How to: Make Your Digital Signage Project a Success

Daniel Waldron hit the ball out of the park in a recent Digital Signage Today article: your digital signage success hinges on creating a unique user experience for your customers.

Staying Consistent with Your Customer's Journey!

Making a Unique User Experience

What's needed to make your customer-facing digital solution noteworthy, unique, worth the investment?

Take a Look at the Basics

Waldron suggests there are several key pieces of advice:

• Ask: is your digital solution attractive?  That seems fairly basic but.. you'd be surprised! Is the actual hardware visually appealing? Too often, in the interest of perceived cost savings, you'll see monitors that are too small for the setting -- or have been touched too many times without cleaning. Stay on top of details! And, of course, make sure you're taking advantage of high quality visuals and high-res monitors.
• Incorporate Social Media into the digital experience. Have you seen the Digital Information World statistic: 71% of consumers refer to social media for purchasing decisions? Linking digital signage to social media, Waldron suggests, creates trust -- as social media recommendations carry positive weight and show you're committed to engaging with your customers. 
• Stay Customer Centric. Don't try to do everything, in other words! If you're a homebuilder, for example, stay consistent with your customer's journey: they're at your sales office because they want to make a lifestyle change. Show them your homes, let them try on various options, help them find out about life essentials in this new neighborhood (where are the local schools; how about shopping?) -- and make it easy to do! Add some fun, where possible!

Keep Your Salespeople Involved

Take a look at CPS' interactive touchscreen SalesTouch system designed for Cornerstone Communities' Aventine sales center. Wouldn't you agree it is visually attractive? And, consistent with prospective home shopper's life journeys?

Although most interactive presentation systems are designed for self-service, it is critical that your sales team is knowledgeable about their operation -- and proactive in getting home shoppers engaged. Bob Musa, in his Creating Customers book, notes that the sales process has always included making the customer aware of the product, creating interest in the product and creating intent in the purchase.  Today, home shoppers want to be educated about how your product will meet their lifestyle needs -- both system and sales agent are actively involved in that process!

Customer Experience is Everything!

A recent Digital Signage Today commentary suggested the phrase "the customer is king" has evolved into a more holistic concept: "the customer experience is everything!"

SalesTouch: dynamic and effective customer engagement!

More and more, companies are recognizing there needs to be a particular focus on cross-channel experiences that engage customers.  

Microsoft recently reported the average human loses focus after 8 seconds (a rather precipitous decline from the 12 second attention span of 2000)! Technology is perceived as a driving factor behind this change. Did you know goldfish have a 9 second attention span?

How to attract and maintain customer focus in this environment so your customer experience is maximized? Is digital signage that tool -- or just more distraction?

Digital signage has the capability to jump out and grab attention -- even in today's short attention span world. Take a look at the Cornerstone Communities SalesTouch interactive touchscreen image above; wouldn't you like to find out how you could live at this community?

What does your reaction this tell us? Marketing strategy and content -- regardless of the product or location -- has to stand out to grab a consumer's attention.  Companies need to plan how to grab attention in advance. Who is the audience? What type of content will reach them? What are their motivators? What sorts of benefits can be displayed in those 8 seconds?

Video is a good example of the need for thorough analysis: if there's a 30-second video, most people won't watch. But..if it can be broken down into 5-second segments, you're within the Microsoft-reported sweet spot!

Another key take-away is content is critical:  consumers will notice changing displays (vs. static signage, as an example -- or even an interactive presentation with just a single message). Cornerstone's presentation revolves images -- some focused on lifestyle, others on community.

CPS has been providing interactive touchscreen presentations to home builders for 10 years; let us help you design dynamic content and presentations that maximize your home shopper customer experience!

Take That Wall and Make It ... a Dynamic Marketing Tool!

Video walls are becoming increasingly popular as a way to attract and engage customers.  They draw people in, according to Richard Slawsky in a recent Digital Signage Today article, immersing them in a brand or experience.

Why not take that unique marketing concept and expand it to include a dynamic, interactive communications tool? Author Micah Friedman, with Cognizant, suggests the need to continuously develop new business and operating models to better deliver on customer needs and desires.

What's critical, according to Friedman, is considering multiple ways of engaging customers with a richer, customizable and frictionless experience.

One focus point is optimizing Social Media. Here's an opportunity to understand customers better (by evaluating their tweets and posts, for example) as well as providing a mechanism to shape how customers perceive them and their offerings.

Take at look at CPS' Social Media Wall in a new master plan community information center.  It's visually welcoming and designed to engage visitors from the moment they walk in -- delivering traditional marketing copy and community images side-by-side with consumer generated content.  Have a special event planned? Assign a unique hashtag, start posting information about the event and, at the event, ask attendees to submit pictures and comments.  Result: a shared,  creative process fostering an ongoing conversation!

And, the Social Media Wall can include video, as well!

Is anyone reading those flyers?

Very interesting article by Jen Kline in a recent DigitalSignageToday (you can read Nobody's reading those flyers here) suggesting it how difficult it is to grab a passing "eye" in today's fast-paced retail and commercial environments with traditional comment/contact boards.

Whole Foods goes beyond flyers to digital Comment Board

In other words, if you're relying on posted flyers in your store or business hallway, you're probably missing almost everyone that could (or should) be interested.  The same, it is argued, applies to occasional emails (the once-a-month sale or every other month employee highlight newsletter).

A digital platform, Kline suggests, allows for constant -- and consistent-- distribution of useful information to your shoppers ad employees.  And, of course, once the platform is established, updates should be straightforward.

Kline argues that a digital process is more exciting and advanced than traditional flyers and emails.  It demands (or at least encourages) attention -- meaning your message has a better chance of being received. And, you're able to add contemporary and eye-catching content, too.

A well-designed board not only displays information, it communicates your business objectives, enhances branding and encourages customer engagement.

Take a look at the latest Whole Foods Market Customer Comment Board; compare it to ones you've seen covered with flyers, cards, post-its and ask yourself: which would help communicate your message, your brand, your objectives better?