3 Effective ways of using outdoor digital menu boards

With rapid changes in regulations in the last two years and labor shortages, drive-throughs have become the heartbeat of many QSRs. At this point, an effective outdoor digital menu board is a necessity for your restaurant. Digital menus allow you to quickly update your offerings, inform customers of sold-out items, and promote your new or popular items.

But not all menu boards are created equal. You need to make sure you’re following best practices in order to make the most of your signage investment. Here are some ways that you can increase the effectiveness of your digital menu board.

Use color and image

Colors don't just set the tone for marketing a brand, but they also set the tone for a dining experience. They influence the mood of a customer, which is why incorporating color psychology in your brand’s marketing is an impactful and popular tool used by every industry.

Colors have different inherent and subconscious associations, so choosing the right color can increase the impact of the message that you're trying to portray. For example, red, a key color used by many fast-food giants such as McDonald's and KFC, induces hunger. Whereas greens and yellows promote freshness. As a result, using these colors on your digital menu will send subliminal messages to your consumers, making it an effective tool for marketing your restaurant.

If you have brand colors, you should make sure you incorporate them as well. Keeping your branding unified across all spaces will help customers feel connected to your brand.

Adding different colors using color theory can also help you enhance the feel of your restaurants— specific colors add elegance, whereas other colors give a quick-service or fast-food type of feel.

Highlight your specialties

You can effectively highlight certain food items or specialties on an outdoor digital menu board. Even if customers already know what they want, seeing a tempting offer may increase their order size. This increases the likelihood that consumers will add sides, drinks, and desserts to their orders or upsize their meals. As a matter of fact, digital menu boards have been found to increase the average value of orders by 2.5% and boost drink sales by 5–7%!

We recommend you focus on your current promotional items and limited-time offers.FOMO (the fear of missing out) is a powerful driver of action. Let customers know something is only here for a limited time and they may come in more often to enjoy the items before they are gone.

Motion

Motion and video naturally draw to the eyes. Using animation techniques strategically on your menu board can also help with drawing attention to certain products. High-quality digital menu boards allow for more realistic and enhanced representations of the items on a menu. Using video to show your products off can effectively add to the appeal. Animations that make consumers crave products can also be effective in enhancing hunger, increasing the likeliness of your customers ordering a larger meal!

We do recommend that you use animations sparingly and don’t consume too much of your board with them. You want to draw the eye strategically and not overwhelm. An overwhelmed customer is more likely to order quickly in order to get away from the board. It’s a balancing act. Try keeping each board to one animation. Or allow animation in one specific area. 

Want to Know More?

Digital menu boards are highly effective and restaurants should use them to improve their sales and give themselves an edge in a highly competitive industry. If you’re looking for help to get high-resolution digital signage for your restaurant, we’re here to help. Our digital signage experts have helped many QSRs and FSRs get the digital signage that helps grow their revenue. Contact Cirrus today to discuss your digital signage goals.