How much do you spend on promotions, advertising, and marketing?
This is a tough question for a businesses of any size. Of course all companies want the biggest bang for their buck, but it's even trickier for small businesses that have limited resources. Small business owners want to bring in customers and generate sales, but often can't afford to invest much in case a strategy doesn't work.
Enter digital signage. No matter what industry you're in, advertising displays can get your message across and create a lasting impression on the customer. As for investment and affordability, Promota is one solution that's completely free to use.
If you've thought about trying digital signage for your business but weren't sure if you could afford or benefit from it, here are 10 reasons to start using it by 2019.
1. A digital sign is worth a thousand words.
With a store sign or poster, you're limited to saying only one thing at a time in that space. If you're a business owner trying to raise awareness for all your products, services, perks, and specials, one thing is not going to cut it!
In a single space, digital display ads let you broadcast slideshows with as many promotions as you'd like. In one slideshow, you can share product and service info, pricing, photos, limited time specials, events, social media, and more.
2. Lets you update content regularly.
With a tap of your finger, you can update your digital display to suit the time or day. For example, a sushi restaurant could display certain lunch specials from noon, then switch to a drink menu during happy hour, then to a dinner menu in the evening.
Sushi Confidential in Campbell, CA does just that. According to general manager Taylor Brown,"We only order special fish on Friday and Saturday, oftentimes it's more expensive and we really are relying on the servers to push for that since it’s not on the menu. If the servers aren’t verbally telling the guests, then we’re not necessarily serving it because they don’t know that we have it as it’s not on the menu. Other than the chalkboard, Promota is another way to display the specials."
In this way, digital signage can help push time-sensitive goods off the shelves and deliver important information.
3. Boost your social media.
Social media is a blessing for small businesses working with a limited budget. It is essentially a form of free advertising, but will only be effective if people can see your content and know where to find you.
Your customers can refer friends and followers by tagging your account, using your branded hashtag, and geo-tagging your business location. By showcasing your social media accounts on digital displays, you can engage new audiences, increase your social media reach, and point customers to your social pages.
Include customers in your marketing efforts by showing their photos onscreen. They may be more likely to follow or mention your business account if doing so means they'll be featured on TV. By interacting with your online community in a tangible way, you can incentivize more follows, mentions, engagement, visibility, and (most importantly) loyalty.
4. Help waiting time go by faster.
With limited resources, small businesses may sometimes take longer to deliver products and services to waiting customers. Though the wait is worth it, using digital signage to make it seem shorter doesn't hurt — especially in the age of technology and short attention spans.
"People aren't used to waiting like they did 15-20 years ago," says Christopher Pugliese, owner of Tompkins Square Bagels in New York City, "But now I can get something up on the screen to show people this is what we do — nothing is remade or microwaved — and the images and the messages that we put up there helped people understand what's going on in here in a better way than I could."
At the heart of it, technology makes waiting less boring. Digital signs may not reduce actual wait time, but it'll go by faster.
5. Save time and stay flexible.
Time is money, and the best technology is made to make our lives easier. To help business owners save time, Promota doubles as a digital signage content creator. The app has 180+ customizable templates for small business owners to display in-store or share on social media. Our professional designers work on new templates every day, and add to the collection every week.
It doesn't matter if you're promoting new menu items or new hairstyles, all templates can be edited to fit your needs. Flexibility is key, and we listen to user feedback in order to provide a range of layouts to suit a variety of businesses.
6. Easy to set up and maintain.
If you don't want to invest anything upfront, Promota allows you to turn any TV into a digital sign with just Wi-Fi and a Chromecast device. It's a "set it and forget it" type of service, ideal for small businesses with few employees who have many responsibilities.
Using Chromecast, you can display the signs you make to any TV with an HDMI port. If you own an LG Smart TV with webOS, the signs can be displayed directly (no Chromecast needed.) Once your signs appear onscreen, you're free to go as you please. You don't need to be in-store to continue casting your signs, change them out, or switch to a different batch.
For businesses with no TV, Promota has a full-screen mode that allows you to display digital signs mobile device or iPad. Otherwise, signs can also be shared directly to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to boost online visibility.
7. Call attention to anything you need to sell.
It's getting harder and harder to get — and keep — consumer attention. Whether you own an online or physical business, there are simply too many companies vying for the same business.
Play it smart and turn heads with digital signage. A whopping 63% of people report that digital signs catch their attention. If you have something important to say, make sure your message gets noticed by saying it on a display.
8. Influence buying decisions.
As a business owner, your goal is to get customers to purchase your products or services. If only there was an easy way to get customers to buy what you're offering.
Well, digital signage can almost do that. According to a digital display study by Arbitron, 19% of customers say they've made an unplanned impulse purchase based on digital ads they saw in-store.
9. Give customers a memorable experience.
It can be easier for customers to trust larger businesses, thinking they must be successful for a reason and there's no way all these other customers can be wrong. On the other hand, small businesses may struggle to build credibility and trust no matter how long they've been in business and how many happy customers they've served. Sharing 5-star reviews may help, but it can still be hard to leave a positive impression in ways that customers will notice and remember. Enter digital signage.
Assure customers they've come to the right place by displaying content like testimonials, employee bios, positive statistics ("100% certified organic ingredients", "1000 happy customers served daily"), awards, recognitions, and other interesting facts about your business. You can show as much content as you want, while using much less space than traditional signage would need. Telling customers "you can trust us" is one thing, but showing them with digital signage is another.
10. Keep it affordable with TV and Chromecast.
If you're still unsure, try it out for free by downloading Promota in the App Store. Promota is unique solution in that it's completely free, and offers everything from templates, to Chromecast and webOS compatibility, to social media integration, to full-screen mode for displaying on tablets.
If you're looking for a quick and easy way to get started with digital signage, look no further. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
To get started with digital signage, install Promota for free in the App Store.
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