Why your food brand needs a top notch website

Your own website is the ONLY channel where you have complete control of your brand’s presentation. 

On Amazon, you’re beholden to their layout, surrounded by ads for your competitors, and subjected to any and all review content showing prominently.

On store shelves you’re right next to your big corporate competitors. 

On social media, your content is surrounded, and often buried by content designed to grab attention, whether through fear-mongering or entertainment. 

But on your own website, you get to determine: 

• An immersive brand look and feel
• Every headline of text
• Every button 
• Every image
• How every page flows to the next

That might sound like a nice-to-have, but it’s actually a must-have, because when people hear about your company from a friend and google you, you want to show off your best side. 

And this isn’t just for attracting new customers. This is for potential retailers, and current customers (your most loyal evangelists) too. 

Not to mention, having your own website gives AI GPTs the chance to have more content to draw from so that when people totally unfamiliar with your brand do research on “high fiber protein bars” or “organic toddler pouches”, they’re more likely to see your brand pop up in the results.

Buying your domain and slapping up a few pages is leaving brand equity, and revenue, on the table

Keeping the bare minimum of a website live is better than nothing, but it’s not doing the heavy lifting that your site should be doing for your business. 

A homepage that shares your value at a glance

Your homepage isn’t just a placeholder. It’s the first impression you get to create for your brand. Make sure your hero section (the top section of that shows without users having to scroll) clearly communicates what you sell, and at least a hint of what makes you different. 

Detailed product pages that answer objections

It’s one thing to slap up basic product descriptions: a quick three line paragraph and a few bullet points. It’s another thing to create product detail pages that work as automated salespeople to convert customers for you. This kind of product page should include a full, detailed description of your product. 

Then you’ll want to ensure that you’re answering any questions or hesitations that may arise when a potential customer is considering your product including: 

• Full nutrition facts
• A full ingredient list, flagging allergen information
• Serving size and quantity/weight details
• Shipping information
• A satisfaction policy if you have one (and you should have one)

AI can be helpful in crafting product copy for you, but ideally, it’s written by a human who has actually tasted your product. The nuances of flavor and texture may be tricky for someone too close to the business, and impossible for someone (or something) that hasn’t ever tasted it.

Your brand story

A lot of brands make one of two big mistakes with their About page: either they ignore it, or they make it too self-indulgant. 

The About page is about your brand. You don’t need to pretend that it’s not. But at the same time, it should still be written to give potential customers the information they find most interesting, and reflect back to customers an image of themselves as readers that they’ll find flattering. 

When I say you should share your brand story, I don’t mean a “we were founded by Grandfather Perkins in 1906” kind of chronological tale. 

Just as much as any other page on your site, your About page should lead with the value you offer customers, be concise and skimmable, and tie closely to your target market’s interests.

FAQ

You might feel like you’ve answered all of the frequently asked questions on your other web pages. But here’s the thing: online shoppers do not read every word. Not even close. So having an FAQ page is an obvious place for people who are still wondering if your products are made in a nut-free facility, or what your shipping policy is, to find the information they need.

FAQ pages should be built with FAQ web schema, as should any Q&A section on your site. This helps search engines and AI bots to crawl your site more efficiently, and increases the chances that you’ll get mentions on Google, ChatGPT, etc. 

Contact Information

As simple and straightforward as this looks: give people a way to get in touch with their specific inquiries, whether they be retailers, members of the media, or potential customers. 

A smooth checkout process

These days, platforms like Shopify have made it easy for even the smallest brands to have an enterprise-level checkout experience, complete with secure payment processing. Your checkout process can be further optimized by adding suggested upsells and cross-sells, or, if your customers despise the last-ditch sales attempt, you can remove them. 

Editorial content

What’s the difference between canned fish from ALDI, and the cult-popularity of top dollar Fishwife canned fish? Branding. And one of the best ways to establish a true brand is with editorial content. In Fishwife’s case, this is a full library of recipes. 

A strong email opt-in

The primary focus of your website should be getting immediate conversions. But not everyone will buy the first time they land on your site. Don’t let those potential shoppers drift away: bring them into your brand’s ecosystem with a compelling email opt-in. You can also ask for a phone number for SMS marketing right away. Keep in mind that the more information you ask for, the fewer instant sign-ups you’ll get, so it’s a bit of a tradeoff. 

The beauty of a strongly written website is that it’s up 24/7, marketing for you, and it’s easy to update whenever you want to change a product name, add a new product, or test out a new value prop headline. 

If you don’t currently have a fully built-out website, I’d love to speak with you about creating one.