Guide to Menu Boards

Your menu board can make a big difference in a customer’s first impression about your restaurant. Menu boards, like all of your restaurant signs, play an important role in establishing your brand identity and in boosting your bottom line. Simply highlighting a high-profit daily special on your menu board can drive sales and increase your take.

When it comes to restaurant signage, and menu boards in particular, today’s restaurateurs have far more options than ever—from simple menu card holders and dry erase boards to back-lit menu signs and high-tech digital models. Once you’ve chosen the best style for your business, there are still more options, including a variety of sizes, frames, colors and type faces. Finding a menu board that makes the right statement about your business and that allows you to change prices and items easily is key.

Finding restaurant menu boards that fit in your budget may limit your choices. Prices can run the gamut from well under $100 for a menu card holder to thousands for an illuminated digital system.

Great menu boards can:

1. Influence diners’ decisions by promoting daily specials.
2. Lead customers to higher-priced dishes and entrees.
3. Enhance your image as a restaurant that routinely has new menu offerings.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Make it easy with dry erase menu boards

For the utmost in simplicity, turn a dry erase board into your menu holder. Use affordable color markers to write in the daily specials coming from your kitchen.

I recommend: Hit your local office supply store or hop online at OfficeDepot.com or OfficeMax.com for a good selection of dry erase boards.

Choose chalk menu boards

A popular menu board option, colorful chalkboards lend a friendly, folksy ambience to an establishment. Write on and erase chalk menu signs on a regular basis or hire professional chalk artists to create a permanent menu board.

I recommend: InternationalPatterns.com offers chalk menu boards priced from about $100 to $1,000. For professional chalk artists, try ChalkItUpSigns.com, which will ship just about anywhere in North America.

Menu board systems

Selling a large number of menu items in your restaurant? Menu boards that are connected together may work best. A menu board system can be made from a number of materials and can be designed for indoor or outdoor use.

I recommend: NationalSignSystems.com offers a good selection of custom menu board options in their product line. For standard back-lit or magnetic menu boards, go to NationalMenuBoard.com, which offers one to six panels in several standard sizes. Find more restaurant menu display providers on the Business.com Web site.

Designer themes for restaurant signs

Instead of a typical rectangle, consider a custom-made menu sign for your restaurant. Signage can be created in the shape of a sub sandwich, ice cream scoops, or some other signature item.

I recommend: InternationalPatterns.com will help you create a menu board that reflects your business identity.

Restaurant menu boards go digital

One of the newest arrivals in the menu board industry: digital menu boards that change content throughout the day. These appealing restaurant signs can provide targeted advertising, animated promotions and instantaneous updates among other benefits. Generally controlled by a computer, you can easily change offerings and price points at any time.

I recommend: IDSMenus.com offers digital menu boards in addition to drive-thru, indoor and outdoor restaurant signs. Suppliers of restaurant furnishings, including digital menu boards, can be found in the Business.com directory.

Point-of-purchase menu holders

Inspire impulse sales and lead diners to your most profitable menu items with a menu holder near the register or on each and every table.

I recommend: Consult FastSigns.com for restaurant signs and menu holders that will motivate customers to make purchases.

Outdoor and drive-thru menu boards

An outdoor menu board system is essential if you have a drive-thru. But other types of restaurants can benefit from an outdoor menu board as well. Called walk-up menu boards, these allow passersby to view your menu and hopefully, entice them to come in for a meal.

I recommend: Howard and Main Street Menu Systems offer a variety of outdoor menu signs.

Updating your menu board

In the restaurant business, you constantly need to update your menu—eliminating items that aren’t profitable enough, adding new dishes and changing prices. Menu boards use several technologies to allow updating, including magnetic (menu strips adhere to metal boards), tracking system (menu strips slide into tracks), static cling (generally used for changing price digits only) and full graphics (a new graphic must be ordered whenever there’s a change).

I recommend: Business.com lists several vendors of changeable letter boards.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• Many menu board manufacturers also supply stock photos of savory fare to use on your menu board.
• Front-lit menu boards tend to be easier to access and update than back-lit menu boards.
• Standard stock models of restaurant signs typically cost less than customized menu boards.

The official source of Menu Boards is the Menu Boards page at Business.com