Why is Food Photography Important for Restaurant Owners?
Food photography is unlike any type of photography. It plays mind games with us. It causes us to have an appetite, it causes us to drool, and it causes us to crave.
And if restaurants use food photography correctly, it can present a ton of benefits to their establishments. It can increase sales, boost conversion rate, enhance customer satisfaction, and much, much more.
Therefore, if you’re on the edge of investing in food photography or not, this post will help. Below, we’ll go into all the reasons why it’s important for restaurant owners.
1. Increases Sales by 30%
Research by Menu Cover Depot, a business that develops restaurant menus, suggests that professional food photography can increase sales by up to 30%. This is, however, only for low-end restaurants.
That being said, if you operate a low-end restaurant, just having a single image (per page) on a menu can increase sales. Considering it’s something as simple as just adding a photograph of the food you create, this is huge.
2. Improves Conversion Rates by 25%
Nowadays, online ordering is a huge part of restaurants. Both low and high-end.
Though great, the competition on these apps is massive. Most of the time, you have hundreds, maybe even thousands, of local restaurants competing against each other.
Because of this, you need to do everything in your power to increase your conversion rate. And one way you’re able to do this is through high-quality food photography.
Smooth Commerce documents this perfectly. They discovered that photo-based menus have a 25% higher conversion rate than text-based menus.
This is all due to our minds. There have been countless studies explaining the impact images of foods have on our brains.
3. It’s Simple to Understand
Think about when you last ordered food online or in a restaurant. Ignore recommendations for a moment and just think about the menu. What made you buy?
Was it the copywriting? Unlikely. Was it how the menu was presented? Also unlikely. Was it the aroma of the restaurant? Possibly. Did you see somebody else’s dish and think, “I fancy that”? Also possibly.
Most of the time, however, it’s the photos. In fact, 82% of people buy a particular type of dish at a restaurant because of the images and the image only.
The reason for this is that it creates an image-body connection. They don’t just read the description and think, “This dish has XYZ. I’ll like that”. No, they see the image and think, “Wow, that looks tasty. I don’t care what’s in it, I want it”.
That’s the power of food photography. It takes the imagination away from the interaction. It shows the customer what they’ll get if they order it. And if done right, it should look mouthwatering.
4. Boosts Engagement on Social Media by 94%
The way people respond to social media posts has changed massively over the years.
Once upon a time, it was text-only. At the time, well-written text that meant something gained a lot of transaction.
However, nowadays, nobody has time to read anything online. They want pictures or videos, nothing else.
Because of this, visual content receives 94% more views than text-only content. This isn’t just for photos, however, this is for photos and video.
But again, it depends on what platform. With Instagram, photos do well. With TikTok, not so. With TikTok, it must be a short-form video.
Therefore, though food photos and videos are great, which you’ll use will depend on the platform.
5. Builds Trust and credibility
Alongside the above, posting images of your food on social media, having images on food order apps, and including your food on marketing materials will just make you appear 110% more professional.
There’s no question about it. If you have professional food photographs (the keyword here is “professional”), you’ll immediately be more trusted. It’s just human Instinct. People trust professionalism because that’s what we’re taught to do.
6. Enhances Google Search Rankings & SEO Efforts
Professional food photography doesn’t only benefit food ordering apps, restaurant conversions, etc. It also improves your visibility on search engines like Google.
This is through something SEOs call “Image SEO”. You know when you search for something on Google, and then you click “Image”. Yeah, that’s image SEO. There’s more to it, but that’s the basics.
Anyways, just over a third of all Google search queries return images. These images could be pictures of your food and, therefore, more traffic and customers. Not only this, but if you use images in your blog content for your restaurant, you can increase organic traffic by 106%.
7. Improves Customer Experience and Ordering Accuracy
Including the above, it’s also known to improve the customer experience by increasing order accuracy.
When food is described in text, not everybody understands it. Yet, despite this, customers will still have a picture of the food in their heads. And, well, if it doesn’t look like what they thought it would, it could dissatisfy them.
With food images, however, there’s no surprise. They know what they’re getting because they can physically see it in a photo. Thus improving ordering accuracy and satisfaction.
8. Sets Your Restaurant Apart from the Competition
Not all restaurants have good food photography. However, the ones that do seem to get remembered and recommended more.
Therefore, take advantage of it. Invest in good food photography. It’ll help you stand out from the competition and, hopefully, draw in a lot more customers.















Conclusion
As you can see, there are many reasons why you should invest in food photography.
Just to recap, it’s because:
- It can increase sales
- It can increase conversion rates
- It can improve the customer experience
The ROI on food photography is huge. With such benefits, it’ll quickly turn that “expense” into an actual investment that you’ll use time and time again.
If you’re based in Dubai and are looking for professional food photography, feel free to contact us. We’ve been serving the area for over 12 years, helping restaurants around the city create stunning photos of their food.
2 Comments
zoritoler imol
December 23, 2024You really make it appear so easy together with your presentation but I in finding this matter to be actually something that I feel I’d never understand. It kind of feels too complicated and very huge for me. I am having a look ahead in your subsequent publish, I?¦ll attempt to get the cling of it!
zoritoler imol
January 30, 2025I do agree with all the ideas you’ve presented in your post. They are really convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are too short for beginners. Could you please extend them a little from next time? Thanks for the post.