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UPshow has once again been included in the upper tier of the annual Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.
Reprising our spot among many rapidly-growing brands in the upper echelon of the Inc. 5000 is an incredible honor and a fantastic indicator of how far we’ve come.
Previous Inc 5000 honorees include Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known companies.
Check out Inc.’s full list here.
An educated patient is often more likely to be a healthy patient. But healthcare facilities don’t always have the time to educate each of their patients about every aspect of their health.
That’s why many clinics use their waiting room TVs to educate their patients while also advertising to them. With digital signage, this becomes incredibly easy to do.
Keep reading to learn what digital signage is, exactly, and how your healthcare facility can use it to achieve its marketing goals on pre-existing waiting room TVs while also educating you patient population.
Digital signage, as opposed to traditional or static signage, is a type of electronic signage that uses technology to display digital images.
Digital signage commonly features three main components: a smart screen (such as a television), a media player and digital signage management software.
Companies use digital signage because of the numerous benefits it can offer — especially in waiting rooms. For example, a healthcare facility could use its TVs to:
Educating patients is one of the biggest use cases for waiting room TVs that use digital signage. Here are five ways you can educate patients using your existing waiting room TVs:
Sharing health-related messages with your patient population can help keep them aware of the actions they should be taking to look after their health.
This can be challenging as many people won’t pay close attention to static sources of information, like posters and infographics.
Communicating your key health-related messages on television screens can be much more effective. Patients in your waiting area will likely be looking at the screens already if you’re using them to stream entertaining content.
With digital signage, you can completely customize the advertisements that play in between shows and videos. Dedicating some of that advertising time to sharing important health-related messages can be a great way to ensure that your patients pay attention to them.
The list of commonly-missed symptoms for dangerous diseases is longer than you’d think. That’s why it’s so important for healthcare clinics to do their part in keeping people informed about the symptoms of common illnesses.
Digital signage makes this a breeze — you can easily turn your screens into engaging content that highlights commonly missed or ignored symptoms.
Your waiting room televisions can also be an excellent tool for sharing important vaccination and community health information with patients.
These issues are under the spotlight in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with disinformation being one of the primary reasons why some people choose not to get vaccinated.
For example, according to Vox the main reasons Americans aren’t getting vaccinated are that they:
A healthcare clinic can play a key role in addressing misinformation simply by displaying facts and figures about important vaccines through its waiting room TVs.
For example, you might use your TV to highlight real people from the community who have received the vaccine, or share statistics about the extremely low number of people who experience negative side effects.
A total of 63% of Americans say they have waiting room anxiety.
One of the biggest reasons why people experience anxiety is a fear of the unknown. Hospitals can do a lot to reduce their patients’ pre-visit anxiety by simply outlining common medical procedures on their waiting room TVs.
By doing this, you can show your patients exactly what they will experience when with their physician. Providing this foresight can help the patient to relax and calm those waiting room jitters.
This can also be great information for a patient’s family members to have — especially those that might be nervous about a procedure or treatment that a loved one might be facing.
Using your waiting room screens to share information about your team can help your clinic feel more like a community that’s full of real, vibrant people instead of a cold, hard institution.
Once again, digital signage makes this incredibly easy to do — you can quickly and easily set up informational slides and videos to display at whatever schedule and frequency you like best.
The impact of this can be quite significant. Patients often feel more comfortable when they know who their physician is before meeting them, making this another great tip for reducing waiting room anxiety.
Optimizing your advertisements through digital signage can drastically improve the overall quality and reach of your advertising. Not only does it give you complete control over your screens and the ads they run, but it means that you won’t ever have to worry about providing free marketing to competition or running ads for medications and procedures that you don’t want to endorse.
Here are three ways that digital signage can help you use your waiting room TVs to advertise more effectively:
Control is the biggest benefit that you get from using digital signage software to power your waiting room TVs. You will be able to create customized advertisements and run them on a repeating schedule that satisfies all of your marketing needs.
This is especially helpful if you have a new product, service or partnership that you want your patients to know about.
When you use digital signage software like UPshow, managing your advertisements is a breeze. You can use our platform on any internet-connected device and instantly broadcast those changes across all of your screens with the touch of a button. How’s that for efficiency?
Your waiting room TVs are also an excellent place to raise awareness of important community events. For example, maybe your clinic has partnered with a local charity to conduct a walkathon or a fun run to support a health-related cause.
If so, you likely want to take advantage of the attention that your waiting room TVs get throughout the day to advertise the event — and there’s no easier way to do that than with digital signage.
One of the best ways to advertise your clinic is to build a brand with a reputation that carries in your community.
Digital signage can help you do that by allowing you to frame the content you display on your waiting room TVs in ways that support the brand identity you wish to create for your facility.
You can do this in a few different ways.
For example, you might run advertisements that highlight the familial feeling of your clinic to support a brand image of being close with the community. Or, you can keep it simple by displaying your logo and brand colors on the ads that you run to help keep your brand at the front of your patients’ minds.
These are just a few examples of the type of branding you can do with digital signage, but really, you are only limited by your imagination. Digital signage software lets you quickly create and share whatever brand-benefitting content you can think of with ease.
If you’re as convinced as we are that digital signage is the best way to power your waiting room TVs, then you’ll likely want to begin thinking about how you’re going to implement this solution.
The process is fairly straightforward. Here’s what you will need:
The next step is simply setting up your screens in a way that will maximize the number of people that see them. This usually means hanging them in strategic locations to ensure they’re visible from all angles.
Digital signage makes waiting room TV more engaging and informative while also helping healthcare clinics to make faster progress towards their in-facility marketing goals. If those are things that you’d like to take advantage of, then checking out UPshow might be worth your while.
Our digital signage software makes it incredibly easy to optimize your waiting room TVs. With it, you can:
But don’t just take our word for it. Let us show you exactly what UPshow can do for your clinic today.
You can get started by filling out this form and signing up for a free custom demo of our software.
According to IHRSA, at least 67% of health club and gym members quit their membership within 12 months. As a result, many gym owners and operators are deeply concerned about how to sell memberships and maintain current ones.
Although you might want to focus on providing value to your customers, gym membership sales keep your gym doors open. Adding new members to your client base not only generates revenue but also helps grow your fitness business.
While traditional methods may work, your competition might already be using modern tools to attract and retain customers. As such, you need to find creative ways to sell gym memberships, and you can leverage your existing in-gym screens to do it.
As a gym owner or operator, selling memberships can be difficult depending on your approach. Challenges arise if you don’t have a solid marketing strategy or don’t know your customers’ needs. Unfortunately, this means you’ll have trouble offering them a solution.
However, if you can identify a unique selling point, know what your potential clients are struggling with and then offer workable solutions, signing new members won’t be a problem.
Some people may not be sure of what they want. But if you help them identify their problem and show them your gym is the only place they can get a solution, they might be compelled to sign the membership.
Selling gym membership is harder now, as some people say they don’t plan on renewing their plans, but gym owners have evolved to match the changing consumer habits.
As a gym owner, knowing how to price memberships is paramount. Consider the services you’re offering, how much your competitors are charging, the cost of running the gym, as well as structured prices.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the global fitness industry was worth $96.7B. However, in 2020 things changed. Consumer mindsets shifted, and they adopted new habits.
Because people couldn’t gather together, health clubs and gyms have evolved over the past few months, changing the way we think about traditional workouts.
With the digital wave, online fitness has rescued the industry, which is now recovering and promising a future with exciting opportunities. Because of the pandemic, consumers are even more focused on health and wellness than ever before. They are investing in fitness technology, wellness apps and online fitness classes.
So how do you capitalize on this?
One pro way to sell gym membership while still saving time for other essential business needs is by using digital signage. When you use your in-venue TVs as a digital signage solution, you can entertain guests, keep them informed about classes and retain existing members.
You can create or pick exciting content to show to your guests and gym members. Pick exciting, relevant entertainment like viral videos, fitness challenges and news that connects with your audience. Moreover, you can have different types of content showing on different screens.
People love seeing positive reviews from others who have used a particular product or service. Make your existing members the stars and pride of your gym.
And since gym enthusiasts love sharing photos and videos of themselves working out on social media, encourage them to tag you and use your gym’s hashtag. You can then display the posts on your signage.
All of these things combine to make your gym stand out from the rest, attracting new members and making it easier to retain existing members.
While individual training can be a significant source of gym membership revenue, getting customers to sign up can be challenging.
Personal trainers cannot leave the customer they are training, brochures get lost and special offers are quickly forgotten.
Digital signage can be an ideal personal training marketing strategy to highlight your personal trainers, their specialties, availability and promote ongoing offers. Customers who are excited about this information can easily engage with a QR code on your screens to sign up immediately — keeping them invested in your gym.
Gym members don’t want to be interrupted when they’re working out. That means you have to be clever about delivering your marketing messaging. Use your in-venue TVs to communicate critical information, like class hours and availability.
Additionally, you can communicate with your guests regarding your updated business hours, compliance policies on social distancing and so much more.
If your prospects don’t know the classes you offer, they probably won’t sign up. That means the classes will be unattended, thus risking losing revenue to the competition.
You can promote these classes and encourage members and guests to sign up. Use digital signage to attract their attention and display your offers and the details. Also, make sure your guests know how they can join.
Getting started with digital signage is easy. You’ll only need a device that’ll run your content. UPshow will ship you the device, and you only need to plug it into your TV.
Need to customize your content? Just log into UPshow manager and customize your programming. Here’s how to make digital signage for your business.
Digital signage is a unique marketing strategy that’ll help you engage your customers and provide them with a unique and interactive experience. This way, you can increase the dwell time, drive repeat visits, and possibly, generate more customers.
UPshow, an in-venue marketing platform, will help you interact with your guests and build a customer base. We’ll ship you a device that you’ll plug into your TV and start your engagement journey with your customers. Wondering how to sell gym memberships with digital signage on UPshow? Get started today.
In advertising, it’s rarely a smart decision to rely on a single channel to reach all of your customers.
The most effective companies often take advantage of social media, SEO, in-person advertising opportunities and other avenues to target their customers in multiple ways.
Digital billboard signage represent one such marketing channel worth exploring. They give businesses the opportunity to reach thousands of potential customers.
But digital billboards aren’t right for every business. You have to first ask yourself “How much does a digital billboard cost” before incorporating the answer into your overall marketing budget. There are a few other factors worth considering too. Read on to find out everything ranging from digital billboard advertising costs to how they can best be used.
Digital billboards are modernized versions of traditional billboards.
They are electronic displays that are controlled by computers. Companies use digital billboards to display advertisements to people who visit the billboard’s location.
Times Square in New York City is perhaps the most well-known example of digital billboards. It’s one of the busiest areas of one of the busiest cities in the world, which makes it the perfect spot to place digital billboards advertising some of the biggest brands in existence.
In terms of functionality, digital billboards beat traditional billboards by nearly every metric.
They can rotate through multiple displays while traditional billboards can show only one. It’s also time-consuming and labor-intensive to swap from one ad to another on a traditional billboard whereas digital billboards can accomplish this — automatically — every few seconds.
Traditional billboards are also prone to wear, tear and discoloration by the elements. Digital billboards remain brilliant year round, rain or shine.
Another factor to consider is that consumers can see digital billboards from greater distances than traditional ones. That means companies may be able to grab the attention of passers-by from further away with a digital billboard.
The only real downside to choosing a digital billboard instead of a traditional billboard is the price — but we’ll touch more on that later.
Digital billboards advertising costs are no small thing so it’s important to make sure that your company will really benefit from using one before making the commitment.
Billboards are excellent at geographic marketing but not so great at personalization. They need to have broad appeal. That makes them a good fit for certain types of companies and a poor fit for others.
For example, a digital billboard advertisement would be perfect for a local restaurant that wants to attract more customers from the region. But it might not be a good fit for a consulting company that specializes in a niche industry that most people in the area aren’t involved with.
That being said, there are ways to target a niche audience with a digital billboard. You just need to be particular about the location that you choose.
For example, maybe you want to advertise your software security company’s services to large businesses. If so, a digital billboard that’s located in your region’s business hub would be an excellent place to advertise.
If you’d like to invest more in out-of-home advertising, then digital signage is an option that you should consider alongside digital billboards.
Digital signage also lets you display ads on a rotating basis, and allows you to control the screens and what they display 24/7, at the click of a button.
For example, you can easily turn your smart TVs into digital signs with software from UPshow to begin improving the effectiveness of your in-venue advertising efforts.
The average cost for digital billboard advertising varies from $1,200 to $15,000 per month.
However, your costs could be much higher than that if you want to run an ad on a digital billboard that’s located in one of the most populous parts of the United States.
For example, it can cost up to $3 million per month to advertise on the largest billboard in Times Square. Even if that figure represents the top-end cost of digital billboard advertising, it highlights just how expensive this form of advertising can be in prime locations.
Billboard rentals for a classic billboard sign is typically lower than this. If you put up a billboard in a rural area, you’ll get away with a billboard rental for as low as $250 per month, but if you rent a billboard in a more populated region the cost may range between $4,000 and $10,000 per month.
The figures discussed above only take into account digital billboard rental costs for your advertisement — they don’t include the price of planning, designing and producing the ad that you’ll display on it.
The digital billboard advertising costs for this process can also vary significantly. If you’re a larger company, you may have an in-house design team that can create the ad for you.
But most smaller and mid-sized companies will have to hire someone to do the job for them. You might pay around $1,000 for this if you partner with a design company. But your costs could get much higher than that if you want to work with one of the biggest design companies in the industry.
Digital billboards are typically priced based on how many thousand impressions or cost per mille (CPM) they offer.
For example, a billboard in downtown Chicago will have a very high CPM while one rural Arkansas may have a very low CPM.
We calculate CPM by looking at the circulation that an area receives (the number of people that pass through it in a given time period) and the impressions that it should receive (the number of people that will actually see the ad given factors like the speed limit in the area).
Demographics are another factor that can impact digital billboard rental costs. It refers to the age, gender and income levels of individuals that pass by the billboard. If your ads are being shown to individuals with lots of extra income, you will likely pay more.
The answer to this question varies from company to company.
It's worth considering how many leads you would likely gain from the advertisement in order to figure out if it's a good investment for you and how much you're willing to spend.
Generally, digital billboard signs are a better fit for companies with simple, straightforward purposes.
People don’t spend very long looking at billboards. You might get a few seconds of their attention but you won’t be able to convey a ton of information with a digital billboard advertisement.
That means you should look into adding digital billboard-based advertising to your marketing strategy if you’re a restaurant, shop or another type of business that consumers can understand and connect with almost instantaneously.
But you may want to spend your marketing budget elsewhere if you offer a service or software that’s complex and difficult to explain succinctly or targeted at a specific niche instead of a general audience.
Since digital billboards target consumers in a very specific geographic area, location is everything when figuring out whether a digital billboard is right for you.
It’s important to make sure that the location of the digital billboard is relevant to your company. You need to make sure that it’s in an area that receives the right type of traffic for your goals.
If at all possible, try to visit the site of a digital billboard before agreeing to display your ad on it. Often, advertisements for billboard space look better online than they do in person, and the only way to really experience how much attention your ad will receive is to go see it for yourself.
Whether digital billboard advertising is cost-effective and a good fit for your company or not, out-of-home advertising is definitely something your company should invest in.
Doing so will enable you to reach your customers while they’re out in the world instead of only when they’re online.
One of the most effective ways to do this is with digital signage software, like UPshow.
Our software turns your smart TVs into powerful in-venue advertising devices. You will be able to show your ads on a rotating display while also attracting the attention of your customers with streaming entertainment, trivia questions and more.
If you’d like to learn more about what UPshow can do for you, schedule a custom demo with us today. We look forward to hearing from you.
Recommended Resources
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Find the Right Digital Display Board for Your Signage
The Do’s and Don’ts of Digital Signage Design
Digital display software helps companies take full advantage of their in-venue screens. Investing in digital signage for organization could be exactly what your business needs to improve its marketing and, ultimately, its bottom line.
But not all digital signage software is the same. You could have a vastly different experience with the technology depending on the provider that you choose to use.
That’s why we’ve put together the following article. It offers an in-depth look at the top digital signage system of 2022 so you don’t have to track down the information yourself.
Let’s begin.
Digital display signage software is what’s used to manage digital signage. It enables companies to create digital signage content, schedule how it’s displayed and track the performance of various types of content over time.
There are a ton of different things that you can do with digital signage software, including:
It’s also important to mention that digital signage systems consist of several different components. For example, your digital signage system will need to contain:
To get the most out of digital signage, you need to make sure that all three of these components work together.
In the next section, we’ve focused on some of the best digital signage solutions that can take care of the media player and content management aspects of digital signage. But you will still need to make sure that you have the right screens for digital signage.
Pricing: Starting at $50 with custom pricing options available
Features:
Platform: Proprietary media player with cloud-based software management
Ease of Use: Obviously, we’re a little biased, but we think our platform is the best digital display software in the market right now. UPshow comes with a suite of customizable templates through our in-platform integration with Canva, built-in streaming options for live events, intuitive scheduling controls and a rich analytics tool. This cloud-based digital signage software will allow you to make changes to your digital signage strategy from any internet-connected device.
UPshow.tv is everything that you want in a digital signage software solution. It stands out by being an all-in-one system for powering all of your in-venue screens. You can use UPshow to create content, schedule its deployment and track its performance over time.
Through UPshow, you can create dynamic, in-venue messaging that changes by region, franchise group, or location. Plus, our QR code-driven campaigns enable you to track any customer interaction with your messaging all within our platform.
Our team partners with yours to provide a personalized implementation process, ensuring you get as much out of the platform as possible from the very start.
Another great feature of UPshow is that it offers customized pricing based on your unique business needs. That means you won’t ever have to pay extra for services that you don’t use.
With features like these, you don’t need to look anywhere else. You can schedule a free custom demo with UPshow today to learn more.
Pricing: $20/month - custom pricing
Features:
Platform: Cloud-based
Ease of Use: NoviSign’s interface is clean and straightforward. It’s split into three sections with content for creatives, playlists and screens. NoviSign’s scheduling function is also very straightforward.
NoviSign is one of the top digital display systems that’s used by some of the largest companies in the world including Disney and Hilton.
Two main features make NoviSign worth looking into. The platform’s interface is a highlight. This makes NoviSign one of the easiest systems for beginners on the market today.
On top of that, the digital signage software makes it very easy to design advertisements. It features a wide variety of versatile templates, which are organized by industry.
You can try a month of NoviSign for free. But after that, you will have to pay at least $20 per month per screen, if not more. The service could end up being quite expensive for a big business with lots of in-venue screens.
Downsides? NoviSign doesn’t provide any entertainment options. If you’re looking for an all-in-one option, NoviSign isn’t the solution for you.
Pricing: $7.99 - $12.99 per month / per screen
Features:
Platform: Proprietary hardware, Raspberry Pi
Ease of Use: You can manage the content you display through Yodeck on the cloud. This makes it very easy to make changes or review your existing content strategies from anywhere.
Yodeck markets itself as being one of the best digital signage software that’s easiest to use. It even offers a free single-screen option for companies that want to try it out.
The software’s list of features is impressive as well. You can use Yodeck to create ads, manage how they’re displayed and pull in external content through an intuitive widgets integration system.
The only thing is, Yodeck isn’t as easy to begin using as the company suggests. To take advantage of its “free” service, users have to either buy a Yodeck player or configure one out of a Rasberry Pi, which can be a challenge.
Therefore, Yodeck’s “free” offer won’t make much sense for many users. If you’d like to use the company, you should expect to pay to do so.
Pricing: OnSign TV ranges from $16.99 - $29.99 per month / per screen, other services use a custom pricing model
Features:
Platforms: Windows, Android, macOS, ChromeOS, Linux, Samsung, LGwebOS, BrightSign
Ease of Use: OnSign TV is compatible with most platforms, including Windows, Android, macOS and Linux. That means you probably won’t have to buy anything extra to begin using it.
OnSign TV is another digital signage software solution that could meet your company’s needs. It features a straightforward drag-and-drop content display system. You can simply drag the content that you want into your schedule and it will play right when you request it.
The platform is full of useful apps that you can use to find the exact content you want to show your guests. This includes things like sports scores, weather forecasts and more. You can even create your own applications and use them to display customized content if you want.
The downside to using OnSign TV is that it can get very expensive very quickly. The company charges as much as $29.99 per month for a single media player. If you have a large company or lots of screens in your venue, then you may be able to find an option that provides you with better value than OnSign TV.
Pricing: $18 per month / per screen - $240 per month + $15 / screen
Features:
Platforms: Proprietary hardware, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Google Chromecast
Ease of Use: Viewneo streamlines its interface in a way that’s easy for first-time users to understand. It doesn’t overwhelm you with advanced features right out of the gate, though you can access them when you’re ready to do so.
Viewneo is a company that provides both hardware and software digital signage solutions. There are some positive and negative aspects of that.
On the plus side, users who utilize Viewneo’s hardware alongside its digital signage software will enjoy a digital signage system that truly feels like a cohesive unit. The company packs its software with integrations that help companies display practically anything they want on their in-venue screens.
The downside is that the company splits its focus between creating hardware and software instead of focusing on one or the other. This means that if you’re happy with the hardware that you already have, you may prefer to work with a combine that devotes all of its energy to making the best digital signage software it can.
Other ways to use digital signage
We may be a little biased, but we truly believe that UPshow is the best digital signage software for every business. That’s because our platform contains everything that you need to start getting more out of your in-venue screens right away.
It doesn’t matter whether you want to use digital signage to keep your customers entertained and informed or advertise your products in your venue. Either way, UPpshow provides you with the software you need to reach your goals.
But don’t just take our word for it. Give UPshow a chance to see what it can do for you. You can fill out this form to sign up for a free custom demo when you’re ready.
Recommended Resources
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Restaurants, cafes and bars have begun installing digital menu boards in their establishments to replace traditional menus. Many of the restaurant menu board designs are revolutionary too!
This is mainly because restaurant digital menu software allows you to make changes to your displays instantaneously, while ensuring a slick and professional appearance.
Digital restaurant menu boards can also integrate with social media apps to boost sales by up to 23%. Not to mention the costs you can save from all those menus you aren’t reprinting!
Overall, creating digital TV menu boards can benefit your restaurant. You can design TV menu boards in 3 simple steps:
TV menu boards are digital menus that you can customize and update as often as you like.
You can place it on any existing television in your establishment, and then make use of QR codes to bring the menu directly to your patrons’ smartphones.
This menu can easily be set to transition between your breakfast, lunch, and dinner offerings, and you can even add animations or transitions to draw attention to daily specials.
TV menu boards allow you to:
Overall, digital TV menus for restaurants will keep your outlet fresh in an ever-evolving industry. You can keep up with your customers and improve business along the way by making the switch.
When creating a TV menu board, you will want to follow similar design principles to a standard menu. However, you do have more room for creativity as you can add animations and videos.
Hungry diners do not want to browse through dozens of items and not know what they are ordering. You can make your menu more readable by creating descriptive yet catchy dish titles with distinct headings. Ensure you add a caption with the ingredients and a simple description.
Electronic menu boards make it easier to add images and videos of your dishes as well. When customers can see the meal, they order more confidently. Instead of letting them guess what “Zesty Crisps” means, show them.
Add a separate, highlighted section with the specials of the day and any top choices or promotional items. These sections on your digital restaurant menu should have photos and thorough descriptions to catch the customer’s attention. Highlight interesting or rare ingredients. Showcase what makes your special, well, special!
With all the freedom that TV menu boards provide, you may feel tempted to add tons of pictures or videos of each dish, or multiple animations of your chef cooking.
These aspects — if used sparingly — can provide a great addition. But sometimes, less is more.
Choose a select number of items to have pictures, probably the more unique ones that would benefit from a visual. You can still add thorough descriptions but probably can skimp on an intricate description of something like a Caesar Salad that customers will recognize.
As far as food videos go, try not to put them next to too many food items as they can distract customers from reading the options. Lastly, you may want to avoid any animations outside of your logo.
To start designing digital restaurant menu boards, the first thing you will need to do is to get one or more menu screens with internet connectivity.
While we will focus on TVs, this same info can be applied to tablets that you hand your customers. If you go for the TV, make sure to position it in a place with clear visibility and heavy traffic to get the most views.
The next step is to purchase TV menu board software that lets you design and upload menus. High quality digital signage software is even better because they incorporate features above and beyond menus and can help you market your restaurant further.
While there are many options to choose from, the UPshow’s platform provides an entire digital experience for your customers, complete with not only menu templates, but over 500 entertainment channels, trivia, social, trackable QR codes and more to keep your customers entertained.
Lastly, you will need a laptop, computer, smartphone, or tablet that you can use to manage your TV menu boards.
One way to design digital menu boards is through the use of templates.
To do this with UPshow, start by logging into the platform. From there, start designing a new campaign with our fully-integrated Canva plugin. You’ll have access to hundreds of stock photos, videos and audio clips to make your messaging more engaging!
Add basic details like the menu’s name (e.g., Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner) and a description. Some types of TV menus for restaurants may require multiple screens, especially if you have many items or use a larger font. Make sure you balance font size, readability and the number of dishes.
If you want, you can add category names for items (e.g., Appetizers, Entrees, Sandwiches or Desserts). Then, you enter the dish’s name, description, and photographs. Make sure to add the price and nutrition information as well.
You could make an interactive menu that customers can access with a QR code. If you choose this option, you can reveal the dish’s information when the customer taps its name.
If you have a specific theme in your restaurant, you can translate that to the menu with colors, background images and fonts. Try to keep everything readable.
Once you have the digital menu TV ready, you can schedule when it will appear on your TV. Finally, simply upload it to your TV, and you’re ready to go!
Why would you ever put TV monitor menu boards in your back of house? After all, diners shouldn’t be in employee-only areas.
Think instead of using your back of house “menu boards” to drive opportunities. If you’ve integrated the technology powering your menu boards with your point-of-sale (POS) system, you can display critical KPIs alongside your menu information.
Program your back of house TV menu boards to display alerts when you’re low on an ingredient. This is especially helpful for daily specials that are limited by supply. If you’ve run out of an ingredient, your back of house menu boards will immediately update, and servers will know not to tell customers about an unavailable special.
These TV monitor menu boards can also be used to track sales. If your restaurant wants to push a certain promotion, display sale numbers alongside the dish name. This will keep your servers informed throughout their shift, allowing them to be even more effective. Plus, if you also display the server with the most sales, you can use this to encourage a healthy spirit of competition among your staff.
If you want to stay relevant in the restaurant industry, consider investing in UPshow’s content management software.
Digital menu boards for restaurants help patrons to feel safe by making the menu hygienic and hands-free, in addition to increasing visibility and therefore sales.
As the modern consumer shifts from paper to screen, creating options for them to look at the menu on their phone or a TV will help you to attract and retain customers. You can even add games and trivia to keep your guests entertained - and purchasing - for hours.
UPshow lets you design restaurant menu boards using templates, engage with your customers on social media, host games, and provide entertainment with over 500 content channels.
To learn more about how a TV menu board can revolutionize your restaurant, contact us today to schedule a demo.
Make your restaurant or bar memorable with our Bar + Full-Service Restaurant Solutions
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As the world transitions back to the normal state of business, people are eager to visit local restaurants, bars, and clubs.
As in-person social experiences kick start again, many dining establishments continue to enhance the dining experience by integrating interactive, digital menus.
A restaurant menu display screen is often only as good as its ease of use (though how well it captures and keeps attention comes in a close second), making it important for you as a restaurateur to use the right kind of platform or service for your needs.
A nicely integrated digital display screen can inform diners about more than the daily specials or the soup du jour.
Love videos with cute, funny cats in them? How about action-adventure kayaking shots? Or is nightly world news more your speed? A fun, interactive platform like UPshow provides access to this kind of entertainment and more.
Installing screens like this alongside your digital menu display is a great way to keep eyes on your screens. This creates opportunities to introduce daily deals, future promotions and ultimately drive more revenue.
Neighborhood eateries and fine dining restaurants alike often use tablets or TV screens to run menu displays in HD format.
The problem is, menus can change on any given day, and there’s nothing more frustrating on the customer end than learning that the amazing-looking lobster bisque they viewed is no longer available.
Digital menu apps allow diner owners to manage their interactive feeds via an easy-access interface, providing easy-to-maintain updates to keep your menu refreshed and up-to-date.
While these apps limit the scope of employee and customer choices, they don’t provide anything outside the basic functionality of essentially updating your menu board.
Those who want to offer their customers a more sophisticated dining experience can use UPshow to run and optimize their menu board content.
UPshow provides the best in quality entertainment and shows. It also offers a platform that assists in customizing your programming from one to numerous locations.
UPshow’s device is plug-and-play (check out the How It Works section of our homepage).
Once set up, it runs all of your restaurant's content, from entertainment to promotional messaging. With UPshow, taking full control of your screens is easy, enabling you to target your on-screen content to your business’s unique audience.
In regards to what you want to offer your clientele, the possibilities are endless. With over 500 entertainment channels and easy to use campaign creation tools, your restaurant has what it needs at its fingertips. With trackable QR codes, diners can engage with your restaurant menu display screens throughout your venue.
Fidgety kids and crotchety grandparents will all be able to find something they can enjoy as they wait for food. A more pleasant dining experience with even the most overbearing relative or friend awaits!
UPshow’s easy-to-use online platform comes with robust analytics to help restaurant owners. Learn all about your diners’ in-venue behaviors and better understand what drove those behaviors.
The analytics suite is as localized and laser-focused as you need it to be. Whether you need to understand the behaviors of customers at a single location, an entire franchise chain or an entire corporation, UPshow’s suite helps restaurants cultivate revenue-driving behaviors in diners.
Now that everyone is up to speed on the technology aspect of what a premium digital menu delivers, the question now becomes, what next?
Well it turns out the options for diners using a restaurant display screen are pretty extensive.
Before a server even comes to the table, customers can look over the restaurant’s offerings and see if any bargain menu items catch their eye. Restaurants are always adding new things to their roster, so even frequent customers may discover new, unexpected deals.
Sports enthusiasts can get their game on when they have access to a premium restaurant menu display screen—catching up on the latest and greatest in basketball, football, volleyball, or rugby via a multimedia setup can please any fan of any league.
Customers can use a QR code to aid them in picking meals or paying a bill, simply by using their cellphones. The benefit of this cannot be understated, as paying at the end of the meal can frequently turn a pleasant evening into a nightmare. QR codes provide a simple way to remove any potential stress around payment by allowing customers to proceed at their own pace.
Along with the ability to scan a QR code, restaurant-goers can be given the option to use their mobile phones to access multimedia content. Clients are used to using their cell phones and devices — utilizing them as they eat is one way to make their dining experience even better.
No restaurant menu display screen would be complete without access to a cooking show or yummy-looking food slides. Foodies may especially appreciate this aspect, as might those looking for ideas to try out later in the week.
Families with hyperactive young children love any tool they can utilize to keep the little ones focused before their meals come out. These games are often new spins on old favorites that are kid-friendly and easy to play.
UPshow’s family-friendly entertainment fosters a more engaging, informative and active environment. Many of the programs found on a typical restaurant menu display screen are akin to what you might see on TV or popular online shows.
Learning becomes fun during a night out on the town when consumers can watch amusing health or instructional style shows. These aren’t stuffy how-tos or classroom-style advertisements either. Customers frequently find the information on these videos intriguing enough to hold their attention even as they eat.
Is your business adding live entertainment? Is a concert by a well-known artist coming to town? UPshow can help you to advertise local events easily, providing your customers with a great source of community info.
Nothing is more annoying than trying to enjoy a night on the town and being bombarded with unrelated ads. While UPshow does provide consumers with menu options, deals, and local events, the entertainment content is free of marketing spots that fail to engage the audience.
Customers crave in-person experiences with family and friends, especially after the limitations of pandemic lockdowns.
As the world opens up again, people are seeking new ventures and leisure activities to suit their temperament and budgets. This means that when looking for a place to eat, many seek out innovative ways to enjoy themselves — they’re on the lookout for something different.
Being creative can be a great way for a business to build a lasting marketplace presence and gain consumer trust.
Engaging customers with technology in innovative and creative ways is becoming increasingly important for modern businesses.
At UPshow, we understand how to do just this. We provide business owners with over 300 channels that run the gambit of traditional and multimedia-related entertainment.
In the modern era, content is king.
UPshow knows this and services clientele via the use of popular content that enhances customer experiences. Whether it’s by providing content from a few well-known face or a popular social media influencer, UPshow helps you to provide content with value.
By promoting new and familiar content, diners can locate the kind of entertainment that speaks to them directly.
It’s a win-win! Restaurant owners keep their clientele entertained, which can turn them into repeat customers.
A consistent customer base translates to word-of-mouth advertising, generating more significant revenue streams and higher profit margins.
UPshow is not your typical signage company by a long shot.
Our patented platform promises to assist restaurants and even fitness and health businesses with the quality brand building that creates repeat customers.
Loyal customers are not created overnight, and they are built through reliably pleasant consumer interaction. From the second a couple, family, or group sits down to eat to the moment they leave, their culinary adventure must be second to none.
UPshow can aid by helping a business integrate a traditional consumer interface with the best restaurant menu display screen on the market. Clients with an existing menu board needn’t worry - UPshow can work with legacy apps or platforms to ensure a seamless transition.
UPshow also takes signage into the new age.
Old signage can quickly become stagnant. Today’s signage is interactive, immersing the customer in the restaurant’s ambiance comfortably and appealingly. Via the use of streaming entertainment and social media, clients can use UPshow to cultivate an authentic, one-of-a-kind brand of content that is uniquely their own.
A fun and eye-catching signage menu display could even attract foot traffic by grabbing the attention of people walking by. If you are creative in your presentation, you may lure new customers with discounts and first-time offers.
The modern era demands innovative ways to compel customers into dining rooms. UPshow has helped with one aspect of that challenge. The rest is limited only by your imagination.
An up-to-date menu is a key part of the dining experience. As a diner, being able to clearly identify popular items, pricing, and specials is a definite plus.
With this in mind, it isn’t surprising that proprietors are more likely to put a restaurant menu on TV screens - today. The rise in popularity of digital TV menu screens in restaurants is backed by good reason too!
Displaying your restaurant menu on your TV is more efficient, engaging, and economical than sticking with a static display, and has the bonus of even helping you to grow your business. What’s more, digital menu displays don’t have to be an expensive investment, and can be easily implemented using your existing TVs.
Understanding how and why digital displays work places your business in good stead to try new marketing techniques, giving you an advantage over your competition. In fact, once you understand their importance to your business, you will want to learn how to display your restaurant menu on your TV screen.
This entire guide is designed to help you not only understand the importance of digital TV menu screens but also how to display a restaurant menu on TV at your premises.
Classic menus, such as handheld menus and even backlit electronic menu boards, tend to be static. These can be challenging to update without replacing completely, and that can require significant time investment.
Printing new menus, as you may well know, isn’t the cheapest or most environmentally friendly option, either. The bottom line is that menus are expensive to replace, which makes seasonal items and specials more of a hassle, and in turn, you end up with a menu that is less innovative and relevant.
Putting digital restaurant menus on TV screens is quickly becoming the new normal. They’re significantly more efficient, easier to manage and customize and more environmentally friendly in the long run.
In addition, digital display boards can instantly change an aesthetic, so whether you want to maintain, update or experiment with your brand’s identity, display boards are a fast and inexpensive way to do so.
There are specially-made digital display boards on the market. They work well and do as advertised, but they can be costly.
But what if we were to tell you that you don’t even need specialized equipment to get started with transforming your restaurant menus on TV screens? A regular flat-screen television is the perfect canvas for a digital restaurant menu board, and chances are you already have one on-site.
When it comes to displaying your menu, TV is an excellent option because you not only get improved practical efficiency on a day-to-day basis but also improved marketing numbers for your business.
Recent studies have found that simply having a digital display can increase the time customers spend in your restaurant by as much as 30%. This gives you plenty of time to drive sales up through that extra coffee or dessert.
Read on to discover four key results of putting restaurant menus on TV.
Because digital menu displays can rotate between different content slides, it’s easy to feature individual menu items and upsell them to customers.
Dedicating a slide to an item’s image, description and promotion allows customers to see it more clearly and can influence them to take advantage of an offer they may otherwise have missed.
In the same vein, rotating slides also allow the promotion of daily or weekly specials. Digital TV menu displays can be quickly and easily updated to include a fish or soup of the day, a special meal deal, or a seasonal offer.
Long wait times can hurt sales and reputation by inviting boredom. Customers have something to do with an ever-changing display that makes even longer waits to seem to fly straight by. Displaying trivia or other entertainment on menu screens for restaurants can even make the wait fun!
Digital TV menu boards are engaging; their shifting displays can be coordinated with particular brand colors, slogans and styles to create a lasting impression that your customers will talk about long after they leave.
They can also be used to include customers in the dining experience directly.
Featuring any commentary on social media as a part of the rotating display can encourage customers to post about your brand, increasing awareness and a sense of camaraderie that can build loyalty quickly and easily.
Menu board signs are also excellent for announcing local events and celebrating holidays, which can help your brand appear more personable and relatable.
A TV menu for your restaurant won’t be all that useful if you don’t know how to display a restaurant menu on TV while combining elements of aesthetics and conversions at the same time.. There are many templates available online for creating a TV menu board that will intrigue and captivate customers.
Here is a simple step-by-step process to build a solid TV menu board:
Depending on the restaurant’s needs, the menu board may be landscape (horizontal) or portrait (vertical). More extensive menus can be split into two columns on a landscape display, while shorter or specialty menus can offer more detail in a portrait display.
The pixel measurement of the template or canvas should match the TV’s maximum resolution capability to ensure the highest quality display.
Templates offer guidelines for filling in various menu sections and adding in personal design touches such as borders or logos. They ensure that the space in the canvas is used correctly. A display template can be created in a wide variety of online platforms, from Google Slides or PowerPoint to specialized menu software for Tvs.
Add the restaurant’s logo and name prominently, usually at the top of TV menu screens. Use a high-resolution logo image file. From there, fill in the section headings and menu items as appropriate. Be sure to add proper descriptions and keep prices in their own column.
Save the file both on a device and in cloud storage if possible.
Connect your TV to your menu streaming device or directly insert a USB stick or SD card into the TV. If it’s a static image, select how long to display it for. If it’s a video, select the “loop” playback option.
Displaying your menu can be achieved by purchasing some additional hardware, but frequently you can simply hook your TV menu board software (a designated device or your computer) to the TV via an HDMI cable or DisplayPort, which lets higher resolution images and videos play more smoothly on newer smart TVs.
Having a digital menu also allows you to display it on your website or offer it for download through a scannable QR code. This increases your restaurant’s reach and accessibility, which may lead to an uptick in sales.
It also makes promotion at events easier and less costly if an “Ask about catering!” section is added.
The key to putting up a restaurant menu on a TV screen is to have the right materials available. However, this doesn’t mean that knowing how to use them isn't just as important when it comes to digital restaurant TV menus. Here are some tips for creating impressive TV menu designs for your restaurant.
Large, clear fonts make it easy for your customers to see and understand what’s on the menu.
Your brand likely has an associated color palette; use this palette to create a menu that fits your business’s style and theme. It’s also helpful to consider contrasting and complementary colors that keep your menu visually interesting.
Pictures of your food and ingredients may make certain menu items more appealing and clarify what’s included in the dish.
Connect prices and dishes visually through dots, lines or a grid system to dispel confusion. You may also consider dropping the decimals to conserve screen space.
Be sure that the brightness of your menu board is adaptable — usually it needs to be brighter in bright environments and dimmer in low-lighting.
Monitor your analytics and ask customers questions about improvements they would like to see in your menu. Ongoing feedback can be an incredibly powerful tool for your business.
Your digital menu sign boards can be a significant asset if it’s utilized correctly, and so it is important to continue to monitor and improve it as you go.
The television used for TV menu boards in restaurants should be able to handle high-resolution imagery, upwards of full HD, at 1920 by 1080 pixels. For particularly detailed images, having 4K (3840 by 2160 pixels) resolution guarantees that the image displays without compressing or losing any quality.
To create the actual images themselves, any design tool can be effective. The most popular are Photoshop, Indesign, GIMP or Canva.
These programs, both paid and free versions, have useful tools for canvas sizing and exporting high-quality images. They can also be useful in creating custom animations and transitions for the menu.
Aside from this, TV menu displays often require a digital signage content management system or CMS. Digital TV menu board software for restaurants allows users to interface between the computer where the content is stored and the display itself.
It’s useful for easy updating and scheduling of when the display is going to be live.
It’s possible to run a digital display without digital menu software for TV, but having one on your side provides you with tools that set you up for success. Not only that, but they can offer a system of support that can make the transition from classic to digital display more accessible and possibly even more profitable.
UPshow isn’t just a digital CMS. We are a full-service display, entertainment, and analytics program you can access anywhere, anytime, and we are dedicated to improving your customer experience.
Our fully online cloud control platform lets you manage multiple restaurant menu screens across all of your locations simultaneously. It also offers easy remote updating and scheduling, and extensive engagement analytics so you can be sure your displays are as effective as possible.
Contact UPshow today to see how they can take your TV menu board from simple to stunning.
Recommended Resources
How to Make Restaurant Digital Signage More Than A Slideshow: Branded TV for Bars & Restaurants
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The restaurant industry is a fast-paced world. As you may already know, it can be a constant challenge to stay ahead of new trends and to anticipate ever-fluctuating customer needs.
Thankfully, advances in technology have left us equipped with some amazing tools that can help us to stay one step ahead. Whether you’ve got your digital menu display board already, or are on the fence over committing, here are 10 restaurant menu display ideas that will help you create amazingly cool menu boards.
No one likes to wait, and especially not a hungry customer. A digital waiting room helps provide some distraction by featuring news, television, or other interesting content to keep customers’ attention while they wait.
A digital waiting room also gives you a place to display the order queue. This gives customers the ability to see that their food is being prepared, so they have a rough idea of how long it will take until they eat. A customer receiving regular updates on a food menu board just might be a little less impatient.
For such restaurant menu display ideas to be effective, your staff will need to be a bit more hands-on with your digital signage. For example, an employee will need to update the computer when orders are put in, then again when they are getting ready to come out.
Something like this often works better in a fast-food environment — that is, a restaurant where customers stand at a counter to get their order rather than get their food from a server. However, regardless of your restaurant type, such menu board ideas can be a great way to provide some distraction while customers wait.
Using your restaurant menu display boards to showcase your daily specials makes it incredibly easy to update your menu throughout the day. Gone are the days of reprinting after menu updates, digital restaurant specials boards allow you to easily switch from lunch to dinner specials as the afternoon progresses.
Taking the opportunity to display other specials, such as appetizers and drinks, can help to boost business. One great example of this is Happy Hour, which often proves a particularly lucrative time to push drink specials. Having pictures and details of the deal right in front of them as they sit down can encourage customers to make the most of these offers.
The fact that digital signage is so easily updatable avoids the common pitfall of “specials recycling” — repeating the same specials over and over again — which can be an easy sticking point for many restaurants. Digital restaurant menu boards can make it easy to keep things fresh and new, so your customers keep coming back for more.
Customers see a lot of advertisements these days, so only the most attention-grabbing restaurant menu display ideas are likely to make an impact. The right digital menu display board allows you to rotate through several promotions, increasing the chances of an item or deal catching a customer’s eye.
Of course, you’re also catching them at the most opportune moment, right when they are hungry and thinking about what they want. Most people will be thinking about two things: what they want to eat and how much they’re willing to spend.
This situation provides the perfect timing to present a deal to the customer, enticing them to make their order and to take advantage of the promotion.
If you regularly host or take part in community events, a digital menu display board is the perfect tool to advertise these. Customers will inevitably be looking around as they wait for their food, and a fun or interesting advertisement is the perfect thing to catch their eye and make them think about attending.
This is also a good way to encourage conversation about the event. After all, word of mouth is still an effective advertising strategy — even in the digital age! Getting customers to talk amongst themselves about a special event your restaurant is hosting can help to do some of the heavy lifting for your marketing department.
If there is one thing that wait staff and customers alike often resent, it is a restaurant upselling a product. Doing this in person often feels artificial and annoying — which in turn affects your sales!
Restaurant menu display ideas that can help you avert all that resentment can be great for boosting sales. A digital menu display board can be very effective when it comes to upselling products more visually and subtly. You can showcase the dishes and use plenty of pictures to entice hungry diners. This also takes the pressure off your servers to try to push certain items on their customers.
You can also use this as a chance to showcase desserts. Customers respond well to mouthwatering pictures of treats and might be more likely to place a dessert order if they see that signage, especially if timed to coincide with the end of their meal.
One of the most important elements of building a brand is engaging your target audience or customer base in a “conversation”. In other words, you want them to volunteer and share feedback!
A digital community board lets you share input from customers. This can include social media posts, reviews of their experience at your restaurant, or things they have written on comment cards.
Not only does this demonstrate transparency, but it also shows that you are interested in hearing your customers’ feedback and take it seriously. Even if you are sharing positive comments only (and that’s probably the best move), people will start to see your restaurant as a brand that seeks out and listens to its customers’ opinions.
Of course, these opinions will also help influence others. With any luck, this will get you some great ratings and reviews!
Just what is my brand, and how do I display it exactly? A digital restaurant menu display board gives the perfect opportunity to develop, experiment with, and ultimately display your brand.
There are endless restaurant menu display ideas you can deploy to do this. Aside from the obvious - your logo, location, brand colours, and so forth - you could try introducing your staff, featuring their favorite dishes, or providing info on past events that you’ve hosted. Show off the work your business has done in the community, especially with other local businesses!
This step is all about building a relationship with your customers and helping them form an idea of what your business is all about. A digital menu display board gives you the chance to provide them with all the information in a relaxed and interesting way that doesn’t seem forced.
The bottom line is that there is no wrong way to do this, and the restaurant menu display ideas you can explore are infinite. Clearly displaying your brand helps your restaurant to stand out in your customers’ minds as more than just another eatery.
Every good business in this day and age needs a solid media strategy. Why? It is one of the best ways to keep your community engaged with your product or service and stimulate conversation as a relevant voice in your industry.
All that being said, social media is meant to be, well, social! It needs to be fun and engaging in order to get people talking about your restaurant.
Showing off your social media pages on a digital restaurant display menu board does more than simply advertise your Twitter handle, Instagram page, or Facebook feed. It also gets your customers engaged in the conversation. You can do this by showing off pictures from a recent event, sharing interesting posts that got a lot of online engagement, or displaying reviews from satisfied customers.
By drawing more attention to those social media pages, you might even find that your online following goes up from customers who are interested in hearing news from your brand.
There are many restaurant menu display ideas for making your customers’ dining experience more interesting. For instance, many restaurants air live TV, often with news or sports channels. However, that’s far from the only form of entertainment you can provide.
Some restaurants have found success in sharing other interesting content, such as jokes, trivia challenges, local interest stories, and more. It is a great way to improve conversation at tables to make for a livelier atmosphere, and also serves to keep hungry customers distracted while they wait for their food.
It’s a basic rule of the restaurant industry that people who are having fun are likely to order more food and spend more money. Keeping things lively and interesting in the dining room is another way to use your digital menu display board to boost your sales.
Have you ever been in a restaurant and seen a dish going to another table that you want to order, too? It happens to most of us. But many people feel uncomfortable uttering an awkward variation of, “I’ll have what he’s having.”
Displaying attractive pictures of popular dishes can be a good strategy for encouraging others to order the same dish. While it can be awkward to ask about what another customer ordered, it is easy simply to look at a display board and be able to ask for a dish by name.
As chefs like to say, we eat with our eyes. But we also need to know what the dishes are called if we want to order them! This can be an effective way to drive sales since it will pique people’s interest while adding a community feel, letting customers effectively recommend dishes to one another.
A digital restaurant menu display board is so much more than just a way to list your food offerings. It’s a versatile tool for boosting your sales, building your brand, and adding to your dining room’s atmosphere. All it takes is some creativity and a bit of marketing savvy.
For info and tips on how to make a menu board display for your restaurant boards to life, or to learn about our unique digital signage and content software, visit us at UPshow today.
Digital menu systems are superior to traditional menus in just about every way. They make your TV menu boards easier to update, more visually appealing to customers, and offer superior functionality to their static counterparts.
That being said, you don’t automatically get all of the benefits of a TV menu display just by setting one up. Instead, you need to use solid practices and techniques to unlock the full power of your digital menu board systems in order to be able to start earning more revenue.
Not sure how to get started? We’ve got you covered. Keep reading to learn:
Adding a digital menu board to your restaurant could increase your sales numbers by about 3 to 5%. While that in itself is a great reason to set up a TV menu display, it’s definitely not the only reason.
Digital restaurant menu boards provide tons of benefits that many restaurants don’t take full advantage of. A digital menu system makes updating ingredients or adding specials a breeze, reduces perceived wait times by keeping customers occupied and even strengthens your brand identity.
Restaurants can also use their digital menus to:
But wait, can a humble menu really do all this? Absolutely. TV menu displays are powered by digital signage software, which means that if it’s possible to do it with digital signage, it’s possible to do it on your TV. The versatility is endless.
If you don’t have a digital menu board system already, then there are just a couple of things you’ll need to pick up before you can get started.
Digital signage systems have three main components:
It’s that simple. Once you’re ready, read on to find out how to make the best use of your digital TV menu.
On a digital TV menu board, even more so than on a physical one, imagery is everything. It captures customers’ attention by breaking up what would otherwise be a wall of text, awakening the senses as you show off your most aesthetic culinary options.
That said, there is such a thing as too much imagery. Use your judgement to determine the optimum amount of imagery — the goal is for the visuals to compliment your menu, but not distract from it.
Providing accurate representations of your menu items is also essential to designing good digital menu boards for restaurants. Working with a food photographer is a great option to ensure that you show your dishes in the best light possible, but steer clear of overpromising or exaggerating your menu.
Stop for a minute and consider the purpose of a TV menu board. Ideally, a menu exists to make it easy for your customers to figure out what they want. Clutter or overly-wordy descriptions make your menu harder to read, understand and choose from. In the long-run, this can increase the time it takes for customers to place orders at your restaurant.
Digital menu display screens make handling information density a breeze. Different courses, meals or menus can simply be displayed on different slides. Advertising a smaller number of items during each part of the day makes your menu relevant and easy to navigate.
Above all else, your menus need to be easy to read. Although it can sometimes feel tempting to reduce your digital menu board font size to fit more information onto your menu, doing so is typically not a good idea.
The absolute minimum font size that you can use on a TV menu display is 26-40 pixels. Anything smaller than that and your customers will need to be inches away from the menu to read it.
In addition to size, the font type and colors that you select can also have a big impact on the readability of your menu. For the best results, stick to easy-to-read fonts and avoid using overly bright colors with high contrast. What does that mean? Think twice before putting aqua text (using Comic Sans) on a yellow background.
Mixing and matching font sizes, or using italics and bold fonts, will give your menu some extra depth. Don’t go overboard with this, though — you want to interest your readers, not leave them confused about your brand identity!
The utility benefits of TV menu displays over traditional menus are endless. One feature that’s absolutely worth taking advantage of is the ability to display dynamic content for your customers.
Dynamic content captures your customers’ attention and lets you showcase a variety of content within a single space.
One option is to create videos that rotate through several of your best dishes. This is a form of in-venue marketing that could increase your sales numbers.
Another simple option is to add moving graphics to your digital menu system. This will give it a sense of life and dynamism that most of your competitors’ menus won’t match.
Think of your restaurant menu display screen like a piece of art. You want to situate the imagery and text that you include in your menu in such a way as to encourage the viewer to look over the whole thing. You want to not only grab their attention, but hold it.
Creating a balanced digital menu will ensure that your customers look long enough to take in everything that you have to offer, instead of focusing on only a portion of your menu.
One key technique for creating a balanced TV menu board is to spread visual interest out evenly throughout your menu. You should focus on including an equal or close-to-equal amount of images and text on both sides of your menu so that you draw a customer’s attention to each side of it evenly.
Most restaurants have a ton of information that they want to convey through their menus. But you should resist the urge to pack your menu full of images and text from side to side.
Including some empty space within your menu gives the items room to breathe on the screen. Strategically adding white space creates a restaurant menu board that is not only more aesthetically appealing, but that's also easier for your customers to navigate. Empty space lets a viewer’s eyes “breathe,” if you will, and keeps them from being visually overwhelmed.
Whether it’s a spreadsheet or your digital menu board, categories, columns and rows are the bread and butter of success.
These elements allow you to break your menu apart into manageable chunks of information. Without them, your customers will have a much harder time reading and understanding your menu, increasing the time that it takes for them to order, lengthening wait times and overall creating a confusing and inefficient restaurant experience.
While the best way to utilize these elements will depend on the specifics of your menu, many restaurants create categories for common options such as sandwiches, salads, or drinks. Placing each category in its own column takes ease of navigability to a new level.
Different aspects of great digital menus restaurants come together to form a cohesive whole that together is greater than the sum of its parts. This is only possible when each element enhances the others.
Paying close attention to colors and contrast while you’re putting together your TV menu display allows you to choose which elements pop, and ensures nothing is competing for space or attention.
Want to create a dynamic, high-contrast design that’s easy to read and grabs customer attention? Put light text on a darker background. But never put white text on pure black. Not sure if you’ve hit the mark with contrast? Use a free tool like this one from Cooler to check.
Making digital signage that accomplishes all of your business goals can be tough without the right partner. Luckily for you, UPshow exists to take your digital signage to the next level.
Our platform offers a full suite of design and campaign management tools, which make it super easy to create the exact digital menu that you want for your restaurant. With UPshow, you’ll also be able to automatically rotate the imagery that you display on your menu to captivate your audience and market your best dishes.If you’re serious about optimizing your digital menu board, we’d love to talk about how we can help. You can get started today by filling out this form and scheduling a free custom demo with us.
A proper digital signage system is an excellent way to build even more fun and entertainment into your venue. But if you’re not already using it, the prospect of having to set up a digital signage system from scratch can feel overwhelming.
Turns out, if you already have screens in your venue, then it’s pretty easy to turn your TV into digital signage displays. This piece will give you:
TVs are a decent way to entertain your customers. But in terms of business benefits, they don’t go much further.
Digital signage offers superior entertainment value for your venue in addition to an impactful platform through which to realize your business goals.
Before we dive in, let’s take a quick look at how digital signage works. Essentially, digital signage allows businesses to display streaming entertainment channels alongside curated, venue-specific advertisements and hyper targeted content.
If your venue doesn’t need a variety of streamed entertainment options, you can forego that entirely for something more appropriate. For example, you might run a trivia night and display the questions on your screens with digital signage software. Then, in-between those questions you could run advertisements or messaging about new products.
The main thing to keep in mind is that digital signage TV, unlike traditional TVs, allows you to control every single thing that’s on display on your screens. Rather than give free advertising to other companies, with digital signage you can optimize every second of your customers’ viewing time.
Your digital signage setup process will vary based on the type of TVs you currently have. These TVs have the advantage of connecting directly to digital signage software, meaning that you don’t need any additional equipment for your smart TV digital signage. TVs without a built-in internet connection, however, will require you to purchase a digital signage player.
If your current set up is made up of smart TVs, skip to step 3!
Digital signage players are physical devices that you connect to a TV screen.
Important: This is not the same as the software that you use to manage your digital signage displays.
Rather, a digital signage player is the hardware that allows you to connect your traditional TV to digital signage software. Think of it as the go-between.
There are lots of different digital signage players on the market today, ranging in price from about $50 to $100+. The choice of content management software that can be used with the player is usually up to you.
Here are some popular options that you may want to look into:
The next thing you’re going to need, regardless of your TV type, is digital signage software.
This software is what you’ll use to turn your TV into digital signage, create displays and manage how they’re shown in your venue. Digital signage software makes it really easy to enjoy the benefits of digital signage without having to spend a ton of time managing it yourself.
If you’re in the market for digital signage software, you want to make sure that the platform you choose:
UPshow offers digital signage software that meets all of these requirements — plus a few more. Our one-stop solution makes it incredibly easy for you to maximize your digital signage.
Now you’re ready to start choosing the content that you’re going to show your customers. There are tons of engaging, informative display options that can help you reach your business goals.
For example, you could display each of the following for your customers:
Once you’ve set up your content, the only thing that’s left to do is to figure out the cadence at which you’ll display it. Unless you’re setting up something like digital menus, you’re probably going to want to continuously rotate through a set of images to maintain your customers’ attention.
There is no hard and fast rule for how to do this. The best strategy is to simply try a few display schedules and see what works best for your company. Think about your audience and leverage what you know about them to create a schedule you think will engage them — then be sure to measure engagement to test your hypothesis!
Testing capabilities are a critical component to your digital signage software. Make sure you pick a software that offers powerful insights into the performance of your displays. Without that information, it will be difficult to assess the efficacy of your signage and to optimize your schedule over time.
So we’ve established that you can turn your TVs into digital signage that will allow you to create and display attention-grabbing content at your venue.
However, it doesn’t stop there.
If upgrading your TVs is an option, the type and quality of screen that you have can have a significant impact on how successful your campaigns are.
One of the biggest factors that can influence digital signage success is how easily your customers can view your screens. While one or two small screens might catch the eye of a percentage of your customers, having larger, or a larger number, of screens will amplify this effect.
Viewing angles and brightness are another two factors that can really make or break your signage success. If your current screens are at poor angles or are often rendered unviewable by excessive brightness in your space, you’re simply not going to get the maximum effect from your customer base.
For a full guide on the best screens for your digital signage needs, check out our blog post.
Once you’ve figured out exactly which screens you’re going to use in your venue, it’s important to make sure you distribute them effectively throughout your venue. Proper screen placement will ensure that as many people see your in-venue marketing campaigns as possible.
While planning placement, aim to follow these three tips:
It’s simple, but essential. By installing your screens in the most highly-trafficked or visible parts of your venue, you ensure maximum viewing time. Entryways and prominent walls are perfect for this.
Keep your screens at a level for easy viewing, usually round about eye-level. The last thing you want is to put your customers off by forcing them to strain their neck to catch a glimpse of the screen.
Opting for specific screen locations within your venue may help you to attract more customers or sell more products.
For example, you might set up a screen behind your checkout area to upsell customers and keep them entertained while they wait in line.
Alternatively, try placing a screen in a window that faces the sidewalk outside. Doing so could be a great way to grab the attention of passers-by, drawing them in from the street to view what you have to offer.
Turning your venue’s existing TVs into eye-popping digital signage is easier than you might expect, especially with the right digital signage management software.
UPshow provides digital signage software that is tailor-made for venues that are looking to improve their sales with targeted campaigns. Our one-stop solution means you will soon be creating compelling displays and effectively managing your signage schedule with ease.
With the bonus feature of 500 streaming entertainment channels for you to show your customers, you’ll have no problem at all leveraging your digital signage to work towards your business goals.But don’t take our word for it! Let us show you how impactful UPshow can be for your company by visiting our website and signing up for a custom demo today.
