Not too long back, the idea of having personalized digital signage for most small business owners was somewhat unfeasible, for all practical purposes and unworkable because it was simply too expensive for the average business to set up. It was a prohibitive exercise as the hardware including flat panel digital signage TV screen, media players, software and embedded firmware was too costly, and it required the constant attention of a specialist to troubleshoot in the event of an issue.
Due to this high cost of implementation, it was virtually impossible for anyone to venture into digital signage and the net effect was that digital signage essentially catered to the better-heeled customers such as large institutions, corporations, and airports that had the financial clout to invest in this form of advertising. But thanks to a perfect mix of fortunate factors, including reduced costs and software and hardware ease of use, going digital is now applicable to a very vast audience. Digital Signage has become much more affordable since the cost of hardware has been lowered, and software is now web based or cloud-based.
The Wave of the Future
Lower cost TV screens and easy-to-use digital signage solutions have revolutionized the acceptance of digital signage as it has now become an affordable advertisement option for various types of businesses, even those that are on a lean budget. Digital Signage is only on the rise as predictions show growth from the current USD $15 billion in 2016 to USD $ 24 billion in 2020, and the progression has accelerated due to the use of smart digital signage by small and medium-sized enterprises for digital menu boards and internal communication.
Digital signage can have multiple uses all across the various types of platforms. It can be used in public spaces, transportation systems, retail stores, restaurants, corporate buildings, institutions and more, to get a message across digitally in the form of images, videos, streaming video and custom templates. This versatility is what has led to its rapid growth as it can be used to display almost all types of media in several different formats.Content Management Systems and Templates
The use of digital signage templates has also gone a long way in making digital signage accessible and useful, even for people who have limited technical skills and are looking for an easy to use the system. Cloud-based solutions come bundled with content management systems that include custom templates, which are bundled in the pre-built software solutions and can be edited and customized easily. This ease of use cuts the time of implementation significantly for the users, as they can have a digital signage screen up and running within a few hours after installation. This system is intended for an everyday user who is looking for an attractive medium to get their message across.
Let's have a look at the advantages that smart digital signage will work for your business.- Flexibility - The greatest advantage by far is that digital signage is a flexible medium. It allows the user unlimited flexibility in changing the media at any time to suit their specific purposes. You can modify the text and images as needed, make multiple updates and modifications, upload videos and change the sequence as you see fit.
Images can also be designed as per your liking: static, scrolling, looping, or rotations within the image sequence can be pre-set and timed to specific intervals. The biggest advantage, however, lies in the use of having multiple types of media to get your message across.
Another advantage is that the digital signage and LED displays are dynamic, and the content can be changed at will, to capture the particular cycle of the business. For example, high holiday season such as Christmas gives companies an excellent chance to showcase their advertised specials, deals, and discounts to increase sales.
- Timely Display - With traditional advertising mediums, that are not digital, if you needed to alter the content of your advertisement, you had no other option but to take down the sign and manually replace it with a newly printed banner. This activity is not only an inefficient use of resources but is also extremely time-consuming. The flexibility of change is a key advantage for digital screens versus non-digital signage.
Digital displays allow for unlimited space, high-resolution images, and dayparting - showing advertisements at specific times which are optimal to the audience.
- Appeal – A study confirmed that more than 70% of the target audience interacts positively with dynamic digital signage and it is also evident that advertisers love this medium too. This interaction is especially growing in the digital menu board market, where small business owners want to keep their costs down, but showcase an attractive menu
The fact that you can place a variety of media on digital displays, and change it at will in response to the audience-specific messaging needs means that you can choose to have various media advertisements which combine audio and video for your promotional purposes. You can change the frequency and types of ads in response to customer preferences or the message that you are trying to push. You also have the ability to make all these changes in real-time using a multitude of devices including your cell phone, tablet, and personal computer.
- Affordable – Smart digital signage offers significant Return on Investment, ROI, as has been pointed out above.
Traditional signage was expensive, and it carried considerable uncertainty, in particular on the ROI, i.e., the advertiser had no sure way of finding out the exact numbers of people who had interacted with the image and most importantly, their reactions to it. Using digital signage the business owner can gauge customer response, purchasing trends and feedback and modify their marketing plans and digital signage content to suit their marketing goals.
Smart Interactions
Smart digital signage, on the other hand, allows for the use of smart metrics to gain an in-depth understanding of the advertisements effect on the audience. This can be achieved by the use of sensors and cameras which measure the effect that the ad has had on the viewing audience. Ultimately, smart digital signage is the wave of the future and the earlier you adopt it in your business, the better positioned you will be to convert your customers going forward.