What's Actually Working for Food Creators Right Now with Ben Jabbawy from GRO

Increasing your traffic, growing your email list, and diversifying your revenue with Ben Jabbawy from GRO. ----- Welcome to episode 573 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, to kick-off a new mini-series, Bjork is interviewing Ben Jabbawy from GRO (formerly known as Grocers List). What's Actually Working for Food Creators Right Now If you've been looking for a smarter way to turn your social media followers into website visitors, email subscribers, and paying members — this episode is for you. Ben Jabbawy and his team at GRO have sent over 100 million DMs across Instagram and Facebook on behalf of their food creator customers. That kind of scale gives Ben a uniquely data-driven lens into what's actually working for food creators right now — and in this episode, he shares it with us! Bjork and Ben chat about recent changes in the social media landscape, dig into the strategies of successful food creators, and discuss why Facebook is suddenly driving a major surge in traffic for food bloggers. They also get into the email side of things and how GRO's new membership program lets food bloggers offer an ad-free experience or exclusive recipes directly on their site — no coding required. Three episode takeaways: What's actually working on Instagram and Facebook right now — Ben and Bjork dive into why carousel posts are performing so well for creators right now, including how to capture an audience with carousel posts and how to reuse your evergreen content for carousel posts. They also chat about Facebook strategy and explain where to include recipe links in your posts to get the biggest reach and the most click-throughs. How to grow your email list using the content you're already creating — Ben walks through two high-converting email list growth strategies that food bloggers can implement right now: a simple "email to save recipe" prompt and a comment-for-DM lead magnet approach that delivers real value to your audience while building your list. He and Bjork talk about why building your email list through social media is one of the most important things you can do to protect your business from algorithm changes, and how GRO's improved functionality makes this easier than ever. How to launch a membership program directly on your food blog — GRO's new membership feature lets food bloggers offer an ad-free experience or exclusive recipes to paying members — integrated directly into their site. Ben shares the key ingredients for building a meaningful revenue stream out of memberships, including the price points he recommends, what actually drives sign-ups, and how to think about what recipes to put behind a paywall. Resources: GRO.co Pinch of Yum Pinch of Yum Trader Joe's Meal Plans Inside Crowded Kitchen's Strategy for Growing to 2.4 Million Followers on Facebook How Food Dolls Turned Facebook Into Their Top Traffic Source Sally's Baking Joy to the Food Stay Snatched Mediavine Raptive Kit — affiliate link! How Pinch of Yum Uses Instagram to Grow Their Email List Substack Food Empires Follow GRO on Instagram Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group Thank you to our sponsors! This episode is sponsored by GRO. Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to [email protected]. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.