No free lunches
When you are thinking about installing digital signage for your business, you need to quickly dispel the idea that this is a cheap venture. As with anything worthwhile, it will cost you quite some money and you need to be prepared for that. Plus, cheap can be very expensive in the long run with regard to digital signage.
That being said, you don’t have to shy away or break the bank to manage your digital signage cost; you just need to know your way around it and where you can cut those costs. And that’s what I am here for…
It’s all about planning
Digital signage is just about the best thing since sliced bread as far as advertising goes. However, there are a lot of businesses that have suffered financially and reputation-wise as a result of digital signage, mostly due to poor planning.
You have heard it said ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’. Well, it could not be truer for digital signage. Most of the unnecessary high costs of digital signage are as a result of poor planning on the part of the business team. What I mean is, it is your people that often drop the ball rather than the people hired to install the signage.
So how can we make sure this doesn’t happen to you?
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Make adequate and feasible plans for the entire project
Develop an entire document if you have to, but make sure that every aspect of installing, running and maintaining the digital signage is accounted for and addressed before starting the process.
Digital signage is not like a printed banner that you can put up and take down as and when you feel like it, so make sure you know how it fits into your overall vision for your business, how it can improve your brand and where you are going to get the money for it.
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Figure out what you want to say
This is referred to as content development. The digital signage template will depend on this, so you need to know what you will say to get people’s attention and translate that into increased sales. You need to decide if you want to have video clips, slide shows, news streams or just some simple signs.
Whatever you decide, it has to be engaging for your target audience otherwise you will not get proper returns on your investment. You could hire a content developer for this, but it is still your decision at the end of the day.
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Trouble shooting measures
As with all things technological, you could face a system failure with your digital signage that could cost you quite some money to resolve if you had not already anticipated it. Be sure to talk to your service provider to make sure that their service includes problem resolution for a given period of time. Also, you can have your staff trained to handle glitches in the system that may not necessarily need a professional.
Ultimately, you have to think about digital signage from every possible angle to make sure your costs are low and your return on investment is high.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sujain Thomas is a business financial advisor and has done digital signage cost estimates and in the mean time she writes content on technology.
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