Looking for ways to make your menu stand out to new & existing customers in an effort to get more orders? Here are 4 easy things you can do to make your menu shine:
1. Personalize Your Bio + Dish Descriptions
Your biography and dish descriptions are a great opportunity to showcase your personality, your brand, and the uniqueness of your food. We encourage you to personalize these and use them to sell your customers on why they should order your food!
What to include in your bio: read more here!
What to include in your dish descriptions: read more here!
Go to your Shef Dashboard to update your biography and dish descriptions today.
2. Use High Quality Photos
Make a good first impression with customers by showcasing you and your food in the best light! Photos are one of the primary things that customers use when deciding what to order - your photos should be as high quality as your food, and your profile photo is a signal that customers can trust you to prepare their food.
Tip: while we provide template photos to help you get started, we highly recommend uploading your own menu photos as soon as possible to help your dishes stand out.
3 key points for dish photos:
Good lighting - make sure your food is well lit
Color - make your dishes come to life by adding a garnish with contrasting colors
Angle - take your photo from directly above your dish. Make sure to include the entire bowl or plate in your photo (circular dishes work best with our backgrounds)
For more tips on dish photography, click here.
You can change the photo for any of your dishes in the "Menu" page of your Shef dashboard.
3 key points for profile photos:
Good lighting - whether you are indoors or outdoors, make sure there is good natural lighting!
Smile! - welcome your customers with a warm smile and let them know that you're excited to cook for them
Keep it Clean - double check that your clothing is clean and that your background/surrounding area is clutter-free
You can change your profile photo in the "Profile" page of your Shef dashboard.
3. Experiment with Portions & Pricing
When ordering, customers care about how good the value of their food is (how much food they've received for what they've paid). This is your business & you’re free to decide how to balance price, quantity, food costs, dish complexity, etc. but here are some tips to make your menu appeal to more customers:
Provide larger portion sizes - customers appreciate filling portions, which typically equal 16 oz or more.
Offer family-style bundles - some customers want to order meals for the whole family. Try larger family-style meal bundles that may appear higher in price but are cheaper per serving.
Offer a la carte items - If you offer a lot of combo meals, try splitting up the entree from the sides so customers can order the dishes and quantities they prefer.
4. Keep Your Menu Fresh
Although keeping your popular dishes on the menu is important, offering a variety of dishes and keeping your menu fresh lets different types of customers find something they enjoy. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Variety - even if you only have a few dishes on your menu, try offering a variety of protein options, dietary options (e.g., vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free), grain options, and more.
New dishes - add new dishes to your menu frequently to keep customers excited to continue ordering from you
Seasonal dishes - add new dishes using seasonal ingredients or offer dishes for a specific holiday
For more tips and information around adding dishes to your menu, read here. Plus, don't forget to post on Shef Social when you've added new items!