Great Ideas for Digital Signage

Digital signage has been around for the better part of the last twenty years, but until recently, it was expensive and was hard to manage.  With advancements in technology, today's digital signage solutions are more affordable than ever.  There are also multitudes of media players that allow content to be easily updated and centrally managed.  

You might be thinking that you don't have a need for digital signage in your business, but today there are a plethora of ways to use digital signage in business.  Digital signage is nearly everywhere today.  You see large digital billboards while driving, at the restaurant where you might pick up lunch and even in your local supermarket.  Besides promoting products and services, digital signage can be used for a ton of things such as navigation, alerts, explanation and information.  Here's a bunch of great ways you can use digital signage in your business.

• Promote a product or service.  This is an obvious way to use digital signage, but it's incredibly effective.  Digital signage captures 400% more views than banners or traditional signboards.  Besides images and calls to action, scrolling text on digital signage gets viewers to stop and read the messages.  This will directly impact your bottom line, and that's the most important!
• Provide valuable information.  With much of today's marketing falling in the content segment, digital signage is an ideal way to provide real information that impacts the customer's buying decision. Visitors to your business may know WHAT you sell, but they may not know the benefits of our products.  By providing that extra bit of information could seriously influence customers.  
• Entertain customers.  Whether it's sitting in the doctor's office or standing in line to order food, nobody likes to have to wait.  With digital signage, you can provide some entertainment for customers while they wait, as well as get your messaging in front of them.
• Communicate with your team.  How often do you have information you'd like to share with employees, but outside of sending a mass email, you can't think of a way to do so?  Digital signage is a fantastic way to share news, big and small, with employees.  Provide frequently asked questions, along with the answers, to save time for your HR department.  Smaller digital signage can be used to show a meeting calendar for facilities.  You can even recognize your employee of the month for all to see!
• Introduce your staff.  Again, going into your favorite businesses, you likely get to know faces of the people who work there.  Imagine if you were able to put a face with that name or a fun fact.  Introducing your employees to your customers humanizes your brand and allows customers to feel more connected with your business.
• Communicate your vision/mission/core values/etc.  Nearly all businesses have those visions or mission statements that are what truly drive your business.  But how often do we communicate that to our customers?  Let your customers know about the things that drive your employees and business forward.  Customers are more interested in working with people whose vision closely matches their own.
• Display positive customer reviews.  How many times do you go online to check out reviews of a product or service before you actually buy it?  If you're like most people, it's another step we all take in the buyer's journey.  Imagine if those reviews were readily available in your facility!  Most digital displays will be able to pull reviews from sites like Google or Facebook and continuously feed reviews.
• Help visitors get around your business.  A digital sign at the front door of your business is a great way to let customers know they're at the right place, especially if you share space in a building with lots of businesses.  Another benefit is if you have facilities on multiple floors of a building, using your digital signage as a directory to help people find where they need to go quickly.

Digital signage isn't new, but with technology advancing so quickly, it has now become affordable and easy to use.  With a little input and a few mouse clicks, you can have your information streaming for customers and potential customers, employees and visitors.