How many times have you thought about starting a food blog for your restaurant? Time is a treasured commodity in the culinary world, but if you put in the effort to get your blog off the ground, you will bear many fruits for your business.

A food blog is no longer just a nice-to-have – it can become a powerful marketing tool for your brand. We’ve compiled a few valuable tips to help you start a successful food blog in 2021.

Find your niche  

Don’t muddle your content by covering too many culinary topics. You need to narrow it down to something specific to set yourself apart. It’s tempting to opt for a trendy subject, but when you stick to what you’re passionate about you’re more likely to create content that connects with your audience. It’s about how you write and position your food blog and not focusing on what you think will get the most hits. Trends fade but investing your energy in something you believe in won’t.

Pick a name  

Now that you’ve found your niche, you need a name. Something catchy that easily rolls off the tongue is easily remembered and makes for a shareable hashtag. It could be related to your establishment so people can make the connection or it can be something completely different. Remember that a food blog is a supplement to your main restaurant business and not a direct marketing channel.

Find a good hosting service  

You need a reliable domain for your blog to live on and to easily add content. Opt for unmanaged hosting if you’re a technological wizard or have a developer on hand. If you’re less familiar with operating back-end systems, a managed hosting platform is best.

A managed hosting provider handles all the technical aspects which leaves you free to focus on creating content. Many South African hosting companies offer affordable managed WordPress packages like domains.co.za, HOSTAFRICA and Smartweb. A WordPress website offers thousands of themes – free or paid for. When choosing a theme, ensure you choose a design that reflects your brand, is responsive to different screen sizes and easy to navigate.  

Have content ready

Much like opening a new restaurant, getting your food blog live is the hardest part. Once you have all the technical aspects covered, it does become easier to maintain momentum with a well-planned content calendar. Create a few posts before you go live with your blog and ensure you have social media content ready to promote each blog (more about this later). Gather content ideas by researching as many other food blogs as possible that are related to your niche audience. Use them as inspiration for your tone, layout and future content ideas.

Use quality images

We all know that you eat with your eyes first. Technology has come a long way and you no longer need an expensive professional camera to take quality photos. A decent mobile camera and photo editing software will deliver good results – upskill yourself and learn about the correct use of lighting, shading, angles and object placement. Many short online photography courses share industry secrets to create magazine-cover quality images.

Regularly share and engage

There’s no point in spending a great deal of effort on a blog that no one knows exists. Create Instagram and Facebook accounts for your blog and share links to your latest posts. We suggest opting for a business Instagram account as it provides valuable insights into content performance.

Research what hashtags suit your blog articles and have a decent search volume. Hashtagify is a useful tool to help guide your hashtag choices. Be sure to engage with your audience and share other posts that support your niche audience. Keep your blog active and post regularly – add reminders to your diary and schedule content in advance.

Need more helpful tips to boost your establishment’s presence? Download our guide to Secret Ingredients to a Successful Restaurant.

Author : Rudi Badenhorst

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