How signage solutions can drive revenue and cut business costs

Signage solutions are now more dynamic, cost-efficient and flexible than ever before. From their humble beginnings as static signs, they have emerged, with the advent of digitalisation, as future-facing, scalable and highly impactful multimedia tools.

Delivering customised, hyper-targeted and often data-driven campaigns, digital signage solutions are not only overcoming many age-old communications, and advertising challenges, but also helping to cut business costs.

1/ Reduce the cost of advertising

Take, for example, the cost of advertising, which has traditionally been prohibitive for all but the largest companies. Digital signage solutions have driven down the expense as well as the difficulty, enabling organisations of all sizes to take control and advertise – not just seasonally, as has been the case in the past, but consistently with an “always-on” strategy.

When paired with the right content management system (CMS), digital signage delivers an intuitive, user-friendly, and extremely cost-effective all-in-one advertising solution.

The most comprehensive CMS platforms come equipped with libraries of free-to-use and affordable subscription- based content tools, which make it easy for anyone to create professional-looking designs.

No longer hit-or-miss, content creation is, in fact, now easy to optimise for success, with the help of Artificial Intelligence and neuroscientific research.

AI-driven signage solutions

Affordable subscription-based AI predictive design tools give every organisation the opportunity to review their campaigns quickly and understand how customers will perceive the designs, before they go live.

Teams can run their designs for analysis and work out which is the strongest, and instantly see how the layout can be tweaked to ensure higher performing creatives. All this can be done without any costly trial and error process, and/or behavioural research.

Once the campaign has been created, it’s also easy to upload and schedule the content with cloud-based digital signage systems. This can be done remotely or locally on-site, either for immediate publication, or for a specific time or date.

Stamping out stale, out of date content is the bane of Marketing. Finding the right CMS solution ensures that only fresh and relevant campaigns are displayed on-screen. You can, for instance, pre-set expiry dates for each playlist, as well as edit live content in real time.

With enterprise-grade CMS solutions, campaigns are also quick and cost-efficient to scale out even across networks spanning continents. Built in tag managers allow content to be grouped together by geographical area, so that with one update, you can change the content across all the screens in a region.

2/ Cut business costs with signage solutions

Digital signage is not just, however, an exceptional money-saving tool when it comes to the creation and delivery of digital advertising; it’s also capable of cutting the overall operational costs of a business.

A paper-free form of communications that can be continuously updated without the usual cost of reprinting, day-to-day digital signage can also serve as an all-in-one multimedia signage solution.

The best content management systems transform digital signage screens into streamlined and cost-efficient multimedia communications tools that make the need for any additional company hardware redundant.

Integrated with a vast array of platforms, and services, they become the network through which everyday media can be shared and scaled out uniformly.

Supporting everything from business intelligence platforms, such as Microsoft Power BI and monday.com to infotainment platforms, like YouTube and Screenfeed, digital signage powers every kind of communication.

From the same platform, you can drive data-driven cultures with the secure display of your company’s latest sales results, visualise workflows on-screen to keep everyone on track, and feature “how-to” explanatory videos on YouTube on a loop for any complex workplace technologies or systems.

ClickShare

For just the cost of a Signagelive Standard or Web Licence, you can also transform your current ClickShare C and CX Wireless Systems into all-in-one collaboration and communications platforms.

Without the need for any additional hardware, or software, Signagelive-powered ClickShare devices are able to support wireless conferencing and presenting, as well as the delivery of your workplace digital signage.

Meeting room management

CMS features, such as integrated calendar functionality also help to streamline and improve your meeting room management. You can share your company calendars on the big screen, so that everyone can see, at a glance, the availability of rooms, as well as staff.

Retail

For sectors such as retail, during the day, digital signage solutions can be used as cost-effective advertising tools. Delivering more bang for your buck, they enable you to feature several product advertisements in multi-zone template designs.

After-hours, they can then double up as training tools, allowing a single experienced staff member to train many new starters across multiple locations through live streams or recorded video on platforms, such as YouTube and IBM Cloud Video.

Signagelive Real Time Events

To streamline operational costs even further, content management solutions are now offering additional functionality. In the case of Signagelive, for instance, the CMS platform not only provides content management support, but also cost-effective and simplified external device control with its exclusive Real Time Events (RTEs) feature.

Within video files, retailers are able to send commands to any connected devices in the environment. This remote functionality can be used to optimise efficiency by, for instance, enabling retailers to pre schedule the screens to switch off at the end of the working day. It’s also ideal for creating experiential retail campaigns, in which the on-screen messaging is amplified by adjustments to the lighting and kind of music being played.

Public places

In public venues as well as commuter stations, signage solutions can also be used to streamline costs by fulfilling multiple objectives.

While keeping visitors or commuters updated with real-time information about delays, they can work to reduce perceived waiting times with live streams of infotainment from integrated services, such as Screenfeed.

Integrations with programmatic advertising platforms, such as HiveStack and Snapp Digital also enable you to monetise your platform, right out of the box, with relevant content that actually adds value to your visitor or commuter experience.

3/ Drive revenue with hyper-targeted marketing

Hyper-targeted marketing at the point of sale, or near the relevant venue being promoted can serve as a powerful influencer, but until recently, it has often proven too difficult due to the size and/or style and layout of the space available.

Digital signage and digital out of home solutions have literally changed the advertising landscape, enabling organisations to catch consumers at exactly the right time in exactly the right location.

With integrations offered by content management systems, you can build on this targeting, leveraging the power of vision AI to deliver content, based on the preferences of your ideal customer persona. Integrated platforms, such as meldCX by Viana enable you to use anonymous customer analytics to maximise the relevancy of your content for your top-spending customers.

4/ Bridge together digital and on-location marketing strategies

Serving as a bridge between your digital and on-location marketing strategies, digital signage solutions pull the whole customer and brand experience together, enabling you to roll out more cohesive and over-arching campaigns to maximise engagement.

Word of mouth marketing

In stores or visitor attraction sites, you can, for instance, use your digital signage as social media boards. Working to amplify the impact of your social media marketing, they allow you to display curated social media feeds, so you can highlight positive reviews and influencer endorsements.

Touch screens displaying advertisements can also double up as research and marketing tools, enabling you to ask customers for feedback on their shopping experience, or to sign up to your newsletter.

Signage solutions have come a long way. Offering so much more than impactful communications tools, they are now capable of adding value to every area of a business. As well as being able to power multinational advertising in real-time, they can tackle everything from workplace challenges to the imperatives of experiential retail, while also helping to optimise efficiencies and drive down costs.