What Is Digital Signage?

Nicole Segura
3 min readAug 11, 2021

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Although the term “Digital Signage” may not ring a bell right off the bat, almost everyone’s come across some form of it in today’s day and age.

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

So, what is digital signage?

Not too long ago, businesses strictly relied on physical forms of advertising and promotional content. Using pictures, posters, and billboards they created engaging customer experiences. However, those forms of traditional signage are getting more outdated and difficult to come across as technology continues to evolve.

Digital signage represents an entire realm of visual communication tools that are programmed to integrate with LCD/LED screens, projectors, and kiosks. In simple terms, it is any sort of digital device that can display content to inform, engage, and educate your audience.

Five reasons to invest in digital signage

There are many reasons for this shift toward digital signage. But the most obvious are cost and flexibility. As digital signage solutions become more affordable, businesses are recognizing their many benefits.

  1. Increases brand recall. Only 20% of people remember what they read, while 80% remember what they see and do. Visual communication is a powerful tool, and digital signs are an effective way for people to recall your message and to stand out from competitors by innovating with technology.
  2. Boosts sales. Businesses can help boost sales by highlighting promotions, discounts, and specials on products and services. As the digital signage network grows, partnering with advertising companies will allow to monetize the screens and increase ad revenues.
  3. Enhance customer experience. As overall research has shown, digital signs can optimize customers’ overall experiences inside stores. They are easier to read and offer a more interactive way of communication. Thus, creating a more immersive and enjoyable in-store experience that will keep your customers coming back.
  4. Cost-effective and flexible. Digital signage solutions have become more affordable over time. Replacing posters with digital screens saves on operation expenses, virtually eliminates compliance problems, raises customer engagement, and drives sales up.
  5. Dynamic and easy to manage. Hundreds of screens can be part of a digital signage network. With the right Content Management System (CMS) you can easily manage them independently or as a group. Target and schedule content to play at certain times, and monitor the network activity.
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Display the right content

Strategies are critical when adopting and implementing digital signage. By utilizing video within marketing campaigns, you’re already leading consumers’ behaviors and elevating their in-store experiences. However, it’s equally important to know what kind of content to use. Start by asking yourself the following questions:

  1. Where will I get the content from?
  2. How much content do I need to display every week (or month)?
  3. Will I need to integrate the content with other systems, such as point-of-sale (PoS)?

Digital signage allows screens to display a wide range of messages that aim to inform, entertain, and engage viewers. But the content must remain fresh. It’s essential to organize how long your programming loop needs to be in order to maximize audience engagement. The good news for video-based networks is that content production does not have to be done only in-house. Third-party digital signage providers offer plenty of rights-cleared content to choose from for your brand.

Maximize success with digital signage

Once you have your strategy, you are ready to think about the implementation. And having the right partner for your digital signage network makes all the difference and will be a large part of your success.

Ready to start your digital signage network?

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