There are several kinds of online restaurant guides, but the ones you should be most concerned with are the ones you publish to market your restaurant. Some bloggers will post restaurant guides on their own sites, often travel blogs, while critics will post brief guides to the top restaurants in your area.
However, when it comes to attracting new patrons, a professionally developed online guide to your restaurant, complete with multiple images of your most delectable offerings and shot by a professional product photographer, will bring in the foot traffic faster than you can imagine! That’s only part of why you need a professionally produced online guide.
Presentation Is the Name of the Game
There isn’t a culinary institute anywhere on earth that will not explain that in fine dining, presentation is the name of the game. When it comes to food, the visual presentation is almost as important as those delightful aromas rising up off a plate or the amazing blend of flavours as they open the taste buds in your mouth. The operative word here is ‘almost’, but that is in a real-life situation.
Online viewers obviously can’t smell or taste anything, So, you use a highly skilled still life photographer and those stills will leave little to the imagination when it comes to flavour and aroma. You can find many still life photographers who have experience working with big food chains and a good portfolio to their name. One example can be seen through the London photographer Howlett Photography who has worked with M&S. You can browse the gallery of food & drink product photos on their website and get a better idea of what professional photos could do for your menus.
A good shot of your very best menu items can bring the crowds streaming in!
The Potential for Reposting
A well-constructed online guide to your restaurant has a high probability of being reposted on local and travel sites as well. Remember, those sites sell ads and the best way to engage visitors is to offer high-quality guides. You will find a huge number of high-quality restaurant guides being reposted on city guide sites because they want to attract visitors to their cities.
When it comes to reaching foodies, there is nothing quite like a restaurant guide that has photos of some award-winning dishes along with a bit of local culture thrown into the mix. Remember, your ‘regulars’ will be there anyway but if you are looking to grow your bottom line, you need to put your best (online) foot forward. Taking that metaphor one step further (no pun intended), wouldn’t you want that foot to be wearing visual Pradas?
Every Picture Tells a Story
In the end, every picture does tell a story. If you are advertising entrées made with organic, responsibly grown locally sourced produce, wouldn’t a photo or two of your source farms and then dishes with those ingredients tell the complete story? Or, to coin another old cliché, a picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to judging whether or not you want to sample the local fare, seeing is believing. That, unfortunately, is just one more cliché to add to the list, but it just proves the point! Visuals are the best friend of marketers and if you want to attract clientele to your establishment, let your pictures do the selling for you. It’s a win-win every time.
