Digital Menu Display | The Ultimate FAQ Guide

Digital menu display provides essential information to your customers and omits the necessity of printing one information repeatedly. These days quick service restaurants mostly use the restaurant digital menu display to serve their customers. 

Though the primary purpose of a digital menu display is to display menu items digitally, it does more than that. In this article, we will discuss digital menu displays in brief.

What Do You Mean By A Digital Menu Display?

As the name suggests, a digital menu display is used to display a menu on the screen- typically, they are TV or computer screens. You would see digital menu displays in quick-service restaurants such as coffee shops, fast food restaurants, etc. 

A restaurant digital menu includes pictures, and price of food items. You can also add offers and features of separate items into your digital menu display. You can update your database of menus and show them at the same time in various screens and in different outlets. 

In addition, a digital menu is also helpful to entertain your customers. You can provide news feeds, videos, or any other content to delight your customers. 

The world is suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, you can also educate your customers and help them by providing information on maintaining proper hygiene with your digital menu display screen. 

Digital menu display helps to earn more profit from your restaurant. According to Forrester international research, a restaurant digital menu display increased 32% more order value by leveraging the dynamic content restaurant owners show on their digital menu board. 

You can add some add-on items with your regular menu and show them on your digital menu display screens and get more orders, and earn more profit. 

From the customers’ point of view, a restaurant digital menu gives them the freedom that a printed menu can not. They can see all the menus at once and compare them and order the best suitable item. 

A digital menu display helps both the seller and the buyer to offer the best and get the best. It also helps the management to operate the restaurant effectively and easily. 

What Components Make A Digital Menu Display?

At first, you might think it is just a TV displaying menu items on the screen. But a restaurant digital menu is much more dynamic than that. You can do a bunch of things with your digital menu display.

There are three major components in a digital menu display: 

• Hardware 

Display Screen 

A digital menu board operates on a computer screen or TV. You can use a LED or LCD for this purpose. LEDs are suitable when users view from a considerable distance and do not provide a clear picture, such as LCDs. 

Remember, your customers will see the menu from closer distances. Therefore, LCD is the best choice for the digital menu display screens. Moreover, LCDs are less expensive than LEDs. 

One more thing, the screen you are purchasing should have an HDMI port to connect them to digital sign players. And, the number of the screen you would need entirely depends on your requirement. Your space, amount of customers in your store will determine how many screens you need. 

For example, if you visit MacDonald’s shop, you will find a 4/5 digital menu display, but if you see a coffee shop nearby, you will find one or two. 

Digital Sign Player/ Media Player 

To convert your display screens into  dynamic restaurant digital menu display screens, you will need a media player known as a digital signage player. 

These devices store the content from the software in their cache memory (internal memory) and display it on the board. Remember, we told you, you would need HDMI connectivity? Well, here it is: you will need that. You have to connect your media play to your screen with an HDMI connection. 

In addition, you will need a strong Wi-Fi connection because you will have to download the content from your software to your media player and feed that content to the screen. To complete the whole process, you will need a strong and stable Wi-Fi connection. 

Peripherals

Though not a component you will get from the manufacturer, you will need mounting gear to install your screen in your store. You will need connecting cables, routers, boosters, and other necessary tools according to your layout and space. 

• Software 

Software is the bloodstream of your digital menu display. A digital signage software is a CMS or content management software, and you can manage all of your content from a single dashboard. 

A digital signage software has an easy-to-navigate cloud based interface and many preloaded templates. You can create your content by using their design options and download it to your media player to show on your screens. 

Besides, digital signage software supports many business types, from restaurants to the health care sector, you can create any design. It is the software that makes your digital menu display items look attractive and flexible to use. 

As this is the most crucial component, you should pick your software wisely. Here are some of the factors you should look into your digital menu software display: 

1. Cloud-Based Solution – With a CMS solution, you can access your software through a website. You don’t need to set it up in your local system, which saves you additional hardware costs and provides the flexibility to use it using any device and from anywhere. 
2. Customizable – The templates must be highly customizable without any restrictions because that influences your customers to buy a food item. Moreover, you can show your brand’s color and style with your design. 
3. Easy to use – The learning curve for using your digital menu display software should not be too long and complicated. It should be easy to use, and anyone should be able to operate using the concept of using other popular design software. 
4. Menu scheduling – You should be able to pre schedule different menus for different times and dates. This function helps you to manage your restaurant more efficiently. 
5. Support – Yes, you do need quick support for your digital menu display software, as the sale of your entire restaurant depends on that. 

• Content

This is where you end up with all of your resources for the digital menu display. Therefore, this is the most crucial component of your restaurant digital menu display. This is what you end up showing on the screen of your cafeteria. 

Furthermore, your customers will interact with you by seeing your content on the board. That is to say; content is the most vital factor of your digital menu display to achieve an outstanding ROI. 

Your content on the screen must be easy to follow and meaningful to your customers. More importantly, the content you are showing must have a call to action. 

Your content can come in various forms, such as videos, images, presentations, or text. The content you show on your display largely depends on your digital signage software or the CMS. 

 Why Should You Use A Digital Menu Display For Your Restaurant? 

A restaurants digital menu can be beneficial in so many ways. Here are some of the advantages of a digital menu display: 

• A digital menu display screen can increase your sales by up to 32%. 
• You can easily manage and change your menus. In addition, you can feature menu regulations as most customers are concerned about these regulations. 
• A restaurant digital menu is an excellent tool for your marketing campaign. You can start and finish your marketing campaign on time. You can save your design, printing, distribution, and staff costs by completing the campaign with your digital menu display. 
• You can positively impact your customers using your digital menu display screens as they are dynamic and provide any style and color. 
• They are excellent tools for up-selling. You can add your new menu items as an add-on, attract your buyers to other things, and increase your sales.
• You can simplify your logistics using the scalability of your digital menu display. You can centralize your restaurant management through cloud-based software. 
• Digital menu display screen offers substantial flexibility for the decision-makers with local promotional content. 

What Can You Do With A Digital Menu Display? 

74% of customers say that reading menu items from a digital menu display is more accessible than the printed version. But, that is one thing you can do with your restaurant digital menu. There are many other valuable operations of a restaurant digital menu display. 

• Showing The Menu 

A digital menu display in an excellent way. It would be best if you used the menu board at the point of entry of your restaurant. The beauty of this display board is that you can instantly draw your customers’ attention after entering your shop. 

• Promotions 

They are excellent promotional tools. You can display your promotional items using the striking design templates that come with your digital signage software. You can use animations (they are great for promotional items) to attract people to make more orders in the process. 

You can promote your new item, drinks, and coffee with menu items to draw your customers’ attention. 

• More Takeaway Sales 

A digital menu display can increase your take away sales by a great deal, especially in busy areas and highway restaurants. In those places, people are in a rush and are in a mental state for impulsive purchases. 

Drivers and people on a busy road hate to wait and any unnecessary delays. Therefore, you can motivate your customers to choose fast and take their food quickly with your digital menu display. 

Furthermore, you can add takeout specific menus and provide prompt service to enhance your takeaway sales. People can see digital menu displays from a long distance. So, putting them outside your store and offering special packaging and prompt service will definitely increase your takeaway sale with the help of your digital menu display. 

• Inform And Entertain Your Customers 

Entertaining your customers while having food will significantly impact their minds and provoke them to come over and over. This is also a convenient passive marketing strategy. 

Such as, you can show some reviews of your food and customers feedback on your restaurant’s service. You can show your social feed, display news, and other entertaining content on your digital menu display. 

• Branding

Last but not the list. Branding is the essential factor of any business. In this hyper-competitive market, driving loyalty is the most challenging factor. And in this digital era, you can not make proper branding without digital menu display screens. 

You don’t need to do anything special; your branding should be an integral part of every content you show on your digital menu display. 

Does Your Digital Menu Display Need Any Special Software? 

A digital menu display has three major components: the display screen, the medial player, and software to operate everything. The software controls everything in your digital menu system – from creating content to managing and scheduling them. 

Most digital menu displays come with a CMS or content management software. 

What Feature Should A Digital Menu Display Software Have? 

As the digital menu software is the most critical part of your system, it should come with some essential features, such as: 

An easy-to-use, ‘drag and drop’ web-based content management system with rich features that can create beautiful designs across different screens. 

Attractive and customizable pre-designed templates. The templates should be built for different industries and categories, focusing on specific needs. 

You should be able to display non-menu content to entertain your customers and provide important information. You should be able to stream YouTube videos, ESPN from RSS feeds, stream news, integrate social media platforms, and show news feeds. 

The software should have a scheduling feature to display the right content at the right time and in the right place. For example, you can schedule your breakfast menu display, switching your social media feeds and lunch and dinner to show instead of the sports news feed.  

You should be able to display any type of content in your digital menu display using the provided software. 

What Factors To Follow To Design A Digital Menu? 

The digital menu display is worthless if you can not deliver quality content to them. Here are some tips you can follow: 

• Excellent Realistic Images 

Do not use heavily filtered stock images to create the menu that you will display on your restaurant digital menu display. Stock images mean random images that we find on Google or purchase from a stock image selling websites.  

Suppose you are selling coffee, but the image you added, the customers can not relate to themselves with it will affect the order. Therefore, always use our own photos instead of generic pictures from Google or any stock photo selling website. 

It would be best to use natural daylight to shoot the photos and avoid any flush and artificial lighting. That way, you can make your images more lively, and people will get what they see on the menu. 

• Add color

Color management is crucial, and that should be related to the decoration of your restaurant. You can use a dark screen for light spaces, which is an excellent way to attract customers’ attention. On the other hand, if your restaurant decoration is highly colorful, use a light color for your digital menu display. 

Furthermore, sticking on three primary colors schemes is the most standard procedure for the primary part of your digital menu display – your food. 

• Fonts 

The primary purpose of your digital menu display is to provide the menu to your customers. You should use the font that suits your brand, and the font should be clear enough for readers to read even from a distance. Make it simple, and don’t overdo it with your font style. 

• Add Space 

If you have many foods, sometimes it is tough for you to design the menu board of your digital menu display. But, that doesn’t mean you will make “noisy.” A noisy board is never easy to read, and users will feel disturbed reading that. 

Therefore, add adequate space in between food items, the price, ingredients, and add-on items. You can add multiple digital menu display screens or use a slideshow to show them by rotation. 

• Add Motion

Yes, we are talking about animated content. Human eyes follow moving content; that is our inherited characteristics. So, to display your promotional offer, sale offer, you can use motion to your content. Do not overuse it as that can be not comforting for the customers. 

• Include a Call To Action

Your digital menu display is for telling your customers to take action. So, you should add a call to action dialogue such as “order now,” “ask to know more,” “like us on Facebook”  to the menu. Remember, excellent content is manipulative, and you should take advantage of it by incorporating a CTA button. 

What Is The Price Of A Digital Menu Display?

A digital menu has lots of components and comes in various sizes. The functionalities, features, and dimensions are not the same. Therefore, it is tough to tell you an overall price, but you should know the price factors. 

Let us break the price of a digital menu display according to the components: 

• Screen: You should use a commercial-grade screen or your digital menu display. LEDs are not great for indoor and short-distance views. So, opt for LCDs and buy high brightness screens with a wide viewing angle. The size and features will determine the price of your display. 
• Media player: Digital signage player displays your content over the screens. The price of digital signage ranges from USD 400 to 1200. A medium-priced player will be reliable and provide more features. 
• CMS: The cloud-based software stays at the core of your digital menu display. The price of software ranges from USD 20 to 80 per screen. 
• Content design: This is not a part of your restaurant digital menu display price, but you should have a budget for content design. You should take photos of your foods and design the menu with a professional designer. 

How To Boost Revenue With A Restaurant Digital Menu Display? 

As we mentioned earlier, restaurant owners got 32% more orders after installing digital menu displays into their system. You can boost your revenue also by following the following tips: 

• Showing the menu on the screen eliminates the need for a printed menu and staff to take and deliver orders. Therefore, you can cut your costs from there and boost your revenue. 
• You can show add-on items such as drinks, coffee and add more sales. 
• Displaying a promotional offer with your digital menu display is relatively easy. Furthermore, you can display them in an attractive fashion. 
• You can get more takeaway sales by installing a digital menu board outside your restaurant by providing a special takeaway menu. 
• You can earn customers’ loyalty by delivering information and entertainment on your digital menu display. 
• Nothing is more important than brand existence, and you can do that with your digital menu display in a unique fashion. 

What Kind Of Content Can You Show On Your Digital Menu Display? 

Literally, there is no barrier in terms of displaying content on your digital menu display. You can show your menu, video, graphics, animation, anything you want; you can show them on the screen. Here is some content idea you can offer: 

• Menus
• Current Promotional items (You can use animation for that)
• Scoalica media feed 
• Reviews and customers feedback
• Social Media
• Nutritional Guidelines
• News Ticker
• Sports Ticker
• Weather Ticker
• YouTube 
• RSS Feeds 
• Awareness of social distancing. 

Where Should You Mount A Digital Menu Display? 

You can mount your digital menu display inside and outside of your restaurant. You can also install one at eye level in front of the food delivery section. The ideal place is to place it in a higher place where viewers can quickly view them without any distraction.  

What Features To Consider Before Buying A Digital Menu Bar? 

• A digital menu display should come with high brightness to display menu items in any environmental condition.  

• The display must be commercial grade. A commercial area has high temperatures and dust. Your digital menu display screen can endure high temperatures and protect itself from dust. 
• A restaurant digital menu has very slim bezels providing a clear view of the content. 
• An Outdoor digital menu board comes with waterproofing to shield its hardware from an adverse environment. 
• Outdoor digital menu screens are protected against display damage and vandalism.  
• The commercial-grade display of your digital menu display can operate 24/7 without any interruption.  
• Digital menu display screens from a reputed manufacturer comes with an extended warranty period (3 to 5 years)

How Can A Digital Menu Display Save You Money? 

When it comes to saving money, a digital menu display is an excellent savior. When you have a digital display menu, you don’t need any printed menu to offer your food to the customers. That saves lots of over-and-over printing and design cost.

A digital menu eliminates the need for recruiting staff to take an order and deliver food to your customers.  Therefore, you can save a considerable amount of employee costs using a digital menu display. 

They are great tools for advertising your promotional and sales offer, reducing the advertising cost. 

You can manage your restaurant quite effectively, which reduces the management cost by a great deal. 

Conclusion 

A digital menu display is a blessing for any quick-service restaurant. It not only increases sales but also reduces your management cost. We hope this article has provided you with sufficient information and now you are ready to buy one for your restaurant or coffee shop. 

Want to know more about the digital menu display? you are welcome to contact us. Send us a message, and we will be in contact with you shortly.