Now that you’ve been able to convince management that digital signage is worth all the hype and the budget has been allocated, the ball is now in your court. You need a comprehensive digital signage marketing strategy to drive the ROI and this guide will show you how. We'll cover everything from identifying your target audience and defining clear objectives to creating compelling content and measuring your impact.
Components of an Effective Digital Signage Marketing Strategy
Target Audience Identification: Take time to understand your audience and how they will intake the information you display for them. This step sets you on the path to creating positive emotional experiences that make them more likely to recommend, trust, and make repeat purchases from your brand.
Content Creation and Management: High-quality, engaging content is the backbone of any digital signage strategy. It influences the success or failure of your campaign.
Platform and Technology: This includes the technologies you will use to implement your signage system, such as the digital signage CMS and any hardware components. Your signage system should support your current needs and be scalable for future requirements.
Location and Placement: Signage content is only impactful if it is seen. It should be strategically placed after considering factors like foot traffic, dwell time, and visibility.
Integration with Other Channels: Your digital signage should work in harmony with other marketing channels. Cross-channel integration can amplify the message and drive greater engagement.
Research and Planning Phase
Identifying Target Audience and Objectives
Understanding your audience is the foundation of a successful digital signage campaign. Once you know who you're trying to communicate with and what actions you want them to take, it becomes easier to create content that drives the desired behaviors. According to research, customers who have a positive emotional experience with a brand are over 15X more likely to recommend it, 8X more likely to trust it, and 7X more likely to make another purchase from it. Once you've identified your goals-whether it's increasing sales, improving the customer experience, or increasing operational efficiencies-you can create content that speaks directly to your audience.
Analyzing Market Trends and Competitor Strategies
You don’t want to merely react to the market—aim to lead it. Stay ahead of the curve by keeping up with emerging technologies, content formats, and best practices in the industry. Are there new interactive features, personalization options, or data-driven approaches gaining traction? Chances are your competitors are already in the loop. So keeping a close eye on what they’re doing with their signage will help you differentiate yourself and position your business as a trendsetter.
Defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Your defined KPIs will depend on the objectives you have set for your signage. For instance, if your primary goal is to increase brand awareness, relevant KPIs might include the number of impressions, audience reach, and engagement rates. If your focus is on driving sales, you might track conversion rates, sales lift, and average transaction values. These metrics will come in handy much later when you’re measuring the effectiveness of your signage content and performing A/B testing to optimize performance.
Content Strategy Development
Creating Compelling Digital Signage Content
Diversify your content: Having variety helps maintain interest and increase dwell time. You can use layouts to divide your screen into sections that display a mixture of news or updates, with promotional messages and entertainment.
Include a call to action: A CTA is important if you want to drive a specific action. It should be short but prominent, depending on the size of your screen. If you have a large display with more space to work with, the call to action should still remain focused and visible without being lost in the overall design.
Interactivity: Touchscreen interfaces or interactive elements such as QR codes give your viewers power over the display content and are exceptional in increasing engagement.
Messaging: Tap into emotions that align with your brand or product. Humor, nostalgia, excitement, or even a sense of urgency can all be powerful motivators.
Tailoring Content for Specific Audience Segments
A digital signage viewer has an attention span of as little as eight seconds, so content relevance and time optimization are key here. Understanding traffic flow patterns and dwell time for different audience segments will help you to tailor your content accordingly. For high-traffic areas with short dwell times, prioritize concise messaging and eye-catching visuals that can be quickly absorbed. In contrast, for areas with a captive audience and longer dwell times, you can get into more detailed information or interactive experiences.
Implementing Content Personalization Techniques
Intelligent signage in the form of facial recognition technology can help you construct buyer personas by analyzing viewer demographics and even decoding their emotions when interacting with products. It then triggers highly personalized ads to display based on the analyzed data. With beacon technology, you can send proximity-based messages and offers delivered to your customer's smartphones. Interactive kiosks, perhaps the most common, will empower your users to self-select content based on their interests and preferences.
Choosing the Right Digital Signage Platform
Evaluating Features and Capabilities of Digital Signage Software
Your signage system should be smart, meaning it can be remotely managed, display dynamic content, and adapt to viewer behavior. And for that, you need digital signage software with robust features such as content scheduling, remote management, integration capabilities, and support for various content formats (videos, images, HTML5). If you have specific needs or personalization goals such as dynamic content triggers use a content manager with integrations like Zapier.
Selecting Hardware and Display Options
The hardware you choose will depend on your budget, the size and layout of your space, and the desired viewing experience. Consider factors like screen size, resolution, brightness, and viewing angles. If your signage will be used outdoors, waterproofing and durability are important considerations. For high-traffic areas opt for commercial-grade displays with higher reliability and longer life spans.
Media players should be compatible with your selected software and can handle the content types you plan to use. If you choose Look Content Manager, we have a list of our very own powerful media players compatible with almost any screen, alternatively, our team of experts will recommend other models compatible with your chosen hardware.
Integrating Content Management Systems (CMS) and Data Sources
Your CMS is more capable of realizing your marketing objectives when you integrate it with data sources that report on effectiveness. If you’re using QR codes that link to landing pages related to your signage content, you can use Google Analytics to get detailed reports on performance. This includes information on the number of clicks, user behavior on the landing page, conversion rates, and others. The same goes for buttons and interactive screens, where each interaction will be tracked as a unique event and monitored on Google Analytics.
Deployment and Implementation
Designing Effective Digital Signage Layouts
Visual contrast: You can make certain elements of your digital content stand out by playing with color and brightness. There should be a clear visual hierarchy to guide viewers on where to focus their attention.
White space: Your signage content needs room to breathe so that viewers have an easier time focusing on key elements without feeling overwhelmed. Aim for a minimum of 30% whitespace in your layouts.
Color: The palette should align with your brand identity and evoke desired emotions. For high contrast, use two complementary colors that are directly opposite each other on a 12-part color wheel. For example, pair blue with orange or yellow with purple. With low contrast in mind (harmonious effect), use analogous colors that are next to each other on the color wheel, like blue, green, and teal. Limit your palette to 2-3 main colors.
Typography: Select legible fonts from a distance. Sans-serif fonts like Helvetica, Arial, or Open Sans are generally easier to read on screens. Aim for a font size of at least 24 points for headlines and 18 points for body text, depending on the viewing distance.
Rule of thirds: Divide your display into nine equal sections by splitting it into thirds horizontally and vertically. Place important elements at their intersections to create a visually balanced and engaging layout. This technique helps guide the viewer's eye and create a more dynamic composition.
Scheduling and Managing Content Distribution
We are in a connected signage era, which changes how you can manage your signage system for the best impact. With your content manager, you can create content on a standardized template and distribute it to your screen across different locations. If optimal viewing times are at certain times, advanced scheduling capabilities help you create playlists that cater to specific times of day, days of the week, or special events.
Testing and Optimizing Display Performance
For your digital signage marketing efforts to come to fruition, your hardware components must be running at peak performance. There should be a dedicated team to make sure the screens, media players, and connectivity devices are in good health.
Performance Monitoring and Analysis
Tracking KPIs and Metrics
At this point, your signage network is live and engaging your audience. It's time to start tracking your pre-defined KPIs. Usually, your signage software analytics dashboard will provide content playback reports, schedule adherence, or engagement metrics if you use buttons or UTM tags for QR codes. Integrations give you more nuanced data. Google Analytics, as we mentioned earlier is a great data source.
Conducting A/B Testing and Experimentation
Don't be afraid to experiment with different content variations, layouts, or scheduling strategies. Conduct A/B tests by displaying different versions of your content to different audience segments or at specific times, and track which version performs better in terms of your chosen KPIs.
Gathering Feedback and Iterating Strategies
The other way to know how your audience feels about your signage is to ask them. You can collect this feedback through surveys, social media, or direct consumer communication. Their feedback will guide your next steps. For example, if multiple customers mention that a particular type of content grabs their attention, consider adding more of that style to your signage. If feedback indicates that certain messages are confusing or unappealing, refine or replace them.
How Does Digital Signage Improve Business Strategy?
Helps In Attracting New Customers
Customers interested in your product or service are more likely to buy from you. Research shows, that digital displays grab 400% more views than static displays to catch customers' attention. It is essential to place these signs in high-traffic places where they’re likely to capture the attention of a receptive audience.
Quality and Perception
Without having to put up a giant billboard proclaiming, "Look how awesome we are," digital signage allows you to communicate your brand values to your consumers. More than two-thirds of customers (68%) feel that digital signage reflects the quality of a store's goods or services. Major retail companies, including Hollister, Victoria's Secret, and Nike, among others have implemented digital signage. As a bonus, the signage itself may become a topic of conversation. 75% of shoppers said they had recommended a business to a friend based only on the appearance of its signage. It is a massive door opener!
Accomplish and Surpass Customer Expectations
As a company owner, you want to keep your customers updated on what you are doing and how you are doing it. Digital signage may help you accomplish just that. With digital signage, you can meet, if not exceed customer expectations, by presenting material to them in a whole new manner that necessitates their participation and provides them with an exceptional user experience.
Digital Signage Provides Something for Everyone
The adaptability of digital signage is what makes it so appealing. Large-scale video walls with extensive software capabilities are only one example of the wide variety of options available. There are consumers now in practically every industry conceivable. It includes everything from retail to hospitality, healthcare, financial services, and the public (including government agencies and educational institutions).
Conclusion
Building a strong digital signage marketing strategy is a multi-faceted process that requires careful planning, execution, and continuous optimization. If you follow the strategies we’ve outlined in this article, you can unlock the full potential of digital signage and drive meaningful growth to your business. Remember, the key to success lies in adapting your strategy to the changing needs of your audience and staying ahead of the curve by embracing new technologies and trends.
Ready to elevate your digital signage strategy? Sign up for a 14-day free trial of Look CMS and experience firsthand how our platform can help you create captivating content, streamline management, and achieve exceptional ROI.
