When you’re a small or medium sized local business it’s very important to always stay ahead of the competition and come up with new, unique ideas that will help your company evolve and reach the next level when it comes to getting the attention of the customers and generating sales. You need to stand out from the crowd and draw eyeballs to your business. Usually we talk about online content here on the Shakr blog, but today I’d like to write about a smart way of drawing attention to your local business. Digital signage.Read on to get a introductory digital signage guide for beginners.
What is digital signage?
Digital signage is the distribution and playback of digital content (TV shows, advertising, digital menus, and other sort of information) on displays in a business locale or public space. This may include everything from big billboards on the side of the highway, to small LED displays in front of the cashier in your local grocery store. All kinds of businesses use digital signage, from hospitals, to retailers, to cafes or restaurants, hotels or corporations, child care facilities and entertainment venues are using digital signage.
What is it for?
Digital signage has many use cases for companies. Amongst other creative use case are the traditional objectives of advertising, corporate messaging and branding. Digital signage networks are more and more frequently found at big retailer stores where products are on display and ready for purchase, and when consumers are in an active purchase mode. However, small and medium businesses have traditionally been slow to take up digital signage as a marketing tool, discouraged by the high upfront costs of buying expensive displays and the daunting task of creating content for said displays. But
Digital Signage – It doesn’t have to be that difficult (or expensive)
The terminology surrounding digital signage can be intimidating for first timers. Modular display construction, Content Management System, Network infrastructure and Interactive Digital Signage are terms that are sure to make this thing seem like a big undertaking (and those are things we will go through another time). For example, there are a lot of digital signage networks to choose from if you have a lot of displays and content to update. The way these for is that you control all your displays over the internet from a centralized content management network. So you can update multiple displays at the same time. This is great if you’re a big brand with several locations but it doesn’t have to be that complicated, especially if you’re a small or medium business that is surviving on a few local stores or venues. Today it’s cheaper than ever to get high quality digital displays. You can easily get a 32” HD TV for under $200 to put in your window or behind the counter. And filling it with content? It’s easier than ever to get good quality photos of your products and offerings and creating engaging content with services such as Shakr is easy and only take a short amount of time. Looking for some generic photos and video clips for your videos? Check out resources like Shutterstock and Bigstock and couple that with your own media content. You can have your first digital signage up and running 30 minutes after you get the display delivered.
How To Get Started With Digital Signage
Getting started with digital signage if you’re a small business is easy.
Step 1: Get a decent display, you’ll easily find one for under $200 on Amazon.
Step 2. Take some photos of your products, dishes or venue, depending on your business. Looking for more? Check out the resource mentioned earlier in this post.
Step 3: Use a service like Shakr to produce amazing looking digital signage content. Even if your product photos isn’t that good, Shakr’s video templates usually spice them up so they look like they’re taken by a professional photographer.
Step 4: Put your new shiny video(s) on a USB stick and start playing it on your display.
Step 5: Reap the benefits. Increase walk-ins and enhance the customer experience in your locale.
Conclusion:
Effective digital signage content is a great way for small and medium businesses to increase their walk-ins, awareness and revenue. Despite being a complex industry with lots of difficult buzzwords and terminology it isn’t so hard (or expensive) to get started. Reap the benefits of using digital signage now with Shakr!
Liked our digital signage for beginners post? Want free digital signage video templates and blog posts delivered to your inbox? Every Thursday we send out an email with some free templates that you can upgrade to HD quality for free and put on your digital signage!
