With appealing content that moves, the way businesses communicate has been transformed with the help of digital signage. Nonetheless, small to medium sized businesses often feel that the adoption of this technology is costly. The truth is, cloud based solutions are transforming the industry with affordable yet scalable solutions. It is estimated that digital signage for enterprise can increase brand sales by 47% and awareness by as much as 33%. Be it a growing restaurant chain or a local suite, powerful marketing strategies are now accessible to everyone. Because of increasing solutions tailored towards small and medium businesses, digital signage for enterprises have also become more accessible. Continue reading to learn how to stay on budget, while using this technology to help grow your business.
Advantages Of Digital Signage Solutions for SMEs
With appealing content that moves, the way businesses communicate has been transformed with the help of digital signage. Let’s take a closer look at how this technology is changing business practices and boosting growth across all industries.
1. Enhanced Marketing Efforts
Effective marketing is all about catching people’s attention while delivering the right information at the right time. Digital signage achieves that with impactful visuals and segmented campaigns. Unlike traditional signs, it allows businesses to use captivating advertisements and social media which motivates customers to engage actively.
For instance, a local café can replace their morning breakfast deals with happy hour promotions when evenings come— all these without needing to visit individual franchises. Such flexibility leads to improved customer traffic. Studies show that digital marketing signage leads to an increase in purchase amounts by 29.5%. For small businesses, that is more sales than traditional marketing efforts with less costs incurred.
2. Improved Customer Experience
Today’s clients want a personal touch with engaging services. Digital signage caters to this need by being interactive and providing real time updates that are useful. In retail for instance, digital signage can recommend products to customers, while restaurants can dynamically change their menus according to the time or in the availability of certain ingredients.
For patients trying to find their appointments, digital signage solutions can assist in providing real-time updates for the appointment alongside finding aid and instructions. The end result is a shorter perceived waiting time alongside higher satisfaction which leads to more customer loyalty for the healthcare providers.
3. Enhanced Communication within the Firm
In addition to the external benefits, digital signage provides productivity-enhancing tools for internal operations improvement. With digital signage solutions, businesses can communicate real time company messages, performance indicators, safety announcements or any relevant information to employees on digital boards placed around the office.
Envision a warehouse where active productivity dashboards display the expected productivity levels and the scheduled safety drills that will occur. Or a franchise system which has multiple locations and now uses digital signage at all the places to instantaneously pass on training materials. A report indicated that companies which have an internal digital signage claim that 25% of their employees are more engaged at work compared to before the implementation of the system, sometimes as high as 200%.
Affordable Digital Signage for Small and Medium Businesses
The digital signage industry has grown and emerged as a powerful, cheap tool that changes how small and medium size businesses interact with their clients and manage their processes. High budget systems have been advantages to big companies long enough but today’s innovations have changed the game with affordable options that still deliver great results even with no money. Let’s see how SMBs can take advantage of cheap digital signage solutions.
1. Digital Signage Platforms on the Cloud
Cloud-based digital signage solutions let businesses operate from anywhere using multi-user accounts with admin privileges. This eliminates the costly hardware set-ups and pricey servers. Now, anyone can manage the content of a digital sign from anywhere remotely as long as there is a Wi-Fi connection. Because of this, the company won’t be burdened with on-site technical issues or expensive maintenance.
For instance, during peak promotional seasons, a boutique retail store can change their window display, or update their marketing strategies, in real time. Instead of printing coded banners, a few clicks of updating the software do the trick. This method is far more cost effective, and efficient.
2. Economical Hardware Solutions
Now, everyone can afford to invest in digital signage solutions as there has been a huge drop in the need for advanced custom built screens. Economical solutions like plug-and-play media players, and smart TVs integrating the signage software make certain that everyone can even enjoy high level performance with maximizing profits. Most small businesses prefer the consumer grade screens that have been tampered with. But instead of getting damaged displays, proper durable technology is used to ensure the screens don’t get ruined.
3. Self-Serve Content Creation Software
High level content can be made without hiring an expert designer. Most digital signage software allows user-friendly self-serve content creation tools like drag-and-drop interfaces and pre-designed templates. So any small and medium sized businesses are offered the chance to market themselves efficiently without compromising on the quality of the visuals.
For instance, a restaurant could deploy ‘template’ software that generates good looking digital menus for them, which can automatically update according to schedules or stock levels, thereby eliminating the need for any manual intervention.
4. Scalability Without Overhead
Employing on-premise traditional signage systems usually requires a business to have infrastructure costs which are significantly higher than the potential earnings. However, the big plus about cloud-based solutions is that they scaled very well. Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) can add additional screens or locations without having to spend excessively on new servers or IT. This approach prevents business operations from being disturbed or business costs greatly increasing.
5. Reduced Printing and Labor Expenses
When businesses transition from static signs to digital displays, the repetitive costs for printing are reduced, as well as the manual labor required for keeping signs updated. The content captured by digital mediums is easy to change on a minute basis, which leads to less idle time and an overall efficient business operation.
Final Thoughts
Affordability in using digital signs means small and medium businesses can go a step further without worrying about high spending. High visuals, enhanced engagement, and effective operations all come with affordable cloud platforms.
Photo by Ali Arapoğlu: