No one enjoys being misunderstood or ignored, especially when you spend a lot of time trying to get your point across. All of us can point to a time when we were trying to have a serious conversation with someone and it went in one ear and out the other. This is doubly frustrating when you are spending money to get your point across in the form of advertising.

For example, let's say you spent a lot of money to rollout a 4K digital signage network to boost sales in your grocery department. However, even after you deploy the displays, you don't see any real immediate ROI. It can start to feel like you are talking to the wall.

While it is frustrating when your digital signage isn't effective, there are usually two big reasons why it's failing. Once we identify those issues, we can solve them so your message can get across loud and clear.

Your signage can't read the room

One time I was at a gas station filling my car up with fuel, when the POS display started to play advertisements. It was a cold fall day, but the displays were showing me summer advertisements telling me to cool off with some ice cream. While this content would have been effective in the summer, it sure wasn't at this point!

Your digital signage needs to communicate the right message at the right time. For example, if it's a rainy day, your display should show advertisements for coffee or umbrellas. Or if it's a sunny day, you should show messages for swimsuits.

You can make this even more advanced by having displays that respond directly to a customer's mood by taking anonymous facial data such as a customer's age, gender and mood and delivering content tailor made to them.

On a simpler level, you need content that can reach customers where they are at. So, you need to invest in regular content updates, because older content will quickly grow stale.

There's nothing to engage with

Another common problem with digital signage is that there's nothing for the customer to really engage with. A lot of signage will simply advertise a product … and that's about it.

While there's nothing wrong with advertising, your signage should also offer some way for the customers to engage with your brand on a deeper level such as:

• Providing a QR code for a discount.
• Encouraging them to sign up for a loyalty program.
• Holding contests.
• Integrating games into a touchscreen.
• Having an interactive component for customers to enter information.
• Providing a product inventory.
• Delivering an AR experience.

These are just a few approaches that can make your display more engaging. The goal with digital signage isn't just to sell goods, it's also to create a more immersive customer experience that will keep customers coming back … and spending more money as well.

This article was written by Bradley Cooper from Digital Signage Today. News Features and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.