Use Digital Signage to Get Your Message Across

In this world of short attention spans and cryptic cell phone text messages, fully communicating your businesses strengths and benefits is a tough task indeed. At best, you have but a few moments to share what your business does and why people should care. Catching their interest requires delivering the right message at the right time and location. Digital signage may just be the perfect balance of interesting content and location.

It seems that everywhere I go I see large 50 inch LCD screens showing national news channels, restaurant menus, and the latest household products. What used to be confined to the waiting areas in airport terminals is now becoming common place in grocery stores, restaurants, doctor’s offices, banks, auto repair shops, and big box retailers. When you really think about, it makes perfect sense. People love to watch TV.

At a general level, digital signage networks fall into two main categories: advertising and internal. First, you have advertising networks where the operator places screens in local establishments for the purpose of selling advertising space to local businesses. And second, you have internal networks designed by businesses or organizations to communicate with customers, employees, students, or constituents. Each has its own specific goals and business case, but the good news is that both types of networks can be very effective tools for your business.

So how do you take advantage of Digital Signage in your own business? First, you need to identify your business objectives. Are you trying to bring in new business, educate existing customers of new services and product offerings, or train employees on the latest HR policies and operational procedures? Chances are you might want to do all of the above. Think of this step as figuring out the “Why”.

Next, you need to identify the audience and the message to share, also known as the “What”. Who are they and what do they like? Questions like these help you determine the type of content you need to create to communicate your message. In the digital signage world, content is king. Depending on your audience, a simple photo and text “PowerPoint” like slide show with no audio may be better than full motion HD quality video. In the end you’re message needs to instill confidence in your brand and contain a call to action. Most digital signage solutions can display video & audio, photos, crawling text, and Internet content. Consider using a wide range of content to capture the attention of your audience.

Finally, you need to discover the right location, or “Where”, to engage your audience. For employee training applications, the office break room or water cooler is a natural gathering point. If you have a customer waiting area or retail floor, it should be easy to find the best spot for a LCD screen. But if you’re a service business with no real retail location, you will need to get creative. That’s where “advertising” digital signage networks are the right solution.  Consider placing your message content in local doctor’s offices, restaurants, or movie theaters. Finding places with captive “waiting” audiences can give you a big advantage.

Figuring out the Why, What, and Where of Digital Signage is the first step toward a more targeted marketing campaign. The good news is that the technology is merging with Internet standards and methods. This means that you can use the same content for both your website and your digital signage network. Now that’s technology I can really get behind.