Dipping Your Toes in Digital Signage

Are you ready to sell screens, dive into connecting screens over the internet, screen management, on-site setup, and technical support?

This doesn’t really sound like anything sign companies should be dealing with. However, we do see that digital is replacing traditional signage more and more. Should you just accept this or rather look for interesting ways to get into this playing field?

I suggest you always focus on your core business and keep additional (digital) products as an extra. You don’t want this to become a drain on your normal work, so you need to focus on solutions that are basically easy to install and require very little or no technical knowledge.

In the case of regular screens, you might want to advise your customer to take care of the hardware themselves or forward them to a partner you know and is reliable. For totems and special screens, make sure you have reliable suppliers who offer excellent technical support. Don’t get involved too much with Wi-Fi/network setup because if it doesn’t work properly for any small reason, they will call you to solve it. Better let your customer handle this by themselves or their IT provider.

Content: Is this something for you as a signmaker? The answer is yes!

Since you already make the sign as a print on vinyl or other material, the step towards the screen is very logical and a huge market opportunity, especially in/after COVID times. There is amazing web-based software where you can manage all your customer’s screens effortlessly. Forget about local or USB storage with slideshows. Online is the way to go. Adding special screens and apps next to advertisements is also very easy, and you can pre-schedule everything way in advance. Usually, the screen management software partners also sell media players, so even old screens will connect easily.

So instead of losing your regular sign business, you can add extra digital business and integrate it with your existing one.

However, the possibilities are almost endless, and it is easy to get too confident and sell solutions outside of your skillset. Therefore try to involve good professionals when managing more complicated screen setups or large quantities.

Moreover, when additional technology is needed like temperature sensors, face recognition, and people counters, don’t try to figure this out yourself. It is better to get help to have your customer solution set up quickly and professionally. Again, in this case, the choice of good screen management software, which can be extended, is key.