Sure-Fire Ways to Improve your Digital Signage
Not too long ago owning Digital Signage made a substantial impact solely based on the uniqueness of the product. With the standardisation of Digital Signage, now not harnessing this tech could incur negative consequences.
This post, which may seem obvious to some (although you’ll be surprised how many don’t realise), will help to push your signage above the rest.
Make Digital Signage Habitual
Making the viewing of your Signage a habit is a sure-fire way of getting people to come back and check out whats new. This can be achieved through a number of means.
Providing content that matters. This can be as simple as including live information such as a weather widget, time, social, a news feed or live video feed. If viewers form a habitual relationship with a display you can be sure they will in turn pay attention to the content or messaging that really matters. Make your Digital Signage a source of interest. It can take up to 66 days to form a habit, so don’t expect it to work overnight.
This being said, this ‘important’ messaging should be updated frequently as consumers are more likely to notice change. It will most likely be more effective in situations with a captive audience; one that is in an area for a prolonged period of time e.g. a waiting areas, offices, checkouts and so on.
The science behind it.
According to Stanford behavioural psychology professor BJ Fogg, every habit is created with the same 3-step pattern.
- Trigger (what initiates the behaviour)
Seeing a digital sign advertising a new gym class
- Routine (the behaviour itself i.e the action that you take)
- Reward (the benefits you gain from actioning the behaviour)
Signing up for the new gym class
Attending the class, getting fitter, feeling better
If the reward is positive, the brain will have a natural desire to repeat the action, thus beginning to form a habit. In the scenario above, the viewer begins to form the habit of looking to the digital signage as a way to further improve wellbeing.
Rewards don’t always have to be as simple as the gain of information. More substantial rewards such as discount codes can be sure to keep consumers coming back for more.
Some Digital Signage ‘Trigger’ Tips
1) Get Animated
A simple trigger tactic could be animation. A study by Intel discovered animated content receives 5 times more viewers than static content. Additionally the engagement is for a much longer period. If animation or video isn’t an option, high quality professional imagery can make content 43% more persuasive.
2) Strategically Placed Displays
Position displays not only in proportionately high traffic areas, but key, captive locations. These captive locations are anywhere viewers may spend an extended period of time, such as a train station platform, office or even where consumers are funnelled during their commute to work or around a store; making the displays unmissable.
Positioning of displays can also assist in directing the flow of traffic through to an end goal, such as purchase. For example, store window displays to draw the customer in, aisles displays to direct consumers around the store by promoting specific products and finally displays next to the checkouts to push the final impulse purchase. Digital signage can increase the chance of an impulse purchase by up to 20%!.
How to Draw Attention: The Human Face
The human face can be a brand ally, bringing familiarity and humanity to your content. The brain automatically seeks out the human face, so why not use it to your advantage.
Use the human face to draw attention to your offering, such as facing towards or looking towards your call to action. This naturally draws attention to the content that matters.
Emotions are universal and are highly transferable. Use them to set the mood of your displays and demand action and attention.
Keep wording to a minimum, especially in non-captive environments. When it comes to Digital Out of Home (DOOH) advertising no more than 7 words should be used for the majority of content due to the short viewing times and attention span of the viewer.
Related story: The Ultimate Guide to Good Digital Signage Content
Get the Hardware Right
Brightness of a display is a major factor in activating the trigger step. Direct sunlight can render standard displays illegible. On the other hand, high-bright displays can be blinding in low-ambient environments. Ensure displays are selected for the correct environment so content remains visible at a suitable level for the audience.
GO BIG. Make a statement with large displays, video walls, LED walls and Digital Billboards. The extra investment in large display technology could pay dividends in terms of getting noticed.
Related story: 4 Steps to Choosing the Right Digital Signage Hardware
How do I know if it’s working?
Using third party tools alongside digital signage is essential for measuring, analysing and improving a digital signage strategy. Measurement tools help businesses understand if their new initiatives are delivering the right results and ultimately making signage stand out above their competitors.
Audience measurement software such as that by Quividi can used alongside to get real time results on who is looking at your displays. Is your latest campaign working as hoped? More importantly who is doing the viewing? These questions can be answered with the help of Quividi reports.
Using Google Analytics Measurement Protocol, businesses are able to take raw data through to their Google Analytics platform. This makes it perfect for integrating data such as PIR triggers for footfall tracking.
Integrating CCTV, POS, WiFi and Beacon data using rounded analytics tools such as Walkbase gives businesses the opportunity to measure all kinds of metrics. Has our new screen placement improved the customer path in store? Has our new content drawn more people to a specific area of the store?
There are so many measurement tools available, we’ve just highlighted a few to provide some inspiration of what is possible and why they can be a game changing factor to your digital signage strategy.
What do you do?
Share with us what you do to make your signage stand out? What tactics and actions do you employ in your own signage network to ensure you stay a cut above the rest?
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