Maybe you’ve heard the term Digital Signage before. Maybe you haven’t. Either way, Digital Signage refers to a digital display in a retail or business environment that’s doing something more than just broadcasting a signal or video game. Digital Signage takes a screen and uses it intelligently. It’s engaging, educating, informing, and yes, even selling.
What is Digital Signage?
In short, Digital Signage is a smarter way to communicate with customers or clients that are physically in your business.
Since the invention of the printer, businesses have used signage to advertise their products. And now that we’re in the modern age, digital displays are taking the place of glossy poster board. So while Digital Signage may be new, the concept is decades old.
Think about all the static signage you saw the last time you were in a retail environment:
- Models sporting the latest threads
- Brightly colored signs with highly contrasting text that reads, Sale or Buy One, Get One Free
- Hero shots of a product working perfectly in all its glory
Digital Signage improves on the static nature of those signs, and puts them into motion, allowing for more lively ads, and the placement of multiple messages.
Why Digital Beats Static
If something ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Amirite? Not in this case.
The main area Digital Signage wins out over static signage is in its flexibility.
- Instead of choosing one message at a time, Digital Signage runs dozens.
- Instead of having to reorder sales material with each new campaign or promotion, Digital Signage is quickly and easily updated.
- Instead of poster that’s focused 100% on sales, Digital Signage can compliment your message with value-adding content.
With just a single screen strategically placed within a retail environment, Digital Signage can broadcast more information in a minute of video than posters could communicate with 1.8 million words.[Source]
Just the Tip of the Iceberg
To simply say that digital signage is the same thing as static signage, just on a screen instead of a poster, is selling the value of Digital Signage short. We haven’t even gotten into the types of Digital Signage, how it compares versus other marketing tools, and how to use it to drive revenue.
So if all you wanted was to know what Digital Signage is, then mission accomplished. But now that that’s out of the way, we’ll start getting down to the whys and hows that distinguish Digital Signage as an important, modern business tool.
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This is Part 1 of a multi-part series. To read Part 2, click here.
