Food Trucks have been popping up all across the country. Everything deliciously sinful is on a truck. From cake shakes and fried Oreos to ginger Brussels sprouts & Short Rib Sandwiches¬…

When food truck lineups started, even better, one opened up right in front of my Alma Mater, Johnson & Wales University. The BTTR (Biscayne Triangle Truck Round-up) Miami Food Truck Events, usually about 35 trucks, get together once a week.

My friends and I have been going practically every week, and the crowds keep getting bigger. At first, it was mostly college students, and then people from all around the city started showing up.

And that made me wonder. “How did all these people hear about this?”

I decided to investigate! I started watching the trucks, more important asking questions. I came up with some surprising answers. Here’s what they do great, and what they could do:

1. They create a stand out brand personality.
The truck owners put a lot of thought into coming up with a creative name, and overall theme. The decals and truck design can make or break them. Some keep it simple and focus on making good food; others go crazy with characters and graffiti-like design. Just like in any business, standing out from your competitors is key.

2. Most of them get the word out with Social Media.
Food Truck owners use Facebook and Twitter, since they move around a lot, so people can track them down. (A lot of my friends hear about Food Trucks on Twitter or Facebook, and read reviews on which ones are best.)

3. About 75% of Food Trucks I saw have QR codes.
While people stand in line they usually have their smart phones in their hand. Food Truck owners ask them to scan the QR code to follow them on Facebook and Twitter, so they get the latest updates.

4. Missed Opportunity?
I noticed that some trucks have 4” X 6” Flyers with QR Codes linked to Facebook, Twitter, their website and phone number. Why aren’t the owners asking people to sign up for an email list? Missed opportunity? Why not collect their information and send them updates once a week about upcoming events.

5. Reviews! Reviews! Reviews!
Like most people, I have favorite Food Trucks. I’m obsessed with this mouthwatering, scrumdiddlyumptious (no real word can describe how good it is) Short Rib Sandwich. I talk about it on Facebook and my friends have all tried it! A lot of people post reviews on Yelp or their own websites, so it’s a good idea to encourage customers to review your business. Some trucks have a decal asking customers to review them on Yelp.

Any standout Marketing Ideas you’ve seen? Please share your thoughts and comment below.

Guest Blog Post from
Rachel Rodriguez
LGMG Account Exec.

Elaine’s Restaurant in New York City is going to close on May 26 (NYP article). It’s been a famous celebrity haunt for ages even though its food was never anything to write home about, and there’s a book out now about it: Last Call at Elaine’s.

Elaine’s is famous for its owner Elaine Kaufman, and she passed away last December.

Her image was of a classic tough lady with a heart of gold. She was also smart and knew exactly how to treat her customers and she remembered small details about their lives. She helped struggling writers, joshed with superstars, and took no guff from anyone. She was even a recurring minor character in Stuart Woods’s Stone Barrington novels.

But when Elaine died, the restaurant started to die too.

I’m always talking about injecting personality into your marketing efforts, I even say that sometimes the company owner can be the spokesperson for the Brand. That doesn’t mean focus the company’s whole personality on one person. That can only work in the short term – as long as the key person is around.

Kentucky Fried Chicken does very well now but they had a tough time recovering when their ubiquitous spokesman, Colonel Harland D. Sanders, died in 1980. They eventually brought him back as a pure visual icon. Wendy’s built a great campaign around its founder, the likeable Dave Thomas, but they, too, have had problems finding a focus since Dave passed away in 2002.

(Col Harold Sanders on the left & Dave Thomas on right)

I don’t think a company’s personality should necessarily revolve around real people at all. Capital One was doing okay with its fake Vikings but then they switched to the very real Alec Baldwin and a lot of consumers have a lot of good reasons for not liking Alec Baldwin. Some companies, Hertz for instance, built their campaigns around the very likeable O.J. Simpson who turned out to be, to put it mildly, not a good spokesman.

Fake or long dead real personalities can be fine because they’re completely controllable: Aunt Jemima, L.L. Bean, Ethan Allen, Captain Morgan, etc.

Years ago we worked on Weight Watchers and showed cartoony characters, Brenda and Elaine, who were constantly working on losing weight. They yakked back and forth about exercising like moving their arms in an out against the smorgasbord table. The direct mail was getting a great response when the heads of the company decided that Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess would work better. She bulged up after slimming down, and there were only head shots for a while.

So, a company’s personality can have a spokesperson, but it also has to have a sustainable strategic focus that becomes more of an attitude than anything else. Steve Jobs was ill, and didn’t give his keynote in 2009, and yet the Apple culture, the wonderful products, the iPads we adore…all continue to prosper. Of course we’re always happy when Steve Jobs comes out to present something new too!

My topic for my three hour seminar: How to Build Relationships With Your Customer Using Your Brand …Virtually! While I was preparing my session, I was wondering: why would a customer want a relationship with their dry cleaner? It is about trust, and delivering great service, and caring.

But, then the night before I was flying out, I tried on my own suit. I couldn’t even squeeze into it. My dry cleaner had somehow shrunk it and I had just worn it to Toronto only two weeks ago. So, I either bulked up two sizes or it was ruined.

I mentioned this to Nora Nealis, the President of the NCA, and Ann Hargrove, who works with her (pictured above),  They said it was probably “wet cleaned”, and had shrunk (thank heavens it wasn’t that I’d bulked up 15  pounds), and she said to mail her the suit when I came back to Florida. I sent it out to her today.

They have a lab on West 29th Street, and they analyze these things, so they can send out information and help dry cleaners not to do this to their customers. I’m one of those  people who just  silently defects. So, I’m searching for a new cleaner.

The dry cleaners that attended this brainstorming event are always the best and the brightest. I told them how to give their websites and their businesses a “brand personality”, and invite people to interact with them online. They can build loyalty, by having some fun with their customers, and starting contests, selling ancillary products. Some had never discovered the magic of search engines, or even tried offering Pick Up and Delivery as an online option.

One website we created at Lois Geller Marketing Group is Apthorp Cleaners (http://www.apthorpcleaners.com), and the owner, Debra Kravet was there. The website features a lady in red walking her dog, and Debra Kravet has expanded that brand to appear as posters on her windows, and in direct mail invitations, and a host of other programs she’s working on now. Soon her New York City trucks will have her “lady in red” doing many pickups and deliveries… which is really a moving billboard for her business.

Please visit her website: www.apthorpcleaners.com

One gentleman there has a dry cleaners in Belize. It is the only one in that country, and he built it from scratch… never having been in the business. He showed us his commercials, and we were all impressed. Here’s someone who has used his great ingenuity to build something wonderful and employ many people. He does quality work too.

So, all in all…it is a joy to teach dry cleaners how websites, and blogs and social media can all help them build their community outreach, and relationships with their customers and prospects.

Here’s 40 ideas that work! How do we know? We’ve tested them many times and every one of these ideas will help you boost response.

1. Know who you are! A unique brand personality makes you stand out, makes people like you, makes them want to do business with you.

2. Include some kind of letter. Even a fake “on-page” letter in a self-mailer or catalog. Packages with letters outperform letter-less mail 99% of the time. Even a boring, self-serving letter can be better than no letter. A well-written, 1 to 1 letter with some personality in it is better than anything. Get a pro to help you. It’s important.

3. Letter layout is almost as important as copy. Make it look inviting, easy to read. Use short sentences, short paragraphs, indents, double space between paragraphs, cross-heads, Johnson boxes, and a signature that looks like a human being wrote it. Not something like this: Marilyn Monroe

4. Make the signature any color you want, as long as it’s blue. It makes the letter look like it was signed by a real human being.

5. A lot of people read the P.S. before they get into the letter. It’s a great place for your single best point.

6. Urge them to respond now! Do it several times. Give them a reason why “now” is important.

7. All that white space in your letter margins is costing money. Use some of it for handwritten margin notes to make compelling points stand out. Looks more human, too.

8. Don’t let headlines just sit there. Pump them up with action words, solid promises, real benefits. Make them tantalizing. Get people curious. Usually we’ll write 20 headlines for every one we actually use.

9. Your outer envelope has only one job: to get opened by someone in the mood for what you have to say inside. Want to try a blank OE so they might think it’s from a friend? Not a good idea, because as soon as they get inside and realize it’s advertising, they’ll think you tried to fool them. Try really outrageous things on your OE. Big, interesting graphics, intriguing headlines, genuine promises, all work.

10. Test different OE creative. It’s not expensive and you might find that one OE kicks the pants off the rest.

11. Put your return address on the back flap of the envelope.

12. Turn your OE into a kind of brochure.

13. Put your offer prominently on the outer envelope, especially if it’s short, and a great offer! This really works with “glamour” products like jewelry, clothing and furniture.

14. Try putting an involvement device of some kind on your OE.

15. They won’t give you as much response as a traditional package, but postcards are a quick and easy way to test the relative merits of new lists, offers, personality.

16. Keep tweaking until your offer is irresistible. Remember it’s got to be unique, something they can’t get any other way. It’s your whole proposition, the combination of price, premium, membership, privileges, terms, future benefits, etc.

17. Restate your offer several times in your package: on the OE, in your letter and brochure and certainly on your response form.

18. FREE is still the best offer! In direct mail. For some reason it doesn’t work on the Subject line in an email.

19. A lot of people spend more time poring over creative than they do investigating lists. Creative is important, sure, but lists are twice as important. Get more list brokers working on your business and make sure you test new lists all the time.

20. Your best list is your current customer file. Your second best list is probably past customers. They’re your greatest direct marketing assets. Use them! But make sure the files are clean and up-to-date.

If you have any direct marketing questions, email Loisgeller@loisgellermarketinggroup.com

Continued…

20. Your best list is your current customer file. Your second best list is probably past customers. They’re your greatest direct marketing assets. Use them! But make sure the files are clean and up-to-date.

21. Direct response lists are always your best bet for outside lists. Someone who’s bought something through the mail is more likely to buy from you … especially if they’re recent buyers.

22. Have you ever tried a compiled list? Of course. Have you ever tried slanting the creative to the compiled list? Probably not. Names on most compiled lists have one thing in common (lawyers, accountants, soccer Moms, etc.). Whatever that one thing is, try reflecting it in your creative.

23. Use a great list broker. Ask for references, and describe your goals, package and target market. These are bright, dedicated people who want to do a great job so you’ll use them again and again.

24. Try to make your direct mail look and sound like it was touched by a human being. Customers and prospects tend to respond better when they feel like they are interacting with a real person.

25. Make sure all of your communications have the same brand personality.

26. Put the offer on your OE- especially if it’s short and a GREAT offer!

27. Try putting a special coupon on your OE.

28. Add a lift note (a.k.a. publisher’s letter). It’s another voice that adds credibility and focuses on the offer.

29. Test a live stamp on your OE. This makes the envelope look like a human being has touched it.

30. Invest in design! If you need a brochure, it should look great! A well designed brochure is almost always worth the extra cost.

31. Try a brochure CD.

32. Narrow your focus. One offer is plenty for a brochure. Think about using a catalog for more than one product or service.

33. Show people in your brochures and catalogs. Show them using your product. Your customers will be able to see how the product or service works and/or its actual size. Besides, people look at people before anything else.

34. Don’t forget to have the basic four: product description, price, offer and a guarantee, in your direct mail package.

35. Testimonials work! They add credibility to your products. Real names, real people. Show their photos if you can.

36. Features, advantages, benefits, benefits, benefits.

37. Guarantee is key! Make sure you have a great one- and this helps build trust between your brand and your customers.

38. Always use serif fonts on printed materials (fonts with feet). They are the easiest fonts to read.

39. Avoid hard-to-read text. Customers can ignore vital information simply if they can’t read it. The easiest to read is black face on a white background.

40. Put your contact information on more than just the order form. Don’t lose a sale because your customer/prospect lost your number, address or URL.

If you have any direct marketing questions, email Loisgeller@loisgellermarketinggroup.com