A digital signage solution has many moving parts. In addition to super reliable display hardware, use this checklist to plan for a successful deployment.

Building an effective digital signage network is about more than connecting your screens to a device and playing your ad 24/7. If you don’t articulate your ideas with your digital signage content well enough, it won’t matter whether you have one or a hundred displays. Likewise, great content can perform badly if your digital signage software is unreliable or too complex for you to handle it properly.

We believe that a successful digital signage network is about being on the same page: a close connection with your customers, a synergy. Our aspiration is that this simple checklist will help you achieve your goals in digital signage smoothly.

Goals and Content

Is your digital signage content strategy consistent?

It starts with a purpose, doesn’t it? Whether you need to drive sales, inform, or entertain, your whole content strategy is built upon the understanding what you want to convey and what your target audience wants to receive. Defining your goals helps you to keep the right angle and focus on every step of your digital signage content strategy.

If you don’t know the exact solution you need digital signage for, then you have to you look back to the initial problem: low sales or lack of time to educate your employees on safety and policy changes, no quality promo of your menu specials or new products, etc. Each of these will require drastically different forms of content. Once you get a clearly defined goal, you can easily set up the steps from point A to point B.

Do you know your audience well enough?

Around 64 percent of customers make a purchase after watching a branded video. But who are they? Can you describe an average visitor to your restaurant or the most likely passerby you want to attract with your outdoor digital signage? Before you start addressing your audience, take time to know them better. If you want to communicate with them, you need to understand the language first.

Is your digital signage content engaging and valuable?

Once you know your audience well enough, creating relevant content becomes much easier. What’s harder, though, is to engage. In the age of social networks, online reviews, and digitalized customer experiences, it takes so much more than just nurturing your audience with straightforward ads and information noise when it comes to visual marketing tools. Digital signage as we know it is all about engagement: whether we talk about retail sales, education or even pet shelters.

Do you follow the 8-second rule?

Generally, you have a time span of 6 to 8 seconds to grab the viewer’s attention. Revise your content to see if the most valuable information, CTAs, and messages fit into this interval. Of course, you can hardly control the timing when it’s a crowded store or your display is outdoors. However, by reducing your ad length to 15 seconds, you can increase engagement significantly.

Network and software

Are your displays in the right locations and right placements? It’s not only what you show to your audience, but how and where your show it. Obviously, if you mount your displays on the wall behind your customers, it might appear to be not as effective as you’d expect. Furthermore, it’s the room itself that you should pay attention to. Make a plan and mark the hot spots where your future digital signage screens would easily catch visitor’s eye. If you use your digital signage as interactive menu boards, make sure they are within reach for your guests. The viewing angle and the overall quality of your displays also matter.

Is your digital signage software versatile, scalable and automated?

Make sure the digital signage software provider you choose allows you to scale your signage network, so whether you have one screen in your store or 100 screens in different countries, you’ll be able to manage them just as easily. Is your software solution easy to mass-deploy? Does it have an intuitive interface? Does it allow for automating the most time-consuming processes (playlist scheduling, content building, etc.)? Your digital signage network is your facilitator, not a burden.

Is your digital signage network secure?

Staying up-to-date with your content requires an internet connection, which raises the very important issue of security. From virus contamination to the hacking of your network – you would want your software provider to take care of those things. The required compliance certifications and regulations can be easily found on the company’s website, if not – you can ask for them directly. Note that security is also a matter of the devices you use. Traditionally, Apple TVs are considered to be more secure than those from Android or Amazon.

Is it easy to make small updates to your content?

The key to a successful digital signage network is in displaying relevant and engaging content. Relevant in this context means what is meaningful for the user the moment he sees the screen. Being up-to-date requires constant changes and adjustments: from switching between playlists to improving the layouts. Small, mundane updates are usually more time-consuming than major ones. Ideally, all these minor adjustments shouldn’t require more than one person, without a technical background, in charge of the digital signage network at this particular place (store, cafe, campus).

Efficiency and goals

Is your return on investment (ROI) model working?

When it comes to digital signage, one of the most important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is ROI – the return of investment. It is much easier to build an ROI model based on sales success. However, in many cases, digital signage is more of a marketing tool than a profit driver. Loyalty vs leads, engagement vs purchases.

You can measure the costs to set up and maintain your digital signage network with the following variables: hardware (screens, media players, etc.), software, infrastructure, support and paying staff to create and maintain digital signage content. These calculations will allow you to understand if your cost v.s profit is critical for your business model and adjust it.

Does your digital signage help you achieve your goals?

Eventually, efficiency is about achieving the goals. Yes, it’s that easy. If the sales didn’t improve, if your visitors still can’t navigate spaces, if the promos didn’t increase brand awareness – your digital signage network is not effective and you should consider deconstructing it to find the reasons why.

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