The storefront window is the face of the brick and mortar business. It’s the most-viewed part of a store and just as valuable as the intricate and detailed interior design. One could argue it’s even more important as a compelling outside holds the power to grab attention and persuade people to step inside. Without this pull, indoor digital signage has less to do. For that reason, it’s invaluable to make well-designed storefront digital signage which is effective at this task.
We start from scratch with the primary goals you wish your storefront digital signage to achieve. Then, we see what types of content you can use to accomplish those goals, as well as important factors to keep in mind when creating it.
1. The goal of the campaign
What do you want to achieve with your storefront digital signage? The ultimate goal is to bring people into the store. As many ways lead to Rome, there are many ways to achieve just that. Displaying your best products and their competitive price is a sure way to attract one segment of consumers. Others may be drawn to discounts, in which case your campaign could focus mainly on the pricing aspect and highlight only discounted goods. With digital signage software, you can plan out a variety of content and satisfy both target audiences.
Another goal may be to engage consumers through entertaining or visual content such as pictures, videos, art, or even news. This type of information appeals to many, independently if they are your ideal customers. It can be useful nonetheless for having the potential of getting people accustomed to the style of your displays. If you create a good content mix and set up a diverse campaign schedule, you’ll attract more eyes to your displays and for longer, and thus have more opportunities to get your intended message across.
2. Content types
We’ve already scratched the surface of the various types of content you could display, so let’s summarize everything.
Highlighting products and their prices is a great start, especially when they’re new or on sale. Special offers and deals for the holidays or other festive days of the year easily attract attention and bring people in. Your passers-by expect to see these kind of campaigns and you shouldn’t neglect them! Feedback and testimonials are a viable and easy type of content to source. To include them as part of your content rotation, use either direct feedback from consumers, or social media posts.
Moreover, there are the types of content which function as a stopper for pedestrians from walking past, by engaging their interest. Information like news, fun facts, or the ever relevant weather can all be included as minor links in your content chain. Entertainment, which we hinted at earlier, may even be added in an interactive form. We’ll discuss the topic of interactivity in more detail later.
3. Simple rules of content creation
The largest foot traffic flow, including every person who enters your store, will see your storefront digital signage. Knowing this, you must ensure it’s flawless. Once the outline to your content is established and you get into the creation stage, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Regardless of content type, be it a quick five-word ad or a 60-second video, it must stand out. If it doesn’t draw attention to itself from the white visual noise of the busy world out there, it doesn’t exist. Images in motion, like videos or animations come in handy here. Nothing too extravagant, just enough to make someone glance over.
Once the attention aspect is covered, ensure the content is understood. An all too common mistake, apart from flawed color combinations, is the scaling of images and text. The goal is to ensure nobody has to come face-to-face with the storefront window in order to read the message.
4. Interactivity
There are many paths to interactivity in the context of a storefront digital signage. It’s certainly not a mandatory step to enhance your campaigns but it’s worth thinking about. One advanced feature for interactivity may involve the use of motion sensors which trigger content for the person nearby. It could also act accordingly based on whether it’s a man, woman, an old person or young.
Touchscreen displays are certainly the easiest and most straightforward path to interactivity. They engage consumers through playful content or the provision of information they seek. While some storefronts may not find it easy to implement a touchscreen solution, keep in mind there are solutions which enable touch screen interactivity through the storefront glass.
5. The indoor view
If your storefront digital signage succeeds at luring people in, you don’t want to disappoint them once they find themselves inside. Surely you’ve taken care of that and included indoor digital signage to further guide your newest prospect. However, don’t neglect the view of the storefront and the empty back of your displays.
There are plenty of solutions for this, including luxurious dual-sided displays. However, they’re certainly not utmost necessary if you aren’t in big spender mood. Adding an additional display indoors or even using standard signage as partition fixes the issue. It’s certainly not the most pressing issue, but it shows you paid attention yourself to designing your indoor digital signage and ensuring it accommodates and works well with its storefront counterpart which faces the outside world.