STRATEGY LEADS TO SUCCESS
So, you’ve finally taken the plunge and dove into the world of digital signage! Marketing with digital signage comes with a host of benefits, including greater attention, higher recall rates, and even influencing purchase decisions! These benefits position digital signage as a more effective, flexible marketing tool when compared to traditional bulletin boards and other media. However, it is not an automatic process. Successful signage implementation requires careful thought and strategy to get the most out of your solution. At REACH, we understand getting started can be an overwhelming process. That’s why we work with you from the start of your signage journey to ensure you and your team members are well-educated on the ins-and-outs of our content-management system. Once you work through training with an install coordinator, you will then have a dedicated account manager who will be your point person on future projects, training, and support. If you’re wanting to add an even more professional touch to your displays, you can utilize our free design services. Our creative team has in-depth knowledge on the inner workings of our CMS, and can completely customize your layouts to fit your brand and achieve your goals!
Of course, our support does not stop there. Our resource page is an expansive library of knowledge, tips, and case studies that give a comprehensive view of what’s possible with any type of digital signage solution. Browsing this catalog, as well as some of our client examples, will provide a snapshot of successful signage strategies and may even inspire some ideas of your own! Of course, our support team is available 24/7 to help you with any technical issues as well. This means someone is always on standby to help you with your needs! With all this in mind, we do everything we can to position our clients for success. In the following article, we go over some of the most common pitfalls we see in unsuccessful campaigns and how to avoid them. Once you digest all the information here, you should be off to the races on successful digital signage campaigns!
AVOIDING STALE CONTENT
The most crucial aspect of ensuring your marketing efforts through digital signage are effective is to constantly rotate out older content for new announcements! Many failed signage efforts are the result of creating a few assets, loading them into a playlist, and just letting that singular rotation of content play endlessly. Even if your initial batch of content is stellar and gets a lot of attention and conversions, it will eventually lose steam as time goes on. Viewers need fresh content and assets in order to maintain interest. Not only that, but swapping content out attracts more attention and gives viewers a reason to consistently check back for new announcements. This is great for viewer retention, and expanding your content offerings can attract new viewers who may not have been interested in previous assets.
Some clients even leverage seasonal content in order to easily introduce fresh elements to their displays. If you have certain events that only last a certain amount of time, or want to promote limited-time offers, these are perfect candidates for temporary content that can eventually be swapped out. If you’d like to use the same content later on, you do not even have to remove your assets from a playlist altogether! In fact, our playlist tool allows you to “disable” assets, which will prevent them from being shown within a playlist without completely removing them. If you want to completely load a playlist with a copious amount of content, you can then just pick and choose which ones are shown by enabling and disabling. Individual assets can also be assigned set times with start and stop dates/times to further customize your campaigns.
If you’d like to even go one step further, you can even edit the times an entire layout is displayed. This can result in some great creativity powered by drastic changes. For example, if you have a typical, corporate layout, but then want to introduce a Christmas-themed layout for the holidays, you can schedule a layout to end around the holidays and introduce your themed display. However, this affects ALL content that will be shown, as layouts host multiple apps. As a result, simply swapping playlist assets is a more common and effective method for keeping your screens fresh!
CHOOSING THE RIGHT LOCATION
While seemingly obvious, the location of displays often goes neglected in many signage integrations. Location is important as it will determine how many people will see your signage. When choosing your signage location, there are multiple factors to consider to ensure its success.
The first is traffic. You usually want to place your displays in locations where the most people will be passing through to see them. However, sometimes this needs to be tweaked. For example, within a fitness center, it’s usually the lobby that will get the most traffic. But if you want to advertise your basketball team and receive more sign-ups for weekend basketball tournaments, you may want to place these screens outside your gyms. Hence, while high-traffic is important, it’s also important to reach as much of your target audience as possible. If you are advertising to the wrong crowd, it will not matter how many people see your designs!
Once you have a general location picked out, there’s still a few more things to consider. No matter where you place your displays, you want the content to be easily accessible and readable for your viewers. Generally, we recommend a 42” or larger LCD, LED, or OLED display placed 6-7m away at eye level or slightly higher. Keep in mind, a person’s general field-of-view is about 75 degrees below eye level and 60 degrees above it. These general guidelines should help you find a placement that is accessible to your viewers.
PICKING RELIABLE HARDWARE
Of course, the final piece of the puzzle is finding hardware that will present your content in the best possible light. Thankfully, REACH can act as your one-stop-shop for all your signage needs. We are a reseller with BrightSign, meaning we can provide you the most state-of-the-art media players in the industry! BrightSign is known for its reliability and advanced capabilities, making them a popular choice across any industry. Depending on the scope of your project, these would make an excellent option.
However, REACH has just recently partnered with Azulle to put out our own DS3 player. This is an affordable option for those who still desire an enterprise-grade media player. These players come fully fitted with REACH’s CMS, allowing for simple plug-and-play integration.
REACH OUT NOW
Many facilities will begin changing their signage approach with the start of Spring. With that in mind, we HIGHLY recommend reaching out to your account manager now if you want free spring content, interactive integrations, or other signage implementations. While the process itself should not take too long, we do like having time to test the connection and ensure stable connectivity. Additionally, if any issues arise in that time, our support team can quickly sort them out. For more information, click the button below!
