How Digital Signage Can Help You to Connect With Your Customers
Digital signage has become one of the most popular forms of advertising in recent years, and as it begins to surpass traditional offline strategies, business across the world – both big and small – must focus their marketing efforts towards the advertising abilities of digital signage in a digital era.
Whether you realise it or not, we will have all been exposed to this particular type of advertising on a number of occasions – whether that’s a digital menu board that tingles your taste buds or an online campaign that convinces you to buy the trainers you’ve been eyeing up for months.
It’s all well and good knowing that you need to introduce digital signage into your business, but if you don’t understand exactly what it is, then you’re never going to be able to master the art of marketing.
So, what is digital signage?
Essentially, digital signage refers to a variety of different electronic displays – from the famous billboards in Times Square to the digital posters in your local shopping centre. Of course, the digital signage platform you opt for will depend on your marketing budget and the goal you wish to achieve via marketing efforts.
Do you want to boost sales? Are you hoping to educate your customers about a new product or service? Or are you just looking to entertain? These are all questions you need to ask yourself (and your marketing team) before investing in digital signage.
How can your business use digital signage?
The main aim for any business when introducing digital signage is to generate customer interest, bolster sales and in turn, boost business revenue. Undoubtedly there are other reasons as to why a business would choose to focus their marketing efforts solely around digital signage, and we’ll be taking a look at these reasons shortly. Digital signage acts as a sales funnel:-
- First, digital signage raises awareness by exposing a potential customer to your brand, services or products (it can be as simple as a picture slideshow of new products)
- Next, it peaks their interest by showcasing something they are familiar with or can relate to (this won’t happen unless you conduct in-depth research about you the demographic group you’re targeting and their likes and dislikes). Comedy is a great way of peaking this interest, especially with a younger audience
- After that, digital signage should convert a potential customer into a loyal customer
- Finally, that customer should take action in the form of a purchase or goal completion
Digital signage also does a great job of helping businesses to connect with both current and prospective customers alike, and this is done through design and presentation.
Your customers should feel as though they have a direct line of contact with the business through digital signage. They should feel important and valued as a customer. These are the 3 design concepts which play a huge role in customer interaction:-
- Answering those burning questions – What’s the point in investing your hard earned money into digital signage if no one is going to pay attention to it? Right, there isn’t one. But answering some common questions or notifying customers about your hottest deals is sure to grab their attention.
- An eye-catching design – No one likes being bombarded with hundreds of images and a huge block of text (like those spammy emails I’m sure we’ve all found in our inbox). So include interesting and useful content that promotes your brand, services and products. And remember, less is more.
- Call to action – If you’ve followed all our top tips so far then you’ll have your customers eating out the palm of your hand. But if there isn’t a call to action, then all your hard work will be lost the second a customer steps foot outside your store or turns away from your digital signage. So make sure there is always a call to action presented on your digital signage.
There are a number of benefits to digital signage, and it isn’t as costly as you may think. It is however, important to do you research in order to understand how to choose the right display for your business and the best position to display your digital signage in order to maximise the results.