Digital Signage vs Traditional Print Signage: Is Digital Signage Better For Your Business?
Traditional print signages such as banners and posters have been used by businesses from various industries for decades. While traditional print signage is one of the easiest ways in reaching customers, it is not as effective as it was in today’s era of technology. Customer behaviour is constantly changing. Today, they are more digital-oriented. The attention span is getting shorter, and businesses need to put in more effort in capturing customer attention.
Digital signage is one of the business tools that helps businesses in reaching their customers effectively. It is getting more popular worldwide. Today, digital signages are widely used in various places, such as retail stores, building lobbies, airports, exhibitions, hospitals, and universities.
In this article, we will look into the comparison between digital signage and traditional print signage. We will discuss the advantages of both tools and explain why digital signage could be a better option for most businesses.
What is a Digital Signage?
Digital signage is an electronic signage that is used to convey messages to customers and audiences via engaging digital content. Digital signage uses a digital screen to display the digital content. It could be an LED or an LCD screen. Digital signage can be used for various applications, such as in-store signages, interactive digital signages, digital directories, outdoor digital signages, and digital menu boards.
What is a Traditional Print Signage?
Traditional print signage is a large-format print display tool that is used to display advertisements and brand messages. Some common examples are signage boards, posters, banners, and billboards. Traditional print signage is commonly used in print advertising where contents or advertisements need to be printed in hard copy.
Content
Digital signage can display a wide range of digital media formats, such as videos, graphics, animated texts, and images. On the other hand, traditional print signage can only display static and print formats such as images and texts.
Both content types can be entertaining if they are designed well. However, in terms of the ability to capture attention, digital signage can do better work obviously due to its high-definition display screen. Besides, digital content can display a wider colour range when compared to printed content. Animated graphics and videos also appear more dynamic compared to static print advertisements.
Flexibility & Convenience
Due to the ability to support digital content, digital signage provides a higher level of flexibility in managing and conveying brand messages. Updating the digital content is a fast and easy task. The business owner only needs to click a few buttons on a content management system.
In contrast, updating the print advertisement is a time-consuming and inconvenient task. The business owners need to spend to print the new advertisement. Once the new advertisement is printed, it needs to be transported and replaced manually at the physical location. The whole updating process could take days to complete.
Besides, managing a network of digital signages is easier than a network of print signages. When you have multiple digital signages located in different locations, you can manage the signage network easily via a central management platform. You can also monitor the device’s performance and health from a remote location. The system will inform you if there is any faulty issue, and you can then send a technician to fix the issue.
Managing traditional print signages is both challenging and inconvenient. You cannot really inspect the signage status unless you are attending physically at the location. What if you have more than 100 signages all over the country? You need manual labour and time.
Ad Rotation
Ad rotation is the practice of showing multiple contents or messages on a single signage. It is a business execution that traditional print signage can never achieve. It is impossible to change the print advertisements constantly throughout the day. Hence, there is a limitation in customer reach.
Digital signage is very good at reaching multiple target audiences. The signage can display different messages at different time periods. For example, a restaurant can use a digital menu board to display breakfast menus in the morning and dinner menus in the evening. All these can be scheduled and automated using digital signage software. It helps the business to send the relevant message to its target audience at the right time. It helps to maximize the effectiveness of brand communication.
Engagement & Interactivity
Digital signage is a better tool in improving customer engagement. Digital signage allows businesses to build good customer relationships through targeted messaging and engaging digital content. Since ad rotation and content scheduling are possible, businesses can always convey the most relevant messages to audiences at the most suitable timing. It helps to connect emotionally and thus create a great first impression.
On the other hand, digital content is more attractive and engaging. Customers are more attracted to interesting and colourful content. Businesses can also turn their digital signages into interactive displays that allow customers to interact directly with the content. Turning a passive audience into an active user can help to create a great user experience.
Cost
While digital signage has a higher upfront cost, the ongoing and maintenance costs are lower when compared to traditional print signage. Traditional print signage is cheap, but the ongoing fee can go very high due to the time and printing cost involved.
On the other hand, print advertisements are more prone to physical damage due to extreme weather. The maintenance fee of traditional signage can cost a lot if unlucky things happen.
Conclusion
While we cannot say that traditional print signage is a bad and ineffective business tool, we can confidently say that digital signage is a better tool in most applications. It is a versatile display that supports a wide range of content formats. Besides, a digital signage can capture attention easily.
Business owners should put effort into understanding the advantages and the disadvantages of both digital signage and traditional print signage. Choose the best tool that suits your application. A balance of traditional and digital signage can work sometimes too. Who knows?
