How to Make a Food Truck Menu That Will Increase Your Sales Online

how to make a food truck menu

Creating a food truck menu can be a little different than a regular restaurant menu because of a food truck’s unique characteristics: a shorter menu and more mobility. So if you want to put your food truck menu online for pickup and delivery, but you don’t know where to start, keep reading. Below, we teach you how to make a food truck menu shine online.

Food Truck Menu Design: How to Make a Food Truck Menu

The way you structure and arrange your menu can go a long way in drawing people’s attention and motivating customers to order more. Here’s how to create a food truck menu that will help you sell more.

Add photos

Photos are one of the essential parts of any online menu. Humans process images 60,000 times faster than text. Moreover, 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual. Consequently, the first thing your customers will see when looking at your food truck menu is the photos.

Not to mention people want to see what they’re about to order since they’re only interacting with the restaurant virtually. That way, they’ll know what to expect. To that purpose, avoid using stock images and take your own photos to reflect reality better.

You might also like: Why Food Photography Is Important for Your Restaurant Website and Menu

Avoid using currency signs

When it comes to food truck menus and prices, it’s best to steer clear of currency signs. Menu design taps a lot into people’s psychology. Having currency signs displayed will make customers more aware of how much they’re spending. So unless it’s mandatory by law, only include the numbers.

Write enticing food descriptions

Food truck menu copy is another aspect you should dwell on to sell more. Descriptions that are longer and contain adjectives are preferable because they cater to people’s senses. Moreover, adding locations to your menu descriptions can help convey authenticity.

However, remember that everyone should be able to read and understand your menu. So don’t use overly complicated words that people have to google to know what they’re about to eat.

Read more: How to write "delicious" restaurant menu descriptions that sell more food

Highlight promotions

Any online menu can benefit from promotions and special discounts. However, if you want people to order more, don’t make them go looking for delivery and takeout promotions. Instead, make them visible as soon as they open your menu by placing them at the very top and using an attractive photo to seal the deal.

You might also be interested in: 15 Unique Restaurant Promotion Ideas that Will Increase Loyalty in 2021

Make the menu noticeable

Once you’ve learned how to make a food truck menu, you also need to think about where you’ll position it on your website. If your goal is to increase your online sales, make your food truck website all about that.

You might also like: How to Build a Restaurant Menu

Having a sales-optimized website is the best way to go when you want to sell your food online. Ensure the ordering button is the first thing people see when they land on your homepage. Additionally, make the entire ordering process as simplified as possible.

You might also like: How to Place the Order Online Button on Your Restaurant Website to Sell More

Food Truck Menu Ideas

Wondering how to build a food truck menu? These clever food truck ideas can help you expand your business and stand out from the crowd.

Create a food truck menu in just a few minutes Install an online ordering system and start taking orders Start now

Keep it short and simple

Usually, food truck menu items are limited. You don’t normally see food trucks that serve a large variety of foods. Instead of serving pizza, pasta, steak, and seafood and not meeting your customers’ expectations, it’s best to just focus on a few things you do well.

You can find some food truck food ideas here.

Find a unique angle

Even after you choose the type of food you want to serve, there will always be other food trucks that serve the same food. This means you have to find something else that differentiates you from your competition. Be it a unique weekly promotion for customers to look forward to or a special ingredient, consider having something that’s just yours.

Choose foods that cook quickly

Most people who order from food trucks expect their food to arrive quickly. This is why most food served at food trucks is fast food. You need to find dishes that you can cook quickly and that are easy to prepare since you also have limited space in a food truck kitchen.

Not to mention cleaning the surfaces in between wildly different ingredients is a challenge. For example, if you’re just serving beef burgers, you can prepare multiple on the same surface, which wouldn’t be true if you also served chicken, for instance .

Use the same ingredient for more dishes

Another tip that will simplify the cooking process is to focus on an ingredient and use it in multiple recipes. That is not to say you can’t vary your ingredients. In fact, using seasonal ingredients will make your dishes tastier and more affordable.

In winter, serve typically wintery sides like sweet potatoes or beverages like chocolate. In summer, salads and cocktails will be your friends.

Complement your food with some drinks

When people order from a food truck, they also want a beverage more often than not. So even if you can’t serve fancy cocktails as you would in a restaurant, you can serve bottled drinks. Offer both alcoholic and non-alcoholic options to cater to everyone’s tastes.

Online Food Truck Menu Template

Now that you’ve learned the basics of how to make a food truck menu, it’s time to take the next steps and actually create your own. Avoid any headaches by using our menu template, which you can customize according to your needs.

We know you want to keep your food truck costs low, so we are here to help you create an attractive menu with our free online ordering system. In just a few minutes, you can start accepting online orders by adding a See MENU & Order button to your website.

Follow these simple steps to increase your revenue with an intuitive online ordering system for your food truck:

  • Sign up for a free account and fill in your restaurant’s information;
  • Create an enticing menu: we’ll show you how below;
  • Publish the See MENU & Order button to your food truck website: if you don’t have one, you can request a sales-optimized website from our online ordering system’s admin;
  • Download the order-taking app for iOS or Android;
  • Start accepting online food truck orders!

Now let’s get to the fun and really easy part: creating a food truck menu. Go to admin -> Setup -> Menu setup & receive orders -> Menu setup.

food truck menu template free

Add the categories you serve out of your food truck such as burgers, pizza, etc. Then add the individual menu items and customize the image, description, and price.

Check out this video to learn how to customize your menu:

Make your food truck restaurant stand out from the competition by implementing Choices & Addons! Here are some ideas that will please customers and encourage them to return:

  • Different sizes of the same dish: a big pizza is good to share, but a small one is better for one person;
  • Customizable menu items with toppings: allow people to create the perfect dish by adding their favorite toppings. This is a great way to increase your profits as add-on ingredients have a high profit margin;
  • Cater to food preferences and allergies: you can attract new crowds by adding a vegan food truck menu, gluten-free dishes or raw menu items. Our system allows you to mark items as Hot, Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-free, Halal, Nut-free, Dairy-free, or Raw.

Read more: How to customize your restaurant’s menu

Watch this video to see how fast you can offer personalization options:

When you are cooking in a food truck, you don’t have much storage space and depend more on suppliers. What if they don’t have the ingredients you are looking for? You may be forced to change menu items or even the whole menu.

No problem, with our food truck online ordering system, you can just go to admin, make the required changes and your online menu will be automatically updated. You can even create a separate menu for every day of the week!

If you want to see how your food truck menu design will look like to clients, click here to access our preview website and play around with the demo ordering.

Create an unforgettable food truck menu in minutes Use our free online ordering system to stand out from your competition Get Started

Conclusion

An online food truck menu can bring you more clients and help increase your sales, but you must know how to do it right! Start by choosing a free and easy to use menu creator, and spice it up with great photos and descriptions. Don’t forget to utilize promotions to entice clients to choose your place.

Laura-Andreea Voicu

Laura is a content writer and marketing specialist with a knack for SEO. Her mission is to help restauranteurs make their business stand out and skyrocket sales by providing exceptional online marketing content.

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