You’ve probably read spam articles online about how digital signs help promote your business. They all read the same because they are rewrites of the top answers on Google. Rather than thinking of digital signs as a disposable promotional tool, consider how they will act as long-term business assets. Consider how they will save money and how they will make money. One hopes that your additional liquid resources are funneled into further business growth.
Making Money – Test Advertisements Using In-Store Sales As A Success Metric
Perhaps you are creating ads for use on billboards, on your website, in your store, or on affiliate networks. Either way, you can test them in-store using digital signs. The simplest way to do this is to display your ads, video or stationary images, and see if in-store sales of the product improve. This is perhaps the easiest way to test your ads, obviously taking into account the fact that positioning the ads near the product offers an advantage that your online ads do not have.
You can also leverage other offline advantages, such as it costs less to buy the item there rather than having it shipped, and with that being the case, don’t advertise in-store that you offer free shipping. Your ads may even consist of a few Amazon-like reviews, with the hopes people will believe what they see on your signs and won’t go online to look for reviews and then be invariably distracted by a competitor’s ads, products or prices.
Saving Money – Reduce Needless Staff-Customer Interactions
Every time a staff member is distracted by needless non-sales related chatter, you lose money. You can have digital signs placed in any locations where questions are common. For example, if people keep asking where the changing rooms are, or where the car park exit is located, then you add digital signs that preemptively answer those questions. You may have products where the same questions are always prompted, like “Does it come with ink, or batteries, or replacement filters?” You can answer those questions using digital signs so your staff are not distracted needlessly in the future.
Making Money – Direct People Down An On-Site Sales Funnel
Just like IKEA forces you to walk in a certain direction when you enter their store, you can do the same with digital signs. You don’t have to force people to walk in a certain direction. You simply offer directions and then set expectations as you go. A nice example is the mattress store that had digital signs flashing up different sections in the store, from bed frames to fluffy pillows. However, one of its directions was for “One-time Discount Offers.” It led people to a corner of the store where they offered the lowest prices. On the way to the corner, people had to pass by slightly better mattresses that were slightly more expensive. The people who didn’t take the super-duper discount mattress were often sold on the alternative mattresses as they walked back through the store.
Saving Money – Use Video Demonstrations Over Real-Life Demonstrations
We have all seen that sorry looking employee in a supermarket or hardware store. They are demonstrating the Never-Dull knife that can cut through cans and is still sharp enough to peel a tomato. Instead of having your employee try to muster enthusiasm for the tenth time that day, you show a slick and well-produced video of the product being demonstrated. You can show it being demonstrated in a suitable location (like a knife in a kitchen, a mower on a lawn, etc.).
Making Money – Schedule Content Based On External Or Timetables
Experiment with the ways you make money. There is a digital sign software company called https://kitcast.tv/ who offer several ways to play with your content. You can schedule your content based on a timetable, perhaps showing kids’ stuff when the schools let out, and more grown up stuff after 5pm when the adults get out of work. Or, you can schedule your content based on external triggers. For example, you could show your umbrella ads when the weather report shows that it is raining outside.
Saving Money – Communicate With Staff In A More Effective Manner
Call centers communicate with their employees using digital signs. They show key target areas, or call waiting times, or they show which products need to be pushed harder. A good tactic is to put digital signs in the canteen areas. People are often looking around as they take breaks and eat, which makes the messages on your digital signs a little more difficult to miss. It is certainly more effective than trying to send blanket company-wide emails and messages because people learn to ignore them.
Saving Money And Making Money – Offer Infotainment And Sales Material
This is a method of saving and making money. The best examples exist in veterinary waiting rooms. People are sat in there patiently waiting to be seen, and the digital signs offer audio-visual information and sales material in a very entertaining way.
They may save money by telling people the risks of certain procedures so that nurses don’t have to re-explain the process. They may explain their opening times or event timetable so people don’t distract people by asking the staff. The display may also explain the booking and registration process so that people don’t bother staff with questions.
Infotainment in these places is very easy. They explain how a dog or cat may get fleas, and they explain how to get rid of the fleas, and then run ads for flea collars and such. They explain how a pet may get a certain disease, they explain the signs of the disease, the causes etc., and then they show their price list for inoculations.
The digital signs also show off various types of sales material, from specialized cat boxes and dog leashes, to paid ads from local dog sitters, groomers and so forth. Dentists often run these sorts of ads about elective dental work, along with infotainment about how somebody’s tooth configuration affects their face shape.
