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Digital signage: how to organize effective display communication - power2Cloud

Written by power2Cloud | 16/11/22

Today communication is omnichannel: it goes from digital storefronts to eCommerce, from chat rooms to email, continuing with social and displays. There is no obligatory path, interactions are constant and always different.

In this article, we will focus on digital signage, with which any organization can capture the attention of a large number of users by simultaneously conveying different and timed content, perfect for brand awareness, conversions and loyalty.

Pictures, videos, social feeds, promotions, enterprise TV are offered continuously, every day, on the screens of corporate and public spaces, offices, stores, galleries, hospitals, supermarkets, banks, gyms, garages, airports, fairs or stores.

So goodbye to traditional signage, let's embrace more interactive and effective communication, not only for customers, but also for employees. Have you ever thought about optimizing the management of work spaces - such as meeting rooms - and your resources with displays?

Here we want to remind you of the benefits of digital signage and tell you about a few use cases, useful for transforming waiting, shopping, and information seeking into engaging, tailored experiences!

 

Digital signage: some use cases 

Digital signage allows embracing different strategies, in fact it brings all teams together, sales, service, marketing and operations.

With digital signage software you can easily communicate to the right target audience, in the right place. What are you waiting for? Let's look at some examples together.

 

Successful Promotions

Maybe the best known use case: conveying promotions related to products, services, events, and sales is something that every organization does all the time and takes up quite a few resources. Do you want to optimize yours as well?

In retail outlets, thanks to content calendaring or advanced visualization, (depending on the weather you can propose tasks to be done but also flash news, social feeds, temporary promotions and so on), videos, animations, photos, creativity, reviews or product demonstrations alternate or work simultaneously to provide the best experience for your users.

 

Up-to-date service offerings

Paper menus and fixed displays are a distant memory. Today, service offerings travel on digital displays and have a more interactive and engaging appeal. We saw this even during the pandemic with the inordinate use of QR codes to share specific services, prices and appointments with landing pages or links. Even today, restaurants, salons, spas, repair shops and gyms, to name a few, calendar and communicate content and information that update in real time with a click.

 

Product configurators, points to customization

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If your products include customizations -- think automotive -- and you want to incentivize upsells, offer configurators on displays in your showrooms to show users all its variants already in preview.

Leaving no room for imagination, it gives the excitement of "touching" the future purchase, making the choice even more decisive.

 

Inspirational content: brand awareness, not just sales activities

Users are bombarded with all kinds of messages, which is why they appreciate content that is enjoyable, designed to entertain and inspire. Displays should not be used just to sell, do you agree?  

Recreating a welcoming environment, allows waiting to be perceived differently (lines at the checkout, at an event presentation, or at the reception of a professional office), increases brand awareness and conversions.

The video recipes offered at the delicatessen counter, total looks in the most digital storefronts, tutorials, customizations, and why not? Even listen to other users' reviews.

 

Interactive forms: communicate with users 

Where before it was enough to propose a roundup of photos and videos in a static and passive way, today users want to select the content they are most interested in: subscribe to newsletters or promotions, fill out forms, contact forms, browse landing pages.

Interaction plays a key role, because you can collect important data for business strategies and analyze it in a short time to undertake appropriate strategies.

 

Stream and news on social media: incentivizes sharing

Have you ever thought of synchronizing displays with your social media feed such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram?  

Promote hashtags, your official profiles, incentivizing the sharing of comments, photos and information, take your organization out into the real world in a few simple steps and give value to your community.

 

Business memos: engagement and efficiency 

Communication applies as much to customers as it does to employees.

You can efficiently share company updates (events, news, calendars...) on displays placed in areas where your employees stop, such as lounges, cafeterias, or meeting rooms.

In comparison to traditional documents, people pay more attention to engaging and visual content. Many solicit engagement and productivity by offering, for example, rankings on team performance or notifications when a deal is closed.

 

Book the meeting room with one click

A hybrid work environment, increasingly crosses smart working and office.

Managing schedules, meeting rooms, team collaboration is a recent challenge. 

Digital signage software (such as Appspace, which also offers employees a great App) can make it easy to book rooms, desks, parking lots, and other spaces. Digitizing your office floor plan and offering this service, can help users book the right resources in the right location. 

The reservationsare flexible, customized and can meet the needs of any workplace. Your users thus are able to book the meeting room at any time while they are on their way to the office, as soon as they arrive, or a few days in advance.

 
 

Emergency messages not to be unprepared

In case of an emergency, how can you alert staff? Displays come to the rescue here as well. If they are well organized, they offer reliable communication even for internal communications within your organization: you can schedule and share important messages across all displays instantly and responsive.

 

Calendars, so nothing escapes anymore!

Offices, hotels, shopping malls, universities, theme parks, and health care facilities are taking advantage of displays to offer calendars: presenting events, work schedules, upcoming appointments, and more, so nothing gets missed. It is important that the software you use for digital signage integrates with the tools you currently use, such as the Google Workspace calendar or Office365.

 

Events and fairs

Enterprise TV, social feeds, forms, with which users interact, make your exhibition spaces, including at fairs and events, interesting and functional.

With interactive displays, you can make these environments welcoming, set up and engaging to solicit brand awareness, sales or collect contact information from your visitors. 

Have you noticed what crazy appeal digital 3d billboards have? From New York to Tokyo, via Rome and Milan, it's impossible not to stop with your nose in the air.

Communication sobecomes not only digital and interactive, but also three-dimensional!

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If you're in the business of advertising space, don't forget that by skillfully managing your space and thus your displays, you can intelligently market your clients' visibility by offering specific packages on a rotating basis, considering multiple brands or products at once.

 

Maps: helps users navigate

Orientering the space helps users learn about services, optimizing their stay.

Paper or static maps have had their day, are difficult to update and manage, have periodic printing costs related to deterioration or replacement, but do not offer the flexibility users are accustomed to.

Digital ones, on the contrary, are liked so much and are consulted daily by millions of people because they are reliable, versatile, convenient and sustainable for the company. They also make it possible to offerpersonalized directions based on user input. 

Have you ever thought of offering them in your displays?

 

Directory: simplifies search

The customer journey includes not only purchases, but also search and support, and all the interactions that users exchange with your organization.

Thanks to digital signage, you can propose self-service resources with interactive displays so users can easily access the information they need. Proposing a directory on displays in your spaces makes it easy to search for anything.

Just enter a name or keyword to get specific information, find for example, a medical practice, professional, product or service.

 
 

What software is suitable for digital signage?

If you're thinking of adopting one or more of the strategies listed, and you don't know how to choose software to best manage digital signage, here are some useful considerations: 

    • What hardware do you have?How does the software integrate with your technology?
    • how many displays do you need to manage? Over time do you need to add new ones?
    • what and how much content do you want to publish?What tools should the platform that is to manage your displays integrate with?

Managing a digital signage software should be easy and accessible, because content is not created and conveyed by IT teams, everyone should be able to administer the platform independently.
A good digital signage software should allow you toadminister all your displays (kiosks, ledwalls, tablets, TVs...), those you have planned to set up in the same space, but also in different cities, regions or countries. Remotely and in real time you must always have full control not only of the content, but also of the devices.

Calendarizing and diversifying information flows, makes your project measurable in performance, i.e., helps you understand which touch points or content are performing or targeting your users.

 

The benefits of digital signage with Appspace 

power2Cloud can help you organize and configure digital signage after a dedicated demo according to your use case. We have successfully selected and implemented Appspace in different realities and verticals.

Here are some considerations that we feel we share:

    • manage software with simplicity. Adopting a tool that is difficult to administer soon makes content static and not at all up-to-date. Simple-to-administer software -- like Appspace -- on the other hand transforms communication into a dynamic, managed, high-performing resource, plus it allows you to administer twenty-five to hundreds of displays remotely, measuring metrics and performance... all from a single platform;
    • start scaling: add the devices you need whenever you want, at any time, your adopted solution grows with you!
    • monitor the network, access reporting:keep track of monitors that are working, but also those that are not operational or included in the schedule, so it will be easier to take action. Remember that you will never have to worry about software maintenance or updates;
    • exploit the hardware at your disposal: use smart TVs or Chromeboxes to adapt older displays to new demands, it's simple and inexpensive!
    • diversify the content, make it responsive: images, videos or other multimedia content, depending on the location, city or period may be more suitable for your strategy, do not exclude any of them;
    • choose the best layout, take advantage of templates: use predefined templates for your digital signage. Layouts allow you to display different types of content on a screen in an engaging, fast and flexible way. Some are ready-made, so why not take advantage of them? Otherwise as you know you can customize them or create them from scratch according to your brand immage;
    • optimizes costs.: The initial investment may seem higher than that required by more traditional billboards, but this is not the case. With digital signage you have the ability to use change and customize content, update it in real time, freeing you from platform maintenance. Control of all displays is centralized, so you optimize all resources;
    • integrate it with your work tools: choose software that is compatible with all hardware solutions available on the market and with the tools you use every day, Appspace has many native integrations and a rich MarketPlace. Do you want to discover them?