Who doesn’t love ice cream? While traditional permanent ice cream menu boards can look great, digital menu boards allow shops to display flavors dynamically and update signage efficiently without much fuss. But do you know that menu boards are one of an ice cream shop’s most essential parts besides the ice cream itself?
Why Do You Need a Digital Ice Cream Menu Board?
You might be settled with a static traditional menu board for your shop; however, just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. With a digital ice cream parlor menu board, you can capture the following benefits and more:
1. Display Information Easily
A digital menu board offers a creative way to include the ice cream shop menu with more information. Here are some common ice cream shop menu ideas you can consider:
- Unique flavors and toppings
- Ingredient lists/ Calories information
- Allergy related information
- Specials and limited-time offers
- Take-home ice cream pints
- Loyalty programs
- Other options, such as milkshakes, sundaes, and so on
- And more!
You can show different content based on your ice cream parlor layout with digital ice cream menu boards. For example, you can have ice cream flavor signs behind the counter and show promotions such as take-home ice cream pints near the sit-down area. You can easily change information as your menu changes whenever you see fit with minimal wait time. On the other hand, traditional signage means needing to do drastic modifications or creating a new sign altogether.
2. Capture Every Opportunity at the Right Time
One of the most important marketing strategies is that you want to ensure you launch your promotions, campaigns, or offers at the right time. To do so, you need to figure out the following:
- The days and times in which your sales and foot traffic are lowest and highest
- What do your customers like? What are the top-selling ice cream flavors that give you higher profit margins? What are the most common age groups that visit your shop?
- What kind of promotions will your customers be interested in? BOGO or time-sensitive deals?
With digital menu boards, you can launch different promotions and campaigns based on different times of the day. You can also schedule everything in advance, and your menu content will update automatically when the time comes. You have complete control over your menu boards and update your menu whenever you want without the wait.
3. Bring Menu to Life with Graphics
Unlike static boards, digital menu boards allow you to include dynamic photos, vivid videos, and captivating animations to not only bring your ice cream parlor menu to life. Stand out from the competition and show your customers that your high-quality products by doing the following:
- Images: Show your best-selling ice cream photos, share your recent awards, and promote other offerings, such as take-home ice cream pints
- Videos: Show behind-the-scenes videos, deliver your brand message and values, and share heartwarming moments to connect with your customers
- Animation: Let’s not forget about the animation! Be creative with the animation to draw customers’ attention and make your offerings appealing: try adding subtle background graphics or playful special effects such as dangling fruits and icy fog effects.
The best part is that with digital menu boards, you can update your images and videos anytime with different ice cream menu designs to achieve your sales goals.
4. Attract Organic Foot Traffic
Statistics show that 8 out of 10 consumers enter a store because digital signage has caught their interest. So, a well-designed digital menu board can increase business by attracting people who weren’t even planning on getting ice cream! You can install digital signage according to your ice cream shop layout to show tailored content and catch the attention of passersby.
Also, did you know that 79% of customers believe that signage reflects the quality of the business and the products/services the shop provides? Not only is a well-designed digital menu board good for your brand image, but it can also help you reduce perceived wait time, improve customer experience, and encourage customers to revisit your shop.
How Many Ice Cream Boards Does My Ice Cream Shop Need?
There are many factors you need to consider when you’re choosing the number of digital menu boards you need for your ice cream parlors:
- Menu: What do you want to show on your ice cream parlor menu boards? Do you want to include all the ice cream flavors or only the popular ones? You also want to avoid over-crowding your menu boards to ensure the legibility of your menus/offers. We suggest displaying a maximum of 30 items of information on your digital menu board. If you’re adding images, you shouldn’t have more than 20 items displayed on your message board. That way, you have plenty of room to add images without it looking too busy.
- Ice Cream Shop Layout: Does your shop have enough space for the amount of menu boards you wish to install? You will also need to consider the viewing distance, as it will affect the legibility of your menus and whether your customers can view the content easily.
- Size of TVs: For size, the TV must be big enough to display all of your information. A good rule of thumb is any TV size of 43 inches or more will do. It should also have an HDMI port for the digital menu display, which is standard on most modern TVs.
- Type of TVs: When it comes to the type of TV you use in your ice cream parlor, the brand doesn’t matter. However, you want to consider what type of TV you would like to install. Both consumer-grade and commercial-grade displays will do the job. However, they offer different pros and cons and come with different warranties.
Creating an Ice Cream Menu Design
Designing a digital ice cream parlor menu board is not as difficult as you think. The rule of thumb is that it is always better to not overcrowded the menu boards so the customers can read your menu easily.
There are two ways you can get a great ice-cream menu designs:
- Templates: If you are on a budget, you can always consider creating your ice cream parlor menu designs using templates. Even though templates are less flexible and are not custom-built for your shops, they will still be sufficient to display your menus. Consider choosing a provider that offers editable animation templates so that you can always edit your menu content without losing the animation element.
- Custom Design: If you want to create a long-lasting brand image and have effective digital menu boards to achieve your goals, then custom design is the way to go. There are many different design services on the market. However, you would want to choose a provider experienced in designing digital menu boards to ensure that they can fulfill your requests.
Of course, there are other elements you need to consider when designing your digital menu boards. If you are still curious, you can continue and read our blog on tips and tricks for creating digital signs to learn more.
Final Thoughts
Have questions about designing the perfect digital ice cream parlor menu boards? Talk to our professional design team and find out what you should and shouldn’t be doing with yours. Contact us today to book a free consultation!
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