Regardless of the industry your small business is in, if you want to bring in more visitors and convert them into loyal customers, digital signage is the tool for you. As you know, a properly set up digital display can attract attention, inform and persuade people to take action. You might have noticed other businesses using signage for advertising and even considered to use it yourself, and today, we’ll give you more reasons to do just that!
We previously discussed why digital signage is such a popular business tool and what it can offer your customers. Now, we take a closer look at the benefits, particularly how you can properly use it to make your business grow and enhance the customer journey and experience.
1. Answer FAQs (frequently asked questions)
Customers often have questions, but not all of them seek the answers out. They might be uncomfortable asking. Maybe they don’t know who to ask, all sales consultants are busy, or in some cases they are even uncertain which question to ask.
Set up a digital display containing the most common and logical questions a new customer might need an answer to. After covering basic data, pay attention to what most consumers ask about. If pricing or special offers confuse most, elaborate them as clearly as you can and provide this as an answer on your displays. You should establish a small database of these questions and answers which should be used on your website for new visitors as well.
2. Clarify offers and upsells
Although they’re the most important information a customer might want, offers shouldn’t be condensed into a few lines on your “Common Questions” display. They should be highlighted with all of their advantages and the price tag easy to understand by the customer.
If your customer understands your initial offer, it is much easier to explain potential upgrade benefits to their purchases. If the package on offer at your bank can be reevaluated, or if there are special perks for spending over $50 at your store, let your customers know! For this purpose, keep in mind the location of the display. Place them where the items referenced are located, or wherever else you feel it makes sense to attempt to upsell.
3. Make use of “wasted” time
Many service-oriented and small businesses have something resembling a waiting room. Be it a dentist’s office, bank, or even a cinema; at one point, customers will have to halt their activity and wait for a short amount of time. This time is typically wasted as there is nothing else to do. Therefore while they are scanning the room in search for something to occupy their minds with, it’s extremely easy to get customers to pay attention to a digital display calling out to them.
If you have a waiting room, don’t let it go to waste! In those few minutes of waiting, your customers will register any information you put in front of them. Choose wisely what you’ll present, though. A good idea would be a mix of your own offers, some ads and if possible some entertaining sales independent content. Based on your business model and clientele, find the mix which suits you best.
4. Engage visitors and customers easily
Engagement is at the top of the digital-signage-benefits pyramid and is possible to include all small businesses, services or organizations. For that reason, we won’t go into too much detail about this topic here, as you have surely already understood how engaging a digital display can be.
If you’d like to know more on how digital signage can engage your existing customers as well as new visitors, take a look at these engaging methods and examples for inspiration. And furthermore, if you’d want to create your own, check out the main rules to creating your own engaging digital signage campaign.
5. Gather data and analytics
The importance of analytics cannot be stressed enough for any business. Digital signage offers ways to easily collect it. Feedback is the clearest indicator for the direction your business is headed. Thus, ensure people have the means to provide it.
Also, make sure the request for feedback is given without being disruptive to the customer. If you have interactive campaigns—as you should, especially with the aforementioned FAQs—you can make a single question pop up from time to time for the user. “How satisfied are you with our customer service today?” would be a good poll question requesting a scale rating. These types of questions only take few seconds to resolve, and most users won’t be bothered by them. A minor task for them, yet vital information for you.
The value of digital signage analytics shouldn’t be ignored, and it really is relatively easy to implement. The benefits can really turn your business in the right direction if it’s astray.
6. Tap into advertising potential
Have you had an idea potentially doubling your business, but perhaps it seemed too risky? Maybe you were afraid of investing substantial funds into creative campaigns which might backfire in ways you couldn’t anticipate. With digital signage you can comfortably experiment without investing a fortune. In case you don’t have a digital signage network yet, think of it as a re-usable investment. If a particular ad campaign doesn’t work, just try a different angle. The thought about the cost of doing so won’t hold you back!
On-board the digital signage ship, your advertising potential gets a serious upgrade. For inspiration, take a look at Nike. They teamed up with UNICEF and put up an interactive billboard which was powered by your feet! For every kilometer run on a treadmill, Nike promised to donate a set amount of money to UNICEF. While the application of digital signage on this scale might not be very feasible for small businesses, it shows the potential a digital display can have. Based on what your business does and what it offers, you can come up with creative campaigns unique to you. Something as simple as displaying content based on the time of day can be a great attention-catching start.
Apart from advertising your own products through creative digital signage campaigns, you can sell advertising space to local small businesses with complementary products. This benefits both you and the other business.
Digital signage can bring your business into closer contact with the local community. If you use your digital network in part to volunteer and aid local causes, your business will be recognized as one that actually cares about its community.
Can digital signage help your business?
Most definitely, it can! And we can safely answer this question without even knowing which industry your business is in. You likely noticed that most of the benefits and uses mentioned above do appear somewhat vague.
Naturally, we can’t focus on one specific business type to explain the benefits of digital signage as its examples won’t fit all small businesses. But we can paint a clear picture of the potential of digital signage.
Take a look at case studies we have established so far and see if any of them apply to your own situation to learn more specific benefits of digital signage.
