end in itself. Web design platforms are much more robust and should be the digital home for your business.
You own your website and your email list whereas if you depend solely on social media for your business, you have no say in how it affects your business.
Because social media is owned by a corporation that has its own motives and ambitions they can change things whenever they want without thinking about how it might affect businesses.
So knowing that will help safeguard your own brand. If you use social media to direct people to your website to sign up for your email list, then you can email them and keep them updated on events and other important things.
Did you know customers actually prefer to go to a business’s website and order?
People want to see your menu and they want to see that you're a real business that offers food with thought and care.
They want to know your story, how you got started, what you care about, so they can connect with your brand and become a loyal customer!!
Sometimes the “restaurants” and “vegan food businesses” that are listed on food delivery portals are ghost kitchens that are more concerned with profit than delivering quality food and experiences.
I’m not saying all ghost kitchens are like that, but sometimes the ghost aspect isn’t very appealing to some people.
For example; culinary artists usually have a passion for what they do, and put their whole life and soul into their offerings and food presentation, and the outcome is usually the best tasting food!
People love connecting with the person behind the brand and getting to know them. Customers love connecting with the chefs and become fans and friends. It’s all about relationships!
With ghost kitchens, you don’t know where the food is coming from, how it’s being prepared. Is it being rushed to make as much food as possible for profits, in my opinion, the food wouldn’t be very good. With that being said I’m generalizing here to make a point!
I went off on a tangent there! The point I’m trying to make is having a website makes it easy for people to go directly to it, so they can find out more about the business they want to buy from.
People want to see your menu and learn about your story, so having a website design that represents your unique brand personality will help bring in more business. It can also help streamline your process, so you can get back more time in the day,
Because websites are meant to do a lot of the behind-the-scenes work like online ordering, you can spend less time in your social media DM’s. Ya, feel me? 😊
7.) A food truck brand should be thought out carefully for best results.
Taking the time to set the foundation of your food truck brand is very important and shouldn’t be rushed.
All good things take time and when a strategy is laid out in the beginning, it’s much easier to build off that, instead of just jumping into things quickly.
The vibe and the intention of your business are going to set the tone for your brand and will help it stand out from others in the same space.
A business’s brand Is not something that’s fabricated that one tries to make up.
It’s a part of you, and working with a good branding expert will help bring your inherent brand nature to the surface, so it can live and breathe.
Sometimes one’s instinct might be to rush things and go find someone on Fiverr to design a logo, but a brand is more than a 25.00 logo on fiver.
A brand is your unique business personality often called a Unique Value Proposition.
In a nutshell, it’s a fancy way of telling the world what makes you different, and what you stand for!
There is so much thought and intention that go into designing a brand from color choices to typography, graphics, and much more to make it memorable. It’s a holistic process that stems from the roots of a business and not the other way around.
I went on a little rant there… my point is to take the time to brand your food truck and to work with a professional graphic designer and web designer to set up a good foundation that’ll attract your ideal customers so it represents your core values as a business.
8.) Decorate your vegan food truck.
There are heaps of food truck decoration ideas on Pinterest. Whether it’s putting plants out front or putting lights around your food truck, It will help draw attention to it and make it welcoming to your potential customers.
Pro tip- make your menu visible from a distance, so while people are waiting in line they can read the menu. There’s nothing that sucks more for the customers than having to wait in line for food when they are hungry. It’ll speed up the line and customers will thank you for it!
Be sure to find the balance between decorating and clutter. Keeping things simple but attractive is key!
If you have a passion outside of your food truck business, you can try to incorporate it somehow into your offerings.
For instance; Vegan Hood Chefs incorporate dancing and open mic at their food truck location, which really helps spread the word and attract more people.
There are so many ways to get creative around your business as a way to connect with the community at large, to let them know you’re here to serve them, and that you want to have relationships with them.
Depending on how big your space is to park on, it’s really nice to offer your customers somewhere to sit, and if it’s a shaded area even better. If you have the resources, can adding lights and some sort of shelter from the elements will be appreciated!
It’ll create a nice space and could attract more people to spend more time and hang out!
Food truck businesses that do better than others have nailed down customer experience and service.
If the emphasis is put on hiring outgoing people who like to serve others and make people feel appreciated, it will work wonders for your business and your personal life as well because being kind offers all kinds of benefits!!
9.) Promote your food truck business.
Well of course you would duh! But sometimes it’s easier said than done.
The cool thing about being in the vegan food space is…..word of mouth is king when it comes to promoting your food truck brand.
Everyone knows social media plays a big role in promoting a business, but it goes beyond that.
Social media is just a tool to leverage your business, and the real work is creating a seamless memorable customer experience, so they’ll keep coming back.
If the food is awesome but the experience of getting the food…. well, not so great, it will affect your business.
Online customer experience is a huge factor as well.
Do you have a streamlined way for customers to order online? If not, it’s something to consider.
Because now days not only is a business being rated on how good or bad the food was. It’s also being judged for how easy or difficult it was for a person to move around the website and order food and shop.
And last but not least, set up a website for your vegan food truck business! Customers want an easy way to look you up, so they can see your menu, hours of operation, and so forth.
Having an Instagram account is a good start but websites are much more robust platforms that can help you put processes in place to save time.
With that being said, it’s good to take things slow and build over time. If you try to do everything at once it can be overwhelming. Putting goals in place and taking steps to accomplish them is a good way to avoid burn out!
Please check out my web design packages for vegan food businesses, if you’d like to talk about your project and need help setting up a website for your plant-based food truck.
