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Digital signage is a great way to reach potential clients or customers and ensure growth for a huge range of businesses. By creating a digital signage network, you can work with a variety of companies to help them reach their networking needs. Designing a network of signage options can be a great way to either promote your own business or make money promoting other businesses.
To create a quality digital signage network, the right hardware, software, connectivity, and content are needed. This digital content will need to be audience-based, highly engaging, goal-oriented, and regularly evolved to promote action from viewers.
If you are interested in creating a quality digital signage network that can be beneficial to your needs and also profitable for others, you need to have the right equipment and basic marketing skills. For those who are interested in learning more, keep reading! We have created the ideal plan for creating a digital signage network that will flourish.
Understanding Digital Signage
The digital signage world can be highly complex and requires a variety of essential equipment pieces to work properly. Digital signage itself is absolutely everywhere in our world today, from restaurants to schools. Essentially, digital signage refer to signs that utilize LCD, LED, and projection to display their content.
When it comes to marketing, digital signage is one of the most effective ways to advertise. They can be used to show videos, images, wording, and much more! When it comes to creating a digital signage network, you will need to ensure you have all the components to keep it effective:
- The Hardware: This refers to all of the physical components used to create your signs. This will include any screens, network components, mounting equipment, media, and more.
- Connectivity: This is the way that your digital displays will connect to the main system. Essentially, how you will be able to access the information on the sign through WiFi or another connectivity source.
- Software: The software that you use will be how you put content onto the signage.
- Content: This is essentially what is shown on the sign. It is important that this content meets the marketing needs of the company and is being updated consistently.
Choosing the Best Software and Hardware
Of course, from our list of needs, the software and hardware are the most important aspect. You will want to invest a lot of time, energy, and some decent money into purchasing equipment that fits your needs. A major part of ensuring you have a quality digital signage network is that you can access your signs remotely, which allows you to easily update information provided.
The Best Software Options
When it comes to growing digital signage network, the software that you use is one of the absolute most important parts. The software that you use should be easy to understand but also good enough to work across several signage uses. The best option is software that can be updated remotely, which helps you avoid traveling to each sign to update the content.
Some features you want to look for in the software you use are:
- You should be able to easily schedule your client’s advertising needs. The software chosen needs to work for several sign options. Software should work to fit a variety of needs.
- Make sure you can check playback status from anywhere to avoid the need to travel to the sign. You should be able to check for any issues and know if downtime is happening. The proper software will allow for this.
- The content you choose to show on your signs should be able to play for a duration of time that you have chosen. If you want to make money from this network, you need to be able to fulfill contracts and monitor advertisement times.
Purchase a Quality Signage Player for Each Sign
In order to keep things running smoothly, each of your signs must have a digital signage player. These players are what runs the sign and ensures the content that you send reaches the display screen. Each of the signs you have running will need their own player.
Some things to keep in mind when purchasing your signage player are:
- Pick players that meet the processing power you need. Your various signage options will have differing processing power needs. You should not buy a player with a higher processing power than your signs need.
- Pay special attention to your overall costs as you can pay too much for electricity by using the wrong signage player. If you are using the wrong player for one screen, the costs can become much higher than needed.
- Ensure you have proper security measures in place. Your digital signage can be hacked, which can lead to some negative information displayed on your screens. This is not only embarrassing but it can be distasteful to clients.
Creating Successful Signage for Your Needs
Once you have your proper signage in place along with the right software and player options, you can begin marketing your signage network. For many, this is a great way to make money, as companies work with your network to get proper marketing.
If you want to promote your signage network and begin adding to your list of clients, you need to ensure you follow the right process. The best way to create a successful signage network is:
- Start By Setting and Defining Goals – When you take on a digital signage project for a company, you need to set the exact goals you plan to reach with this sign. This will ensure that your sign is created to fit the exact company’s needs. It also helps you better monitor growth, which can keep clients for years to come.
- Determine Your Client’s Target Audience – Whether you are creating the sign for yourself or a customer, you want to decide on the target audience and ensure that your sign meets these individuals. Whether this is directional signage for customers, a way to promote sales for a shop, a menu for a restaurant, etc. you want to decide on who will be seeing it. The way you promote the content will vary depending on this.
- Keep Content Engaging – Once you know your goal and your audience, you will want to create content that will promote engagement with the advertisement. You always want to ensure that the digital signage is place in an appropriate location that can be seen by potential customers. You also want to ensure that the signs content is informative, catches attention, fits the specific needs, includes visuals where needed, and is overall professional.
- Choose the Proper Equipment and Location – You want to ensure that you choose the correct equipment from your signage network that fits your client’s specific needs and budget. You always want to consider where they plan to place this signage and ensure it will be easily visible to potential customers. You also want to ensure that you pick the right signage direction between landscape and portrait to fit the needs of the content.
- Update Content as Needed – To ensure that your customers continue to meet their goals and that the signage meets their needs, you will want to update the content regularly to keep things fresh. You want to assess the responses to the current content and make changes to the signage as needed. If you leave the same content for too long, it can make it ineffective which can cause a decrease in clients.
Create a Quality Digital Signage Network
By having the right equipment in place and a clear plan for advertising needs, you can have a high-quality signage network. You should work to create quality content that fits the exact needs of your customers and can create proper business growth. To ensure client marketing growth continues, you will want to update content regularly and ensure all equipment is working properly.
