The technological age is upon us! We now exist in a digital world where society is increasingly eschewing the practice of paper printing. E-books have begun to outsell the spined novel, spam e-mails clog our inbox more than flyers pack into our mailbox, and all manner of banking and buying is now done without any paper currency or receipts changing hands. This transition has brought many benefits to the world, including a reduction of environmental impact and increased user convenience, and now the business signage world is beginning to take notice.
Digital signage is a form of electronic advertising that uses a digital display to market special offers and spread news of new products. The digital displays are typically routed through LED or LCD monitors, though they can be projected as well. Digital signage can be local, like more traditional business signs displayed on the premise, or remote, as when sent through e-mail or social media feeds. The visible content is uploaded, controlled, and streamed using specialized computer software. This type of signage is becoming increasingly popular in hotels, fast-food restaurants, and transit stations, and is touted as the perfect balance between subtle and engaging marketing.
Digital signage has many benefits for businesses over more conventional print advertising. Read on for a discussion of five salient benefits of 21st century signage:
1. Cost reduction
This may surprise the leery traditionalists who have been eying the price tag of software and digital screens, but once the initial start-up costs have been absorbed, digital signage is a serious money-saving solution. Printing costs can build up quickly, and they are relentless as new promotions call for new prints week by week. Digital signage eliminates costly printing fees, saving you money over the long-term.
2. Online connectivity
Unlike basic print advertising, digital signage has the ability to connect to online news feeds. Your customers will be more likely to engage with your advertisement if it happens to be sitting next to streaming Twitter, weather, economic, and news feeds. These fluid and dynamic options give your advertisement vibrancy and life, rather than being another static cluster of printed words ready to be lost in a wash of similar stimuli. Web connectivity also allows you to link to video tutorials and small vignettes relevant to your advertisement, further encouraging customer engagement.
3. Attention-grabbing
As previously mentioned, the online capacities of digital signage allow for new-found attention-grabbing potential sought in a more subtle way. Rather than obtrusive print advertisements leveraging bright colors and bold text to trick nearby customers into reading them, people will be attracted to your signage’s high-definition displays and functional news feed. In this technological era, people are often more accustomed to reading from screens than from print, and digital signage caters to this preference.
4. Easily-updatable content
Rather than absorbing another hit from printing press expenses week after week, digital signage allows business owners to update their content with the click of a finger. This means that business owners can update their content as often as possible, providing customers with compelling new ads and offers multiple times per day. For restaurants, this means that digital menu boards can showcase different specials throughout the day with a few convenient and cost-free clicks.
5. Influences purchase decisions
Nothing shows off your product quite like high-resolution digital display. Consider the difference between a 2D printed image, and a fluid and moving three-dimensional display of your product, complete with a voice-over narrative outlining its key features, and video tutorials showing customers how it can fit in to their lives. Digital signage is the perfect platform to showcase your work.
