Digital signage is increasingly becoming the norm since huge brands like Wal-Mart are adopting digital signage platforms. In order to join the ranks of those using the technology and still stand out, you are going to have to present your “A” game every time.
Here are some tips to help you deliver the best content possible in order to grab attention, enhance the customer experience and convert new leads through digital signage software.
Engage the Senses
Digital screens create the opportunity for rich media that can captivate passers-by. Use sensory-rich content that engages the consumer and haves them feel like they are a part of what is being displayed. Video of fresh cookies that are still gooey and warm when they break apart, heady lotion globs that look as if they could moisturize your skin just by touching them and transporting scenes of natural beauty all suck in people and draw in their attention long enough to absorb the desired call-to-action.
In addition to these types of sensory-rich content, you can literally stimulate senses by equipping your digital screens with scent diffusers, directional audio speakers or by having someone present real samples of a product for consumers to feel, taste and touch. Ideas like these stop consumers in their tracks and make them more receptive to your message.
Optimize Your Displays
Ever walk into someone’s house and wonder why their $6,000 TV looks worse than your $600 one? Usually the culprit is that even though they shelled out the cash for the nicer hardware, their limited technological understanding prevents them from getting the most out of it.
Do not fall into this same trap with your digital screens. Use your signage software to tweak the display settings for contrast, brightness, sharpness, color balance and other such settings. Modifying them not only makes them look better, but it can also make the text more legible and the messages accessible to a wider group of consumers. Remember that different display areas will have different lighting conditions, so each sign needs to be calibrated for the best results.
Condense Your Copy
A classic marketing axiom is the “3×5 rule,” which states that three lines of text with five words each or five lines of text with three words each should be the maximum you expect any passer-by to read. While this may not seem like a lot, the large real-estate of a digital screen still affords a surprisingly short window of attention from consumers.
Also focus your call to action so that it is concrete and easy to remember. Your message should be simple to process in the limited time people are willing to grant it, otherwise your words will fall upon deaf ears — or, more accurately, “blind eyes.”
Use Dynamic, Relevant Content
Customers respond with greater frequency to content that seems relevant to their lifestyle. Updating them on local news and weather can be the easiest way to appease this desire. Offering free space on your digital displays for upcoming community events is another way to increase affinity and add highly-relevant messages to your content queue.
You could also take this idea to the next level by integrating real-time social media content into your displays. Users can upload photos of them using your products and use a relevant hashtag to have the content updated automatically to your queue after approval. This technique encourages users to also participate in branded social media campaigns to earn their own “15 seconds of fame,” making digital screens fulfill two purposes.
Another strategy is to integrate beacons so that your signage displays can become dynamic screens that activate when a customer walks by or that use their behavior profiles to deliver the most relevant content possible.
These ideas are just some of the ways to capture the limited focus of the modern consumer. Learn more about possible use cases and how effective it can be to integrate technology like beacons and social media content into your digital signage software by visiting Digital Social Retail’s cross-channel convergence platform information page.
