Restaurant Menus

Pizza menus are absolutely critical to the success, growth, and profitability of your restaurant. Many small business owners use full color menus as their primary method of marketing with great results. If you want to generate revenue quickly, find new customers before they become loyal to other local restaurants, and combat the marketing efforts of the chains in your area - you should carefully read this guide and develop a pizza menu marketing campaign of your own.

Pizza Menu Design

Pizza menu design is a creative process that varies widely from restaurant to restaurant. However, there is some science involved that can increase response, highlight key items, and improve your food menu design - while increasing profitability!

Menu Items

* Categorize menu items by type: Pizza, Pasta, Salads, Subs, Beverages, etc

* List food categories in order: Appetizer - Soup - Salad - Entrée - Dessert

* Include a section on your menu for "Extras" such as bread sticks, extra cheese, etc. (This is a great way to increase sales and generate extra revenue on each order)

* Add some personality to your menu with specialty items

* Clearly list customer options for each category (ie: Club sandwiches served on choice of white, wheat, or rye)

* Use mouth-watering images of food items for each category when possible (It's a good idea to use images of your menu items as a background graphic)

* Group your menu items into categories so that you can make pricing decisions

* Adjust pricing for each menu item depending on volume and profit (Once you know what an item costs to make, you subtract the cost from the selling price and you have the gross profit for each item on your menu)

* Never use "..." leading up to pricing - this makes your menu look like a price list

* Never use "$" signs on your menu - simply place the cost after the item description (This shifts the customer's focus from the price to the food items

Images

* Images should always be saved in high-resolution format

* Use images that are 300dpi whenever possible in the food menu design

* Make sure you use original images or images that are not copyrighted (you can find millions of inexpensive royalty-free images at istock.com)

* Always hire a graphic designer unless you are experienced in design

Printing

* Always print in full-color on glossy paper - your restaurant's image will thank you

* Print in bulk to save money per piece - color printing is very affordable this way

* Choose an experienced pizza menu printer such as Taradel to obtain the best results, outstanding customer service, and the lowest prices...less than 4 cents per menu!

Paper

Choose a standard glossy paper durable enough to hold up to moderate usage. There is no need to use super-thick paper for takeout or pizza restaurant menus because it will cost you a fortune to ship and it will also increase production costs greatly. Choose a thin to medium thick paper depending on your budget and type of establishment.

* 60# Gloss - similar to a newspaper insert in your Sunday paper (this is the standard)

* 80# Gloss - similar to the cover of a magazine (think Time magazine's cover)

* 100# Gloss - similar to a postcard or business card in thickness

* Choose a standard food menu size such as 8.5x11 or 11x17 Need More Help Deciding? Request free pizza menu samples

Folding

* Tri-fold - six panel front and back menu

* Half-fold - four panel front and back menu

* Double Parallel Fold - six panel front and back menu with coupon strip

Bleed, No Bleed, and Other Printing Terms

* Bleed: Graphics/images extend all the way to the edge of the page

* No Bleed: Page has small white border of ¼ an inch when finished When designing a menu, you must design to bleed or no bleed specifications

* 4/0: Full color on one side only (the 4 stands for four color printing/full-color

* 4/4: Full color on both sides

Tracking Results

* Under-price a hot selling item. The general idea in doing this is that enough customers will buy additional items to offset the losses created by the under-pricing of the lead item. This is a great way to measure increases in response.

* Create a name for a product that is only on your menu - For example: "The Beast" Pizza ...soon enough customers will call and ask for these uniquely named food menu items.

* Use coupons - customers will clip coupons off of your menu and you'll know what works

* Create a "limited-time" promotion specific to one particular menu

Please check back often for updates to this pizza menu guide.

We will be constantly updating this guide and incorporating input from pizza restaurants across the country! If you have you helpful tips for menu printing or design please email them to chris@taradel.com and we may include them in future updates to this guide.

Copyright © 2007 Taradel, LLC. All rights reserved.

This article is free and you may utilize this article on your website as long as you retain the following live links and author information:

Chris Barr is an experienced marketing professional and graduate of Christopher Newport University. He specializes in print advertising, business development, web business strategic positioning, and technical writing. For the lowest prices on printed flyers, newspaper inserts, brochures, menus, and postcards please visit http://www.taradel.com/pizzamenus?ref=1004

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Barr

Starting to run your own restaurant is a very exciting time. However, it is also very stressful and can become even worse if you don't know what you're doing and what you need to do after you start up your restaurant.

For a startup you will need to have a definite plan and then you'll have to make sure that you follow the plan every step along the way. Your plan should include financial goals, getting a mentor and following his/her suggestions, and operational goals.

The first thing you need to do is figure out how much money it will take to get started with your restaurant. You need to make sure you are realistic with all the costs. Don't try to cut corners and think that you'll be able to keep costs lower than you really will be able to. If you are unrealistic during this stage, you are doing noting more than setting yourself up for failure.

Once you have the plan in place for your startup then you need to make sure you actually stick to the budget. You don't want to overspend and put yourself in a hole at any point during the process of opening your restaurant. You also want to make sure you continue to follow your budget with the daily operations of your restaurant.

Speaking of daily operations, you also need to plan and then go forward with how you will run your business on a daily basis. You want to plan how you'll acquire proper sources for your foods, what sales goals you'll have, and how you plan to keep and meet the sales goals after you launch your restaurant.

Of course behind all the planning - and helping you along the way - should be a mentor. Everyone needs someone who has successfully gone through the process of starting up a restaurant and also operating the restaurant. Your mentor should be someone you can freely talk to and someone who is willing to help you at each step along the way. With the help of your mentor you'll be able to more accurately predict how much money you'll need and everything else it'll take to start-up and then run your restaurant.

For a new startup you need to plan both the money it will take to plan, start, and run the restaurant as well as the operations of the restaurant. Make sure your goals and parameters are realistic and then do everything it takes to reach those goals and stay within the parameters. For example, don't allow yourself to go over budget. If you spend too much money on one thing then you'll have to spend less on something else. If you make a plan and stick by it, you'll have a much better chance to be successful with your dream restaurant.

Discover the secret elements in a restaurant business plan that banks, grant issuers, and other investors look for to give you the money you need. Learn from a real restaurants owner Jeff Pierre on how to start and run a successful restaurant. Go to http://www.RestaurantSuccessGuide.com for more tips and strategies on your very own restaurant.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Pierre

Have your considered a restaurant website before you choose a design for a restaurant menu printing?

It is the same as printing an extra phone number on the menu. Instead on being numeric, it is would alphabetical [http://www.YourRestaurant.com]

Plan out your menu for printing with your chosen menus items, phone number, fax number and a website address. Your website with the proper food ordering carts integrated will generate additional daily orders for your restaurant.