If digital signage isn’t integral to your marketing and sales strategy, you’re missing out on significant financial opportunities for your restaurant business. Digital signage makes reaching and connecting with your customers easier.
Per a 2012 survey by FedEx and Ketchum Global Research & Analytics, approximately 76% of American consumers would visit a store they’ve never visited because of its signs.
Now, imagine the results for more attractive digital signs. Research already shows that digital signage captures 400% more views than static signage.
Digital signage is a highly functional tool for boosting foot traffic, sharing important information, engaging customers, cross-channel marketing, improving the customer experience, and much more, all of which ultimately lead to more sales for your restaurant(s).
So, what are the most effective digital signage content types for restaurant businesses?
Below, we explore different content types to help you take advantage of digital displays’ many opportunities and make more sales.
1. Employ digital menu boards
The lowest-hanging fruit is altering how you use digital menus inside your restaurant. Walk into many restaurants, and their digital board is plain, bland, and without personality, only including the food item and price.
There are a few tweaks you can employ to menu boards to boost sales, including:
Using rich food images
According to a DeliveryRoo study, restaurants with food pictures on their menu get a whopping 24% more sales. And it’s easy to see why.
Did you know that as many as 80% of customers make their buying decisions in-store, and 62% make impulse buys while in your establishment?
Adding professional, quality food photography with a handful of other carefully curated promotions can influence customers to buy more than they planned when they walked in.
A customer may only be in your restaurant to buy a burger, but seeing a picture of onion rings may nudge them to add the latter to their purchase.
Utilising the power of advanced scheduling
Customers see the same digital screens in your restaurant in the morning, noon, and evening. This boring routine may be okay if your menu is extremely limited.
However, if your menu caters to breakfast, lunch, and dinner options, then you must make personalisation a priority. A customer who walks in during breakfast should be greeted with only breakfast options.
You can show promotions throughout the day to encourage customers to return, but the digital menu must be attuned to the time of day.
2. Use QR codes
According to the Association of National Advertisers, 83.4 million American QR code users were active as of 2022, and this number is expected to reach 99.5 million in 2025. In Australia, QR code adoption is also gathering pace, as in the rest of the world.
But why should QR codes feature prominently in your content strategy? QR codes can serve many purposes, including as a payment option and a way to direct customers to various digital content or channels easily.
Regarding payment, consider the following data: “29% of Australian consumers prefer transacting with digital wallets online, and 21% prefer using QR codes.” So, adding QR code payment options is one way to improve the customer experience in your restaurant.
Additionally, you can use QR codes to direct your customers to surveys, special offers, newsletter signups, social media posts or pages, and more.
3. Promote high-margin items
Using creative and careful promotion, you can encourage customers to choose or add high-margin menu items to their orders. High-profit items use inexpensive ingredients, require little to no additional work, and are easier to prepare. Here are a few tips to adopt:
On your digital signage screens, pair high-profit items with more expensive, low-profit items, making customers favour the former.
Place high-profit items at the top of the menu list, as screen placement is essential. According to Aaron Allen & Associates, “We subconsciously order the top two items in each menu section more often.”
Cross-sell high-profit items with compatible meals. Appetisers are popular high-profit items; you can promote them as an additional option for a main dish.
Don’t overwhelm customers with too many options. This can lead to decision fatigue, and they’ll end up purchasing their “usual.”
4. Post content that encourage customer reviews
It would help if you had as many reviews as possible. A high volume of reviews is essential for two things.
Firstly, a higher quality score from a larger sample size is more valuable and significant. A review of 4.8 out of 5 from 500 reviews is a better quality signal than a 5 out of 5 from 10 reviews.
Secondly, a high volume of reviews tells potential visitors that your restaurant is popular. Prospects will conclude that if it’s popular and has great reviews, then the food and service must be excellent.
So, incentivise your customers to leave a review. You can offer discounts, appetisers, loyalty points, gift vouchers, etc.
It’s crucial to ask them for a review and provide the how. Provide a Yelp QR code on the digital display and tell customers what to do: “Open the camera, focus on the code below/above, and click the link that appears.”
We recommend prioritising Yelp reviews because it is the go-to platform for restaurant reviews. You may also explore popular review platforms in your local domain.
5. Show your reviews and ratings
Highlight some of your recent reviews and ratings from Yelp and social media. User-generated content on social media, in particular, can be a lucrative revenue booster.
For a new customer, this can reinforce that they made a good decision and put them at ease, even if they’ve read some of your reviews before. Such customers may order more and try out other items on your menu.
Tailoring the reviews and ratings to the time of day further maximises sales. Share breakfast-related reviews in the morning and dinner-related reviews for customers looking to purchase their evening meal.
That’s why building a coherent digital signage strategy from the onset is essential, especially in content creation and scheduling.
Luna Screens is an intuitive, easy-to-use digital signage software with advanced scheduling for more targeted and personalised displays.
6. Highlight menu of the day
Show customers your menu or item of the day if you have one. Otherwise, you can promote any of your high-profit items for the day.
This strategy can be great when you want your restaurant to be known for a particular dish.
You can post relevant content around the dish with captions like “Have you tried our delicious Asparagus Confetti (not a real name!)?” and then proceed to show customer reviews and content about the same food item.
7. Dive briefly into your processes
You can also create content that shines more light on your processes. For example, you can discuss hygiene and your cleanliness policy, showing how your restaurant complies with stringent health requirements.
Share your farm-to-table process and how you partner with local farmers to support the local economy and ensure your customers enjoy daily fresh meals.
This type of content can mainly appeal to millennials and Gen Zers, who prioritise environmental issues and consumer ethics. So, toot your horn if you partner with local farmers and suppliers, building your brand as an ethically minded business.
Additionally, being transparent about calories, allergens, and nutritional content helps you build customer trust. You may even provide QR codes for the customers to get more information about a meal.
Trust will earn you more recommendations and loyalty from your customers and, consequently, more sales.
8. Display ongoing promotions
Highlight your loyalty program and current promotions and how customers can use them. Do they need to fill out a survey, or are they only entitled after a minimum order?
The best practice is not to show the offer or discount in isolation but to attach it to engaging content. For example, you can show the plating of a meal and flash the promo or discount for that same meal. So your customers can envision the meal beyond pictures.
Speaking of promotions, you can also personalise them to maximise sales. For example, think of combo offers that’ll work for Children’s or Mother’s Day celebrations.
10. Share latest order images or videos
We love this strategy because it’s one way to create continuous content for your digital signage displays.
More importantly, it shows customers what others are ordering and can trigger a “fear of missing out” emotion.
I’ve often seen videos or pictures of various meals on social media and said, “I must try that.” The same principles apply to this strategy.
It may require extra logistics, but it’s an excellent way to encourage customers to try new food items or combinations, and you don’t have to do it for all the meals.
11. Showcase interesting pairing suggestions
“Have you ever tried XYZ and ABC together?” or “Did you know that you can pair XYZ and ABC together?” types of content can also help you maximise sales. It’s even better if a promotion or discount is attached to such pairings.
Maybe customers are used to picking one or the other; now, they’re likely contemplating buying the two together.
Classic pairings are all well and good, but they’re boring and repetitive. Help your customers expand their taste buds with amazing, unusual food pairings.
12. Highlight what stands you apart
In late 2023, a viral video showed a lady eating 48 oysters during her date. Many commenters wondered how someone could eat that in one sitting and during a date.
She could order that much because the restaurant had a special on a platter of oysters for $15, with each platter containing 12 oysters.
The story’s moral is not the lady (we are not judging!) but the restaurant’s offerings. She likely chose that restaurant because of the special platter.
The takeaway is to showcase extraordinary things about your meals and your restaurant’s unique selling proposition. Highlights things like:
Generous portions
Bottomless mimosas
Your specials
Chef’s pedigree
Cosy atmosphere
Secret recipes
Dietary differentiators like organic or vegan
Cultural heritage
You may also like: 15 Best Practices for Designing Eye-Catching Digital Signage.
How to create effective content for restaurant digital signage
Here are some steps to create compelling and effective content:
Know your audience
You can’t create effective content if you don’t know your target audience. Understanding your audience’s demographics, interests, values, and preferences will help you tailor your content to appeal to them.
Create a content strategy
Your business goals and audience insights should inform your content strategy. For example, if you want to increase brand visibility, your strategy will differ significantly from that of a brand looking to aggressively increase sales.
Create a content calendar
Break down the strategy into chunks and map out what you must post daily, weekly, and monthly. Creating a content calendar in advance makes the content creation process more seamless.
Outsource or assign creative duties
Either outsource the content creation duties or assign to a creative in-house. It’s imperative that someone takes ownership and is in charge of the creative direction.
Incorporate branding elements
All digital signage content must have your signature branding elements. It enhances your brand visibility.
Be bold and don’t skip on the technical details
Devise and execute bold creative concepts. Stand out from the crowd by producing stunning media, not the regular cookie-cutter that other restaurants publish.
Additionally, remember details like aspect ratio and resolution to ensure the images and videos retain quality across all your digital screens, regardless of size.
Test and analyse
Always monitor the performance of your digital signage content by measuring key metrics like sales uplift and conversions. If you’re running content on filling a survey and no one is submitting an entry, then the content needs reviewing.
Benefits of restaurant digital signage
The benefits of restaurant digital signage include:
Improved customer engagement
Enhanced brand visibility
Increased upselling and sales of high-profit items opportunities
Quick and easy updates to menus
Reduced perceived wait times
Long-term cost savings from replacing traditional signage
More flexibility and customisations
Cross-promotion of events and other locations
Targeted delivery with advanced scheduling.
Takeaway: Drive sales in your restaurant through dynamic digital signage
Incorporating these strategies into your restaurant's digital signage approach can significantly enhance customer engagement and drive sales. More importantly, you can implement these strategies without investing in interactive displays.
From enhancing digital menu boards with enticing imagery and personalised offerings to leveraging QR codes for convenient transactions and content access, each tactic plays a crucial role in maximising the effectiveness of your signage.
Implementing these techniques can create a compelling and impactful digital signage strategy that attracts customers, boosts sales, and fosters loyalty.
Boost your restaurant business today with affordable, world-class digital signage technology. Get Started with Luna Screens today!