There is a lot that goes into Digital Signs and marketing. What’s the best place to have a digital sign? How long should my message stay up? How do I measure the ROI of my signs? We dive into these questions and more in this article on digital sign design tips for effective marketing.
Digital signs are a multi-purpose communication, entertainment, and marketing medium. Many companies alternate between a variety of messages, but when it comes to marketing you need to have a clearly defined strategy. These effective tips will help you optimize marketing and the ROI of your digital signs.
Sign Placement
Before we get into the design, let’s discuss sign placement. If your sign isn’t placed in the right location it won’t be an effective marketing tool. Exterior signs should be placed in high traffic areas, ideally along a busy roadway. This means that the best place to mount your sign might not be the front of your business. Maybe along a nearby roadway, along the back of your building where traffic is busier, or at an off-site location.
For interior signs, consider windows, lobbies, and the main entrance. Also, add strategically placed signs within to guide and engage consumers on the customer journey. No need to be limited to a building exterior or wall, as your sign can be placed indoors and outside on a custom mount.
Personalize Your Signs
You might be tempted to simply post the same signs as your printed POP. This strategy can be effective, but it can also be limiting. Digital signs can alternate between a variety of marketing messages, so take a broad approach with printed signage and a targeted approach with digital signage. This might mean the same background as your printed signs for a cohesive look and feel but switching up the image or text. Or maybe you create a similar sign as your printed POP with motion graphics. Or create cohesive but unique digital signs.
Ensure Relevance
It’s easy to get so excited about digital signs and marketing that you focus too much on the volume of signs and lose relevance. Yes, personalize your signs and ensure you have a nice range of options, but don’t have signs designed for the sake of designing a sign. For example, a restaurant should feature new menu specials and alternate meals and drinks that are relevant to the time of the day—breakfast, lunch, dinner, happy hour, etc.
However, it may not be relevant to take an image of every item on your menu. Or your excursion company may feature a different marketing message depending on the current and upcoming weather.
Timing Is Everything
Statics signs are typically up for weeks or months at a time, but digital signs and marketing are all about timing. Begin with how long each display should remain on screen, which should be anywhere from 3 to 10 seconds. If mixed between communication and entertainment, consider how often you rotate back to your marketing signs. Finally, you must decide when to post each digital sign. Some signs will stay up for days or weeks, while others will vary by time of day, day of the week, weather, season, and other key factors.
Keep It Simple
Just like your standard paper and poster-size signs, keep your message simple. This can be a bit more challenging with digital signs and marketing as your display is larger, but just like all your signage—most marketing messages should be visually absorbed in a matter of seconds. Yes, you may choose to create a slideshow, but a good tip to follow is that even those should be able to stand alone as digital signs. Keep text to a minimum and focus primarily on creating a branded visual impact.
Maximize Size and Scale
While you need to keep text and visual imagery simple, maximize size and scale. Use a single screen or a video wall to create a life-size vehicle, larger than life image of a model, or a design element that stands out. Don’t forget that you can post videos too, so consider doing a close up of your product, service features, or amenities. Maybe a virtual tour of your real estate rental, hotel, salon, or spa. There still needs to be adequate negative space, but you can play more with size and scale when you have a larger display.
Be Unique
Digital signs and marketing is everywhere we go so your sign must stand out. Yes, it must be targeted, personalized, and simple—but also unique. This can be achieved in a variety of ways, including size and scale as mentioned above, but also by utilizing color, motion graphics, and special effects. This requires balance as you want your sign to be noticed, but not annoying or distracting. This is one of the many reasons to work with a designer who specializes in head-turning digital displays.
Add An Interactive Element
It varies by demographic, industry, and demand but the average lead requires 7 marketing touches before they convert to a customer. Make no mistake, your digital sign can create instant sales, by increasing the sales of the featured product or complementary upsells. That being said, add an interactive element to better connect and engage. The most popular way to achieve this is with cross-channel marketing. It may not be the right fit for every digital sign, but mix in the cross-channel strategies below when it’s relevant:
- Add either your website URL, social media name, or other digital contact information.
- If you don’t have your own digital sign, rent out ad space on signs during special events that target your demographic.
- Create a social media promotion, such as “the 100,000 follower wins a $100 gift certificate”.
- Add your company hashtag to the sign or create a campaign-specific hashtag.
- Ask patrons to add images or videos with your signature hashtag.
- Share a short video clip or explainer video and invite viewers to YouTube or your website to watch the full video.
As you can see, there is a lot to take into consideration when developing your digital signs and marketing strategy. Begin with how many signs are required, what size sign you want to order, and placement. Then get to work on your marketing strategy. All digital signs from Mega LED technology are built to order. Reach out today to get started!
