Why Your Business Should Be Using Digital Signage

Digital signage has moved past the “nice to have” phase and is firmly in the “can’t go without it” category for many companies. One of the main reasons for the push in digital signage has to do with changes in how target audiences relate to the message being delivered. Here’s a sobering thought for business owners: Millennials don’t particularly care about static print advertising. The current generation has been raised around quickly advancing technology. From an early age, millennials have been drawn to digital screens, and that includes digital advertising. It’s not that younger Americans actively dislike print advertising – they just don’t find it compelling enough to catch their attention. That’s a serious concern for any business that will rely on young adults for their continued survival. Millennials are quickly moving into the work force and will soon have incredible purchasing power. If your business isn’t ready to transition to digital signage in an effort to capture these consumers, there will be a competitor out there that won’t make the same mistake.

What are the advantages of digital signage?

Digital signage is a much more compelling advertising medium for everyone, and not just younger people. It’s true that millennials and young adults are most attracted to it, but people of all ages find the motion and vividness that comes with it interesting. Consider that digital displays garner 400 percent more views than print advertising, and that people who do view digital signage are 83 percent more likely to recall the advertisement. Those aren’t numbers made up by the A/V industry either, because the study on the subject was organized and executed by Intel. A/V integrators, and many businesses, have long recognized the attention-grabbing potential of digital signage, but that’s not the whole picture. What else do digital displays offer to businesses?

1. Reduced operating costs – While making the switch is a significant up-front investment, once that investment is made, digital displays offer a clear cost advantage over print materials. With print, companies constantly have to order new print advertisements, whether flyers or entire billboards. Print costs add up over time, and print adverts usually have to be cycled in and out regularly. Further, print signage must be stored or disposed of, both of which drive logistical costs up. A digital display will provide years of performance and excellent advertising versatility.

2. More effective branding – Digital mediums give companies additional tools in presenting their brand. Animation, media, advanced messaging – these are the practical advantages of digital advertising over print advertising. Remember that digital advertising is far more effective at getting views and ensuring people remember what they see. If what they see is your company’s branding, all the better.

3. Superior connectivity – Millennials live to connect with each other. Social media platforms can attest to that. It’s probably fair to say that no generation has connected with itself like the millennials have, and this is something companies can use to their advantage.

It’s impossible to connect with print adverts. They aren’t interactive in the slightest, and younger consumers are looking for that connection. Digital signage provides that connection and ensures that anyone viewing or interacting with the display also interacts with the company’s brand.

Even better, there are numerous ready-made apps to bring this connectivity and light interactivity to a display. For example, digital signage can be used to display RSS feeds, weather forecasts, sports scores and the like, which make the display even more interesting. More effective, though, are the social media apps that turn digital signage into a social media showcase for your customers. Everyone likes their messaging to be validated, and digital displays can do so by displaying a running carousel of Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook posts.

4. Keeps people engaged – This point follows the above, but is a compelling reason of its own. If a company relies on customers coming through the door and waiting for service, digital signage offers a perfect way to entertain patrons while they wait.

A perfect way to do this is with social media apps. Imagine someone at a restaurant waiting for their order. While they wait at their table, digital displays show off mouth-watering photos of the menu, taken by customers who are already eating. What this does is convince the customer that the wait is worth it, even if it takes a little longer than it should. Digital signage can provide a buffer that keeps customers happier for longer than they would be if they were sitting without anything to look at.

Of course, this approach is clearly demonstrated at sports bars and restaurants. These establishments often rely on huge video walls to keep their patrons content. Digital signage can do that.

5. Easy to manage – Print advertising can’t be updated remotely. It can’t be programmed to only display certain advertisements at certain times. It can’t be fixed once created. Those are significant limitations in a world where everything moves as fast as the internet.

Digital signage offers all of the above. The best digital signage solutions come with intuitive content management software that allows for complete control over an entire bank of digital displays. With content management software, new advertising layouts can be pushed to one or more displays, fixes can be made to existing advertising and the company can program their displays so that they only show certain advertisements during certain times. Time-sensitive advertising is incredibly effective when it is taken full advantage of, and setting it up is easy with digital signage.

Digital displays can also be monitored remotely for their performance, switched on or off remotely, or switched into a diagnostic mode for troubleshooting. This can all be done from a PC or a mobile device, including a smartphone.

Digital signage offers an unbeatable mix of advantages over print advertising, and make no mistake – this is not the future. It’s the present. Younger consumers are entering the market at a rapid pace, and digital signage ensures your company is ready for them.