In today’s world of online commerce and internet shopping, brick & mortar retailers need to pull out all the stops in order to meet sales goals. Digital signage can help – but how can retailers use this technology to its full potential?

1. ‘Rubbish in, rubbish out’ is a familiar phrase that anyone in the IT industry will have heard of. Basically, this means that technology is useless without great content. Just hanging flat screen monitors and running your normal TV ads isn’t enough, because customers need to be engaged with appealing and interesting content.

2. It’s also important to have fresh content. Customers repeatedly visit retail stores, so new content should be introduced on a regular basis. The same old content played again and again will soon become stale. It bores customers at best, and at worst it could even drive them away.

3. Someone will need to be responsible for digital signage. Although this may seem rather obvious, a digital signage strategy needs to be carefully thought out. It’s unlikely to be effective if it’s treated as an afterthought. Many retailers choose an easy-to-use, flexible solution from a provider with distribution capabilities that allow one person to control a network.

4. One of the key advantages of digital signage is that it allows consistent messaging in different locations, across large networks, while there is also scope for control at a local level. This means large retailers can benefit from centralised control, and signs at all stores can be operated over the corporate network. Having a consistent message in all locations, or even groups of locations, has many benefits – particularly from a branding perspective. Retailers and brands have the opportunity to use their consumer research to target shoppers with personalised and relevant messages, based on locations, times and dates.

5. Digital signage can be used in symbiosis with other marketing efforts to enhance a retailer’s overall communication strategy. The digital signage content should not send out messages that are irrelevant or contradictory to other advertising, because this could confuse consumers. Marketing efforts can be optimised by aligning digital in-store media with social media and mobile marketing. This will engage customers pre-store, in-store and post-store