In today’s world, digital signage is everywhere. We’ve seen these dynamic screens in our favourite cinemas, shops, and fitness centres.
Digital signage is a game-changer. It helps businesses boost ROI, increase brand awareness, inform consumers, and much more. It’s no surprise that the global digital signage market is poised to grow from $19.6B in 2016 to a staggering $32.84B billion in 2023*.
In this guide we’ll talk you through many of the key questions that our clients ask us to help you plan your digital signage network.
Digital signage is a digital installation that displays video or multimedia content for informational or advertising purposes. Any digital signage installation comprises of three main components; hardware, software, and content. More on these later.
Digital signage is eye-catching, making it far easier to communicate with your customers compared to traditional signage. Getting your message across in an engaging way helps to improve your brand recognition, increase revenues and sales, entertain and inform your customers, and create lasting and meaningful impressions. Updating your content is also quick, easy and low-cost, saving you time and money when you want to change your messaging.
Digital signage is versatile and can be used for a host of applications:
Any digital signage solution needs three key components: content, hardware, and software.
This is what is displayed on your screens, the end-product that informs your audience. It is made up of an inventory of images, videos, text messaging, graphics, audio and more. When done well this entertains and informs, telling unique stories and improving your customer experience.
These are the physical, tangible components like screens, mounts, cameras, PCs, servers, and media players.
This is the digital infrastructure that enables the creation, deployment, management, and analysis of content shown on the displays.
Depending on the scale of the digital signage system, it can be simply managed by a single person with access to a PC, or by multiple people at different locations.
Before you even start looking at all the fancy screens you could install in your space, take a step back and consider a few key things:
By clearly defining what you want to achieve by using digital signage, you simplify the rest of the project. From explaining your vision to your installer, right through to creating eye-catching, on-brand content to display.
If your bandwidth can’t handle the requirements of your digital signage solution, plus any existing systems that require internet, you could end up with underperforming digital signs. Talk to your digital signage company to find the requirements and upgrade if necessary.
Every screen is a blank canvas full of potential. But the success of your signage network relies on the effectiveness of your content. So, ensure that the content is well thought out and schedule regular audits to monitor how your content is resonating with your audience.
Like traditional signs, you want to position your digital signage in spaces with high traffic, to ensure your chosen content is seen by as many of your customers as possible. Common high-traffic areas could be lobbies, reception spaces, entrances, points-of-sale, waiting rooms, and hallways.
Nowadays, there is a wide variety of options for digital signage screens, so you can choose the right displays for your space and application.
If you have the space and want to create an impact, consider using a video wall. But if you’re planning on using your displays for wayfinding and customer information updates, smaller screens throughout your facility could be more effective.
If you’re looking for an interactive attraction to bring to your space, some companies have taken digital displays to the next level. Check out how MultiBall have created an LED screen that mixes exercise with gamification using touch-sensitive projections. This new age of interactive screens can also double up as more traditional digital signage when not in use.
Whichever display you go for, ensure it is at least full-HD, to ensure your engaging content is shown clearly.
There’s a lot of digital signage software out there, so it’s important to know the key things to look for when shopping around. Things like app integration, automated alerts and mobile support are great add-ons, but here are the key things to make sure your digital signage solution is going to work for you.
The up-front cost of on-site software can be prohibitive for most. Cloud-based software is hosted on a third-party server, meaning you only use bandwidth to distribute your content to your displays. This also removes the need for a dedicated IT team, as the host manages the software.
It’s all fine and well having a sophisticated digital signage system, but if you can’t update your content easily, you’ll quickly become frustrated. Look for software that comes with an intuitive user interface, so you don’t waste valuable hours.
As there are multiple components to a digital signage system, finding a company that offers a complete service will make your life a lot easier. Look for a company that provides the hardware and software, carries out installation, provides all training and onboarding and has a great aftercare service to take care of any issues you might encounter with your system.
This is how we do things at Hutchison Technologies. We specialise in turning spaces into experiences, and we believe in offering complete, end-to-end solutions. We work with our clients across many sectors to help bring their display ideas to life, from concept to post-installation support.
And there you have it, everything you need to know before creating a digital signage network that takes your customer experience to the next level.
Get in touch today to see how our team can help you bring your display vision to life.