Make Customers Salivate with the Design of Your Print Takeout Menu

If you have a food business, it is a must for you to print takeout menu, a menu for walk-in diners, and an online menu for your website.  When designing all of these, you should consider the type of fare you are offering, the interiors of your restaurant, your logo, your target market, and a host of other factors. Basically, it all boils down to designing your menus in such a way that it will appeal to the eyes, mind, and palate of your target diners.

Factors to Consider when Designing Your Menu

So what are these factors that you must consider when designing your menu? Whether you are having a soft opening for your restaurant or if you are relaunching or rebranding your food business, here are the tips that you must remember during the process of designing the menu:

  • The placement of the food items

Make the menu easy to read, but not too conventional. If you’re a fine dining restaurant, present the dishes in your menu in such a way that it can be read like a book, from the upper left hand corner going to the right, up then down. A reader will most likely scan the menu first, then read it like a book. The prime spots are usually the top third of the page, as well as the center.

  • The images or illustrations

If you are including photos in your menu, make sure that the dishes are professionally shot. Otherwise, the menu would look cheap. Also invest in good quality print to go menus. It’s easy to recognize if a menu was printed on a desktop computer printer because these look cheap – offset printing and professional photography is the way to go. You can also use illustrations, just make sure that the drawings blend well with the color and the typography of the menu.

  • The font, color, and overall design of the menu

If you are not including images or illustrations in the menu, go for bold typography and unique colors. Skip the currency sign. If you must include the prices on the menu, make the numbers a lighter shade than the text or the name of the dish – so that the eyes will be drawn away from the figures. To highlight a bestselling dish, use boxes or lines to separate it from all the other items on the menu. If you’re a diner, for instance, organize the menu by separating the starters from the salads, sandwiches, and drinks. When you print carry out menus, only include the quick-to-make and the most profitable dishes. This way, the customer won’t get frustrated with a long wait.

All in all, make sure that the overall design of your menu is something that will make hungry diners look forward to the delicious tastes that will hit their palate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Print Takeout Menu: Key Takeaways for Restaurant Owners

When you print takeout menu, you are not just enhancing a customer’s overall dining experience but you are also utilizing a savvy marketing tool. Imagine a hungry diner who walked into your restaurant without having any idea about the kind of food that you’re serving. Once you hand over the menu, that serves as a marketing tool because you want the menu to sell your restaurant’s dishes. If you have a menu that’s difficult to read, is filled with too much text or have too-small images that make the page look crowded, do you think that the hunger of the customer will be appeased by simply looking at the menu? Not necessarily. This is the exactly the reason why it is important to  print carry out menus and dine in menus that reflect the theme of the fare you’re  serving inside your dining establishment.

Tips for Restaurant Owners when Designing a Menu

Remember that creating and designing a menu are entirely different things. Creating a menu involves choosing the theme of your restaurant, which dishes you are going to serve, and which ingredients you are going to focus on. Designing a menu is done when you are finished selecting and naming your dishes. For example, you’re a pizzeria and you named your pizzas after the days of the week, your menu would consist of seven different pizza flavors, drinks, and perhaps a few side dishes.

How are you going to effectively design your print to go menus with such a theme? Here are a few tips:

  • Again, use the menu as a marketing tool. With the pizzeria example, how are you going to describe the pizza flavors in such a way that customers would know what they’re getting – but there is still a surprise element to the taste, or maybe the ingredients used? Achieve that delicate balance between having well-lit, mouth-watering images and text or dish descriptions that tease the mind and the palate.
  • For your takeout menu, make sure that the dishes are profitable and quick to prepare. Otherwise, indicate the approximate number of minutes that they need to wait before you can get that dish out of the kitchen. For pizzas, add three to five minutes to the time it takes to bake the pizza so that the customers will feel happy when their waiting time is actually cut short.
  • Research shows that customers read menus as they would a book, so there’s actually no ‘sweet spot’ where you can put a bestselling dish that will attract the eyes like a magnet. Feature your bestsellers on the upper left or right hand corner of the menu page to get maximum results.

Follow these tips when designing a menu and watch the profits of your food business grow!

 

 

 

 

Print Takeout Menu: Tips for Getting Started

How can you go about the task to print takeout menu? If you are in the food industry, the first thing that would entice customers to try out what your kitchen has to offer is the menu. No matter how mouth-watering your dishes may look on the plate, if a hungry diner pores over a less-than-appealing menu, they still would not know what to order. What’s worse is that they might walk straight out because they did not find any item that’s appealing from your menu.

This is precisely the reason why it’s important to know how to print carry out menus and menus for your dine-in customers. A new customer would have no idea about your dishes once they walk into your restaurant or dining establishment. A menu resolves that, so you must have it designed in such a way that it appeals to their palate. Here are a few tips for getting started on your menu design:

  • Think of theme of your restaurant and use that as a starting point.

If you are a fine dining establishment, the menu should be designed elegantly. For mom-and-pop restaurants or casual dining establishments, the design of the menu should be equally casual. If you are offering trendy dishes, think of a menu design that will appeal to the “in” crowd. Apply the same principle for your print to go menus – just make sure that the dishes featured are the ones that are quick to make, and are most profitable.

  • Know how to deliciously describe your dishes.

If your bestselling dish is juicy fried chicken with half a dozen spices, describe it in such a way that it will entice diners to try out what makes your dish special or different from all the other similar recipes in the market. For a casual menu, it is best to use everyday language while for fine dining takeout fare, use more elegant words to appeal to the more high-end market.

  • Use suitable colors.

If you’re selling customized cupcakes or doughnuts, use pastel or bright colors and insert cute design elements on the menu. Use darker, more elegant colors if you are offering more expensive fare.

By knowing how to appeal to the tastes of your target market, you can effectively design a menu – whether it’s for customers dining in or those who want to grab their food to go.

Which Layout Options Work Best when You Print Brochures

When you print brochures, business cards, postcards, menus, and flyers, you are in fact launching a full-blast print advertising campaign. Most people think that print is not effective anymore, but it cannot be farther from the truth. Combining a digital with a print advertising campaign will help you achieve maximum results for whatever goal you have set for yourself. This is precisely the reason why you need to pay close attention to detail when designing each and every printed product that you will use for the promotional campaign. Here, we will focus our attention on how to print professional brochures. Take a look at these printing tips:

  • Know what the purpose of the brochure is.

Are you introducing a new product or service? Are you establishing a new company so you would like clients to know how everything started, and what your goals are as a business? Would you like customers to attend an upcoming corporate event, or participate in a huge in-store sale? Based on your purpose, there is a corresponding layout and design that you can apply.

  • Look for a good quality printing company.

There are many companies that print brochures online , but not all of them are created equal. Digital printing companies will most likely use desktop printers, which may not necessarily deliver professional-looking results. If you want high-quality prints, go for offset printing which utilize high-end printing presses. Offset printing may be a bit pricier than digital printing, but the results are well worth it.

  • Choose a layout and design that will suit your company’s image.

Lastly, choose a layout and design that will appeal to your target market. If you’re introducing your company to prospective suppliers, clients, and customers, for example, go for a business brochure layout. This is structured and a bit formal – and may include the mission and vision of your company.

If you are introducing a new product or service, the layout should be that of a marketing brochure. This should include a lot of professionally-shot images that will appeal to your target market. The copy should be descriptive, and entice the readers to buy exactly what you’re offering. Other types of layouts are travel brochures, corporate brochures, design portfolio brochures, instructional brochures, financial brochures, and educational brochures.

Planning to Print Brochures? Layout Ideas You Can Borrow

When you print brochures, you want to make sure that you are getting maximum results. For this, it is good to determine what your goal is in the first place. Brochures are printed to introduce a company or a new product or service. They can also be used as a travel guide, as a form of advertising for an upcoming show, or to encourage parents to enrol their kids at a class or school. As you can see, brochures are quite versatile. So in order for you to reach your goal for printing the, you must know which layout option works best for you:

  • Corporate brochures

If you’re a startup company and you would like to introduce your business to potential customers, suppliers, and business partners, go for a corporate brochure layout. This would usually include your company’s mission and vision, as well as a brief description of the products or services that you are offering. Corporate professional brochures have a good mix of text and compelling images.

 

  • Travel brochures

Image-heavy, travel brochures are usually seen in airports and tourism offices. Targeting travellers or all ages, these printed advertising materials should encourage readers to scratch that itch to travel.

 

  • Advertising brochures

When you print brochures online and your goal is to advertise something, you need to design it in such a way that it appeals to your target market. If you’re selling beauty products, for instance, the color scheme and images must appeal to your main buyers – who could be females aged 18 and above. Also plan the assembly of pages – there should be an introduction, a brief description of what you are advertising, and a call to action in the end.

 

  • Financial brochures

If you’re selling insurance packages, go for a financial brochure layout. For this, use images, pie charts, and graphs which can be easily understood even by someone without a financial background.

 

  • Real estate brochures

If you are in the real estate business, you will naturally target single professionals or families who are looking for a property to buy – or sell. Just like corporate brochures, there must be a balance between text and image so that it will be easy to read.

 

Which among these brochures are you planning to have printed out?

 

Reach Out to Your Target Market when You Print Brochures

Do you know which businesses print brochures as part of their print advertising campaign? Almost all of them do – solo entrepreneurs, partnerships, freelancers, corporations, startups, and established businesses. Unlike what most people think, print advertising is not dead. In fact, it is getting a revival because most professionals have discovered that print is the perfect complement to digital advertising.

How to Target the Right Market with Brochures   

Next, as long as you know how to do it properly, you can reach out to your target market by printing out brochures. How, exactly? Here are a few tips:

  • Make sure that the design reflects the image that you want to project for your brand.

When designing professional brochures, it is best to make it look as if they are designed by, well, professionals. A client or a potential business partner can easily determine if your brochure was not laid out by a graphic designer, or is fresh out of a desktop printer. The quality is just not there because the results do not look professional. While you’re at it, make sure that the design of the brochure reflects the image that you want to create for your brand. If your target is women in their 20s and up, for example, which color scheme would appeal to them? What are the images that will grab their attention? The answers to these questions would be entirely different if your target market is young professionals looking for a house, or teens or tweens who do not have their own money to spend just yet.

  • Know where to distribute brochures to get maximum impact.

Unlike postcards which you can send by mail in bulk, brochures need to be distributed face-to-face. You can do so in events that draw big crowds, trade shows, or you can display these brochures in your office reception desk on in parts of your work area where there is plenty of foot traffic.

  • Look for a good brochure printing company.

Finally, look for a print brochures online that will deliver the best quality print. Digital printing companies are good but offset printing is even better. These companies use state-of-the-art offset printing presses to deliver professional results.

All in all, reaching out to your target market through brochures require a lot of planning because you must come up with a suitable design. After that, the right printing company will do the trick so you can distribute the brochures to your target audience with utmost confidence about the results.

 

 

 

 

Paper or Not? Why It Pays to Go for Plastic Business Cards

If you are thinking about using plastic business cards to promote your business, you are definitely on the right path. These business cards are thick, durable, waterproof, and fade-proof. With such characteristics, not only will you get the best value for your money but you will also make an excellent first impression to your prospective customers.

As compared to paper, here are the many reasons why you should consider going for plastic business cards:

  • Plastic falls under the category of premium business cards. On a side-by-side comparison with thin paper or thick cardboard cards, plastic is extremely durable so it will last you for practically a lifetime.
  • Because of the uniqueness of plastic as a printing material, offset printing is better than digital printing. See-through ink is used and depending on the type of plastic that will be used, you can achieve different effects.
  • The see-through effect is achieved when clear plastic is used; the colors are a bit more solid with frosted plastic; while white plastic is similar to printing on regular paper – only the material is different.
  • Using plastic business cards will make you stand out from your direct competitors. If a company offering the same services that you have in your business has thin, cardboard business cards and yours is made from plastic with high-quality print, which one do you think will stand out?
  • Plastic business cards are similar to credit cards so they have a higher perceived value. Instead of tossing a cardboard card inside an office drawer, customers will most likely keep your plastic business cards inside their wallet or in a prominent place in their office desk.

When looking for a business cards online company to print your plastic cards, make sure that they use state-of-the-art printing presses. Again, plastic has an entirely different surface than paper so a different kind of ink and printing process must be used. Called offset printing, this offers much higher quality than desktop digital printing. With the right printing process, what’s printed on the plastic business card is practically fade-proof, so you won’t worry about customers forgetting about your contact information anytime soon.

With all these benefits, there’s really no reason for you to say no to the prospect of using plastic business cards.

Plastic Business Cards: Durable, Flexible, Impressive

Competition in any business is very tough so you need to have something that makes you stand out – and plastic business cards do exactly that. Durable and flexible, these unique business cards will impress the heck out of your customers.

The Characteristics that Make Business Cards Stand Out

So what exactly are the characteristics that make business cards made from plastic stand out? Here’s a preview:

Clients will definitely not be impressed with thin linen cards which look like they just came out from a desktop printer. Cards which are as thick as a credit card and plastic cards are considered premium because of the quality of material used. By showing customers that you are investing in high-quality material, they will have the impression that you are also delivering the same level of quality when it comes to the products or services that you are offering.

  • The material is durable and flexible.

As compared to paper, no matter how thick, plastic is waterproof, durable, and fade-proof. Just make sure to look for a business cards online printing company that specializes in printing plastic business cards.

  • The uniqueness of the material will make your business card stand out.

If a customer has a stack of business cards collected over the years, they will most likely be made from standard-sized cardboard material. If your plastic business card is inserted in such a stack, it will really stand out and it will increase the likelihood of a customer calling you. Another thing that makes plastic cards stand out is the fact that there are different styles or finishes to choose from: white, clear-colored, frosted, or textured. When designing the card, make sure that the layout, font, and colors used will be a good fit for the material used.

Size-wise, you can go for the standard 2” x 3.5” option – or something a bit bigger like 2.125” x 3.375”. Square, oval, or standard-sized business cards with rounded edge are the other options that you can choose from. Stylish, durable, and flexible, plastic business cards are a must-have if you want to leave a lasting impression to your clients.

 

What Makes Up Rack Cards: Size, Material, and Design

Rack cards are a familiar sight in theaters, hotel lobbies, airports, tradeshow booths, office reception desks, and similar areas. These thick cards usually indicate the contact information of the business, as well as a brief description of the products or services offered. In a doctor’s office, for example, you might see a rack card which lists down the most important vaccines that new born babies must get. At the bottom of the card is the contact information of the doctor that you can contact for vaccines. If you’re a business owner, you can use rack cards in your own advertising campaign as well. Read on to find out the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about rack cards.

Frequently Asked Questions about Rack Cards

  • What’s the standard size of a rack card?

Rack cards are printed advertising materials and in order for them to fit in display cases, you must go for one that’s standard-sized. The most common sizes of rack cards are 3.5’ x 8.5” and 4’ x 9”. The orientation is portrait, while the design is colorful and eye-catching.

  • What is the best material to use when printing rack cards?

When looking for a company to print rack cards, make sure that they use only high-quality offset printing presses. This is better than desktop digital printers which may not necessarily be capable of printing on thick or heavy cardstock. Most rack card printing companies use paper which have a 16.pt thickness. Depending on whether you want a matte or a glossy finish, there is a suitable paper thickness and type that you can use for printing.

  • How can I effectively design a rack card?

For rack card printing to be effective, the design must be eye-catching. The colors and design should be eye-catching enough so that anyone walking by or standing near the display case of the rack card will notice enough to grab one or two cards. Of course, similar to business cards printing, the colors used and the overall design should also match the image that you would like to project for your brand. Another way to make your rack card stand out is to incorporate maps, QR codes, discount coupons, or a detachable business card at the bottom of the material.

By doing your homework and learning as much as you can about rack cards, you can successfully use it to promote your business.

 

Getting to Know Rack Cards

When you are checking out of a hotel, you are bound to see a stack of rack cards that promote the other services of the establishment that you just visited. You pick one for future reference, or to give to a friend who might be planning to stay in the same hotel in the future. Such is the effectiveness of marketing through rack cards. They hold a person’s attention enough to grab one card, read through it, and hopefully take it home.

If you would like to take advantage of the appeal of rack cards and use it as a way to advertise your business, here are a few things to learn about them:

  • Rack cards should be placed in an area where there is a lot of foot traffic.

Aside from hotel lobbies, you will usually see rack cards displayed in theaters, the waiting area of doctor’s offices, showrooms, booths in tradeshows – basically any area where there is a lot of foot traffic. Placement is important because the more that people will grab one of your rack cards, the more exposure your business will get.

  • Design, color, and overall look is important.

Since your goal is to capture the attention of anyone standing near the place where the rack card is set, the design of your card must be eye-catching. Think of the brochures distributed in airports which showcase the most beautiful tourist destinations in the country you’re visiting. The images are attention-grabbing and are professionally photographed. The same thing should apply when it comes to your own set of rack cards. Remember that design, color and the overall look of the card should compel passersby to grab one of your rack cards.

Offset has up to eight times better quality than desktop digital printing, so the extra investment is well worth it. You should also know which size and material is most effective for rack cards advertising. The standard sizes are 3.5” x 8.5” and 4” x 9”.

  • You can also incorporate special features in the rack card design.

Finally, you can incorporate special features when rack card printing. You can design it in such a way that the bottom part is detachable and can be used as a business card or a discount coupon. By  learning as much as you can about rack cards, you can turn printing them into a vital part of  your print promotional campaign.