A small business guide to digital signage
As the world becomes ever more familiar with cutting-edge technology, digital signage has become a popular form of advertising with businesses of all sizes. By 2020, the digital signage market will be worth an estimated $23 billion, so it’s never been a better time to invest in this medium.
Rather than relying on more traditional methods such as print, digital signage allows you to distribute content to a wider audience in a faster time-span. Therefore, it is more likely to gain attention, which can lead to increased sales and brand loyalty. This guide to digital signage will let you know how to optimize digital signage for your small business.
A recent study discovered that over 40% of customers found that digital displays could increase the amount they bought due to the information displayed near the point of purchase.
Here then, Adam Vanovitch of Essex based digital signage company W&Co gives his guide to digital signage for your business.
From customer personas to sign design
There are four elements to creating a digital signage campaign. These are strategy, software, hardware, and content.
Before you get to designing your content and working out what you want to say, you have to come up with a strategy. This means thinking about who your customers are, and what they are looking for.
One way of doing this is to create customer personas to get a greater understanding of their age, gender and location. This will help you to work out what your customers want from your brand so you can tailor your campaign to these audiences.
Research your target market, by interrogating your social media data or asking your followers and marketing lists to take part in survey forms to collate more information. You could even incentivise feedback by running a competition. Gaining a greater understanding of your customer’s lifestyle, demographics and locations, will help you better tailor your digital signage campaign.
Next, you will need to think about designing signage which will fully engage the user. For example, is the purpose to inform individuals of weather changes and news updates or bring to attention your latest promotions and offers?
Remember, the clearer your message is to the customer, the more likely you will see a return in investment.
Planning: Colour, budget, and distribution
There are several things you will need to consider as a guide in the planning stages of your digital signage. These include:
- Colour: Certain colour schemes are more engaging to the audience than others, and this will be dependent on the profile of your customer. If your base is more varied, consider using more neutral colours to appeal to a wider audience.
- Distribution method: Consider how many screens you will use to project your dynamic advert, message or animation. Having a strong content strategy in targeted areas in place will help keep your business on track.
- Timeline of the project: How scalable is the project? Are you working to a certain time frame to achieve results?
- Budget: Of course, if you are the owner of a smaller business, the budget will be one of the most important factors which can influence the size of your digital campaign. However, it has become more affordable in recent years as it is more accessible to all businesses.
- Mediums: Video and slides, can be more interesting and eye-catching when used for high street advertisements or displaying information in office settings.
A modern world with changing technology
Digital signage allows businesses to utilises more features than ever before as part of their advertisement campaigns.
Digital signage has many advantages over static signage, allowing you to make changes quickly and efficiently updating customers with new offers or the latest news through apps and design programs (Broadsign, OptiSigns, and Enplug DisplayOS are just a few examples). This can be achieved by pairing your device with another screen and choosing the advertisement to be displayed, which will allow you to tailor your signage to the specific location and customers in the area.
In comparison, traditional static signage and print methods are fixed to one sole use, meaning they can be hugely wasteful and costly if the information is constantly changing.
Digital signage also allows you to work remotely and not on location, giving marketing departments far more control over marketing campaigns. This also works both ways, with data from interactive signage fed right back into a central system, giving marketers real time information on customers and shoppers.
Measure your success
Digital signage allows you to fully optimise your brand by increasing your brand awareness and sales. Informing your customers of important offers and news concerning your business will create more custom opportunities for your company.
At the height of the digital age, there has never been a better time to utilise this format, as it is available for all budgets and businesses of all sizes.
Adam Vanovitch is the Managing Director of W&Co, an Essex based digital display and signage company. You can connect with W&Co on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
