Content (Not Technology) is Key to a Successful ROI on Your Digital Signage Investment

When it’s time to plan or refresh your digital signage network, it’s often hard not to start by looking at the latest-and-greatest displays, right? The technology available for digital signage these days continues to evolve. Screen resolutions are now 4K, 8K, and even higher. Touchscreens. High-speed wireless devices. The list goes on. Often, though, the assumption is that spending on the latest tech will somehow bring a higher and more rapid return on the overall investment.

Don’t take that the wrong way: We know the value and capabilities modern devices can enable, but it’s the content—not the 4K or 8K screen—that brings those experiences to life for customers, employees, and other audiences. Digital signage content creation—the kind that engages the audience—isn’t just a “nice to have.” The creation and management of quality content plays a critical role in determining whether a digital signage network succeeds (or fails) to meet the organization’s expectations. Delivering an experience via content is the reason for deploying the digital signage technology in the first place, so content should get top billing when it comes to the focus on planning and deploying the system.

Unfortunately, with such a focus on fancy hardware and new technology, content tends to be an afterthought rather than the starting place. Let’s talk about why that is, and how to fix it.

It’s not about the tech, it’s about digital signage content creation and management

With all the hardware vendors pushing the latest at CES and other events every year, it is easy to understand the excitement over new technology. We get excited by it, too. And since you can’t have a digital signage network without these devices, companies concentrate a lot of their time and focus on the technological aspect of the network.

But all the shiny new hardware in the world won’t make a difference in your sales, your marketing, your internal communications, anything, if it isn’t used to deliver engaging content experiences. Engagement requires digital signage content creation to capture the attention of its viewers, win them over, and turn them into not only customers but loyal customers—or employees, or visitors, or whomever your audience happens to be. That means you have to have the right tools, software, and skills to understand what works and what doesn’t, then build and deploy digital experiences with agility.

The difference is more than static paper signage vs. digital signage

To do that, it’s important to really understand the core differences between traditional paper or billboard-based signage and digital signage. We aren’t just talking about differences like low-tech vs. high-tech, static vs. easily changeable, and so on. Those are obvious—flat, static signs can’t compare in excitement to high-resolution screens with full-motion video.

The real power of digital signage is its ability to deliver the right content and the right experience to the right audience at the right time. The ability to present your audience—each of them—content that is contextually relevant to what’s going on in the world, right now. To what the shopper or employee is doing, right now and to change it dynamically in response to their actions and reactions. Going digital means not only presenting signage that looks better but also does a better job of delivering your message. It enables you to change the experience so that message is more meaningful and has more impact on each viewer.

Let’s put content front-and-center in your network

How do you realize the full potential of your digital signage investment? If the answer wasn’t already clear, it’s with the right content.

We’re launching this series of blog posts to help ensure you can successfully plan, develop, and deploy the right content to your digital signage network. We’ll explore how to make sure your digital signage can go beyond looking good to reaching a higher ROI and contributing positively to your organization meeting its goals. Here are a few things we’ll cover:

• Why digital signage is truly a unique medium and offers those who view and interact with it an experience that is distinctly different than traditional signage and “TV.”
• The importance of digital signage content strategy: What does it look like, and why and how you should develop one before (not after) you start ordering all those new screens.
• The different content types available via (and facilitated by) the more comprehensive digital signage content management platforms— static, passive, interactive, dynamic/data-driven, and more—and best practices for digital signage content creation and maintenance.
• And “feeding the beast”: how to manage your content supply chain to ensure your content stays fresh and relevant to all your viewers, wherever and whoever they may be.

Stay tuned as we dive into each of these facets of digital signage content. In the meantime, we invite you to connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Better yet, contact us to find out how Reflect Systems and its products and solutions—including our ReflectView digital signage content management platform—can help ensure you get the best possible ROI from your digital signage network and your content.