According to a recent survey done by US Foods, 74% of Americans don’t feel like cooking and prefer to have food from restaurants. Since many Americans prefer dining out, it’s high time to take a big step to influence their decisions and capture the untapped potential customers. But how? We will reveal the secret soon. If you can create a user-friendly and aesthetic digital menu board, you can showcase your dishes effectively and give the visitors a more immersive dining experience. In this way, you can increase the likelihood of getting more repeat customers and winning their recommendations.
In this blog, you will learn how to create the perfect digital menu board. However, you should know what a digital menu board is and why you should embrace one.
What is a Digital Menu Board?
A Digital Menu Board is a display screen, which restaurants use to showcase their dishes in an enticing manner. Digital menu boards can be a part of a digital signage network or standalone displays. Moreover, you can also integrate them into your existing POS systems (POS is the abbreviation of Point-of-Sale. It involves hardware and software to help businesses manage multiple works like selling products, inventory management, etc.).
Earlier, foodies had to wait for a server to bring them the menu. However, the emergence of digital menu boards has eliminated this long waiting time in restaurants. Now, the foodies can visit and explore the menus just by looking at the high-definition displays in the restaurants. They don’t even have to swipe. They have to look for the food they want and give the order.
Are you ready to transform your restaurant experience? Not yet? Scroll down to learn how a digital menu board can benefit your food business.
Benefits of Creating a Digital Menu Board for Your Restaurant
- Improves Customer Experience: Interactive features like mobile integration or touch screen used for a menu board can scale up customer experience.
- Enhances Visual Appeal: Digital menu boards enable you to use high-quality videos and images. Looking at those visuals can increase your customer’s appetite, thus, ending up with more orders.
- Increases Efficiency: You can easily update your menu, its prices, and promotions in real time using digital menu boards and keep the menu accurate effortlessly.
- Saves Money: Setting up an online menu board may appear pricey in the beginning. However, it cuts down printing costs. You don’t have to invest in printing menus every time you make a change in it. Therefore, it’s a cost-saving option in the long run.
What do the stats show? Can you reap benefits from a digital menu board? Let’s see.
Stats show that 74% of customers prefer digital menu displays rather than static menus to place orders. Prime Burger is a fast food chain company located in Ridgefield and Norwalk CT. They specialize in making high-quality and freshly ground burger recipes. They have increased their sales by 50% just by replacing traditional menu boards with digital ones.
If you want to reach the height of success by including a menu board in your restaurant, learn how to create it perfectly.
How to Create a Digital Menu Board: Step-by-Step
Step 1: Determine the Purpose of Your Digital Menu Board
Decide what you want to achieve primarily with your restaurant’s digital board. For instance, you can highlight featured items and daily specials using the menu board. Or, easily update menu items and their prices to streamline operations. Knowing the goals of your digital menu board will help you choose the platform, design, and colors.
Step 2: Choose the Platform
Select a display screen like LCD or LED to fit the available space and budget. You can also choose a digital signage platform like Canva to manage the menu board easily. Your selected platform should have an intuitive user interface, template customization facility, and reliable technical support.
Step 3: Create Informative yet Engaging Content
Write concise descriptions. Use interactive elements and high-quality images for your food items. Highlight promotions and special deals including their nutritional information to attract attention. Include icons for dietary preferences.
Avoid burdening your customers with unnecessary jargon or information. Know your customers and prepare the content accordingly. Your digital menu board should inform the customers about your food items and what they should expect to get on the table after ordering.
Step 4: Design Different Elements
Incorporate different elements to engage foodies visiting your restaurant. For a captivating digital menu board design, use vibrant colors and easy-to-read fonts. Include QR codes for online ordering. Include eye-catching graphics to highlight your signature dishes. For example, you can use a bold banner to showcase your signature dish like ‘Chef’s Special Classic Cheese Burger’ with a brief description and tantalizing image.
Step 5: Organize
Organizing a restaurant menu board needs thoughtful content and layout consideration. Categorize the food items logically like appetizers, entrees, and desserts. It will help your customers navigate through the menu easily. Check the flow of information. Make sure the dietary information and the prices of the food items are quick to find.
Balance the layout visually to avoid overcrowding of images and other interactive elements. Your digital menu board should have ample white space to ensure easy scanning.
Step 6: Install
Choose a location from where your customers can easily see the restaurant’s TV screen. For example, you can install the board above the ordering counter or near the entrance. Consider the angle while mounting the display screen. Fix it at eye level for optimal viewing. Install the screen securely to prevent accidents. Connect the screen to your digital signage software and the internet to enable remote updates and content management of the displayed menu.
Step 7: Test and Optimize
After installation, test the digital menu board’s functionalities to optimize it. Test whether all content is visible and legible from different angles. Collect feedback from staff and customers to identify loopholes and resolve the issues. Consider the feedback while optimizing the layout, interactive elements, and content of the board. Moreover, update your menu regularly to keep it fresh and to engage customers.
More than 90% of buying decisions are influenced by visual factors. Therefore, follow all the above-discussed steps to create a stunning and professional digital menu board.
Let’s dive into some creative ideas.
Ideas for Restaurant Digital Menu Boards
- Scrolling Menu Boards: Does your restaurant have space limitations? Do you change your menu frequently? A scrolling menu board can be a great option. Scrolling digital menu boards for restaurants have display screens automatically scrolling through various sections of the menu. Therefore, you can consider it to encourage customers to explore your menu.
- Interactive Digital Menu Boards: Include interactive elements like QR codes to help customers scan with their smartphones to get more information about your food items. Interactive digital menu boards can give customers an immersive experience.
- Slideshow: A slideshow menu board is a digital display system showcasing your menu in a rotating slideshow format. Its easily modifiable and visually engaging platform will streamline your menu management while providing customers with enticing and accurate information.
Examples of Some Great Digital Menu Boards
1. Baja Bistro
Baja Bistro has been very creative in designing its digital menu boards. Their design is clean and has plenty of white space. Consequently, their customers can easily find the menu items they’re looking for.
2. American Burgers
The customers of American Burgers love the animations they have used to showcase their food items on the digital menu board. Moreover, they highlight their seasonal dishes on the display board to make them stand out.
3. McDonald’s
McDonald’s digital menu boards enable them to respond quickly to the customers’ demand changes. Their menu boards have contributed to a 20% increase in their sales. Their QSRs (Quick Service Restaurants) can adapt to the new menus as McDonald’s updates the board whenever they introduce a new item.
Having a digital menu board is undoubtedly beneficial for your restaurant but you must also digitize your restaurant menu to make it available to internet users anytime from anywhere. If you still do not have an online presence, it’s high time you consider having one.
WP Food Manager is here to help you in this regard. It is a WordPress restaurant menu plugin that allows you to create an outstanding restaurant menu online on your WordPress site. Besides this, you can also add online ordering, food delivery, restaurant management and more such facilities to your food website through its premium addons.
All our plugins are user-friendly and require no prior technical knowledge. Visit here to explore our plugins.
Wrapping Up
Careful planning, attention to detail, and creativity are the key elements to designing the perfect digital menu board. The seven steps discussed above and the ideas will help you create easy-to-use, informative, and a visually appealing menu board. Consider your target audience and brand identity while designing. With a well-designed menu board, you can easily present your cuisines, special dishes, promotions to drive sales and provide your patrons with an enjoyable dining experience.
Digital Menu Design
Create an Eye-Catching Digital Menu for Your Restaurant in 7 Easy Steps
Transform your restaurant’s menu into a visually stunning digital display. Follow these simple steps to craft the perfect menu board that grabs attention.
Frequently Asked Questions
The common size for digital menu boards for restaurants is 40 inches. If you have prominent locations for the menu board within your restaurant or plan to mount it on the wall, you can choose a 55 inches screen.
Yes, you can use a commercial-grade TV for your digital menu board. Equip the TV with a digital signage software or with media players. Consider the resolution while using a TV screen to display your menu.
LED is the best screen for digital menus. LEDs generate less heat and consume less power, which make them a viable option for long-term operations in restaurants.
