How Do Digital Menu Boards Work? Everything You Need to Know (Cost, Design & Benefits)

What is a digital menu board?

A digital menu board is a display system that comprises hardware and software to display dynamic menus on screens. In addition to menus, the screens can also display specials and promotions, live TV, customer reviews, and more.

Are digital menu boards effective? The benefits of digital menu boards

Digital menu boards are highly effective. 74% of restaurant customers say an effective menu display is their top priority. With digital signage, you can instantly update, change, or schedule your menus. This also can help highlight specials as well as reduce costs for replacing your menu displays.

The benefits of digital menu boards are:

• Digital menu boards create a 31.8% increase in sales.

• Easily changeable and can typically feature menu regulations (including ingredients). Since most customers today are conscious of these

  regulations

  , you can, therefore, expect such information will become more prevalent in the future.

• Helps you start and end your marketing campaigns on time. As well, you can save on time and staffing costs because this solution enables you to access these features remotely. Equally, it also allows your on-site staff to concentrate on core duties.

• Since digital menu boards are both attractive and dynamic, they support the positive association with your brand.

• This platform affords your restaurant effective up-selling (of new add-on side items or desserts). This effect is due to the ease with which it attracts attention to promotional content.

• The scalability of digital menu boards simplifies logistics, allowing restaurateurs to centralize management. This also enables you to coordinate updates through cloud-based online dashboards.

• Digital menu boards afford decision-makers substantial flexibility with their local promotional content.

• Also, the solution enables restaurants to remain compliant with FDA menu requirements.

Simply put, restaurant digital signage avails a cost-efficient solution that enables restaurants to keep their menu pricing, promotions, and content up-to-date and consistent.

Indoor vs. Outdoor Menu Boards

Digital menu boards can be installed inside of a restaurant or outdoors for drive-throughs. While the content displayed is the same, the considerations of an outdoor menu board are different from those of an indoor one.

Considerations for Outdoor Menu Boards

Outdoor digital signage, especially for restaurants & eateries, has unique features and implementation demands that often result in hefty prices.

• Weatherproofing to shield the hardware from adverse environmental elements

• High-brightness screen provisions to cater to the visibility of content in sunlit conditions

• Securing the screens against vandalism or display damage

For the above reasons, the traditional indoor digital signage design is significantly different from an outdoor sign.

How do digital menu boards work & what are the components?

Essentially, digital menu boards work like most other digital signage projects. This solution combines the software (content management system), the hardware (digital signage player/display), & the content. This will mostly contain your menus but you can also put your branding or daily specials.

Before you launch your digital signage project, you’ll need the following:

1. Hardware

Digital displays—these consist of a screen with an HDMI port. Commercial-grade displays are ideal options due to their more extended warranties, longer hours of operation design, and durability. More so, they meet the brightness requirements and are also suitable for commercial environments. Another advantage these screens have is their support for both vertical and horizontal orientations.

Media player—this device downloads menu content from the software, and stores it internally (caching) before displaying it on the screens. You’ll use HDMI cables to connect this device to the digital displays. And for the media player to receive, and download content from the software plus transmit the media to the screens, you’ll need an internet (wired) or WiFi connection. 

2. Software

Digital signage software is also referred to as content management software (CMS). The CMS is the command center of the digital signage solution. It allows you to create content, upload it, and subsequently configure and deploy it to digital displays.

Mostly, the software is cloud-based, and you’re able to access it online from a PC. Owing to this trait, you can effectively use remote content management to run your operations.

3. Content

This is probably the most intriguing element of digital signage. It’s what you end up displaying on the cafeteria’s digital displays. Furthermore, your target audience will interact or engage with this content. As such, content is perhaps the single most crucial factor that drives the success of a digital menu board campaign and helps you achieve an excellent ROI.

Based on the above notion, it’s critical to optimize the content you display on your screens by ensuring it’s easy to follow and meaningful to your audience. Content comes in the form of images, videos, PowerPoint presentations, digital signage widgets, and more.

Inherently, digital menu boards function relative to the effectiveness of the CMS they run on. So, let’s highlight some of the essential features you should look for in digital menu board software.

• Cloud-based digital menu board software

  —by having a CMS solution you can access via a website, it becomes relatively easier for you to edit or update your content.

• Customizable

  —the design of your digital menu board templates matters because it influences your audience’s visual perceptions and also reflects on your brand.

• Ease of use

  —the onboarding process should involve a relatively short learning curve for the end user. Also, it must be easy to implement—meaning it should allow restaurateurs to make price changes or add new items seamlessly.

• Menu scheduling—

  the CMS should afford a restaurateur the ability to pre-schedule various menus to run at different times or dates. This function should also simplify the process for the end user.

• Support

  —because a cafeteria or restaurant relies to no small extent on the menu, you should ensure the CMS provider guarantees full training as well as live person phone support.

How to design a digital menu board

As the designs you are making will be digital there are a few things you should keep in mind. These include the font style & text, images, or movement. The best way to determine what you need to design are:

1. Find the display that works best
2. Choose how you want the design done
3. Choose your font size/style/colors and backgrounds
4. Add your brand
5. Finish with some flair

1. Find the display that works best

Just like choosing the tv that fits best in your home, you’ll want to find the display or screen that gives you the maximum ROI for your digital signage. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and find where they will be looking while standing in line. You’ll want to find out what screen size would work best through a screen guide.

2. Choose how you want the design done

There are generally two options for how you can create your digital menu board. The first is by using a professional designer to create the menu to your specifications. The second is through pre-made templates that you can just add the item and price. Both have various benefits and cons so it’s important to find which one best fits your needs.

3. Choose your font size/style/colors and backgrounds

When it comes to fonts, you’ll want to pick the size and type that will be easy to read from both up close and far away. The colors should match your branding and not be hard to read. The background should also complement the menu items to make them easier to see and more attractive.

4. Add your brand

If you have an attractive design, be sure to add your brand to the display. This can help customers recall where they shopped and will leave a positive impact.

5. Finish with some flair

Once you have a good idea of where your menu items and pictures will go, decide if some flair is right for your customers. Change your specials into an animated gif to make them stand out more. Or use a social media content app and show off photos from your customers. Just make sure not to have too many moving pictures as too much movement can distract or confuse customers.

Design Tips for Digital Menu Boards

Studies show bright signage that includes photography and animations is more effective in drawing people to your menu offerings. Basically, trendy colors, optimal font size, and contrast improve readability.

From proper image choices to structured designs, it’s important to create practical and visually appealing layouts. This strategy enables you to improve customer experience and also helps you sell more.

1. Invest in good images but keep them realistic

Avoid the pitfalls of heavily filtered or stock images in your restaurant menu board design. A stock image denotes a generic image.

For instance, if you decide to use a burger or coffee cup that your customers actually can’t connect with, it may end up creating confusion about what you’re selling. As such, if you need to use imagery for your digital menu boards, always try to take your own.

Realistic images comprise food and drink photos taken in natural daylight while avoiding the use of flash because this can flatten your images by removing natural shadows.

Also, pay attention to the backdrop—an immaculately clean white diner plate on a patterned/ lightly colored table mat can perform better in terms of the look and feel of your restaurant’s meals.

Finally, reflect on your angles. How do you style and photograph your dishes? Certain dishes or drinks may look amazing when photographed from above, yet others may need a lower angle.

2. Add color

This consideration will mainly depend on your restaurant’s décor. For light spaces, opt for a dark screen because it’s an excellent way to attract attention. Conversely, go for a white screen if your space is brightly colored.

Also, it’s standard procedure to stick to only three primary color schemes to ensure your digital menu board doesn’t divert attention from the key message—your food!

3. Fonts

When selecting fonts, you’d want to consider brand guidelines as your measuring tool to suit the overall look and feel. Apart from the font size, another consideration would be the clarity of the headlines alongside the text.

Determine how far your screen will be from the furthest end of your audience’s queue. If on the assumption the viewers can’t read it, then you’d be passing up an opportunity to capitalize on the long queue time to sell more products.

4. Do not clutter—add space

In cases where you have many food items, it’s generally a daunting task to design restaurant menu boards without exhausting all the space. Nevertheless, this often results in the creation of crowded and “noisy” menu boards

To avoid overwhelming your patrons, you should allow for adequate breathing space—even if this means you have to create more than two menus. As such, you can separate courses or rotate menus to ward off having to stuff them in one place.

Also, the use of negative space around each list enables your customers to read the menu items or content easily. Hence, we recommend no more than 35 lines per slide. This ensures your viewers can read pricing as well as understand names. Thus, reducing queue time plus making sure your customers take less time to get to their food.

For large sizes, use sans-serif fonts to ensure viewers can read the messages at a glance. Similarly, avoid using multiple fonts, and bright, garish-colored fonts, especially when you have color across your design.

5. Add motion

We’re talking animated images or videos.

These elements work well towards attracting the eye as the human eye is naturally attracted to movement.

6. Include a Call To Action

A digital menu board serves the purpose of enticing customers to act. Bearing that in mind, it’d be easy if your customers are already aware of what they want. But if they don’t know, it’d be appropriate to take advantage of digital menu boards as a way to get your audience to ask.

Examples of CTAs include “ask us about our specials” Or, “like us on Facebook to get $$ off!”

These resulting calls to action allow customers to embrace your restaurant’s messaging.

Typically, you should display the call to action throughout; else, repeat it periodically until it sticks in your viewers’ minds. It’s ideally better to create a CTA that gets your customers to act instantly while in the queue, or soon after their meal.

How much does a digital menu board cost?

The cost of digital menu boards is usually broken down into three separate parts. The software will either be a subscription or a one-time cost. The hardware is your media player and display. Overall, you can expect the starting costs for one display to be $300 to $400.

Other costs to keep in mind are the displays you choose. Suppliers offer either consumer or commercial displays with commercial being the more expensive. Your digital signage provider can help you figure out which option you should choose. Installation costs should also be kept in mind. These vary greatly on if you hire a professional or do self-installation. Lastly, you’ll have to think of the costs of menu design if you choose a professional designer.

The total costs of implementing a digital menu board vary greatly based on the size of the project as well as the hardware you already have. The average final cost of starting from scratch for just one display is in the $500-$700 range. After this, the cost increases for each display you add.

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Our conclusion/Final points/Key takeaways

As an attractive and welcoming restaurant branding solution, they’re an essential part of your marketing campaigns. Since they’re instantly recognizable, digital menu boards make your menu items more appealing; striking a chord with your customers, besides informing them they’re making the right choice.

Overall, digital menu boards have surpassed the “nice-to-have” business consideration—and are now perhaps a “must-have” for leaders in the restaurant industry.

If you are spending excessive amounts of money updating your menu or are concerned about the cost of printing promotional posters then running an effective marketing campaign holds the key to retaining and attracting new customers in the restaurant industry.

FAQs

Should I get a commercial or consumer display?

This will depend on your needs and budget. A consumer display will be cheaper but will often come with lower hardware capabilities. This can include lower brightness, lower resolution, lower warranty, larger bezels, and more. Commercial displays also have a longer lifespan so you can save on costs in the long run.

What are the benefits of professional designs?

Just like any other marketing material, it can cost you more in the long run to have a cheaply made design. Outside of the service and food, the presentation of your restaurant has a large impact on bringing in customers and getting repeat ones. Professionals have a great idea of how to present menus to give you a maximum ROI.

Does Mvix provide designer services?

Mvix has a team of designers who have the experience to create a unique and eye-catching template for your restaurant. For more information be sure to check out our professional design services and design gallery to get an example of the templates we’ve designed.

Digital menu boards replace traditional posters and signs and are increasingly popular in restaurants across the country. By offering more dynamic and real-time menu board designs, they are attention-grabbing and have many benefits for your business.

Let’s look at 16 reasons you can consider setting up digital menu boards for a restaurant.

What are Digital Menu Boards?

Digital menu boards are to show electronic menus on digital display screens, typically mounted on the wall or placed in a prominent place. It allows your customers to take a look at your menu while they’re still waiting in line and to see what their options are before they get to the counter.

16 Reasons to Use a Digital Menu Board

1. Easy and Convenient

Digital signage menus offer a win-win solution for both you and the customer. Customers appreciate digital boards because they help to present information in an easily digestible way and are eye-catching.

From a manager’s or owner’s perspective, especially in quick-service restaurants, a digital signage menu is incredibly easy to update. It can help to keep the business running more efficiently overall.

2. Cost-Effective

Regularly printing out restaurant menus and having to order new posters every time your many changes can get pretty pricey. When you use a digital type instead, you will not incur any further costs when you update your menu.

3. Better Customer Experience

When a customer is new to a restaurant, it can sometimes be confusing to understand what food items are offered and what the options are. A digital restaurant menu shown on display can help to make the experience more pleasant and simpler for new customers.

In addition to this, having the experience be more interactive and visual can help customers enjoy their time at your restaurant as well as help to reduce the time that they wait.

4. Help Boost Your Sales

When you use a digital menu solution wisely, it can even boost your sales. One study looking at the use of it by Prime Burger found that their use brought in a 50% rise in sales within one year.

5. 24/7 Advertisements

If your digital menu is visible even when your restaurant is closed, you essentially have a salesperson delivering a marketing message at all hours of the day. It can be a great way to get the word out about your restaurant 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

6. Highlight New or Special Items

If you have recently introduced new items onto the digital menu, it can be a wonderful place to advertise your new options. It can help new items go from obscure and unknown to quite popular much more quickly than if you only have a chalkboard or paper menus.

When you use paper menus, you must incur new printing costs every time you change. Updating digital displays is incredibly simple and free of charge.

To update your menu it will only take one person a couple of minutes to make changes. This is a huge time saver when you consider how long menu designs take when you are using printed materials.

8. Maintain Brand Consistency

Having a brand personality and ensuring that your marketing is consistent with your brand personality across all platforms is essential. When you use a digital board, it means that any marketing changes you make to your Internet presence can be reflected aesthetically in your restaurant right away.

It also means that if your restaurant has several locations it’s easy to maintain consistent marketing.

9. Help Reduce Wait Time

Setting up menu board boards for restaurants can help diners waiting to decide what they’re going to order before they get to the counter. This means that lines will move more quickly, reducing wait time.

Additionally, when restaurants choose to display other promotional material or interesting facts on their menu display, this can help keep waiting customers entertained and in good spirits.

10. Help Meet Health Care Regulations

As a restaurant owner or manager, you understand how crucial it is to stay in compliance with state and federal law. Since healthcare regulations are always changing in the food service industry, using a digital menu can ensure that you can swiftly make any necessary changes to your menu.

For chain restaurants, it is required that they display the number of calories in each menu item. When you go digital with your menu board, you can make such changes quickly and conveniently.

11. Attention-Grabbing

People’s eyes are naturally drawn to screens when they are present. Awaiting customers will be much more likely to take your promotional material if it is playing on the TV rather than on a static poster.

12. Automatically Rotate Your Menus

Many restaurants have different available menus throughout the day. If your breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus have specific times when they start going into effect, you can automatically program your menu board and switch content. This is also helpful if you offer a special menu on the weekends, for brunch, or for happy hour.

13. Help Upsell Customers

The boards are great for displaying add-ons and upselling. This is a great tool for restaurants to help boost their overall sales by encouraging customers to purchase combo deals or add-ons.

If your restaurant is located in a place with heavy foot traffic, then a digital menu outside of the location can help bring in more customers.

It is very common for people to look at a restaurant’s menu before choosing where to eat. Having this new type instead of a printed menu visible outside can be much more engaging for potential diners.

15. Help Build Connection to the Community

Your menu board is a way for you to communicate with all of the customers in your restaurant. This is an excellent opportunity to display relevant local information or news to help your customer base understand your engagement in the local community.

16. Eliminate Inefficiencies and Errors

One of the most important tasks for an owner or a manager is to reduce the number of errors and inefficiencies. The entire network of menu boards can be managed from anywhere you have an Internet connection.

It means that you can avoid printing errors, employee mishaps, shipping costs, or many other things that can go wrong when you have a static printed menu.

How to Make a Digital Menu Board?

In order to have digital menu boards in your restaurant, you’ll need displays, software, and media players.

1. Choosing a Digital Display

When choosing a display for your menu boards, one of the first things you want to consider is the location.

You want your display to be located in a high-traffic area where most people will be able to see it clearly. You also want to consider how big the display will be and the TV’s viewing angles.

Of course, you need to install displays in landscape or portrait style according to your menu board layout designs.

The brightness of the room is also an important consideration when deciding on your display. In a bright space, you’ll want to use a display designed for brightly lit areas.

Lastly, you also want to take into consideration the price, durability, and warranty of any display you purchase.

2. Choosing Digital Menu Boards Software

You have two different options when it comes to the digital menu board software you choose.

First, you could use on-premises software. This type of software runs on your company’s servers and consists of different modules and databases.

On-Premises Software

When you choose to use on-premises software, you will be able to have total ownership and control over the system, and an Internet connection will even be necessary to use it. It’s important to understand, however, that you will also be responsible for maintaining both the hardware and the software. This can cost extra time and money.

A second option is cloud-based software or web-based. The software is not run on servers located at your company but instead hosted on a vendor server. There are many reasons why it can make sense to use cloud-based software instead of on-premises software.

Cloud-based Software

Cloud-based software allows you to access the software from multiple devices anywhere and anytime. You also won’t be responsible for maintaining and upgrading the hardware and software as you would for on-premises software. This is because the providers of cloud servers guarantee both responsibility and security.

With cloud-based software, you must have an Internet connection all the time. It can also be challenging to customize this type of software.

3. Choosing a Media Player

A media player is the second type of hardware necessary for a menu board. This will connect to the display via different ports, such as USB, VGA, HDMI, DVI, or DP, to display your desired digital content.

Searching for an All-in-One Solution for Digital Menu Board?

Hardware and Cloud-Based Digital Menu Software

The necessary research to pick out the supper components for the digital signage menu board can be time-consuming and frustrating. Luckily, there is an all-in-one solution.

With AG Neovo’s Neovo Signage solution, you can publish your content to multiple displays instantly and seamlessly. This digital signage software is cloud-based and is more secure and safe. You’ll be able to publish real-time content and schedule content from any location with Internet access.

The cloud-based digital menu boards solution offers a free customizable layout and everything you could need in order to make the perfect digital content for your restaurant.

The solution can also be revolutionary for your business in terms of maintaining social distancing and other health concerns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. You can opt to create a non-touch digital menu for your customers to help keep the environment safe and your customers happy.

It’s Time For You to Make the Change

If you want to grow your business, using a digital menu board can be a very logical step. As outlined in this article, there are countless benefits to using digital menu displays rather than traditional print material.

Your best choice for designing and displaying the perfect digital menu in your bar, café, or restaurant is Neovo Signage.

Neovo Signage - Discover what we can do for you

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If you are looking for a one-stop shop when it comes to digital menu boards for restaurants, you have come to the right place. With a combination of media players, displays, and free cloud-based software, we make your transition to the new type as seamless and simple as possible.

We offer flexible, scalable, and real-time solutions for customers. Displaying digital menu boards can make sense for restaurants, bars, or cafés of any shape and size. Neovo Signage is specifically designed in order to be flexible and easily adjustable to suit the changing needs of your business.

With reliable stability and high-grade security, you can feel good about using Neovo Signage. Doing so could be the crucial step you’ve needed to help your business grow.

Are you interested in our solutions? You can learn more here.

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16 Reasons to Use A Digital Menu Board for Restaurants