A few years ago phone manufacturers introduced a “food mode” function to their cameras. The fact that this came before the recently released “portrait mode”, designed for taking fantastic photos of people, shows us how much photos of food influence people’s dining decisions. But the use of the photos to market restaurants extends much further than just photos of food.
The Influence of Instagram
Instagram, the photo-centric social media platform, has steadily climbed to the top of the social media chart and has managed to hold that spot for quite a while. Its secret is no secret. Its secret is photos. This in itself is evidence that the image is a powerful influencer, so much so that many restaurants around the world cottoned onto this fact and started creating extremely photogenic dishes to attract customers, as well as utilizing certain design aspects of their locations to attract even more customers!
People Prefer Photos
Studies show that the optimum Facebook post is 80 characters long. That’s shorter than a tweet! This fortifies the fact that, in a world where we are constantly scrolling rather than reading, it is the visual, not the word which catches people’s attention. When potential guests are looking for somewhere to eat they’re first going to judge a restaurant on the images they find before they even read any menus, descriptions, or reviews.
Produce Professional Photos
Photos offer a way for a restaurant to present its location and its offerings in an appealing way to potential guests. Yes, they’re an influencer, and the average joe, out there posting photos of the food and design elements of a restaurant but it is often the restaurant’s own photos that people see and judge first. The fact that everyone else can pull out a camera and snap a picture should give restauranteurs and managers, even more, drive to provide high-quality images of both their food and their restaurant to the public in order to try and entice them through the door, rather than leaving it to the average photographer who takes a photo with their own opinion in mind.
Today, everyone has a camera in their pocket to capture whatever they wish, with many people snapping a photo and then immediately posting it. Images make up a huge percentage of marketing in today’s world, and the rapid rise of photo-centric apps like Instagram and Snapchat shows us that high-quality images are integral to the success of any business. Utilizing professional photography to market your business is one of the best things you can do to make your promotional material, website, and social media even more attractive to your customers.
