Suppose an organization decides to use digital signage for advertising its brand, what next?  What measures should be taken? Confusing isn’t it! Well, check out these steps required for the success of the digital signage.

FREMONT, CA: Digital signage, also known as dynamic signage, refers to the specialized form of silver casting, which involves video and multimedia content that is displayed at outdoor public areas for different purposes.

Generally found in small to big billboards, comprised of LED, LCD, and other display systems, digital signage is usually linked by a content management software or a system that does the job of sending the data to be displayed. 

The companies use this technology for their outdoor marketing activities by displaying the advertisements and promotional content of their product and services. It is beneficial to the industries that depend on the delivery of immediate information to its customers and employers like in stock exchanges, airports, and hospitals. The information displayed can be in the form of statistical data, images, charts and graphs, videos, or streaming content. Data storage and transmission are compressed for minimizing the size of the file. Multiple screens can be employed by the system if there is any requirement of the extra-large sized display.

It's no wonder that the use of digital signage technology can make the organization reap a lot of rewards by increasing awareness, decreasing printing costs, and delivering real-time information with an enhanced degree of relevancy. 

Of course, everything doesn’t happen automatically; it requires a lot of effort. It is essential to design a digital signage strategy to meet the specific goals of the company. A good team effort is needed with key stakeholders to implement the strategy.

To help the organization reach success, the CIOs must understand the process for streamlining the plan and rolling out digital signage.

Are you choosing the right people?

It is better to involve the right people in your project planning. Many CIOs make the mistake of appointing the IT department for digital signage purchases. However, the IT department is not the ones that are using it on a regular basis.

Make sure that all the content distributors are included while creating the project plan. It may involve human resources, marketing, and communications, web staff, administration, department managers, and also the purchasing agents for deciding the budget for the installation and updates. It is advisable to involve the organization’s security team to prevent any mishap. 

Involving the right people earlier will give the enterprise the opportunity to reflect on the insights that might not have been considered earlier. It also makes people more enthusiastic.

Know your goals

Before research technology, the enterprise must know what they want to achieve. They should outline their objectives with as many details as possible. This action will later help them in measuring the return on investment.

One should have concrete objectives in mind about the way the system will operate within the organization. Also, the project plan should describe some key action items, timeframes as well as resources required. The coverage of these things will help the organization face fewer surprises, unexpected costs, and delays.

Defining the content clearly

It is the most critical step in the planning of the digital signage system. The goals and objectives will show the right path for defining the content that the company wants to display. It is crucial to drill down into the details like determining the people to be involved in creating, scheduling, and approving the content, types of content files or sources, alert notifications, and many other details.

Once completely sure about who will create what and how the content will go to the screen, the enterprise will have a complete understanding of the type of hardware and software, it needs to install.

Conducting a networking survey

The organization must involve a qualified IT person for conducting a survey of network connectivity, power, and IT security policies for every area where the enterprise is planning to have digital signage. Without a qualified IT person, it is useless to put anything on the signage as no one might know about firewall and cabling issues.

Make your budget

The enterprise’s budget should cover everything, including initial system costs and software upgrades for staying current and getting notifications about new features. It also has to take care of hardware as the company might have to bring in more players and bandwidth in the future.

Other budget items include training which involves adding new features and content design services. Designers are needed for the initial launch, and of course not to forget, the technical support staff.

Choose software before hardware

The enterprise must know the content management software (CMS) they will be using as well as ensure that their hardware supports the software. The company’s CMS should be easy to learn, easy to upgrade, user-friendly, meet the technical requirement for data feeds, content file types, and many other features. 

Avoid skimping on hardware

The enterprise should not go easy on hardware; otherwise, it can cause a considerable loss to the company in the future. The software vendor should provide the company with standard hardware along with specs to buy it. The company should ensure the machines’ flexibility to evolve and adapt to future updates.

Have a pilot launch

It is advisable to do a pilot launch for 60-90 days before launching system-wide as the pilot program will help to launch and test digital signage in an isolated environment, evaluate the software and hardware used, craft the screen look, and choose best designs. Also, one can go over the adjustments that might be required to be made in the system plan.

Content is the King

The technology and the effort put in it will go to waste if the content is not of good quality. The business should understand their audience’s need. It should make use of weather news, date, and time to attract attention to their announcements displayed on their screens.

The content creators must understand the ratios and basic design rules to control how the screen looks. Moreover, the content, graphics, backgrounds, fonts, and designs need to be changed after every short period to maintain the freshness of the content.

Measuring success

The enterprise should keep track of Return on Investment (ROI) to know the working of their digital signage. The measuring includes call or action in the content. The enterprise should prompt the user to take some tangible action like visiting URL, which the organization can measure. It can also make the usage of ROI long-term and continuous process to cover a wider audience.

Keeping in mind these signs and rules of digital signage can make your brand touch the peak of success.