Digital menu boards are limitless in terms of what you can do with them. Not only does digital signal allow for advanced marketing strategies, but it gives your customers a chance to engage more with your eatery, restaurant or cafe and make greater purchases. For those businesses that to upgrade their sales and customer satisfaction, digital menu boards are a welcome addition to your restaurant.
But how do you employ digital menu boards to get the maximum benefit? We’ve compiled a list of ways to use digital signage to your advantage and take your restaurant to greater heights.
How Digital Menu Boards Work
Digital menu boards are comprised of screens, such as TVs or computer monitors (though some places use handheld tablets), an internet connection, digital menu software, hardware, and unique graphics to create a consistent experience. Although digital menu boards are becoming more and more commonplace in the restaurant and hospitality business, many of those locations are not utilizing their digital signage correctly.
Digital menu boards are meant to do more than become a hi-tech menu. Since they are a piece of signage, they can show different menus throughout the day; announce specials or happy; show contact information of partners; keep customers entertained why they wait in line; and so much more.
Pros & Cons of Digital Menu Boards
Digital menu boards have dozens of positives that make them a worthwhile investment. While there are some downsides that we will be explaining, those negatives are nothing compared to the benefits if you use your digital signage correctly.
Pros of Digital Menu Boards
- Increases Sales – Digital menu boards can drive sales thanks to their ability to advertise more than just the menu. You can include animations, photos, drop-in menus, and other content that will keep the customers engaged beyond placing an order. In fact, digital signage, including menu boards, are known to cut down perceived wait time—so your customers stay happier, even if in longer lines!
- Upsell – Even without meeting the wait staff, your customers can see every combination or set deal on the menu and be convinced to buy the more expensive item. Digital signage also always for your to market those more premium choices without becoming invasive.
- Go Green – Digital menu boards are eco-friendly, because they use zero paper, run on LED lights, are require minimal electricity to keep running.
- Exposure – Customers look to digital signage for answers, whether they are visiting a restaurant, airport, or department store. This gives you and other partners a chance to increase your expose by advertising.
- Convenience – With digital menu boards, you don’t have to worry about printing, changing letters, and updating the prices every single day. That gives you more time to serve customers.
- Information – It’s been easier than now to display the information that customers want. Instead of needing to reprint menus or have separate pamphlets pertaining to nutritional and allergen info, you can have that available at the touch of a button.
Cons of Digital Menu Boards
- Upfront Cost – Yes, there is the upfront cost of buying the monitors, media player, acquiring the hardware and software, and installing internet to operate the digital menu boards. You might also want to hire someone for professional graphics and photographs. This all adds up to a sizable investment.
- Power Outages – Whenever there is a power outage or internet connection issue, your menus are going to be offline as well. You can either keep printed menus on standby for this emergency or utilize a mobile hotspot.
How To Effectively Use Digital Menu Boards
Now that you have seen some ways in which digital menu boards can benefit your restaurant, let’s talk about how to make this signage work for you.
Realistic Items
If you want to drive profits through upselling, you need to prove to the customer before they order that the more expensive items are worth their time and money. Digital menu boards give you the chance to provide accurate presentations of the food on the menu. Make use of demo videos, graphics, animations, and GIFs to entice them to buy. There are also hundreds of digital menu board templates to give your menu the ideal theme for your eatery while displaying honest images of what customers can expect to receive.
In short, take professional pictures of your food, drinks, and interior to proudly display.
Memorable Experiences
As mentioned previously, digital menu boards can keep your patrons entertained by cutting down on perceived wait time. Even if they are just hanging around at the bar or sitting at their table, a digital menu board that is within view can deliver useful information. Bring the menu to life with short videos, educational clips, social media updates, current news, time and temperature.
One reason this works is because the human eye is drawn to motion. By having tasteful and appropriately timed videos and other media on display, you can heighten the dining experience and keep people coming back for more.
Brand Consistency
While people don’t say it often, they love consistency. There is always the chance that employees will forget to update print menus or the static menu board might have a misspelling. These little mistakes might not seem like much, but to the customer, it causes unwanted confusion. Digital menu boards can be changed in the blink of an eye, helping you increase consistency throughout the day—even if you have multiple locations.
This helps with brand recognition, too, since people will affiliate that consistency with quality and will choose your restaurant over others for that reason.
Conclusion
Digital menu boards are a genuinely profitable investment. Not only do they replace less environmentally-friendly alternatives, they can create a more consistent experience for the customer and staff. By using digital menu boards to their full potential, you will see an increase in profits and ratings in no time.
Are you ready to install digital menu boards in your restaurant? Want more information about how to begin? There’s no better time than now to fill out that contact form and learn more about getting your own digital menu boards.