When to use digital signage

Signage has always been an important medium of advertisement, from the good old days of door-to-door salesmen, right till this era of advanced technology and artificial intelligence – from all indications, this trend is expected to linger on into the future.

Signage has taken different forms, shapes and even gone digital. Still, its relevance has largely remained the same.

Whether you’re a small and medium-sized enterprise or a large business incorporation, digital signage can serve as a lethal marketing weapon – driving brand awareness and sales from zero to 100. That’s if you know how digital signage works and when to use it.

To ensure you get the best result, it’s advisable to use digital signage for your business when launching a new product or service. This could help lure prospective customers and remind existing clients that you’re still in business. Digital signage can also be used to pass information within an organization, explain features of products, create urgency, and entertain customers. 

What is Digital Signage?

So what is digital signage? Digital signage or electronic signage is a multi-billion sub-segment of advertising and marketing. It involves using one or more display technologies such as LCD monitors, e-paper, TV video walls, and projection devices to advertise a business by displaying promotional images, videos, and other digital content in real-time.

How Does Digital Signage Work?

Digital signage could be as basic as a media player connected to a TV screen to show PowerPoint slides, product images, or amateur-edited videos. On the other hand, it could be as complex as someone in San Francisco remotely controlling a display monitor that’s mounted 5,660 miles away in Berlin. Whatever your reality is, there are some basic things required to run digital signage:

Display Screen

You’ll need screen display equipment like a TV or monitor to beam visuals of the content in your media player. The ideal display screen for digital signage must have high-resolution capabilities, preferably a 4k or HD resolution screen.

Media Player

A media player is a software or hardware device capable of storing, viewing, and playing digital media content.This is a necessity, especially for small business digital signage and new startups who cannot afford sophisticated equipment. Digital signage players would help them promote their enterprise and increase brand awareness within their locality.

Content

Content really is king! It is the livewire of your digital signage architecture. Whether you admit it or not, the amount of success you achieve in any advertising or marketing campaign is heavily dependent on the kind of content you share with potential and existing customers. 

Even if you assemble the best digital signage infrastructure and equipment, without the right content, your digital signage campaign is bound to fail.

Content Management System (CMS)

Here’s another important part of the process. A digital signage content management system (CMS) is a software that will help you regulate, schedule, and seamlessly disseminate content. This is mainly used by big organizations that operate remote digital signage.

Infrastructure

Digital signage infrastructure is the hardware equipment needed to make digital signage work. From networking basics to display monitors, cables, Internet-connected devices, and all the whatnot.

How Effective is Digital Signage?

Digital signage is big business. If you’re still lurking in the corner, contemplating whether to join the bandwagon or not. You’re cheating yourself out of a multi-billion dollar goldmine. The global digital signage market could be worth $38.63 billion by 2030. Trusted sources say 90% of the entire data transported to the brain is visual.  Also, the human brain is configured to receive and process visual information 60,000x faster than text. It has also been proven that digital signage increases brand awareness; four out of five companies have reported a 33% rise in sales after embracing digital signage.

It’s not even up for debate. Digital signage remains one of the most influential and productive means of advertising and marketing.

Pros of Digital Signage

As in everything else, digital signage has its good and bad side, but thankfully, the benefits of digital signage outweigh the drawbacks. Let’s take a look at them:

• Increases brand and customers’ awareness
• Enhanced visibility
• Drives growth and sales
• Better customer satisfaction
• Information can be disseminated in real-time
• Increased recall and retention rate
• Easy to use
• Better content management
• Wider reach
• Cost-effective (especially in the long term)

Uses of Digital Signage

Digital Signage has been tested by various organizations across different sectors. Its use cases include: 

• Communicate brand value
• Explain product details 
• To facilitate internal and external communication
• Create a source of revenue
• Share social media 
• Promote an event
• Raise awareness
• Answer FAQs
• Build relationship
• Display Date, Time, and Date
• Automated digital signage
• Advertising digital signage
• Interactive digital signage

Unless you’re still stuck in the stone edge, or you live in the backwaters of the earth, there’s a good chance you’ve come across digital signage at least once in your lifetime.

As the world advances further, digital signage will become even more efficient and effective, helping businesses and individual brands achieve their advertising and marketing goals.