So you've invested time, effort, resources, creativity and working with a great photographer or videographer into creating mouthwatering food content! All the good things. Right?

There’s just one hiccup though… it's not achieving the results you had hoped for. You might have wanted some more website traffic coming in, some more curiosity on a specific product… generate a slight increase in sales…

Wondering what's missing? 🤔

Hint: it’s not necessarily your content, rather what’s pushing it.

Let's uncover the real reasons your content might not be converting, and turn your food brand's visual strategy from bland to grand! Keep reading for 2 bonuses at the end!

1. Clear Objectives: Without a clear destination, you’re basically wandering around aimlessly. Setting specific objectives for your food content—whether it's boosting sales, increasing brand awareness, enticing new customers, growing on social media... will give your content direction and focus. This not only helps you feel more confident in knowing what you want, but also helps your photographer/videographer execute your vision better. When you know what you want, you help them know what you want.

2. Purposeful Marketing Strategy: Visual content without a well-aligned marketing strategy is like a delicious dish without the right presentation—it won't capture hearts (or stomachs). Pairing the right type of content to the right marketing need, as well as the goals and desired outcomes tailors your content to resonate with your viewers appropriately.

For example, you simply don’t share white e-commerce page product photos on your Instagram page. They just don’t give the right context to your customers. They want to really see how it fits in their daily lifestyle vs in front of white paper.

3. Audience Connection: When creating visuals, consider your viewers' tastes, preferences, and pain points. Create content that not only satisfies their hunger but also speaks to their likes, dislikes, how your product could benefit them.

For example, if your target audience is women over 40 and your supplements help a specific need for that age, you won’t be creating videos that have content that doesn’t relate to their age group.

4. Optimize for SEO: Don't let your content get lost in the digital pantry! Optimizing your visuals with relevant keywords, tags, and descriptions help you rise to the top of search results and attract more eyes. Even if you don’t work with a SEO specialist, these are the little things you can do yourself that help.

5. Engage and Interact: Especially on social media or via emails, engaging with your customers’ and potential customers’ comments, responding to their questions, and taking some time to interact with them makes them feel valued, that you care about them and their well being. A pinch of interaction goes a long way in building customer loyalty.

6. Measure and Refine: Analyzing the performance of your food content helps you understand what kind of content works best.
For example, tracking metrics like engagement, website traffic, and conversions can help you refine your content strategy, hone in on content that’s already working well, or experiment with different type of content for a tastier outcome! It’s all about testing and experimenting to see what works best.

7. Leveraging Influencer Content & Trends properly: Working with the right influencers and including the right marketing strategy along with it can help expand your reach, build more credibility and captivate a broader audience. A lot of businesses don’t leverage influencer content as well as they could be. Working long term with influencers can also drive in that trust around your products as well as brand consistency since they get more familiar with your brand & type of content you expect. As for trends, choosing relevant trends to your brand vs hopping on every single trend can definitely work in your favour.

8. Branding for Consistency: A unified brand identity fosters trust and recognition. Consistent branding across all your visuals— colours, fonts, content and messaging gives your customers a seamless impression that you have your sh!t together and look credible enough.

Bonus1:

9. Think of a healthy budget to invest in content creation in order to grow - doing some research or knowing that in order to get great content that helps you move the needle, you’re going to have to invest is important. Whether you work with an agency, media company, small business, freelancer or influencer, you have to pay to play and if you want quality work, it’s going to be an investment.

10. Having somewhat realistic expectations - while we all have goals we want to achieve, it’s great to keep in mind that sometimes it takes time to get to a goal. It could look like milestones to get there, a combination of things, or even pairing the right strategies with your content and taking it one step at a time to get to where you want - it all depends on your unique needs.

By blending these key ingredients into your food content strategy, you'll elevate your brand's visual storytelling and win the hearts—and appetites—of your customers. So, next time you whip up new food content, remember to pair it with the right marketing strategy(ies) and unleash the true potential of your products/services!

PS - do consult with your marketing/social or digital marketing team on planning & strategies. Also share this information with your photographer/videographer to offer you the right solutions and ideas.

Bonus 2:

Still here? Great! You can grab this CHECKLIST to keep you on track next time you’re looking to create content that converts!

Hungry for delectable visuals that elevate your brand's essence & helps you grow? Connect with us at The Writer Eats today, and let's craft a strategic & mouthwatering visual experience that leaves your audience craving for more!