Some may see digital advertisements or promotions as money down the drain. Well, not quite when you are sending the right message at the right time. Whether it’s a fixed screen on the front of a building, or a simple digital signage kiosk by the storefront, the message delivered should be relatable. Let’s tackle it from two different perspectives: are you an advertising agency who rents or owns a display, or a store owner who’s thinking about setting up digital signage in store to boost sales? This article will help you determine if adding a screen into the mix will be a plus for you.

Don’t just throw the message out there

Digital Signage has been around for more than a decade, and no matter how fancy or complicated the applications have become, the goal never deviated from connecting customers (internal or external) to your brand. Thus, choosing the best time and place to show the most relatable information is crucial.

Say you are a business clothing retailer promoting a Christmas sale, your target audience probably won’t see your ads on one of the freeway big screens during lunch time. Instead, placing them during rush hour would be much more effective. But you already know that. That is why we are going to look at it from the agency’s perspective.

Why does scheduling matter for ad agencies?

Renting out a display at an hourly rate or per display count is common practice these days. After determining what rate each ad gets, monitoring the process and outcome could be a hassle. Opting for a digital signage that has advance software which supports scheduling and reporting will save a significant amount of time and cost from day-to-day operation.

When surveying for a digital signage system for advertising purposes, the ability of automated schedule is one of the key components. Imagining you are completely sold out during the holiday season, and you have 30 ads rotating in just 1 week per a display while each ad has several slots. Manually inserting these ads will be a tremendous amount of work, and awfully difficult to track, not to mention you probably have more than one location to put all the different ads.

Find suitable scheduling for different packages

Having a centrally organized digital signage network will relieve that stress off of your shoulders. Look for a solution that uses centrally managed software by grouping displays and ads accordingly. Packages with long term plans should have flexible scheduling such as daily, monthly, yearly or other timescales. If you also offer portable solutions for your clients, for instance tour buses and taxis, you could also choose a system that offers location-based scheduling.

Bringing digital signage on-site for store management

If you are pushing a new launch or a holiday discount in your store, a simple ad may not be as efficient as it was, say, 5 years ago. Competing for a spot on TV, print ads, or even online pay-per-click can be quite costly these days, and it’s difficult to interact with your potential customers. Installing digital signage can encourage interactions, and build trust in your brand.

Store front message is the easiest way to go, but it often gets drowned by everything that’s going on around it, unless there’s a very clear call-to-action message. How many times have you passed by a screen and was initially attracted to it, but soon lost interest and forgot about it 30 seconds later? A non specific and generic piece of information no longer satisfies the audience.

Work with your marketing or content team to engage customers at the right time.

Just as people are tired of smelling pumpkin spice for the entire winter, you shouldn’t run a Christmas Sales ad till customers feel most engaged to it. Schedule it from midnight December 1st, and have your Boxing Day ad ready on midnight December 26 to take over. Scheduling prepares you for all the occasions you may find ad-worthy.

Setting up a kiosk is also a great way to connect with your customers. A Happy-Hour oriented interaction during or right before the hour starts could spike the sales, and build the bond for future engagements with reservation apps. Work with your content team to study and set the best time for each installment and test it out to see which schedule works best. Again, central scheduling and reporting is a big plus on saving resources, thus giving you more time on the creative and analysis.

Engagement and interaction is the key

No matter what you decide to do with your digital signage, never look pass the most important values. You have to give your audience what they want when they want it to create communication. Your timings will be more spot on over time by analyzing and testing out different schedules, and discovering what your customers need.

Make your digital signage an integral cog in your brand building strategy and create a bond with your audience, and sales will flow naturally.