Derek Falk of Hawaiian Hot Dog Co writes,
Steve, could you tell us how to market our cart services for special events. I’d like to work more of these types of events.
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Hey Derek,
Before we get started I want to let you know that we were absolutely deluged with positive comments about your E-Z Built cart. Folks were raving about it! And for good reason. It’s one of the nicest I’ve seen.
Marketing your cart for private parties and special events is a bit different than marketing your daily location. The reason is that if someone is looking for a hot dog cart to cater a private event, they are going to go to Google. Every time.
Knowing this, the best way to market your cart services for special events is by having a website which contains pages that come up in Google when someone searches for the type of service that you offer. You need a page that tells folks you are available to do private parties, catering, store grand openings, liquidation sales, political meet and greets, auto dealer hot dog giveaways, etc.
For those who don’t have a website, we can build you one for free (we now have a sponsor so we don’t have to charge you anything). Your site will come pre-built with a page like I described above so you can market yourself for special events and private gigs. Shoot me an email if you want one (steve@hotdogprofits.com).
Now I’m going to show you how to optimize your free website for local visitors, meaning that you can do some things to your website so it starts showing up in the search results when local folks do a local search. For example “hot dog cart rental Galesburg, IL” . Suddenly your website will not only generates daily location sales, it also brings new customers in for your private party and special event services.
You have to think “local”. I’m going to show you how to get your free web site ranked in Google for “geo-targeted” search results (geo-targeting is just a fancy schmancy word for local).
There are two separate strategies for accomplishing this. We’re going to cover both “on-page” and “off-page” methods. On-page means doing things on (or to) your website. Off-page refers to things you can do on other websites, or even offline.
Let’s start with on-page local search engine optimization.
The first thing you should do is put your address and your phone number (with area code – remember, this all about local) at the bottom of each page on your website. This tells Google where you are. Google will take note of that and rank your site higher in the results when someone from your area performs a search using your keywords. By the way, if you are based out of your home and want to preserve your privacy just put your city, state, and zip code in.
We show you how to do all this in the video training that comes with your free website – it’s easy and you don’t need to know anything about computers.
Next write a new blog post that has your local info in the title along with your primary keyword of keyphrase. (Yes, we give you your own blog along with your free website.) You could create a post in your blog titled, “Hot Dog Cart for Birthday Parties In Muncie Indiana”. Then in that post write a paragraph or two about how you are available to do private parties, being sure to include the phrase “hot dog cart for birthday parties in Muncie Indiana” one or two more times in the article. Don’t overdo the keyword insertion or it will appear spammy and Google will dock you for it. Just write naturally and you’ll be fine.
Again, we show you how to do this in the training videos.
Next create separate posts with your local info in the title for each of your secondary keywords or phrases. For example, if you do private parties I’ll bet you do car lot promotions too. So make a blog post titled, “Auto Dealer Hot Dog Cart Promotions In Beautiful Muncie Indiana”. You want to be able to be found locally for all of the search terms your customers might possibly type into Google. Possible secondary key phrases might be hot dog cart catering, hot dog cart birthday party, hot dog cart bachelor party, etc. Each of these terms needs it’s own locally optimized blog post. When you sign up for your free website I’ll tell you what the number one key phrase is for local search. If I forget, just email me and remind me.
Class Assignment: Go ahead and get started on your on-page optimization. Don’t be surprised if you start ranking very high for local + keyphrase searches within just a few weeks. When you get your free website we’ll show you the off-page tactics, including what I believe to be the fastest route to page one Google results.
Again, if you want us to build you a free website that does everything you just read about and more, including the ability for your customers to subscribe to your website with their email so you can automatically notify them of where your food cart will be, what your specials are, and what contests you are running – any time you want to, shoot me an email. My address is: steve@HotDogProfits.com
-Steve
Thanks Steve! I’m going to start implementing your strategies immediately.
I just finished our website http://www.HawaiianHotDogCo.com and now it looks like I’m going to have to integrate a blog as well, which will be fun.
Do you recommend joining catering/ event websites such as thumbtack.com or gigsalad.com? I’m not sure if those are helpful.
Thanks again Steve for all that you do!
By the way, your Cash Tracker program… AWESOME!
Derek
Hawaiian Hot Dog Co.
Cool Derek. I’m glad you like our Hot Dog Cash Tracker bookkeeping software. Bookkeeping with the push of a button.
I haven’t had any experience with those event websites but it can’t hurt to try them out. I do all my marketing with my own websites. I’ve only used paid advertising one time with mediocre results.
Steve if all a person would do is Private Parties,would there still be a need to get a permit from the health dept.?
Yes. If you want to be legal. If you are new to this and want to get all the training you need all in one place go to http://HotDogProfitsPremium.com
I have used Thumbtack.com, and listed my business on Yelp & have recieved private parties from both. Good Luck to you!
Craigslist worked for me. Did a grad party 3 years ago now every spring the calls come in from those who have been to one of the parties. We do 6 to 8 a year now. I have a flyer hire a vender I pass out at every venue.
Love that word of mouth advertising! Great job Tommy!
Hey Steve I am brand new to hot dog vending–have a couple events lined up, but have not yet had my first event. When catering from the cart for private events, does one need to obtain a business license for each event or is catering handled differently? I have my health department permit. Here in Virginia, you need to obtain a business license for each location for regular vending, but I am not sure about private events.
I am truly enjoying your site. It is so informative and helpful. (I hope this isn’t a dumb question)
When acting as a caterer I believe you only need a business license in the city that your company is based in. Check to be sure.