Digital Signs: 15 Jaw-Dropping Reasons To Scrap Your Outdated Marketing

Just like the famous lyrics “video killed the radio star,” there is no question that digital signs have killed traditional paper signs. Technology is evolving rapidly and it’s time to jump on board or risk losing valuable business to your competitors.

The landscape of marketing is completely different from what it was years ago. It used to be enough to simply inform customers with in-store signs. Today’s modern consumer is highly distracted and engulfed in technology, rendering traditional signs ineffective.

Paper signs have become an invisible part of the retail environment, blending into the aisles. Digital signs break the peripheral blindness to draw customers’ eyes with vibrant colors, animation, and rotating advertisements. They accomplish this by using a medium that consumers are already absorbed in.

Digital Signs do more than simply educate customers, they actually influence their purchasing decisions. According to a Nielson study, 68% of customers agreed that digital signage would “influence their decision to buy the advertised product in the future” and 44% agreed it would “influence them to buy the advertised product instead of one they planned to buy.”

15 REASONS DIGITAL SIGNS BEAT PAPER SIGNS HANDS DOWN

1. SHRINKING DITIGAL SIGNAGE COSTS – As digital signage becomes more commonplace, it has become much more affordable. After the initial cost of buying your TVs or display screens, you can find digital signage companies that offer their services for a very reasonable monthly fee. With digital signage, you can run an unlimited number of ads, saving you from incurring endless printing costs for each new sign that is needed per retail location.
2. SAVE TIME AND MONEY – Traditional signs require time; time to design them yourself or the time it takes a graphic designer to do it for you, and then of course the time required to print them. Then you have to pay for printing and shipping. Turnaround time could be days to weeks even when the process runs smoothly. Throw press or production problems into the mix and even more time is wasted, costing you money and possibly forcing you to rethink promotions entirely. Digital signs can be designed and changed on the fly and deployed instantly. No printing, shipping, or waiting required. Plus, those paper signs you spent good money on will eventually make their way into the garbage once they get damaged, worn out, or are no longer relevant.
3. MORE ENGAGING CONTENT – When was the last time you just scrolled past that photo or video of a cute cat or dog doing something outrageous in your news feed? Things that interest us engage our attention to the point where we simply can’t turn away. We have a psychological need to take notice of them. That’s how digital signs engage consumers’ attention. With vibrant colors, movement, videos and live streaming content, you can draw consumers’ eyes and keep them fixated on your content for much longer than with static signs. A Nielson study of digital billboards concluded that three out of four participants recalled seeing a digital billboard in the past month. More than half of them (55%) were so highly engaged that they could even recall the message on the billboard.
4. EXTRAORDINARY FLEXIBILITY – Without the constraints of traditional printing and production time, digital signs offer the ultimate flexibility. With a reputable cloud-based solution, you can change your ad content from anywhere in the world on any device and deploy those changes instantly to either one or all of your retail locations. Changing prices and promotions are no longer marketing speed bumps since digital signage allows you to make changes quickly and easily. Notice sales trends or have slow movers? Digital advertisements can create demand for your new or slow selling products. Updating your content frequently not only allows you to keep pace with trends, it allows you to set them.
5. MAKE A LASTING IMPRESSION – Static, traditional signs are easy to ignore. A consumer must make a conscious effort to take notice of them. After the initial viewing, there is considerably less incentive to look at them again because the content is the same. Whereas with digital signage, a fresh and endless supply of content consistently demands consumers’ attention. One study of video analytics logged the number of people who took notice of both static and digital signs at multiple locations. The study showed that the digital signs got consistently more impressions than the static signs after the initial viewing.
6. SIGNIFICANT ROI – One consumer survey done by the Nielson research firm on Awareness and Effectiveness of Digital Display Screens Installed in Grocery Stores, showed substantial sales increases for brands using in-store digital signage displays. “Four out of five product brands experienced significant increases of up to 33 percent in additional sales through the use of DOOH (Digital Out-Of-Home) media.”
7. SCHEDULING (SET IT AND FORGET IT) – Possibly one of the greatest marketing taglines of all time was “Set it and forget it.” In case you can’t remember what the product was, it was the Ronco Rotisserie Grill. The reason it’s such a powerful piece of marketing is that it speaks to our human nature to forget things. It actually gives us permission to forget instead of desperately trying to remember the millions of things we have racing through our heads each day. Digital signage gives us this same permission to forget and that’s a powerful thing. With digital signage you can schedule your advertisements weeks, months or even years in advance. You can also schedule your digital advertisements or menus to rotate multiple times throughout the day, switching easily between breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus for instance. Not having to worry about switching out paper signs and menus, or missing a promotion because you forgot all about it is perhaps one of the most compelling reasons to switch to digital signage. Digital signage gives you the power and permission to “set it and forget it.”
8. MANAGE MULTIPLE LOCATIONS AT ONCE – Cloud-based digital signage solutions allow you to deploy content to multiple locations at once. These digital signage solutions also allow you to create custom advertisements and promotions to run in specific retail locations, taking advantage of regional sales trends.
9. INCREASE BRAND RECOGNITION/LOYALTY – The use of your company logo, brand colors, taglines, and value statements in your digital signs can increase brand recognition. They also build loyalty when consumers make the connection between their shopping experience and your brand. Use your digital signs to advertise specials for loyalty members and let customers know how they can quickly and easily sign up to get discounts and earn rewards.
10. GET A COMPETITIVE EDGE – Not only is digital signage not going anywhere any time soon, but it’s growth continues to boom with each passing year. According to market research, “the digital signage market was valued at USD 16.88 Billion in 2015, and is expected to reach 27.34 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 6.7% between 2016 and 2022.” If you want to stay competitive in your industry, particularly your vertical market, your best bet is to join the digital signage revolution.
11. SAVE YOUR PRIME REAL ESTATE – Digital signs hung neatly on walls or suspended from the ceiling leave your stores’ prime real estate available for your most valuable commodity – your inventory. Traditional signs take up floor space while also incurring wear and tear from being moved and knocked about by shoppers or employees who are stocking shelves.
12. GENERATE IMPULSE BUYS AND UPSELLS – Simply having digital signs around your stores can entice customers to purchase items they hadn’t planned on purchasing. Customer facing displays at the checkout can generate impulse buys and upsells. Generate demand for your slow-moving products and showcase your new ones by using digital displays that create a sense of urgency. Flash sales or prominently displayed sale dates are a great way to accomplish this.
13. MULTI-MEDIA MAKES MONEY – Multi-media when used in digital signage displays increases customer engagement by offering consumers a different visual experience than traditional static images. Utilizing product videos in your digital displays can create an emotional connection between a consumer and the brand. It can also give valuable product demonstrations that let the customer see the product benefits, further enticing them to make the purchase.By using animation and attention-grabbing transitions between advertisements, you effectively disrupt your customers’ expectations. This causes them to watch longer so they can find out what will happen next. Using multi-media in your digital signs is definitely a smart strategy to increase sales.
14. KEEP CUSTOMERS IN STORE LONGER – We’ve already established that consumers view digital signage far longer than static paper signs. A secondary benefit is that it keeps your customers in your stores longer. The longer their dwell time in store, the more money they are likely to spend.A study by Pathintelligence entitled Time is Money: Shoppers Buy More When They Stay Longer found that there is a positive and significant correlation between dwell time and sales. It concludes that “increases in the average daily dwell time of 1% corresponds with an overall increase in sales of 1.3%.”
15. IMPROVE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION – When you use digital signs at your checkout lines, you can influence perceived wait times for your customers. Since they are engaged with your digital marketing content, it gives them the impression that they are spending less time on line. Digital signage displays also enhance the shopping experience. Your customers leave the store having not only purchased something, but having also learned something new about a product, service, or your brand. Satisfaction also increases when a customer feels like they received a good deal. Digital signs are a fantastic way to inform your customers about special sales they might have otherwise missed out on.

Digital signage is a profit generating powerhouse! Learn the secret to building an additional revenue stream with in-store digital signs, as well as how to create professional advertisements for your digital signs and menus without hiring a graphic designer. Schedule a demo with FasTrax Solutions Digital Signage and we’ll show you how!