Go to Instagram right now. Search for any supplement brand. Scroll for 30 seconds.
White background product shot. Influencer holding a shaker. Generic gym footage with a logo slapped on it. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Every supplement brand's feed looks identical. And when everything looks the same, nothing cuts through. Your formulations might be cleaner and your sourcing more transparent. None of that matters if your content is indistinguishable from the brand next to you on the shelf.
Here are the four content mistakes supplement brands keep making, and what to do instead.
Mistake 1: Leading with Product Shots
The default move for every supplement brand is the same: photograph the tub, the pouch, or the bottle. Clean background. Maybe some powder scattered artistically around the base. Post it with a caption about macros and flavour profiles.
Nobody is stopping their scroll for a photo of a protein tub. Nobody. Your existing customers already know what the packaging looks like. And people who have never heard of you are not going to engage with a product shot from a brand they don't recognise.
Product shots are necessary for your website and e-commerce listings. They are not content. There is a difference. Content shows your product in context, in use, in someone's life. A product shot just shows a tub. If your feed is 80% tubs on white backgrounds, you are producing a catalogue, not building a brand.
Mistake 2: Relying Entirely on Influencer Partnerships
Influencer marketing works. That is not the issue. The issue is when it becomes your entire content strategy.
When you rely solely on influencers, you are renting someone else's audience instead of building your own. The moment that partnership ends, the content stops. The audience goes with them. You are back to square one, except now you have spent tens of thousands on content you do not own and cannot reuse.
The other issue is consistency. Every influencer has their own style, their own editing. Your brand ends up looking fragmented because you have no owned visual identity. Just like stock photos kill fitness brands, borrowed content kills supplement brands. Different problem, same result: no recognisable look.
Influencer partnerships should amplify your brand. They should not be the only thing holding it together.
Mistake 3: Ignoring Recipe and Kitchen Content
This is the biggest missed opportunity in supplement brand marketing. Recipe content consistently outperforms almost every other content type in the food and nutrition space. High save rates. High share rates. Genuine engagement from people who actually use the product.
Think about it from the consumer's perspective. They have bought your protein powder. They know it tastes good in a shaker with water. But what else can they do with it? Smoothie bowls. Protein pancakes. Overnight oats. Pre-workout bites. Post-workout shakes. The possibilities are enormous, and your audience is actively searching for this content.
Recipe content does three things simultaneously. It provides genuine value to existing customers, increasing loyalty and repeat purchases. It introduces your product to new audiences through a format people actually save and share. And it shows your product in real life, which is infinitely more compelling than another flat-lay of the packaging.
Yet most supplement brands produce almost none of it. The reason is usually practical: no access to a proper kitchen studio and no capability to create high-quality food content. We will come back to that.
Mistake 4: No Educational Content
The supplement industry has a trust problem. Consumers are more sceptical than ever about what they are putting into their bodies. They want to know what the ingredients do, when to take them, and why your formulation is different.
Most brands ignore this entirely. Their content is product promotion or influencer endorsements, with nothing in between. No ingredient breakdowns. No usage guides. No stacking recommendations. No science-backed content explaining why creatine monohydrate works or why their whey isolate source matters.
This is a massive gap. Educational content builds the authority and trust that makes every other piece of your marketing more effective. When a potential customer understands the "why" behind your product, the purchase decision becomes easy. When they do not, you are competing purely on price and packaging, which is a race to the bottom.
Key takeaway: Supplement brands that only produce product shots and influencer content are fighting for attention in the most crowded, least differentiated space possible. Recipe content, educational content, and behind-the-scenes storytelling are where the real engagement lives.
What Actually Works
The supplement brands winning in 2026 look like media brands that happen to sell supplements. Here is what they are prioritising.
Recipe and kitchen content
Showing the product in use across multiple recipes, meal prep routines, and pre/post-workout combinations. High-quality food photography and video shot in a proper kitchen environment. This content gets saved, shared, and revisited.
Behind-the-scenes storytelling
Where are your ingredients sourced? What does your manufacturing process look like? What quality control steps do you take? This content humanises your brand and builds trust. It separates you from the brands that have something to hide.
Educational deep dives
Ingredient spotlights. Timing guides. Stacking recommendations. Myth-busting content that positions your brand as an authority. This works particularly well in long-form formats like podcasts, YouTube, and blog content that also supports your SEO strategy.
Real customer content
Not just influencers. Real customers showing how they use your product in their actual routines. UGC-style content that feels authentic because it is authentic. Social proof that costs almost nothing and often converts better than polished influencer content.
Lifestyle photography
Your product in a gym bag. On a kitchen counter next to a blender and a chopping board. In someone's hand at 6am before a training session. Context tells a story that a white-background product shot never will.
The Kitchen Advantage
Most supplement brands know they should be producing recipe content. The problem is logistics. You need a proper kitchen set-up, good lighting, and someone who knows how to shoot food content that actually looks appetising.
FGA has two purpose-built kitchen studios designed specifically for food and recipe content production. That is not something most fitness marketing agencies can offer. In fact, most cannot offer any studio access at all.
Combined with a fully equipped gym studio for product-in-use photography and podcast studios for brand storytelling, we can produce the full range of content that supplement brands need to stand out. Not just product shots. A complete content ecosystem built around your brand, shot in professional environments, and delivered consistently.
If your supplement brand's content looks like everyone else's, it is because you are producing the same types of content in the same way. The brands that break through invest in recipe content, educational depth, and authentic storytelling, all produced to a standard that matches the product itself.
Want to see what a proper content strategy looks like for a supplement brand? Get in touch and we will show you exactly how we would approach it. Or take a look at our pricing to see how content production works within our retainer model.