How to Improve Your Bar’s Menu Board

According to a recent study, there are 2.2 bars per 10,000 people in the United States. Adopting digital bar menus and other digital signage solutions has been one of several things that set apart some bars from the rest. For all their inherent benefits, digital bar menus have become increasingly popular as an effective way for bars to showcase drink options while elevating customer experience.

Do you already have a digital bar menu? The big question then becomes, “is your digital bar menu optimized?” You can reap the benefits of a digital bar menu manifold when you fully optimize it. In this post, we will explore what your bar’s menu board can do for you and how you can improve it for an even better outcome for your business and customers.

Advantages of Digital Bar Menus

Going digital with your bar menu offers better visibility of your menu. Digital boards are more eye-pleasing and will easily catch customers’ attention at your bar. You can, therefore, expect greater success in highlighting all your menu items and even promoting new menu items with digital signage in bars.

Digital menu bars are also very adaptable and easy to update. You can update the price, availability, and description of your menu items with just a click. Additionally, you can easily display different sets of menus based on the day of the week and time of day. Any updates will take very little time, ensuring your staff can stay on task and attend to customers at the bar.

Humans are visual. Add vibrant images, great designs, animated effects, and videos to your menu board, and you can be sure your customer engagement numbers will go up. The visual appeal makes browsing your bar menu a unique and memorable experience that will undoubtedly keep the customers coming back. What’s more, displaying infotainment content on digital signage in bars will keep your customers and help reduce perceived wait times for a better customer experience.

Strategic Design for Digital Displays

To reap all the benefits highlighted, you must give due consideration and carefully plan your bar menu board design. With the design tips for eye-catching digital menu boards, you can be sure the displays will grab customers’ attention, enhance their customer experience, and increase your sales. Here is a pick of our surefire menu board design tips for bars.

• Use high-quality images to enhance the appeal of your bar’s menu board
• Add animations to enhance still photographs
• Animate your menu board with captivating videos
• Choose high-contrasting colors throughout the menu layout
• Prioritize readability when choosing font style and size
• Keep the menu board simple and well-organized by avoiding overcrowding
• Organize menu items by categories for scannability
• Maintain brand consistency in your menu board design
• Use design elements such as bolding, color coding, and arrows to direct users to menu items

Showcasing Specialty Drinks and Promotions

Standard beers and wine are great, but it’s the specialty drinks that will make your bar stand out. Whether you make your own specialty drinks or make them your own by putting a twist on a classic, a digital menu can help effectively showcase and promote the drinks.

Get descriptive with your wording. Use friendly and simple words to describe what sets apart each specialty drink on your menu. Be sure to add high-quality images that will stimulate the customers’ senses.

Interactive Features for Customer Interaction

Touchscreen capabilities and next-level animations are some top interactive elements on digital menu boards that enhance customer engagement. Incorporate these elements into your bar menu board design, and customers can directly interact with your drinks menu and make informed decisions in a more engaging manner. In fact, 88% of marketers agree that interactive content is highly effective in educating customers and will set you apart from the competition.

Customization for Seasonal Offerings

Have you observed that lighter-style drinks sell better earlier while the more complex and heavier options on your menu perform better later into the day or night? How about the difference between weekdays and weekends and through the different seasons? This observation can inform your promotional and marketing efforts. 

Digital signage in bars is highly flexible and easy to update, so you can deliver the right promotional message at the right time. You can keep your patrons informed about limited-time offers and seasonal offerings. Bars all across have seen great success highlighting seasonal drinks with menu boards. For example, by highlighting what seasonal ingredients such as cherries and peaches go into the drink, bars have seen sales for classic summer staples such as Piña coladas go up.

Additionally, you can plan and schedule future promotions ahead of time. The scheduling features will ensure that the relevant promotional content will get published to your digital bar menu when the time comes.

Digital Pairing Recommendations

Adding drink pairing recommendations to your digital bar menu can be an excellent upselling and cross-selling technique. After all, 30% of customers find that digital menus significantly influence their purchasing decisions.

Not everyone wants to drink their whisky neat or just with a splash of water, and pairing recommendations will certainly be a great help for your patrons who’d like to try something new. Mixing the whisky with cola, lime soda, or ginger ale can be quite the adventure. And how about mixing vodka with sparkling water, soda, cranberry juice, or lime soda? 

Adding to your digital bar menu a description of the taste your customers can expect with the various drink pairings can encourage your patrons to try the recommendations. Have specific pairings on promotions to encourage customers to try them. You can also include suggestions for snack pairings that go well with different drinks if you have a snack bar at your bar.

Real-Time Updates and Specials

The real-time update capability of digital menus is especially beneficial for bars that frequently change the items on the menu as well as their prices. You will also find this feature very convenient if you frequently run promotions. Real-time updates ensure customers have access to the latest information and can make informed decisions based on it.

Again, promptly updating your bar menu board to reflect inventory changes helps to improve customer experience. The frustration of ordering a drink only to have the bartender say it’s unavailable can be enough to lose a loyal patron.

Customer Engagement Metrics and Feedback

Your bar’s digital menus can gather data on the most popular menu items and customer preferences. Leveraging these data analytics gives you valuable insights for your marketing strategies and menu planning. You can increase your marketing efforts for poor-performing drink items on your menu, and if that fails, you can proceed to scrap these items off your menu.

For a bar committed to satisfying its customers’ needs, encourage customers to provide feedback. Be deliberate about implementing customer feedback as may be possible for your bar’s continuous improvement. 

In Conclusion

To enjoy the many advantages of a digital bar menu, be strategic with both the menu design and deployment. Implement bar technology trends to visually showcase your menu items and ensure patrons can easily read what is on the screen without struggle. You can also leverage the menu board to showcase time-limited offers. 

Bar and pub industry leaders have adopted digital bar menus and other digital displays to enhance customer experience and grow their businesses. Whether you are a hip downtown bar or a bar franchise, you can enjoy these advantages by embracing technology. Carefully design and customize it to your brand, and you will realize what an absolute game-changer a digital bar menu can be for your bar. Our team is ready to help you with professional content design services and overall project management for your digital bar menu project.