Challenges Of Digital Signage

Modern businesses face many marketing challenges like a reduced attention span among consumers and fierce competition from an increasingly global market. Fortunately, digital signage can address many problems faced by advertisers today.

However, digital signage solutions are not without their problems, especially if you adopt the technology for the first time. Although the technology can revolutionize your relationships with customers, mistakes result in higher costs and disappointing results. Explore some common digital signage challenges below and their solutions:

Poor Planning

Digital signage has become a popular option in recent years among companies that want more impactful marketing. In fact, the global digital signage market is expected to hit USD 27.8 billion by 2026, from USD 16.3 billion in 2021, at a CAGR rate of 11.2% in the forecast period. Although the market has impressive growth potential, you need clear goals for the technology before you roll out digital signs.

Poor planning is one of the most common challenges of digital signage. Either businesses do not post content consistently or businesses display engaging content that does little to achieve their goals. To combat this, create a planning period where you can develop a content plan. Also, consider where you will get digital signage messaging. If you want your digital signs to provide a competitive advantage, you need a consistent rotation of captivating content. Fortunately, most platforms provide content apps to stream content such as weather, news, traffic, and live hashtag feeds.

You also need to nail your target audience by understanding their interests and needs to combat this digital signage challenge. Do your visitors want wayfinding information to navigate your building, or are they interested in discounts and sales? By defining your audience, you are more likely to display relevant and compelling content.

Finding the Right Hardware and Software

A digital signage system consists of both hardware and software, each with different roles. The many options in the market can confuse you, and you may take a lot of time to identify the best solutions for your business. Finding the right hardware and software is another challenge with digital signage.

When you choose digital signage hardware, consider the content you will play. For example, a large display is ideal if you want passersby to see your dynamic content from a distance. In comparison, a smaller screen works well for touchscreen kiosks as it provides personal and immersive experiences. In short, ensure that the size of the screen fits the wall space.

Also, consider the type of screen, with options including LED, LCD, and OLED displays when tackling this digital signgage challenge. Previously, the high costs of digital displays were the biggest barriers to the adoption of digital signage. However, the costs are now more affordable, but you still need to work with a budget.

Choose a cloud-based, easy-to-use content management system (cms) that provides scalability and flexibility. If you install multiple displays, ensure the platform supports multi-screen content management.

For instance, the digital signage software from Mvix lets you manage hundreds of screens in one or different locations. Moreover, Mvix media players suit a variety of digital signage applications, from an interactive kiosk, digital menu board to a video wall.

Poor Location

Correct placement is the secret to effective digital signage. In many cases, business owners place digital screens too high or too low and miss out on audience engagement. Other advertisers situate digital screens in low-traffic areas or locations where people don’t spend much time. If you don’t place your digital signage in an effective area, this can pose as a marketing challenge to your business.

First, you want a central location with high foot traffic and lingering crowds. For instance, a healthcare facility can furnish its waiting room with a few digital signs and entertain or inform waiting patients. Other suitable locations include checkout lines, ticket booths, lobbies, employee break rooms, and elevators. If you use digital signs to promote merchandise, place them close to the products.

Second, set the screens at eye level or slightly above eye level to grab shoppers’ attention. In addition to height, consider the distance between the screen and viewer. Specifically, images and fonts should be large enough for a viewer in the farthest distance.

However, keep in mind that sunlight can interrupt visibility. For example, sunlight may overpower the brightness on window displays or screens in a brightly-lit office. Also, ensure that outdoor digital signage screens are bright enough or have an anti-glare coating or anti-reflective technology.

Stale Content

One of the benefits of digital signage over static signage is that the content changes frequently. Even if content plays on a loop, customers are likely to look at the screen even if they have seen a particular message before. However, overplayed content eventually gets boring.

Viewers engage with refreshing and new content on a consistent basis. Indeed, many companies get comfortable with running a few stale slides for months on end. As a result, frequent guests rarely give their signage a second glance. Even if you have invested in 4k resolution screens, stale digital signage content ruins the entire deployment.

A content management system with many content sources is the difference between smart signage and ineffective digital signs. For example, the more than 150 content apps on the Mvix software let you update content consistently and keep your audience solution. You can display news, videos, KPI dashboards, emergency alerts, social media posts, and more for your video walls, digital directories, digital billboards, and touch screens.

Repurposing social media feeds or displaying a scrolling feed of your website can be helpful when you run low on your own content. Besides, photo and video stock libraries have saved the day for many advertisers. Also, you can run a product demo as part of an ad campaign.

Localizing Content

The ability to display localized content is what makes digital signage an effective communication tool. However, many advertisers struggle with providing localized messaging across multiple locations.

Basically, localized content is content that reflects the interests of the demographics living in a particular area. Often, large companies deploy digital signage content from the central hub with little regard for an audience’s specific needs in a particular location. For example, if your headquarters are in New York, customers in Los Angeles do not care about the traffic or weather in Brooklyn.

Steer clear of a one size fits all approach to digital signage deployment. A popular option is to delegate content creation at the local level or regional level. Screens may show the local weather or the local branch’s social media feeds to engage customers.

This digital signage challenge is also prevalent in smaller companies. For example, you will hardly engage night shift workers if you show midday traffic data. In this case, ensure that digital screens show content to the right people at the right time.

Workflow Problems

If there are workflow bottlenecks to getting content approved, you miss out on marketing opportunities because of ineffective signage. In most cases, the content management system is too complicated and overwhelms the content creation staff. In other cases, the team approving content is slow to respond. There is an effective way to combat this digital signage challenge.

When setting up a digital signage solution, identify the parties responsible for creating, approving, and scheduling content. Additionally, someone needs to oversee the system and troubleshoot in case of problems.

If you have inadequate human resources to maintain the digital signage system, you end up with inferior content. Similarly, undertrained employees create subpar content. Indeed, many companies invest in a more complex solution than they require. Thus, purchase user-friendly and train employees adequately to solve this problem. Other companies outsource content creation to professionals like graphic designers and IT personnel.

In Conclusion

As demonstrated above, deploying digital signage is not without its challenges. However, you can mitigate these by partnering with a reliable digital signage provider and user-friendly software. Our tried and tested full-service digital signage systems at Mvix allow for custom content creation and are scalable to accommodate your firm’s changing needs.