NearbyNotify Create your account

“When will you be back?”

If your truck moves around, you’ve heard that question. Your customers want to buy from you again, but they don’t always see your posts or know when you’re coming their way.

With Nearby Notify, customers sign up at your truck or online to hear when you’re nearby. Once you’re set up, you add a stop to your calendar and it automatically emails or texts the customers near that stop with where you’ll be and when.

Don’t have a customer list yet? We’ll help you build one.

I’m Matt, and we’ve done this for years on our food truck, Mac Envy. Customers love it, and it’s helped us sell more. We built Nearby Notify because we believe other trucks need this too. That’s why we’re giving you six months free to try it and see for yourself.

Six months free emailing, then $29/month; texting is extra.

Why six months? Nearby Notify is brand new, and I want real trucks using it. All I ask is honest feedback, if you’ve got any.

Free for six months from the day you add a card. Cancel from Billing any time.

Your customers would come back. They just don’t know you’re close.

Someone who bought from you last spring might live fifteen minutes from your next stop. But they’re not checking your page every morning, and they may never see your post.

Example

Say you’re in Springfield on Friday.

  • 2,000customers on your list
  • 150in the area you set around Springfield
  • 150get notified

The other 1,850 hear from you when you’re nearby. You choose the area around each stop.

See what your customers get.

An email a day or two ahead. An optional text that morning. Your stop’s date, hours, address and order link fill in automatically; you choose the timing in setup.

Example email, a day or two ahead

Example text, the morning of Texting add-on

They sign up for it themselves.

They’re standing in your line with nothing to do. They scan the card, enter their name, email and ZIP code, and tick a box if they want texts. They can unsubscribe any time.

Every account includes:

On my truck, about 1,200 people signed up in the first year with a card taped where the line forms. Every stop is another chance to grow your list.

What you actually do

Before you start: you’ll need a calendar on your phone or computer (Google Calendar is free; we’ll show you where to find its link) and a card to start your six free months.

Once: set up your signup form, calendar, nearby areas and messages.

Every stop: add it to your calendar. Nearby Notify picks the customers in that area and sends their messages.

Change a stop and pending messages update. Cancel it and messages that haven’t sent are pulled from the schedule.

See the setup stepsHide the setup steps
1

Put the signup card up

Print the sign or share your signup link. Already have a customer list? Bring it over.

2

Connect your calendar

Apple, Google or Outlook. We’ll show you where to find the private calendar link. We only read it; we never change it.

3

Choose each location’s nearby area

Pick a distance, or choose towns and ZIP codes. A new location needs its area set before notifications can go out.

4

Pick your messages and timing

Choose the email and optional text your stops will reuse. Update them whenever you need to.

Create your account

Six months free. Email plan $29/month afterward.

I run a truck. I built this for mine.

I’ve run Mac Envy in Colorado for about six years. I’ve boosted Facebook posts the whole time. They work, and they cost me about $450 a week.

I built Nearby Notify so people who’ve already bought from me hear when I’m coming back to their town. It runs off the calendar I already keep, because nobody’s writing an email at 5am.

Built by a food truck owner, for food truck owners.

Matt, Mac Envy Food Truck on Facebook · mac-envy.com

Email me: support@nearby-notify.com

One plan. Add texting when you want it.

Unlimited customers. Your price doesn’t go up because your list grows.

Nearby Notify

Email plan

$29/month

or $299/year, saves $49

  • 5,000 emails a month
  • Unlimited customers and locations
  • Automatic stop notifications
  • Reports on each announcement

Extra emails: $10 per 5,000.

Texting add-ons

Lite

+$19/month

500 credits a month. $48/month with the email plan.

Plus

+$29/month

1,000 credits a month. $58/month with the email plan.

Customer replies come back to you in the app. Add or drop texting any month.

A short, one-credit text to 150 customers uses 150 credits. Longer messages can use more. Extra credits cost 3¢ each.

Texting isn’t part of the free months. It’s billed monthly from the day you add it, plus a one-time $39 registration. We handle your texting number and the registration.

Totals shown use monthly billing, before extra usage and taxes.

We only read your calendar. Your customer list is yours: export it any time, even after you cancel.

Questions

How is this different from Mailchimp or Constant Contact?

Those give you tools to write an email and pick who gets it. Nearby Notify works off your calendar: you add a stop, it picks the customers near that stop and sends the email and the optional text on schedule. You don’t build a campaign for each stop.

No customer list yet. Can I still use this?

Yes. That’s the normal starting point. Every account includes a printable sign with your QR code, a signup page with a link you can share, and a form for your website. People scan the sign while they’re waiting for their food.

How does it decide who’s nearby?

You set a nearby area for each location once. The quickest way is a distance: pick how many miles around the stop. That’s straight-line distance from the stop to each customer’s ZIP code, not drive time, and a ZIP code the circle reaches into is included in full. Or pick towns and ZIP codes by hand, which matches real driving better when a river or a highway is in the way. Customers are placed by the ZIP code they gave when they signed up.

What do I do for each stop?

Add it to your calendar. Nearby Notify picks the customers in that stop’s area and schedules the email and the optional text. Change the stop and its pending messages update. Cancel it and the messages that haven’t gone out are pulled from the schedule. If the announcement already went out, the people who got it get a short update, as long as the stop hasn’t ended yet. That’s on by default and you can turn it off in Settings. A new location needs its nearby area set before anything goes out.

Can I bring over my existing customer list?

Yes. Export a CSV from whatever you use now and import it. Constant Contact and Mailchimp exports work as they are.

Is texting included?

Texting is an optional add-on, priced above, and you can add or drop it any month. We set up your business texting number and handle the carrier registration. The first time you add texting there’s a one-time $39 registration charge. Texting isn’t part of the free months: it’s billed monthly from the day you add it.

Short texts usually use one credit per customer. Longer messages or certain characters can use more. The app shows the credit count before sending.

Do I need a website?

No. Your signup page is hosted for you at its own address and the QR code points to it. If you have a website, you can put the same form on it.

What about winter?

On the monthly plan you can pause for $4.95 a month instead of cancelling. Your signup page and QR code keep collecting names while you’re paused. Texting is dropped while paused. Yearly plans can’t be paused from the app.

What happens to my list if I cancel?

Nothing happens to it. Cancelling, pausing or a failed card stops you sending. You can still sign in, see your customers, search them and export them.

What each way of telling customers where you’re parked actually costs →

You add the stop. They find out.

Start with six free months of the email plan.

Create your account