It should probably go without saying that your restaurant’s online menu should include mouth-watering photos. Not every online menu is created equal. A text-only menu may have vivid descriptions. However, nothing beats high-quality images to showcase just how delicious your eatery’s menu options are. Simply put, photos are integral to an enticing online menu.
Photos evoke emotional responses.
Have you ever taken a look at a photo of a puppy and couldn’t help but smile? Of course! Photographs elicit emotional responses. But you don’t have to take our word for it. There is a scientific explanation. On Medium.com, Sonal Mishra explains that a hormone called ghrelin is released in our bodies whenever we receive a visual stimulus.
“Ghrelin is responsible for telling your brain how much food you want,” she explains, “Seeing a food photo causes it to quickly enter your bloodstream, which results in flared up appetite. If you’re not taking advantage of this little fact, you’re making a big mistake. Because some restaurants have been able to increase their ticket size by 30% and all they did was use food images along with textual descriptions in their menu.”
People buy what they can see.
The pandemic made it so that in-person shopping and in-person dining was prohibited for long durations of time. As a result, consumers flocked to the internet to make their purchases. Without the ability to try something on or to at least hold it in their hands, consumers were forced to make guesses as to the quality of the items they purchased. Photos help with that. It is very rare for a person to make an online purchase of an item if there is no photo to show what it looks like.
For restaurants, photos are practically mandatory. As Restolabs points out, “high order grossing restaurants, food joints or eateries are known to provide an appealing menu photo peppered with a great description of a food item listed. In addition, optimising images along with well-written content gives the website a bonus chance to be found via image search ensuring effective traction from visitors to the website.”
Photos will help your online menu outshine others.
If your competitors have online menus that are predominantly text-based, it’s imperative that you add vibrant and eye-catching photos to your own. No matter the industry, a major part of a business owner’s job is to outdo his or her competitors. As Mishra notes, if your competitors are still selling with text-based digital menus, you’re golden.
“Iowa State University found that 70% of the people respond to food images as if they have a plate of food right in front of them,” she reveals, “That means even if your competitors are selling the same thing you are, people will most likely buy from you after seeing pictures of your food items.”
Is your restaurant’s menu online?
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