When you’ve invested in LED digital screens for your organisation, it stands to reason that you’d want them to be as effective as they can be, so they’re bringing you a maximum return on investment. So obviously the question is: what’s the best way to measure the effectiveness of your LED digital signage? Well, we’ve got four answers below that you might find useful!
Observe them in action
This is perhaps simplest and most straightforward way of getting a real sense of how well your screens are working. Simply place a member of staff (discreetly) in the vicinity of the screens, and observe how people react to them. Ideally, you’ll want to try and find out the following:
• How successful are the screens in capturing your customers’ attention?
• How long do they remain in the vicinity of the screen?
• Do they react by taking a specific desirable action? (E.g., by picking up the target product, or asking the nearest member of staff about the target service.)
If people aren’t spending much more than a few seconds in the vicinity of your screens, there’s a good chance they’re not having the desired effect on customer behaviour. This may be because they simply don’t find your content relevant to them – or if it is, they don’t find it engaging enough. Having said that though, it’s possible your content might not be the issue. You may be able to work out the best solution by yourself, but if you’re struggling to pin down the problem, don’t worry. You could always try to…
Ask your customers
An even more direct approach to gauging the effectiveness of your screens is to just ask your customers (or passers-by) how engaging they found them. Bear in mind that you’ll probably have to have some kind of incentive ready for people to give up their time answering your questions, such as a discount coupon or free product. And of course, make sure to place yourself in a prominent position (such as the entrance or exit of your store) so that you can reliably talk to as many of them as possible.
Some good suggestions for potential questions include:
• How well did our signage succeed in capturing your attention?
• What do you remember about what you saw of our content?
• What, if any, emotions did it make you feel?
• Did it impact any of your purchasing decisions on our premises here today?
You can then use their answers to identify the strengths and weaknesses in your strategy, and make adjustments accordingly. You might want to focus on aspects of the content itself, such as its nature, tone or subject, or even just the length of time it appears for. Or, if you think your content may not be the issue, it may well be worth reconsidering the positioning of your digital LED screens themselves, and whether they’re placed in a prominent, high-footfall space.
Screen discount codes and phrases
If you prefer to rely on more hard data as a replacement or supplement for your customer surveys, using your digital LED screens to display web addresses, QR codes or download codes have always been regarded as a reliably effective way to measure customer engagement. With these, you can use digital metrics to assess how many extra hits your website is getting each day, or how many times customers have downloaded content, or otherwise used their phone or computer to interact with a digital touchpoint.
While observations and surveys can give you a good indication of the mood and intent of your customers, it’s always worth bearing in mind that sometimes intent doesn’t always translate into action. On the other hand, looking at cold, hard numbers can give you an even more accurate of exactly how many customers follow through on their intentions, so that you can get an even more precise assessment of exactly what is and isn’t working with your digital LED signage.
Utilise digital signage triggers
As technology has advanced in recent years, there are now more possibilities than ever when it comes to providing ways for customers to interact with your digital signage. Touchscreens, buttons, cameras and motion sensors are all just some of the types of things that can be integrated into your signage.
A sandwich bar, for example, could link a digital menu to their LED screens, allowing the operators to record which dishes customers are ordering, and at what times of day – giving them an easy way of spotting what types of trends are emerging. Equally, they can use the same sorts of input to work out how successful their content is at influencing customers to order new dishes or special offers.
Digital signage triggers have become exponentially more common in recent years, especially with the spread of Covid-19, with companies using triggers to work out how often their hand sanitiser pumps are operated, and what information their customers or users are accessing to provide them with answers to their most common questions. If you’re using your digital signage for wayfinding – helping customers to navigate your store – then you might be surprised at the volume of information you can collect with a simple “Was This Helpful” and a binary yes / no button at the end.
These are just a few of our ideas, but it’s far from an exhaustive list – so if you’ve got any of your own ideas, don’t hesitate to put them into action. You might be surprised at what you can discover. But if you’ve got any questions about your digital signage itself, that’s exactly where we can help at Scanlite. We know our digital signage solutions inside out, including the many ways in which it can be used to achieve your goals as a business, so to find out how we can help you, feel free to give us a call today on 01253 302723, or email us on sales@scanlite.co.uk.