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This is not a list about improving SEO, sharing on social, or taking lush food pics. We know that you know that stuff already. This is a list of fun, creative, actionable ideas that you can use to make your food blog more engaging for readers. Bon appetit!
Celebrate a popular cultural event
Whether it’s the season premiere of Broad City or the the opening ceremony of the Tour de France, certain events garner excitement. Food bloggers can take advantage of these events by creating menus to accompany them. The Inn at the Crossroads has based their entire food blog on this idea, sharing recipes from fan favorite Game of Thrones.
Offer your own take on an internet challenge
Think homemade, naturally-flavored Icees for the Ice Bucket Challenge or a cooling mango lassi recipe to douse your readers’ pain after the Hot Pepper Challenge. Your readers may be too classy to get caught up in the wild internet challenges rolling off the pop culture assembly line, but they’ll certainly have heard of them. Why not ride the viral wave by naming a recipe after the challenge that inspired you?
Focus on a niche
We can’t stress this enough. Finding (or establishing — even better) and owning a niche is the easiest, fastest way to successfully reach your food blog’s target audience. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, a narrower focus will win readers who’ve been waiting for someone to cater to their unique interest, and they’ll reward you with loyalty and free publicity as they share their new favorite food blog.
Create surprising visual content
You already know the importance of beautiful, carefully styled food photography in promoting your food blog, but don’t forget the value of novelty when it comes to winning the hearts and minds of readers. When you’re looking at one beautiful, carefully styled food photo after another, eventually they’ll all start to look alike. Find a way to differentiate your photos so that they surprise and delight prospective readers when you share recipes on social media. There have been a couple of original takes on the Tasty-style short food videos that you can’t help but take a second look at.
https://www.facebook.com/gotgarnish/videos/1893182260896815/
Produce quick video recipe teasers
Combine the power of your iPhone to create short video introductions to your featured recipes. Keep it short — nothing over ten seconds. Use the clip to tantalize your social media audience and lure them back to the recipe on your food blog. A cinemagraph can work well in this capacity, too.
Throw down the gauntlet
Encourage your readers to challenge you Iron Chef-style to create a recipe with unusual ingredients. Have them tag your food blog on your favorite social media platform with a photo of themselves holding the item with a custom hashtag. Not only will this give you new ideas for recipes and blog topics, it’ll put your blog in front of more social media users as challengers promote your food blog for free!
Feast on failure
Host a contest asking readers to share photos of your recipes gone wrong. Give prizes to the funniest fails. It’ll give you an opportunity to celebrate your readers’ valiant efforts, give a pep talk to new cooks about the unavoidable nature of failure in the kitchen, and give you an idea of where you may need to up your explanation game.
Share a blooper reel
Speaking of failure, why not lead your epic fail contest with a blooper reel of your own kitchen disasters? That’s right. Go ahead and start recording more of your recipe tests and get the proof out there that even food bloggers mess up. It’ll be an encouragement to your readers.
Class up mealtime ambiance with Spotify
Add a little extra pizazz to your food blog by creating playlists to accompany your favorite meals. It’s a fun, easy way to make your blog more interactive, but if done well, it could also bring traffic from Spotify to your site. After all, if someone’s looking for a playlist for a romantic meal, it stands to reason that they may also be looking for recipes for a romantic meal.
Get tipsy with it
We know that you know podcasts are an excellent way to promote your food blog, but coming up with ideas as to what to include can be a challenge. Why not create a podcast with a local wine expert to suggest pairings for your menus? A short five-minute podcast could give your audience a little extra confidence when rounding out a dinner party using your recipes, and you get to drink wine.
Have we missed anything? What are some of your favorite creative promotional ideas?
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