How to Grow Your Outdoor Digital Signage Network with Your Business
Installing a small-scale, outdoor signage network shouldn't be your end goal! Instead, it should be a platform to scale-up your network as your business grows. Why? Outdoor digital signage boosts sales, resulting in exponential growth, which means you need a digital signage network that grows with your business...
...Here's where many outdoor digital signage end-users encounter some significant challenges, which we can describe as the equivalent of dressing a two-year-old toddler in newborn baby clothes! They simply left no room for their outdoor digital signage network to grow.
As a result, a network that once facilitated growth is now holding the business back. How? Let's give you a typical outdoor digital signage scenario that occurs quite frequently.
When rolling out its digital signage network, business X was a small chain of retail stores with set monthly sales targets. Digital signage helped business X meet, and far exceed, these sales targets. After two years, business X was recording record sales figures every month.
As a result, business X experienced an upgrade to 'medium-sized company' status, and hired more staff and invested in other resources to meet increasing demand. Monthly sales targets changed because the business needed to generate more revenue to offset its investment in more staff and resources.
However, the additional revenue generated by the company's existing digital signage network was no match for new sales targets. To make matters worse, upgrading the network would be challenging and costly because the technology and software they were currently using had been discontinued.
Two key factors in this scenario sum up the position that many digital signage end-users have found themselves in:
- 1) Business X outgrew its existing digital signage network.
- 2) Business X had very little room for manoeuvre in terms of upgrading and expanding its current digital signage network.
This is often the result of planning that lacks forward-thinking!
Digital Signage Planning
A forward-thinking plan is the cornerstone of any successful digital signage network installation, yet many end-users underestimate how quickly the digital signage scene changes, and just how effective it is at boosting brand awareness, which is why you've always got to be thinking one step ahead when rolling out your digital signage network.
No doubt the goal of most outdoor digital signage installations is to boost brand awareness and grow the customer-base. Did you know that digital signage increases brand awareness and recall by as much as 31%, while boosting sales by as much as 30%?[1]
Evidently, digital signage has the potential to boost multiple facets of your business, including brand awareness, your customer-base and ultimately, sales and revenue. This will change the goals of your business - refer back to the business X scenario...
...More customers equals more sales. Demand for your products and services grows and you need to hire more staff and invest in other resources to meet demand. Your sales targets increase and you need to widen your digital signage network to reach more customers to meet your increased sales targets.
The question is, is your digital signage solution flexible enough to grow in order to reach an ever-growing customer-base whose preferences are constantly changing?
Unfortunately, this is where most end-users tend to get caught out, choosing a digital signage solution that offers very little room for manoeuvre in terms of network expansion and doesn't take into consideration advances in technology.
Expanding Your Digital Signage Network as Your Business Grows
Two things are certain with outdoor digital signage:
- 1) It will boost brand awareness, increase sales and grow your customer-base.
- 2) Software and technology will always be advancing.
With that in mind, when planning your initial digital signage installation, you need to be thinking about how future business growth and technological advances will affect your outdoor digital signage network.
It's not unreasonable to take tentative steps when rolling out a digital signage network. It might be that you want to 'trial' a small-scale digital signage network before going ahead with a full-scale installation. This is a sensible approach!
However, too many end-users plan a digital signage installation with short-term goals, opting for a solution that has a limited shelf life in terms of the technology it uses and the audience reach it can achieve.
In many cases, end-users are the victim of misinformation and poor advice that often leaves them lumbered with a small-scale network that has no capacity to grow. However, there is a way to expand your digital signage network to accompany business growth and changes in technology… digital signage enclosures!
The Value of Outdoor Digital Signage Enclosures
Compared to all-in-one, outdoor digital signage systems - meaning screens, media players, software and essential components embedded in one unit - outdoor digital signage enclosures give end-users far more freedom and flexibility.
The ease with which you can grow your digital signage network in line with technological advancements, is much easier to do when all the key components are independent of each other. Screens, media players, software and components evolve at a rate that often means your current tech quickly becomes outdated or discontinued.
Let's say you opt for a digital signage network made up entirely of all-in-one, outdoor displays. After five years, you want to rollout the same system across more locations, but it has been discontinued.
This scenario leaves you in a very tight spot. Either you have to install a completely different solution across your additional locations, or you have to replace your existing network to incorporate the latest tech. Not only is such a scenario incredibly costly, it's massively time-consuming.
Unfortunately, to replace or upgrade integrated, outdoor digital signage systems will often require a specialist engineer, with fees incorporated into the price of a new install. This only drives up the cost, but you're left with no option because such systems require a qualified professional - endorsed by the manufacturer - to upgrade the tech.
This is true for any part of the digital signage display, whether it's screens, media players, software, fans or other vital electronic components.
In contrast, outdoor digital signage enclosures enhance the end user experience and aid digital signage network growth. Enclosures enable you to use standard LCD, LED and plasma screens in an outdoor environment, to form your digital signage network.
Rolling out outdoor digital screens using enclosures is far more cost-effective, and when it's time to grow your network, you're not at the mercy of screen manufacturers or engineers. You can add more enclosures and upgrade to the latest screens and media players at a far more competitive price and on your own terms!
The beauty of enclosures is that they can be customised, too, meaning they can support the evolution of your digital signage network. When adding enclosures to your network, you can get a similar design specification to suit your requirements, whether you add more units in 12 months or 12 years!
To find out more about outdoor digital signage enclosures and to get a quote for your project, call Armagard on 0121 608 7226. Here are 25 questions answered about how we can help with your outdoor digital signage network rollout and grow it!
Sources:[1] sixteen-nine.net
