So you’ve added digital signage to your restaurant. What’s next?

Deciding to invest in digital signage is just the beginning. There’s an incredible amount of value that you can extract out of having a screen (or multiple) in your restaurant. Digital signage is dynamic. Don’t just settle for listing your menu. There’s a lot more you can use it for.

Here’s ten tips for getting the most out of digital signage.

Visualize Your Menu. If you want to get the most out of that brand new 4K TV sitting in your restaurant, visualizing your menu with high resolution imagery will make your guests even hungrier to order. You can strategically use imagery to encourage menu sales of specific items you’re trying to push. Here’s a few examples.

  • Items with the highest profit margins
  • Raise awareness of new menu additions
  • Show off appetizers and desserts

Show Off Your Special Menu. An easier way to push your current special menu (much easier than printing a ton of copies to distribute to tables) is to use your digital signage for showing it off. Throwing it up on your TV is a good way to get more eyes on it, especially if you pair it with appealing imagery. 

Current Deals. Make Happy Hour a little happier with digital signage. Instead of having your servers remind customers what the current deals are, or that Happy Hour is lasting until 6 PM, let your TV do the work. You can even spice things up with appealing graphics. Remember, the only limit to what you can put on your screens is your imagination.

Promote Upcoming Daily Specials. Does your restaurant run daily specials? (e.g. Taco Tuesday, etc.) Then this strategy is for you. Displaying your upcoming daily specials gives customers a reason to return to your restaurant. It gets them thinking about their next visit before they’ve even walked out the door.

Easy Drink Menu. From tap lists to speciality cocktails, digital signage is perfect for showing off your drink menu. Not everyone is going to open up their drink menu after their first order. But a digital drink menu is hard to avoid looking at. A drink might just catch their eye, spurring an unplanned purchase. 

Social Media Engagement. Many restaurants cleverly leverage their digital signage to add a social media element. Services (such as CoGoTV, which we’ll talk about shortly), allow you to display your customers’ social media posts on your screen. It encourages customers to post about what a great time they’re having, encouraging word-of-mouth. 

Trivia and Game Night. Whether you’re running trivia, karaoke, or something else entirely, use your digital signage to get the most out of it. A TV adds a whole new layer of immersion to the experience, and is highly visible for everyone in your restaurant. 

Event Promotion. Events aren’t always easy to promote. Promotional methods like social media announcements, email newsletters, and direct mail can often fly under the radar for the intended audience. Promoting your upcoming events in-store, on your digital signage, is one of the best possible ways to ensure your customers find out about them.

Promote Your Loyalty Club. I’m a big fan of this method. Why? Because it’s actually worked on me in the past. Showing off the benefits of joining your loyalty program is a great method for convincing customers to impulse join while on the premises. It’s even more effective if joining gets them a discount on the meal they’re enjoying right now.

WiFi Promotion. You pay for WiFi for a reason. It’s a marketing tool. Let your customers know you understand it’s a service they expect by featuring it on your digital signage. This can prove particularly useful if you’re taking advantage of WiFi Marketing, and taking advantage of automatic data capture to build customer profiles.

WiFi Marketing With CoGoBuzz

CoGoBuzz, our state-of-the-art digital marketing service, leverages advanced WiFi, SMS, and Email solutions to reach your customers on the devices that they use most.

Whether in-store or out, CoGoBuzz is designed from-the-ground-up to provide the customer engagement that your restaurant needs. Ready to get the most out of digital signage? Our CoGoTV service will set you up with Social TV, Digital Menu Boards, Tap Lists, Video, and Interactive Ads! Our service redefines your mobile experience, delivering in-store engagement through free, fast, and secure WiFi. Thanks to automatic data capture, we’ll set you up with valuable customer profiles. Build your email list, social media following, and more!

Click here to learn more about CoGoBuzz!

Does your restaurant use digital signage? Have any tips of your own? Sound off in the comments!