Installing a digital signage system at your business is exciting. The technology offers you a completely new channel to communicate and interact with your customers. Successful digital signage projects involve a clear plan and careful consideration. However, projects that are rushed can fail quickly and won’t help you meet your goals. Getting certain aspects of your project right is critical regarding the success of your screens. We’ve put together five things you need to avoid when launching your digital signage project.
1. Choosing the Wrong Screen
Digital signage is an extremely visual marketing and communications channel. Your screen is the vehicle that will be driving your content and messages to your employees, customers, and visitors. If a screen doesn’t look good or doesn’t do the right job, your project is likely to fail. A big factor to keep an eye out for is choosing the correct brightness level for your screen. Digital signage displays come in a variety of brightness levels, and ensuring you have the correct level for your project is essential. This is especially the case for screens going in a window or for screens situated in direct sunlight.
Normal screens (a living room TV) can often be temping as they usually come at lower prices. However, they are likely to not meet the brightness levels of high brightness displays. If the screen isn’t bright enough and the sun is shining the content on the screen will be hardly visible. This means your messages won’t reach your audience. Therefore, it is critical that you do your research to make sure the screens you choose are bright enough for your project.
Choosing the right size screen for your digital signage system is also crucial. If your screen is too small, your messages can be hard to read, therefore, won’t do their job. However, if your screen is too large, it can seem a bit in your face and may put off your audience. The size of your screen will depend on your project.
2. Signing Up with the Wrong Software
The digital signage software you choose will be the way you control the content on your screens. Some digital signage projects will fail because the user chooses the wrong software. Either it’s been too hard to use, or doesn’t have the features the user needs to meet their end-goals.
There is a sea of different software available that will enable you to control your screens. Each software is built differently and will require different skill levels. For example, some are as simple as drag and drop, however, others may require advanced technical knowledge. Therefore, it’s important to remember who will be controlling your screens and uploading the content. Ultimately, a digital signage project should be easy. Therefore, powerful, easy-to-use software is often recommended.
The features that come with your chosen software are important too. If you’re a busy small business, you’re unlikely to have the time to manually update content each day when needed. For this situation, you can take advantage of scheduling features. These allow you to set content to play at different times in advance and fully automate your content deployment. Other great features include live social media feeds, live web pages, touch screen abilities, and slideshows.
If certain features are essential in the success of your project, they should be essential in your software
3. Bad Quality Content
Ultimately you are investing in digital signage system for sharing specific content with your audience. Whether it’s safety information, opening hours, new products, or live social media feeds, you want it to look good. Bad quality content is likely to decrease engagement with your screens or confuse your audience.
To create great-looking content, you should follow some simple yet powerful design tips. Some of these include using your brand colors, only focusing on one message or type of content, avoid overcrowding content, and using easy to read text.
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to make great-looking content either. Some software providers will offer templates, where all you need to do is change the wording and colors. Some of these templates can even be dynamic, meaning you can create professional-looking content in seconds
4. No Content Plan
Sometimes a lack of a solid content plan causes you to fall short of your goals. A content plan will allow you to plan and prepare content in advance so it is ready to go on your screens when needed. Without a plan, you may find yourself rushing to create content on the day. Not only is this stress un-needed, but the content produced is also likely to be of lower quality.
With a content plan in place, you can sit down at the beginning of the year or month and map everything out. The content can then be created in bulk and scheduled for key dates. This is popular for seasonal content such as Christmas. Promotions, messages, and specials can be planned in the summer. The content can be made and scheduled in advance. Clever software can automatically remove the Christmas content when the holiday season comes to a close.
5. Bad Support
It’s one of the most frustrating moments when something doesn’t work. However, it’s more frustrating when you can’t get through to support to get a fix. Keeping your screens online and running properly is at the foundation of your project’s success. If you can’t get support swiftly, your screens are likely to be offline for longer and therefore, are not able to do their job.Choosing software with good support can minimize the down-time of your screens. If there’s ever an issue with your screen, the last thing you want to do is have to wait a week to get back online. You want to be up and running ASAP! Many digital signage systems fail because the software the user chooses lacks a good support structure. Therefore, it is important to do some research and find a provider that will suit your supporting needs.
