Here we are, the third and final post about thinking like a TV Producer for your DOOH.
In our previous post, we discussed how important it is to select the proper content for your digital signage network and in part one we focused on identifying your audience. Now, in part three, let’s explore ways you can actually engage with your customers.
Quickly recall that A.C.E. stands for…
A = Audience
C = Content
E = Engagement
In this post we will explore the “E” in A.C.E.
The term engagement has multiple meanings, and it depends who you talk to and what industry they specialize in. For our purposes, when I refer to engagement I refer to having customers actually do something. Literally press a button and do something. Digital signage can play a key part in what the clients can engage with, such as their mobile device or your interactive screen or tablet.
Understanding the habits, wants, and needs of your customers should be focused on when determining how to engage with them through digital signage.
Below is a list of tactics that can help you better engage with your customers through digital signage:
- Call-to-action – You’re never going to get your customers to engage with signage if you don’t have a call-to-action. They need to know, visually, that you want them to do something. Be sure to inform your customers of the intended actions and easily explain to the client “what is in it for me.”
- Obtain other media – With crazy cool advancements in media technology, you can now utilize your digital signage to share other forms of media. For example, customers can Shazam digital screens to obtain exclusive mobile messages from your brand.
- Influence – Technology exists for customers to influence what they see and what they hear within your location. Using either WiFi or Bluetooth technology, customers can influence music they hear or visuals they see. Get your customers influencing your screens.
- Be on TV – Most everybody wants to be on television and now is their chance. Allow your customers to have their fifteen seconds of fame by hosting contests or drive online campaigns that allow viewers to be on your screen.
- Shy users – There are abilities for motion detection technologies to understand that the person viewing the screen is not interacting. Having timed messages can help encourage engagement. For example, if the digital signage notices that a customer has not interacted with screens for five seconds, you could automatically display a custom reinforcement message to get the person to interact and touch the screen.
- Couponing – Reward those who dwell with coupons and special offers. It is easy to track what the customer is doing on the interactive screen. After engaging for over thirty seconds, a special reward can be provided in the form of information or special offer.
- Takeaways – Along the lines of couponing, provide something for your customer to take away. It can be a digital asset or coupon. It can be a video or fashion guide, new healthy recipe or maybe access to provide direct input or feedback to your management. The possibilities are endless yet the key is to have your customer take away something from their interaction so you can build your brand relationship even when the client is not in your location.
- Teach and educate – Knowledge is power, always has been and always will be. This is not specific to teaching about your brand or educating clients on you, but rather about topics related to your industry. This is what I call the “one layer removed.” For example, if you’re a healthcare facility, don’t necessarily educate about your services, but rather what are healthy living tips, nutritious eating recipes, and over all well-being content. This helps display your brand as S.M.E. (Subject Matter Expert) without over branding or appearing self centered.
- Share your story – This is about you and your story. From the beginning of your company to today, what did that journey look like? What needs did your business fulfill? Who’s who within your organization and can you visually tell their story? This is the human factor that can help build allegiances to your brand through the use of visual storytelling.
- Photo and social – Technology today can allow for fun and creative ways to encourage customers to engage with your signage. With new technology in facial identification, encourage customers to utilize digital attributes to be applied on screen. For instance, allow somebody to add the mustache they’ve always wanted or add a funny hat the person’s appearance.
- Emotional detection – This new trend encourages customers to play with their emotions in an enjoyable and judgment free zone. With cameras attached to digital signage, face coordinates (X, Y, and Z) allow for signage to recognize smiles or frowns. Digital signage can increase excitement by having customers to do something special such as smile and stand next to three people or frown and tilt your head.
- Directional content – Motion detectors can trigger specific content when a customer comes from a certain direction. For example, if a person enters from the left, that might indicate they arrived from a parking lot or a food court. The messaging can be crafted to engage consumers with direct messaging such as “did you lock your car?” or “did you clean your place setting after eating?” Specific directional content can drastically increase engagement.
- Child users – The height, composition, and tone of speech can be used to identify children. Obviously, messages need to completely adjust when child audiences are being messaged to. Catching children’s attention can help engage the younger demographic and by detecting an adult female and/or male around, you might also assume it’s a family, which could also trigger a different direct message.
- Calculate your engagement funnel – Digital signage offers important analytics, including statistics obtained from monitoring those who engage with your screen. It allows you to compare the number of those who avoided interaction with those who slightly looked at the screen (impressions) and those who actually interacted with the screen. Creating a specific engagement calculation to your brand can help you adjust marketing campaigns to ensure campaign success.
- VIP Access – Brand loyalty is something consumers hold near and dear to their hearts. Try providing a level of “behind the scenes” access in the form of videos, artist insights, and/or “day in the life” of key brand ambassadors. Providing exclusive content for consumers interacting with digital signage can increase engagement and enhance the overall brand loyalty.
Hopefully some of the items discussed above help you, your brand, or your client consider new approaches to engaging with customers. Digital signage can provide many great benefits especially when the audience and content displayed drives engagement. Please feel free to reference the previous posts of the A.C.E. tactic by re-reading and sharing the A (Audience), C (Content), or this post E (Engagement).
For additional insights, discussion, or ideation, I welcome the opportunity to connect on Twitter (@BrianElles) or via LinkedIn (Brian Elles).
– Submitted by Brian Elles, Visual