What Is Digital Signage 🤔
Before we indulge in digital signage, it would be best first to understand the term 'signage'. We've heard many times about signage, yet only a handful of people really understand what it means and what its purpose is. You can't miss signage; they are everywhere you go and may include sports, hoarding, and retail signage, to mention but a few.
Signage is a visual graphic, sign, or symbol created to send a message to a specific audience. You can use different signage for different purposes. For instance, wayfinding signage helps people to find their way to a particular physical location. Sports signage is usually in large formats and may communicate to the fans about a particular sporting event that's anticipated to occur at a certain location.
So, What's Digital Signage?
Digital signage is a subcategory of a larger electronic-signage ecosystem. It involves the use of digital displays for creating various installations to relay information or for advertisement purposes. But digital signage is not just a display. This is the technology, which allows you to remotely manage your sign and change a content instantly at the snap of your fingers. It comprises the following key components:
Hardware
That includes the tangible equipment used to facilitate communication. It includes digital screens and monitors of various scales, media players, mounts and etc.
Software
This is the client-server software infrastructure, which provides a number of tools for remote content management and network monitoring.
Content
Different types of dynamic communication formats, like audios, videos, images, web pages, news or social media feeds, online streams and etc.
How to Use Digital Signage?
Knowing how to deploy digital signage to promote your business effectively can be challenging, especially if you're trying it for the first time. Using the following ideas, the next time you think about your brand's message on DS can help.
Value of a Product or Service
Consumers want to know what they are buying and why. Therefore, selling an item or service isn't enough. You also need to inform your target customers of the product's value. Depending on your industrial sector, the value might mean quality, service guarantee, or long-term health. Regardless, you need to explain to consumers why they need to buy your brand.
Call-to-Action
Digital signage is an excellent means for upselling at the point of sale. It might be anything that can incentivize the consumer to purchase on an impulse. For instance, you can use DS to inform them of a particular product or service percentage discount. Instead, you can use the weather to nudge your customers to act
Inform Consumers
Providing your target consumers with insights can help your business significantly. Today, customers are keen on the quality of content they get. Most people focus on promoting their products, but they fail to understand that the valuable information they offer their consumers can bolster brand credibility.
Attract More Social Media Followers
Tell your target audience about your social media efforts and ask them to follow your account. The trick is to incentivize the strategy. For instance, you can tell them to like your Facebook page to get timely updates on your latest products.
Introduce Your Employees
An effective way of running a successful brand is to connect the employees and the consumers. You can leverage DS to create auto-scroll slides with each employee's bio and their social aspects that consumers can relate to.
How Does Digital Signage Work and What Will You Need?
In a layman's language, digital signage is dynamic signage shown on LED, LCD, or OLED display screens. In technical terms, digital signage works like a broadcasting prepared and scheduled in the CMS, sent to the screen using the server part of the software and played on the screen's side using a software or digital signage player.
The following are the basic things you need to make digital signage work:
Digital Display
Surely, there are a lot of the options within the market and choosing your screen you must be guided by the tasks of your project, estimated screen location, target audience, planned content strategy and, of course, your budget. It can be regular TV for the small local project or commercial-grade display for retail store working 24 hours per 7 days. You will need to consider models with IP65 enclosure for the outdoor installations or options with increased brightness if you want to mount a display into your shop window. The current choice is huge, but looking for the perfect screen for your deployment, do not forget to think about, how you’re going to deliver a content to your digital signage.
Laptop, PC or Tablet
You will need it to work with the CMS software. Some of them are desktop, but most of the modern solutions offer web-based options, because it’s more convenient and flexible. In most of the cases, especially when you use cloud-based software, your PC shouldn’t be connected to the same network with your displays. You can manage your network from anywhere.
Software
You require a digital signage software platform to create, schedule and send the playlists to your displays, facilitate remote screen settings’ management and control your network status. This will be the main tool in your daily work with your signs, which will give you the confidence that your network is performing exactly as you intended.
Digital Signage Examples
Retail
Schedule your promos in advance and manage its broadcasting at any time and from any place.
Hospitality
Inform and entertain your guests at any time and from any place.
Banking
Build an effective digital communication with the branches visitors at any time and from any place.
Corporate
Create and maintain a communication channel within your corporate environment at any time and from any place.
Healthcare
Inform and entertain visitors, reducing dwell time, in the waiting areas of hospitals and medical centers
Fitness
Run useful news on fitness and healthy nutrition, advertise and sell extra options at any time and from any place.
Advertising
Launch and change your campaigns, track the status and get up-to-date statistics at any time and from any place.
Education
Increase your students' engagement by creating a single infotainment channel from any time and any place.
How Can Digital Signage Improve Your Business?
Many brand owners don't invest in digital signage because they think the process is complicated and usurps huge chunks of your business savings. If you can identify with the lot, then here are some reasons why you need to deploy DS for business.
Save Money
Unlike its tangible counterparts, digital signage is less prone to wear and tear. They also have low maintenance costs, which enables you to save money. They are easy to edit, and all it takes is a couple of minutes in an easy-to-use personal account.
Attract Your Consumers
Every brand that produces a product must package them in a way that catches the eye. If your customers always 'wow' at your product's packaging, you are in no worry about attracting them. Digital signage enhances the experience by enabling you to create interactive signage that even engages the consumer deeper.
Efficient Service Delivery
This is especially critical to businesses that provide food service, spa treatments, and shopping. They can use digital signage to guide customers to the right stations or counters. That streamlines workflow within the premises because people will see where they can pick and pay for their items.
Saves Time
Creating signage in print form is labor-intensive and expensive, not to mention the time it takes to print and update them [which would mean acquiring new ones]. With digital signage, you can do all that within a fraction of the time. Besides, you can update the display with just a few clicks.
How Much Does Digital Signage Cost?
The price you pay for your deployment depends on various factors. What display are you going to purchase and where it should be mounted? Will you need an external media player or your screen can be powered by the software player installed on its OS? Do you intend on using on-premises or cloud-based software? Perhaps you prefer DIY digital signage solutions for your small business; these are some questions you need to ask yourself when trying to figure out the costs.
Commercial-Grade Digital Signage
There are many expenses involved in creating enterprise on-premises digital signage because of the component required to power the process. Below are some of the required tools and their average costs:
- Digital Displays — $800+, depending on the size and technology
- Media player — $0-$1500, depending on the display OS and chosen software
- Mounts and cables — $50-$350
- Installation costs — $150+, depending on the project
- Software licensing costs — $300+ per Player license
- Content creation — $2,500-$3,000
Therefore, the average costs of deploying commercial digital signage starting at about $3800.
Cloud-Based Digital Signage for SMB
An advantage of using cloud-based digital signage is that it allows you to manage, update, analyze, and control the information on display from a remote location using a smart device. Using cloud-based DS, you can handle multiple digital signs from a single location. The only things you need are a PC or laptop and a robust internet connection.
Furthermore, using cloud-based solutions means you don’t need to cater to any in-house servers. You also won't have to splurge a significant amount of cash to acquire the necessary hardware. There's more! Once you purchase a cloud-based DS package, any future software updates are free and automatic. As a rule, such solutions will charge you in SaaS mode based on monthly or annual subscription fees. Generally, low-cost cloud-based digital signage installation can consist of regular Android TV ($200+) or Google Chromecast for example ($50), mounts ($50+) and monthly subscription fee ($15+). So, you can start with just $265 to create your first digital sign.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How many digital signage media players do i meed?
If you prefer every screen to display different DS, then you need dedicated players for each screen. To mirror the signage on two identical displays, you'll need to have a video splitter to facilitate that.
Why not use consumer-grade TV sets for digital signage?
Although consumer TVs may save you more cash than commercial displays, most have compatibility issues. Besides, they can't withstand the test of time as their commercial-grade counterparts. The TVs you use at home can't deliver the brightness needed for commercial purposes and will often overheat due to the continuous usage, over 10 hours a day.
How can I tell that digital signage is an excellent choice for my brand?
Digital signage will help your business if you need to put across multiple messages, entertain your consumers as they wait for services, or have a new message to communicate. Digital signage provides an effective means of informing, educating, and entertaining your consumers.
What content can i use for my digital signage?
Digital-signage content can be anything from text, videos, audios, graphics, and live feeds. Your chosen DS Company can help you create a playlist of short content that improves your brand. You can use the content for various purposes, such as staff updates, survey results, safety reminders/warnings, and testimonials, among others.
How long does it take to install a digital sign completely?
The time used to make your digital sign varies, based on various factors like the number of displays, the system's complexity, and licenses. It would be best to consult a professional DS company for more insights into that.
