Best Practices for Interactive Digital Signage

Traditional digital signage solutions get 400% more views than static displays. Add an interactive interface to your digital signs, and you will undoubtedly see these numbers increase. Indeed, interactive content across all channels, including your digital signage platform, is uniquely dynamic and drives more engagement than static content.

Read on to learn more about interactive digital signs and the best practices to keep in mind to optimize the use of these solutions.

What Are Interactive Digital Signage Solutions?

With traditional digital signs, you publish content the target audience may view and move on. On the other hand, interactive digital displays give the audience control over what content they see on your screens and how they view it.

There have been significant advancements in interactive digital signage software solutions, the Internet of Things (IoT), and interactive technologies such as touch screens, gesture control, and motion sensors. Therefore, businesses across various industries continue to be highly invested in leveraging these advancements for their digital signage displays.

The result? Interactive and highly personalized experiences. Whether you are looking to help customers learn more about your products or brand, or delivering entertaining content, personalization through interactive displays, can be a game changer for your business.

How to Use Interactive Digital Signage Solutions: Best Practices

Interactive displays are perfect for organizations across all industries. Whether in the retail sector or health care, follow these tips to get the most out of your interactive digital signs.

1. Correctly Map Out the Deployment

You can avoid placing traditional, non-interactive digital signs anywhere inside and outside your establishment, but not so much with interactive displays.

Accessibility should always be a primary consideration when choosing where to install your interactive signs. Since you need shoppers and visitors to actually interact with the displays, they should be able to access the signs easily, be it wayfinding displays, building directories, or in-store interactive kiosks.

For this reason, ensure the signs are within arm’s reach of your target audience. Also, consider your target audience’s age and average height when choosing where to place the signs. While at it, ensure you cater to clients with various special needs, so everyone enjoys a great customer experience.

2. Create Engaging Content

Great graphics, crisp texts, excellent audio and video quality, and more are some features that make digital signage content a real attention-grabber. With interactive digital signage solutions, you want your audience to do more than look at the content on your digital screens. Your content management system and strategy should always gear toward encouraging people to engage with the displays.

To this end, be creative with your content creation. Templates will no doubt help you save time, but you must ensure you create content the target audience will want to interact with. For example, product demo videos are a great hit for retailers as they help customers to see your products in action.

Moreover, social media posts on your video walls will no doubt catch your shoppers’ attention, especially the younger ones. You can add a call-to-action for your audience to like and subscribe to your page, growing your subscriber list. 

Similarly, if you are a business in the food and restaurant industry, you can make your digital menu board even more interesting to capture more attention and drive engagement. Instead of using only images alongside the pricing to display menu items and special promotions, throw in a video or animation for that wow factor.

3. Bridge for Follow-Up

Self-service interactive displays can be helpful to your customers. That said, some users may still want to learn more about your business and products. For this reason, include contact information such as a telephone number and email for follow-up communications. This is especially helpful for customers who may want to do the follow-up later instead of doing it there and then with a company representative.

4. Keep Your Content Current 

Update your content regularly to drive engagement. For instance, you can use the scheduling function on your media player for playback management to set the duration within which specific content displays on your interactive displays before expiration.

However, repeat customers will more than likely shy away from your interactive digital displays if you are running the same content you have had for a while and with which they have already interacted. Keep it fresh always while maintaining the same standards.

Also, don’t neglect current news and happenings. You can use external data sources such as RSS feeds to broadcast real-time information such as weather updates and breaking news. From internal data sources, push emergency announcements and important updates to your digital signage in real-time for the best customer experience.

5. Design for User-Friendliness

Your interactive digital signage solutions should be so intuitive and easy to use that even first-time users don’t necessarily require tutorials. For example, scanning QR codes on your digital signs to view more information about your products should be straightforward.

Most mobile devices, especially Android phones, come with a QR code scanner app. Your customers need not worry about going to the URL of web pages or downloading any additional app for code scanning. Not only does this take longer, but also with downloading apps on mobile devices, the customer has to worry about operating systems and other compatibility requirements.

Additionally, ensure you map out the navigation on your displays. Have several navigation options from which the audience can choose their most preferred choice. Display what the user is about to click so they can be sure before moving forward. Furthermore, ensure that users can complete their navigation to the resources they need in no more than three clicks.

6. Don’t Neglect Maintenance

Any glitches in your interactive digital signage solutions will create a bad impression on users who may not be as eager to use them again. However, with the Mvix NOC Module, you can monitor and troubleshoot all the devices in your network simultaneously from a centralized platform. In addition to remote monitoring, users also have a way to report any issues with the displays quickly.

Avoid any downtime on your interactive digital signs by investing in regular maintenance. This includes updating the digital signage software and ensuring all the hardware components are working as they should be at all times. 

Similarly, ensure your screens are clean at all times. Any dirt or dust on your devices will greatly discourage users from interacting with them. Have a regular cleaning schedule and ensure you follow the manufacturer’s guidelines.

The Future of Interactive Displays

Interestingly, the global interactive displays market, growing at 8.1% CAGR from 2020-2025, is expected to hit 13.2 billion by 2025. Innovation and new product technologies will undoubtedly be critical drivers in the market’s growth.

Even as businesses that have already deployed interactive digital signage solutions explore more ways to optimize these displays, the adoption of interactive solutions is expected to grow across all sectors. Why? All organizations, regardless of the scope of operation and their market, appreciate the impact of interactive solutions on customer experience.

Drive Engagement Today

According to a study, interactive content has 52.6 % more engagement than static content. Leverage the right type of content for your interactive displays and employ the best practices in designing, deploying, and maintaining these solutions for the best outcome. With the help of experts, you can streamline your strategy for interactive digital signage solutions and boost your engagement numbers.