How Important Is Digital Signage for A Business?

Businesses, regardless of size, typically don’t have limitless budgets. It’s up to the decision makers to allocate resources where they’re going to do the most good and have the greatest impact. If you’re trying to decide if your business would benefit from digital signage software, there are several questions you should ask yourself to help make a smart decision.

We recommend answering these questions to decide how important digital signage is to your business. Answer each question with a number from 1-5, with one being “this is not important” to 5 being “this is very important” regarding your business.

Sure printed signs can impart information, but only if your audience reads them. If sharing information about promotions, offerings, and other news is vital to your business, digital signage is a powerful way to do it. If your audience consists of employees, studies show they are far more likely to digest information shared via digital signage than they are by traditional email messages.

A big advantage of digital signage is the ability to change and edit the content so that the information you’re sharing is fresh and relevant. If your company has lots of information to share, or it changes quickly (things like deals of the day, or menu specials), digital signage is key to being able to avoid pricey printing costs while still highlighting the content you want to make visible to your audience.

The customer experience has never been more important than it is today. Consumers want information and they also want their transactions to be seamless and smooth. If you want a way for your on-site patrons to see a highly branded message as well as information on in-store current and upcoming sales, new product offerings, your social media campaigns, and more, digital signage is one of the best vehicles for you.

Digital signage can contribute to the space’s atmosphere. This is especially beneficial when you use videos. In addition, you could market to your “captive audience” while they’re in line or waiting (in a doctor’s office waiting room, for example). Entertaining your employees may also be important, which digital signage can do in the lunch room or break areas. If showcasing entertainment during waiting periods or down-time could be beneficial to your organization, digital signage could help you accomplish this goal.

Sometimes a critical part of making a sale is sharing your accomplishments with your prospects. It creates trust and establishes your credibility. Digital signage can showcase customer success stories, written and video testimonials, and visuals of past accomplishments. Delicious desserts, architecturally stunning buildings, before and after photos, and handwritten letters from happy clients (depending on your industry), are all ways to use digital signage to convey that potential customers should choose to do business with you.

Most industries have complementary businesses that are after the same base of clients. For example, mortgage bankers, real estate agents, appraisers, and title companies all work with home buyers. Use the relationships your business has most likely forged with these companies and create another income stream by selling them advertising on your digital signage displays. Some ideas for this are short video commercials, rotating banner ads, or promotional discount ads. Mining the businesses that are complementary to yours creates revenue that offsets the cost of your investment.

Count your answers and group them according to how many your answered with the same number. See which numbers you answered with most often, which will tell you how important digital signage could be for your specific business.

If you landed in this category, your business could definitely benefit from investing in digital signage in several ways. Whether you need to communicate better, promote messages to your audience, quickly update the content you share, or provide your customers and/or employees with high-value entertainment, you’ll be able to do it with digital displays.

It may not be urgent, but if you answered mostly with 3’s, your company can still most likely see benefits and a good return on investment (ROI) from using digital signage software. It’s essential to think about specific goals you want the investment to accomplish and then use the displays in a manner that gives you the best chance to do it.

If you fall into this category, you may not yet see the value of investing in digital signage software. Either you are in a unique industry that doesn’t benefit from attracting your audience’s interest, or your employee base is small enough that you can meet with each of them and communicate in person. If you answered mostly 1’s and 2’s, keep the digital signage solution on the back burner but still in mind for future plans when you might get more out of it.

When asking yourself how important digital signage is for your business, you need to look beyond how many customers it may bring you. Thinking about how you can increase the satisfaction of your customers’ experiences, set yourself apart from your competition, increase your branding awareness, and entertain your audience should factor into the equation. Of course, you also need to weigh the opportunities the signage will provide you in upselling your customers, as well as taking into account how much easier it will be to change the content compared to how you’re sharing information now. And, if you will be using the software screens to address and interact with your employees, thinking about how much more engaged it will make them is a key consideration, too. Analyzing just how important digital signage could be for your business will undoubtedly lead you to the best decision.