Just like the classic New Year song states – old friendships should never be forgotten as those are the most important ones. At the beginning of a New Year, let’s look at some previous digital signage strategies that turned out both good and bad, and then see how better relationships can be maintained with your audience – using digital signage of course.
What defines a successful strategy?
The success of last year’s strategies will depend on what and how you measure.
- Was there more sales of products that you advertised on LED signs?
- How was the response on calls-to-action?
- Was there a phase during the entire year where more audience engagement was experienced?
- If so, why do you think that happened?
Once you’ve gathered this data, get together with your team for a discussion about your accomplishments and what you were not able to achieve. Look at some lessons learnt and try to incorporate those into this year’s plan. Analyze the ways in which you gathered ROI data and see where alteration is needed.
Aspects to look into
- Improvements
As is the general rule of thumb, improvement is required in every endeavor. Now may be a good time to do an audit or survey regarding your business/products. Also consider the possibility of streamlining the information you present on digital screens. Purchase some content subscriptions so that your staff is free to focus on targeted messages.
- Software updates
Check for updates on your existing software – you never know there may be some new features that could ease up the job for your team. Your vendor might have even come up with a new software which you could transfer to in order to spice up your communication strategy.
- Existing and new LED displays
Think about replacing some of your LED screens, media players or some other outdated hardware. If not, at least think about updating all your devices to the newest driver and OS versions. Investing in new displays for new locations or moving one screen to another area where there is more foot traffic are also ideal solutions. If the budget is available, maybe you could invest in a stunning, jaw-dropping video wall to surprise your customers!
- Train your staff
This year you may also want to give your staff a new dose of training. Go back to what your vendor is offering and make use of those training hours before they are no longer valid. You could also research about some free learning resources for digital signage – blogs, white papers, podcasts and more to polish your knowledge on the subject.
- Longtail campaigns
Initiate a few longtail campaigns and give them a shot. Make sure you set measurable goals that can show you clearly how well your customer communication is performing.
- Brand appearance
Adjust your look or maybe give yourself a slightly, if not whole new look. Some options include – redesigning layouts, using new and better quality images and videos, introducing new data sources, and so on.
- Audience interactivity
Audience engagement is the ultimate goal. So gamify digital content wherever possible. This will encourage your audience to continuously interact with your organization as a result of the content they see on LED signs.
Interactivity is also extremely essential. Introduce some touchscreens and if you already have them, increase the depth of information you offer.
- Observe the industry
With more and more organizations entering the field of electronic signage, there is a whole industry out there that you need to observe. See what other competitors are adopting and be inspired from them. To really get a feel of what’s new in the digital signage world, send out a company representative to one of the many conferences and exhibitions that take place every year.
Digital signage is the most powerful audience communication tool. If you have already invested in the system and are not using it to the fullest, you are definitely missing out. Duplicate your past success whenever possible and learn from mistakes and improve them. Just as technology is always changing, same is with audience expectation. As a result, your digital signage strategy MUST change too!
