Digital Signage Installation, Management, & More For Franchises

According to the Economic Census Franchise Statistics Report, 11.4% of businesses in the U.S. are franchises. Contrary to what many people think, there are franchises outside the fast food market players, such as McDonald’s and KFC, as the report covers franchise establishments across various industries.

Customers expect consistency across franchise locations. Indeed, this expectation isn’t only limited to the quality of the products or services you offer but also the customer experience. So, digital signage plays a significant role in delivering a great customer experience in various ways. For this and other reasons, franchises cannot afford not to leverage these digital signs.

This guide is an outline of the benefits of digital signage for franchise businesses and the crucial steps in setting up the signage, with some excellent pro tips.

Use Cases and Benefits of Digital Signage for Franchises

Franchise owners greatly appreciate the benefits of digital signs. This has seen franchises across different markets and verticals adopt the use of digital signage in various ways. For instance, outdoor signs, window displays, welcome boards, in-store ads, and digital menu boards are among the most commonly used digital signs in these establishments.

With eye-catching and targeted messaging on digital signage solutions, franchises realize advantages in various areas.

• Increased foot traffic and boost in sales
• Increased user engagement
• Improved brand recognition
• Cost savings for marketing campaigns
• Improve internal communications
• Promoting self-service through interactive kiosks

For various reasons, it’s the norm to centralize digital signage for franchises instead of leaving it to individual franchisors.

Centralized management ensures consistency across all branches and avoids any issues that may affect the brand image. Also, the content management team uses the same templates and data files for consistency.

Updating content playlists at scale is also more efficient and saves time. It also helps that the cutting-edge remote management capabilities of cloud-based digital signage platforms don’t require physically visiting each screen location to update the content. Instead, franchise managers at the various branches and even non-technical teams can easily update content with just a few clicks.

It also deals with system health monitoring and diagnostics. The IT team, whether on-site or not, can view the status of each screen in real-time and will get a notification whenever there is an issue with any screen or media player. The team can then dispatch a technician to take care of the issue.

Setting Up Digital Signage for Franchises

Whether you are in the healthcare, fast-food restaurant, or automotive services industry, you can set up digital signs in your franchise benefits for success with these steps.

1. Set Up the Hardware

Consider your business needs and budget when choosing hardware for your digital signage platform. The best part of setting up the hardware is that you can always use the screens you already have in your establishment.

You shouldn’t need any additional hardware if you have smart Android TVs. On the other hand, you can quickly turn your non-smart screen into a smart one by pairing it with a smart media device. Also, ensure your screens are the right size, with the right balance of brightness. For example, window displays and video walls should be bigger than in-store displays, such as digital menu boards.

Strategic placement is a crucial part of setting up the hardware. Franchises typically have the same or similar layouts, so you can get away with a standard placement strategy across all the establishments. The ultimate goal is to increase the viewership of your digital signs by capturing the target audience’s attention. 

The front of your franchise business is an excellent place for outdoor digital signage displays and will attract visitors. For instance, have digital screens throughout the inside of your store to display product information and highlight offers. Another great spot, which works great for cross-selling and upselling, is just behind the billing counter.

2. Set Up Digital Signage Software

In addition to the functionality or capabilities of the software, another crucial consideration when selecting digital signage software is its user-friendliness. The software provides you with all the tools you need to manage content and your network of screens. 

Therefore, franchises can create content and schedule this content to display at various times. You can easily group screens, so specific screens show a message at an exact time.

Additionally, your choice of digital signage software should be robust for playback management and diagnosis. However, any downtime on your screens can significantly affect customer experience. So, you want to ensure you can efficiently manage the status and health of all devices.

3. Content Creation and Management

Franchise digital signage comprises a network of digital signs in multiple locations. Some franchises are so big that they have establishments not just across town and the country but also across multiple countries worldwide. When you use digital signage software that is highly capable, managing content for all the screens, whatever their number, is straightforward.

For example, with content layout templates, content creation for your digital sins can be pretty intuitive. Whether you are creating a product ad or linking to a social media post, you can easily create content for the signs and don’t need technical know-how. A smart preview of what the content will look like once published allows you to check for any errors and identify ways to improve the content.

Moreover, with cloud-based digital signage software, content management on the go is a reality for franchises. You can update content from anywhere, at any time, from an internet-connected device.

Tips for Better Content Management

Grouping screens makes content management highly efficient. You can easily update and publish content on a specific group of screens at a time instead of having to do it for individual screens.

Integration with other crucial business tools, such as the events calendar and inventory database, greatly improves content management for franchises. You can program the content to change based on changes in these integrated tools. 

For example, you can automatically stop a limited-time offer from running on the screens of a particular franchise location when the inventory numbers at that location show you have run out of the items on offer. Similarly, integrating with the calendar allows you to schedule playlists for specific times. This is great for franchises that run promotions and have offers during particular days each week.

Do It Right

There are clear reasons your business needs digital signage, and getting it right from the design and installation stage is crucial to getting the most out of your signs. Setting up digital signage for franchises is quite involving. As a result, always leave it to the experts for the best outcome.

Whether you are setting up tens of screens, or hundreds across various locations, you can trust the experts to set up digital signage for your franchise business. In fact, forecasts for 2022 put the number of franchise establishments in the USA at more than three-quarters of a million. Therefore, as this number grows, so will the number of digital signage screens. You can schedule a demo and see the digital signage solution at work. After set-up, you can also look forward to professional support.