Digital Signage Content Ideas for Local Businesses

Evan Magner July 9, 2019

Digital signage is commonly seen in large cities or tourist locations, such as Times Square in New York City. Small and local businesses are seeing the value of digital signage implementation and jumping on the bandwagon. Let’s discuss digital signage content ideas for local businesses.

Digital signage is just what you need to up your game, whether your static marketing and communication efforts just aren’t cutting it or you’re looking for a modern answer to age-old advertising challenges. If you’re a local business looking to improve your marketing strategy and steer away from outdated static advertisement practices, digital signage is the solution.

Here are five digital signage content ideas for local businesses to take advantage of in the 21st century.

Create a Social Media Wall

We live in a social media-fueled world. Companies use social media to attract influencers, consumers, and casual acquaintances. According to Statista, 79% of the population in the United States have some kind of social media profile in 2019.

Local businesses, both big and small, see the inherent value in not only having a social media presence but creating a space where consumers can feel welcome and appreciated online.

Digital signage is a great way to share your local business’s social feed with storefront customers. Social media walls, created and maintained through digital signage software, helps customers understand how your brand is perceived within the social media hemisphere.

More often than not, people are quick to lambast or praise a business through social media. If you’re getting great word-of-mouth comments on social media (and even constructive criticisms), sharing those interactions with customers can be a great way to humanize your local business.

Share Customer Testimonials

Customers expect more from businesses—local businesses especially—than just a rigid transaction. The customer/business interaction today is all about personalization.

What does your business do that sets it apart from cookie-cutter big brands that reduce consumers to just numbers? People recognize the nuances local business leaders infuse into the business and the community, and many are more than willing to share a customer testimonial when they’re happy with the service.

Using digital signage as a platform for customer testimonials, product reviews, and satisfaction declarations show potential new customers that you have an exceptional track record. Having testimonials displayed prominently for all to see proves that you’re a brand to be trusted and a business that knows how to treat local consumers.

Advertise Local News

Information is power as far as digital consumers are concerned, and nothing fills a gap or keeps a finger on the pulse quite like local news coverage. Local news feeds keep people connected and informed about hometown happenings, regardless of small-town economics and big-picture politics.

In fact, when polled, Americans trust local news more than national news.

What’s new? Are there things worth keeping track of locally? What’s coming up that needs to be on the personal calendar? You can turn your business into a perpetual storefront watercooler conversation with the help of digital signage local news announcements.

What sets digital signage solutions apart from static newspapers, and even storefront fliers, is that local news feeds can easily be streamed, updated, and amended when necessary. Breaking news can be shared as it’s happening, and important local events can be detailed and counted down as they approach.

Digital signage is a great way to keep consumers connected with the local community while still promoting business. Imagine using a digital daily countdown timer for a state or local fair. You can promote an upcoming in-store event your business has planned to coincide with the event.

Improve Internal Communication

The days of printing monthly calendars or tacking a gaudy neon event flier to the corkboard on the breakroom wall are coming to an end. In fact, digital signage makes internal employee communication easy, relevant, and intuitive.

You don’t need to view digital signage solutions as customer-only options for communication. Sure, digital signs are a smart way to share things like testimonials, product details, and food menus with customers, but they can be just as useful for your employees.

With these content ideas for local businesses you can easily:

Keep large groups located at multiple sites informed
Supplement training or new product announcements
Display events and promote them to drive attendance
Show local and national CAP alerts, as well as custom alerts
Display performance stats to boost productivity

You can display things like rotating schedules and internal memos just about anywhere.

Promote Reward Programs

There’s only so much you can do with sidewalk chalk or window markers. What’s more, once you’ve created a storefront window advertisement masterpiece, changing it can be a real pain in the butt.

Luckily, digital signage turns static advertisements into dynamic ways to connect with potential customers. So, reward those who keep coming back.

Local businesses can reel in potential customers with can’t-miss rewards program benefits. In fact, promote giveaways or publicize local tie-in promotions (like the fair example above). “Enter your receipt to win a $50 Starbucks gift card!” or “Spend up to $25 in-store today and get a free tote bag!” are examples of just how easy it is for digital signage solutions to keep business local and boost relevant, timely promotional messages.