Effective Menu Design & Printing: The 3 Second Test

As a restaurant owner, you need to make sure that the money you invest in advertising does not go to waste. Many savvy restaurateurs will agree with us when we say that the best place to spend money is on menus – especially if you offer catering or carryout and delivery services.

In fact, a well-designed, high-quality menu is the best way to encourage customers to spend more money at your restaurant on a more frequent basis. A menu that is inviting and well laid out will relax the customer and help them justify all the money that they are spending.

Many direct marketers and advertisers believe that there is a “three second test” when it comes to how effective an advertisement is. Basically, within 3 seconds of a consumer viewing an advertisement, they will either become engaged and continue reading/viewing – or – they divert their attention elsewhere and “forget” the advertisement.

Within 3 seconds of a consumer viewing an advertisement, they will either become engaged and continue reading/viewing – or – they divert their attention elsewhere and “forget”

Well, this exact same principal holds true with restaurant menus – more specifically, take out or to-go menus. Therefore when designing and printing menus, you need to think like direct marketer and design your menu for maximum response and profitability – otherwise you are just wasting your advertising budget.

Design Your Menu to Pass the 3-Second Test

Obviously, you cannot stand behind a potential customer’s back while they first viewing your menus.
The best way to make sure that you pass the three second test is by having a clean layout. Most people are hard-wired to avoid things they do not understand. Therefore, when you design your menu, make sure menu items and descriptions are easy to read, and your phone number or online ordering website is prominently displayed. Don’t make people work for their meal! The easier you can make the customer’s ordering decision, the faster they will pick up the phone and place an order.

Another way you can make sure your menu passes the three second test is by having beautiful pictures of your most profitable menu items. You don’t’ have to have a bunch of pictures, just make sure the ones you do use are high-resolution and look professional. By highlighting those items that are most profitable with pictures, you can not only increase your overall revenue, but your bottom line as well. A good rule of thumb to follow is one picture per “panel” of your menu. For instance, if you have a Tri-Fold menu, you would want to include for 5-6 pictures within your menu.

Put these principals to work the next time you design and print new menus and watch your return on advertising investment increase exponentially.

Click here to get free samples of real restaurant menus that beat the 3-second test time and time again.