Transform Your Coffee Shop with Digital Menu Boards

Coffee shops are regular stops for many people, leading to a rise in competition as demand increases. Your coffee shop must stand out by using every innovative idea. One such idea is the digital menu board, a better alternative to the printed menu.

What is a digital menu board, and how does it impact coffee shops? More importantly, how can you transform your business with it? We’ll answer these questions and more in the sections below.

What Is a Digital Menu Board?

A digital menu board is a modern tool for restaurants, coffee shops, and other food-related businesses. It uses digital screens to display the menu, as well as other information like discounts or new recipes.

Digital menu boards can be easily updated using management systems, and their screens keep the visuals appealing. Printed menus don’t offer these advantages. Updating printed menus takes time, and their visuals fade over time, causing additional costs.

Thus, a digital menu board is an upgrade every cafe owner should consider. It creates a welcoming atmosphere for customers and eases the workload of staff, altogether improving the coffee house as a whole. When you switch to digital menu boards, you make an investment with significant returns.

Elements of a Coffee Menu Board

Menu boards are more effective with excellent design, which appeals to customers and helps them make the right choice. Here are the core elements to be found on every coffee menu board:

1. Core Menu: This is the main display, where you show everything you have to offer. It should be the first thing customers see, particularly regular ones. So, prioritize your core menu. The core menu highlights your essentials, like lattes, cappuccinos, and espressos.
2. Special Drinks: In addition to your core menu, display your unique or seasonal drinks. For example, during Valentine's season, you may wish to celebrate lovers with a red velvet latte. Make sure couples know about the special offering, encouraging them to try it out, especially in the spirit of the season.
3. Transparent Pricing: List prices clearly to avoid confusion and any potentially embarrassing situations! You don’t want a customer mistaking prices and ordering an item beyond their budget. The risk is higher with differently sized items, so ensure you list the prices of each item.
4. Customization Options: Coffee lovers know that not all coffees are the same. What you enjoy as morning coffee may not appeal to someone else. Your coffee shop must cater to personal preferences or risk losing customers! Highlight all possible customization options, and feature them. When customers can find their personal preferences, they’re more likely to become regulars.
5. Food Pairings: Many cafes enhance their offerings with snacks. If you take this route (and you should!), use pairings to improve customer experience and increase sales. Make the pairings enticing, and look up popular combinations that people enjoy.
6. Nutritional Information: Many people are conscious of what they eat. Perhaps you are too. Either way, your coffee shop should accommodate these customers. Note any vegan options, gluten-free products, or calorie counts.
7. Current Promotions: Whenever you have promotions that customers will be interested in, display them on your menu board.

Using a Menu Board

The elements already hint at the purposes of a menu board, but there are other ways you can use this board.

For starters, digital menu boards can provide additional information about the ingredients used for the coffee. Honestly, some customers care to know. It also creates a more personalized experience for them. Digital menus are also easy to read, a plus for your brand and customers. So, you can maximize this feature to enhance legibility.

The design of the menu board is appealing to customers, adding to the café's aesthetic. This feature improves your brand image and makes customers more satisfied with your services.

Speaking of customer satisfaction, use the digital menu board to make the coffee shop feel like home for your customers. You can do this by displaying customer testimonials or personalized welcome messages for regular customers.

How To Make Your Coffee Shop Menu

Having learned the elements of a digital menu board and its uses, let's get practical. How do you make the menu itself? Here are some steps:

Step 1: Research and Plan

The research phase forms the foundation of your coffee shop menu. And by research, we mean understanding your target audience. Who are your customers, and what do they want? From the start, your approach should center on your customer and their needs.

Understand their preferred coffee, level of health consciousness, and other details. Your location matters too, as people in a particular area may have unique tastes.

Consider your competitors as well. What is common about their menus? How do they aim for originality? What out-of-the-box methods can you implement?

Step 2: Start the Design

Your design speaks volumes about the cafe and what people should expect. Forget the maxim, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Your cafe will be judged by its design, a core part of its branding.

Your menu design should fit with the overall colors and style of your shop for consistency. Do not compromise on any design aspects, including resolution and font. Your menu should not appear like a poorly edited movie.

While selecting fonts, choose something readable that fits with your brand’s overall image. If your coffee shop is inspired by Victorian classics, for example, your font should reflect that. Finally, arrange your offerings well, ensuring people can read them with ease.

Step 3: Description is an Art

Be intentional about how you describe your offerings, using creativity to further attract customers. People are drawn to novelty, a touch of humor, and an innovative style. Your language should introduce the product and emphasize its benefits.

Your cafe is not the only one adopting a digital menu, so find ways to make yours stand out. Your menu should be memorable and make customers excited.

Step 4: Use a Content Management System

As mentioned earlier, one of the best features of a digital menu is its flexibility. Updating a printed menu takes time and extra resources, but a digital menu can be changed in just a few minutes. How so? With a content management system (CMS). These systems allow you to make quick and easy updates.

The Benefits of Upgrading to a Digital Coffee Menu Board

Overall, here are some benefits of upgrading to a digital coffee menu board:

• Digital menus allow for quick updates, an edge over printed menus. You can easily add new items, change prices, or update information.
• They have a high visual appeal, attracting customers and leaving a positive impression on your business.
• With digital menus, you can promote key items, emphasizing them on the screens.
• Digital menu boards increase sales by making the items more appealing to customers.
• Digital menus enhance customer experience, which can lead to loyal customers for your coffee shop.
• Digital screens may seem expensive at first, but they end up costing less than printed menus because they don’t need recurring printing costs.
• Digital systems provide insights that can help you make informed decisions and shape your strategies.

Conclusion

A digital menu offers more to your coffee shop than it takes. It gives a competitive edge, adds to the shop's aesthetics, brings in more customers, and increases loyalty. Ensure your menu has all the core elements, follow the steps, and be creative! Make your digital menu stand out among others.