What is Digital Signage?
Digital Signage, also sometimes referred to as electronic signage, are LED displays, projections or LCD monitors that vividly display webpages, videos, directional maps, menus, marketing messages and/or imagery. They can be found in museums, stadiums, public spaces, transportation systems, retail stores, hotels, restaurants and corporate buildings; providing wayfinding, exhibitions, marketing and outdoor advertising.
Why Use Digital Signage?
From the dentists office to your travel own workplace, you see digital signage.
The many different uses of digital signage allow a business to accomplish a variety of goals. Some of the most common applications include:
- Public information – news, weather, traffic, and local information, such as building directory with a map, fire exits and traveler information.
- Internal information – corporate messages, such as health & safety, news, and bulletins.
- Product information – pricing, photos, raw materials, or ingredients, suggested applications and other product information – especially useful in restaurant marketing where signage may include nutritional facts or suggested uses & recipes.
- Information to enhance the customer service experience – interpretive signage in museums, galleries, zoos, parks and gardens, exhibitions, tourist, and cultural attractions.
- Advertising and Promotion – promoting products or services, may be related to the location of the sign or using the screen’s audience reach for general advertising.
- Brand building – in-store digital sign to promote the brand and build a brand identity.
- Enhancing customer experience – applications include the reduction of perceived wait time in the waiting areas of restaurants and other retail operations, bank queues, and similar circumstances, as well as demonstrations, such as those of recipes in food stores, among other examples.
- Navigation – with interactive screens (in the floor, for example, as with “informational footsteps” found in some tourist attractions, museums and the like) or with other means of “dynamic wayfinding”.
- Reservations – small, interactive screens on walls or desks that allow employees to reserve the space for a limited time and integrate with a room and resource scheduling platform.
In summary, countless companies across every industry uses digital signage in some way – the question is now, how will you use digital signage?
Uses for Digital Signage:
Promotions
Digital signage displays are a great place to feature promotions for products, services, events and sales. Since multimedia screens use video and animation in addition to rotating graphics, advertisers can incorporate digital signage content featuring static ads, product demonstrations or video testimonials. Retail settings are one of the most common places where you’ll see digital signage.
Service Offerings
While paper menus or fixed displays are still common, businesses can artistically list their service offerings on digital displays. With digital signage, restaurants, salons, spas, auto repair shops and fitness studios can offer rotating content and information on walls, windows or a dazzling digital screen.
Interactive Forms & Games
Who said that digital screens should be restricted to the wall for displaying certain information only? Let users control and engage with them. With interactive digital signage, users can select content, play games and even subscribe to email newsletters. This way, you’ll be able to collect key information (that you can use for your marketing) from guests.
Social Media Streams & News
Bring the online world into the office with social media integrated digital signage. Sync the screens with your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds and artistically curate hashtag mentions to propel your brand into the real world. Fans get an opportunity to see their contribution featured in real time, and your content becomes a welcome source of information.
Company Memos for Recognition
Rather than sending emails or paper memos, you can share updates via digital screens mounted in employee areas including lounges and break-rooms. It’s not only quick and efficient but improves communication and workplace morale. Compared to text-heavy documents, people tend to pay more attention to engaging, visual-based content. When paired with tools like Hoopla, sales teams can check their rankings on the big-screen regularly. When a deal is closed, everyone knows!
Calendars & Event Schedules
Hotels, shopping malls, universities, offices, theme parks and healthcare facilities can leverage digital content to create calendars that share event or work schedules as well as upcoming appointment times. This keeps visitors informed about daily activities while saving your staff time previously spent fielding questions.
Maps (You are here!)
Many large organizations have static maps in place that guide people to their destination. However, these maps don’t provide optimal flexibility; they need to be updated and republished whenever changes are made and only offer visitors static, standardized information.
Digital wayfinding maps are dependable, versatile and affordable. You can update your maps in real-time and utilize interactive tools that provide customized directions based on customer input.
Directories
Digital signage content is an essential resource for any modern organization. Aside from helping people find their way, directories also make it easy for them to access what they need. Incorporating a directory into wayfinding screens is an incredible way to condense huge wall directories and make it possible for guests to get whatever they need quickly and with minimal stress.
With digital directories, users don’t have to struggle to find a physician or office. All they need is to enter a name, filter their options, and get only the specific information they want.
Emergency Messages
In the event of an emergency, you need to quickly notify your entire staff. If you don’t have a reliable communication strategy, however, this can be extremely difficult. With the help of digital signage content, you can create a comprehensive emergency communication plan and update information on various screens throughout your facility. Important safety and emergency messages are simply and efficiently distributed.
Your Digital Sign Project
Digital signage has many applications for businesses, from marketing to morale to maps. With digital signage, you have the power to get your message across in a vivid, entertaining, and captivating manner. If you’ve been searching for ways to kick-start your marketing messages, energize your team or stand out in any space, think of digital signage and the NTi experts here to get your custom solution up.
