Get Digital Benefits (and then some!) with a Social Media Wall

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression."

Do you recognize that well-known Will Rogers saying? Debbie Wilson-Dewitt suggests, in a recent DigitalSignageToday article, that it makes sense to apply it to digital walls, as well.  

Digital Signage Helps Your Brand Stand Out

Wilson-Dewitt says digital walls are intended to create a strong impression -- and that's consistent with the benefits associated with digital signage.  You're able to capture customer attention immediately and promote your message and content.

A Social Media Wall Engages, Entertains & Starts Conversations, too

Digital Amplifies Visual

Digital signage -- with its captivating color and graphic motion -- is typically a head-turner.  It grabs attention and provides a unique customer experience.

Did you know that a recent I Am Omnichannel study reports that 70% of customers think digital signage is entertaining? 

Social Media Enhances Community

CPS offers Social Media Wall -- a unique, ever-changing combination of digital signage, traditional marketing copy/images and social media content.  The walls offer an engaging focal point at locations that see a lot of traffic such as sales and leasing information centers.

How Can You Take a Wall Up a Notch?

Apart from size, what else needs to be considered when thinking about effective digital signage and a wall?

• Size matters, initially; but content keeps people engaged. That's where social really pays off!
• Walls can greet as well as provide information
• Use walls to communicate and reinforce branding
• Answer questions through wall content and images; it keeps audiences engaged, longer.
• Be Sure the wall is designed for your audience!

Take Advantage of a Value-Add!

Walls, says Wilson-Dewitt, are an incredible value-add and any kind of organization will benefit from one. You're able to take advantage of previously developed content, images and messaging -- and present them in a unique, digital format that will attract all sectors of your audience!

Interactive Touchscreens: Branding Dives Deeper than Marketing

Previously, we've talked about how using an interactive touchscreen system at a sales or leasing office or a welcome center provides builders and developers with a unique branding opportunity. 

Branding:  providing benefits to customers

Branding is at the core of a business' marketing strategy.  More than logos, colors, web designs, sales office styling... branding reflects your business purpose, values and culture.

How do those big picture concepts get translated to an interactive touchscreen? We've always said SalesTouch is more than a pretty face -- although the introductory screen presented here is certainly attractive! 

Is your market first-time buyers? Your home shoppers might not be familiar with your community or the surrounding neighborhood or the financing process .  They're just getting started in the purchase decision process: let them engage and explore using the touchscreen.  Storytelling is key for this demographic!

Now to the opposite buyer profile: 55+ buyers: they're just as concerned about the surrounding neighborhood; however, their specific interests probably differ than the first-time buyer. Schools give way to golf courses, local attractions to golf courses.  Financing might not be as much of an issue as available structural options: is it possible to convert bedroom #3 to a flex room? What makes your amenity package attractive?  Details are critical to this demographic.

A well-designed touchscreen system helps you respond to your homeshopper's objectives; it benefits your customers -- and isn't that your brand's objective?

Want to continue thinking about branding and the relationship to marketing strategy? There's a very interesting branding discussion in a recent Kissmetrics blog located here.

Use Interactive to Address Top 10 Reasons for New Home Purchase!

Jay McKenzie recently wrote an article in New Home Source discussing why so many home buyers prefer new homes as compared to resale home purchases.  Even with the recent pick-up in new home sales, many areas of the country still have a backlog of resale homes available and sales agents need to be able to effectively manage the new home sales process vs. a resale (or even foreclosure/short sales) purchase.  You can read McKenzie's blog post here.

What do you think is the top reason for a new home decision?

SalesTouch: Facilitates Your Home Your Way Design!

 Hint: it isn't location!

McKenzie suggests Reason #1: Design your Dream Home Your Way. Buyers are encouraged to think of their new home as reflecting their taste, not someone else's ideas, as models explore the latest trends and Design Centers offer a multitude of cabinet, countertop, appliance and flooring choices. 

Reason #2 isn't too far removed from #1, says McKenzie: Choose a Floorplan and Room Layout that Meets Your Needs.  Interested in a 4-bedroom with lower level master?  That's available in this new home floorplan! High ceilings but..concerned about energy costs? 

We've found use of a well-designed interactive touchscreen will help guide home shoppers through a community and effectively address Reason #1 and Reason #2.  CPS' SalesTouch allows consumers to view current floorplans and mix/match available structural options.  Help your buyer design their home -- complete with den in lieu of bedroom 3, optional bonus room and kitchen island complete with veggie sink and wine refrigerator! They're able to drag/drop selections, print a brochure featuring "their" floorplan -- even email a copy to the mother-in-law!

SalesTouch: Buyers & Agents Highlight Favorites!

And, builders utilize SalesTouch to effectively brand their company and products.  Offering energy-efficient homes?  Add a "builder story" video, energy calculator (even compare your floorplan to similarly sized resale home) or take buyers "behind the scenes" with "stage of construction" construction tours.

Help your buyer understand why your home meets their Top 10 needs!

Interactive Touchscreen Systems: Encouraging Discovery

If you're a regular Solutions reader, you've seen our blogs regarding the value of interactivity.

We've talked about engagement, narrowcasting, the value of touch in decision-making and how using technology in your sales offices/information centers keeps your brand in synch with today's consumers. Whether Gen X, Y or Boomer, today's homebuyer is connected.

Recently, a CPS SalesTouch client posted a YouTube video highlighting their new Grand Palm Discovery Center located in Venice, Florida.

Go Interactive: take discover to an entirely new level!

Their SalesTouch presentation actively encourages the home shopper to explore and discover Grand Palm. The presentation, so colorful and full of life, provides actionable touch points: it encourages homeshoppers to visit the surrounding neighborhood, learn about Grand Palm's amenities, find a floorplan that meets their needs and customize it with desired options, as well as select and place furniture in the selected floorplan.

Take a minute and compare this experience to a buyer walking into a sales office with passive signage and a static brochure.

Everything about the Grand Palm's interactive system involves an action verb -- designed to actively engage the home shopper from the minute they walk into the Discovery Center.

And, when you think about it, shouldn't the homeshopping experience encourage discovery? Your buyers are looking for something new; interactivity actively encourages the process, helps answer questions and encourages the homeshopper to imagine living in this community!

Doesn't this type of marketing tool build your brand, as well?  Your brand is part of the connected world; it recognizes how critical the exploration part of home shopping is to the consumer.  And, take a look back at the Grand Palm presentation, above: wouldn't you want to start touching to discover  what this is all about?

Interested in finding out more about CPS' interactive touchscreen system, SalesTouch? We're available at www.cpsusa.com.

Multifamily Preleasing: Interactive is a Great Tool!

Today's renter economy is strong enough -- in many areas-- that preleasing is gaining popularity as part of a multifamily property's revenue management strategy. 

In evaluating a prelease strategy, we'd like to suggest several ideas to consider after you've determined property specifics, audience, features, amenities and the like. We think they'll make your marketing process more effective as you reach out to your audience and enable them to better see your property's value (and values!).

(1) Use Interactive In Your Messaging -- Start Branding: Of course, you've considered your audience but..we're suggesting a bit more as you evaluate marketing messages to the audience.  Are you thinking, Gen X, Gen Y, Boomers ... does it really matter? 

Recent studies suggest that all 3 demographics have much in common (the "Connected Consumer" isn't limited to only Gen Y, for example).  And, your "most connected" consumers are women..regardless of age group.

 

While Gen Y has grown up in the digital age and are recognized as comfortable with technology, there are unique opportunities with interactive systems (large touchscreens and tablets) to connect with all audiences.

Today's consumer wants immediate information. Interactive touchscreens respond to their particular interest. 

Does your visitor want to see if their furniture fits into the your 2 bedroom unit  (which they can't visit)? CPS' interactive SalesTouch Move it/Move it feature allows consumers to select from a "sized" furniture palette and move furniture into the unit.

What about your building's amenities? The pool; the clubhouse; the fitness center -- all still to be built What will they look like?

Neighborhood? Will there be a local coffee shop? How about restaurants in the area?

Key to providing information is making it actionable: provide a way for your visitors to imagine visiting the coffee shop (how about an exterior image) or visiting a new restaurant (highlighting the "best" menu item) or riding the bike trail (how about the sunset along the river?). 

Pre-leasing works best when your audience -- boomers, Gen X, millennials -- can imagine living in your building, the selected unit and the neighborhood.  Interactive touch systems let your visitors start telling stories about how the property will meet their objectives! And, you're building your brand in the process.

(2) Energize Your "Green" Messaging: Study after study suggests Gen Y will spend if a product is shown to be cost effective and eco-friendly.  The latest consumer neuroscience studies suggest boomers appreciate marketing messages illustrating what value will be gained.  Highlighting green's cost-effectiveness is a powerful marketing message for all audiences.

And, while there are lots of "big ticket" green products, your message can highlight that it's the little things that count, too.

Do you have a "green" strategy?  Use your touchscreens and tablets to leverage that message.  Start your eco-friendly messaging at the pre-lease process --  highlighting unit features such as low-flow faucet/toilets, energy efficient appliances and low-e windows.

Build on it with the little things that are part of your pre-leasing process: CPS' SalesTouch offers e-brochures and prints brochures "on demand" and only the desired floorplans.

Add-on with features that come as a result of move-in: e-leases/renewals, streamlined recycling programs..maybe even a community garden.

Keep all of this information in front of your prospects as they're touching to discover your property's amenities and your brand.  Touch is powerful; neuroscience tells us touching a monitor generates completely different brain processes than using a mouse.  If you'd like information regarding CPS' interactive touchscreen system, SalesTouch, plrease visit our website, www.cpsusa.com.

Interactive Touchscreens: Understanding Desired Outcomes

Currently, there's quite a bit of discussion in the "blogosphere" about "Stealing the Experience." Mike Wittenstein has written recently about this; you can see a blog post here.

If you haven't seen the articles, the concept implies creating copy, content, even complete environments based upon what is working for other brands or businesses.  The goal: quick solutions to a need or a changing environment.

Delivering content designed to enhance the experience!

"Stealing an Experience" doesn't work, says Wittenstein, because the experience depends on the business culture, environment and product -- and, most importantly, the customer.

As a result, every business needs to understand the customer's desired outcome and then focus on delivering towards that outcome.

When CPS designs a touchscreen system, we always ask about the product, the consumer, the demographic.  If the product is 55+ housing, does it make sense to "hot spot" schools?  Sometimes, the answer might be "yes," and the experience is enhanced by including schools -- and the consumer thinks: "These people understand 55+ consumers may need to think about schools!"  In other cases, highlighting schools only makes the consumer think: "Why does this system spend so much time talking about schools?"  Notice the word "system" in that sentence!!

Your interactive touchscreen system needs to incorporate appropriate outcomes to become part of a successful buyer experience.  If it does, it brings value to your customers and profits to your business!

Branding & Communication: Effective... not expensive?

Hmmm...is there a possibility that an effective Branding and Communication program can be implemented inexpensively? 

We like to talk about the value of  interactive touchscreen systems -- whether in a sales, leasing or information center or a retail store.

Touchscreens..small and effective!

Interactivity helps with both branding and communication.  The American Marketing Association suggests that a brand identifies an entity and differentiates it from other, seemingly identical entities.

Objectives that a good brand will achieve include:
     -- Delivering the message clearly;
     -- Confirming your credibility;
     -- Connecting your prospects emotionally;
     -- Motivating the buyer;
     -- Establishing loyalty.

Brands typically have other items "tag along" such as being consumer friendly, green, contemporary.  Doesn't a well-designed touchscreen system communicate all of this? 

But..can it be effective and not expensive?  Certainly. The touchscreen image above is just 25" and it delivers its branding and communications message very clearly and concisely.

Just because there's a larger touchscreen somewhere...it can't take away your story!

And, a well-designed interactive touchscreen system doesn't need to display every idea or image under the sun.  To the contrary, the well-designed system uses creative thinking and great storytelling skills to provide essential information and help drive a decision.  When there are too many pieces of information, your prospect tends to surf rather than focus on your story and the brand.  That's when things get expensive as you need to provide more and more to redirect your prospect.