Be it a foodie or a sparing eater, when one smells the aroma of freshly prepared food while passing by a food truck, they are sure to stop by. Food trucks have changed the eating habits of people in most busy cities around the world. Office goers, college kids, or travelers - all of them prefer to grab some quick snack from a wayside food truck over visiting a restaurant.
The looks of your truck and the aroma of your food are the greatest marketing tools for your food truck business. Nevertheless, it is a worth-trying idea to have a dedicated food truck website. The benefits of building a food truck site are countless - enabling customers to track your truck’s location, sharing a regular menu and any seasonal additions, getting customer reviews, and publishing them - the list goes on.
If you are a simple food truck owner, you may feel overwhelmed by the idea of building a website, its cost, and technicalities. But, a food truck website design is a lot simpler than you think. Many free website building platforms allow you to create your website using ready-made templates without any prior knowledge of coding or design. All you need to do is select a suitable food truck layout template and add content to it. Advanced web builders like Strikingly make the process so simple that you can set up your food truck website within thirty minutes.
Must-have features in a food truck website
To get you started, we have listed some essential features that are common to most of the best food truck websites.
- About Us
The ‘About Us’ section may sound like usual stuff that every other website has. But, there is a reason why most websites have this section. Whatever be your business, it is essential to convey to your visitors the motivation behind starting your business and the values that drive you. Share some casual details about yourself and your business in this section. If you specialize in a particular cuisine, write about your inspiration to focus on it. Use this section to show your personality and strike a chord with your customers.
- Menu
Any food truck website would be incomplete without this section. Create your menu filled with mouth-watering pictures that will make your customers want to grab one immediately. Make sure you update it regularly with a new item or something available seasonally. Minor changes in your menu can spice up the experience of your regular customers and give them reasons to visit your food truck again.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
- Location map
Unlike a brick-and-mortar restaurant, your business is on wheels and can quickly shift to a location where you can pull more crowd. It gives you an edge that you can make use of to acquire new customers. At the same time, your loyal customers may find it hard to discover you when you move to a new location. Adding a Google map section to your website can easily solve this issue. Whenever you change your truck location, you can update the map on your website in a jiff, and your customers will reach you without trouble. For people who come to your website on recommendation from friends, it will be helpful if you add a picture of your truck near the map.
- Timings
Navigating to a food truck location to finally find that the shop is not open yet is a big turn-off. Keep your customers informed about the regular timings as well as any change in your schedule. There may be special occasions when you want to keep your business open for longer hours. The opposite may also happen when you have to shut down the business sooner than usual to set up shop at an event or a fair. Whatever the case is, your food truck website is the best medium to notify your customers about the change in plan.
- Social media
Today it is hard to come across someone who is not on social media. It is a great influencer when people make decisions, be it small or big. Integrate your social media handles with your website and show off the likes and comments you got from your satisfied customers. You can also encourage your website visitors to follow your social media handles.
- Contact
Your food truck may not have a stationary location. But, your business needs to have a stable mode of contact. Share a permanent address like your office or home address and phone numbers on your website. You can also provide a contact form that potential customers can use for booking bulk orders or inviting you to an event.
- Announcements
As a food truck business, you will have many exciting things to announce every now and then. It may be about your presence in a social gathering or an offer price on some of the items on the menu. Show this exciting news on a pop-up when the user enters your website. You can also share coupon codes for availing discounts. Though it is an age-old marketing strategy, it still works in pulling more customers, especially those who may be on a tight budget.
- Testimonials
Show your website visitors the ratings and comments you earned on food review websites. You can have a dedicated testimonials section on your website and showcase some of the best reviews you have got. When a new user sees that another customer from his neighborhood has liked your food, then he is sure to get tempted too.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
- Dynamic content
As a food truck business owner, you know very well that regular visitors to your truck contribute the maximum revenue. The same is true for your website too. Add new content to your website regularly and encourage your website users to check it out often. You can do it by showing new coupons, additions to your menu, or by sending newsletters to visitors who subscribe.
- Team profile
Giving a human touch to your business goes a long way in building a deep connection with your customers. The best way to do it is by adding profiles of your team members. Starting from chefs down to helpers, include a short bio of everyone in your team. Keep the tone informal and jolly. Next time when a customer comes to your truck, they will know a little about the people who prepare the food. That sense of familiarity builds customer loyalty and makes them your regulars.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
How to choose the best website builder for your food truck
While choosing the website builder for your food truck, you need to pay attention to all the features provided. If you start with the wrong platform, then it may take a significant effort to shift your website to a better place in the future. We have made a checklist of features that your website builder should have.
- As a small business owner, you may not have the luxury of employing developers to build your website. Make sure your website builder platform is simple to use with a drag-and-drop option. This will help you to create your own website without external help.
- A custom domain name is paramount for any business website. Your customers will search for your website using your business name, and so it is mandatory to have it on your website URL. Choose a website builder who enables you to have your own custom domain or subdomain name. It will boost your SEO performance and raise your ranking on search engines.
- Check whether the web hosting is secure with an SSL certificate. Select the platform that provides advanced security features even on a free hosting plan.
- Make sure maintenance and updating content are simple enough that you can do it without having to spend hours on it.
- Browse through the collection of food truck website templates available. Inspect whether the platform supports all the features that you want to add to your website.
- When a potential customer passes by your truck on his way, he is more likely to check out your website immediately on his smartphone rather than waiting till he can get his hands on a desktop or a laptop. The platform must support seamless rendering on mobile screens.
Awesome food truck layout examples from Strikingly
Strikingly is home to some of the best food truck websites on the internet. To give you an example, let's take a look at the Incred-a-bowl website. It is the perfect site for getting your food truck design inspiration. It encompasses all the necessary components such as attractive images, tempting menu, founder’s story, social media integration, and a contact form. The theme of the website is vibrant and inviting. Anyone who visits this website will not be able to resist visiting the food truck.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Strikingly offers all the essentials for building your food truck design online totally free of cost. Browse through the multitude of food templates available on Strikingly, and launch your food truck website today!
