How Exactly will a Digital Sign be Profitable

Put a digital sign on the wall of your business and it will generate profits. That’s what they say, but how exactly will the profits arrive?
The answer is your sign will display details of products or services that you sell in the shop that your customers will purchase.

Let’s use a coffee shop for example: The sign will be displaying images and videos of the items you know your customers will order: Coffee, cappuccino, teas, scones, muffins, cakes. A customer who comes into the coffee shop to order coffee is going to have t wait to place their order. They will look around the shop to see what else is on offer. When they see a cake on the shelf, they may decide that they feel like cake. If they happen to see a digital screen the same thing will happen. They will feel like ordering cake. Not every customer will order cake, but if just one customer in an entire day sees the screen and orders cake, the screen will make you a profit. Let’s repeat that. If just one customer sees cake on the screen and orders it during an entire day, the profit made on that single cake that day more than pay for the digital screen.

How does this work? Assume a slice of cake sells for R75. The profit on that cake is 60%, ie. R45. This is per day! Multiply by 30 to get a gross profit of R1350 per month. Our cost to your for managing your digital screen is R750. This includes the media player but excludes the original once-off purchase of a screen. Our calculations are extremely conservative. The digital screen will not only be advertising cake, but other nice treats. Customers will see these being advertised and if not make the purchase immediately will eventually on their subsequent visits make the purchasing decision.

It’s not only a coffee shop that will benefit. A pharmacy advertising various remedies and products will do as well, if not better. Their screens will remind customers to purchase sunscreen in summer and anti-flu products in winter as well as all the other products they sell.

Improved merchandising

A company has a new product and is trying to get it into the retail stores. That product needs to stand out from the competitors.

Obviously exciting packaging is necessary. A more exciting approach is to have excellent point of sale. A small colour screen

Does Point of Purchase advertising work?

This is virtually a rhetorical question. Do you ever pick up a chocolate or ice cream or extra packets of chips or other item while shopping or waiting in line to pay? Of course! Everyone has.

If the shop had no advertising or merchandising at all, would you even go into it?
No! It would not even exist. Point of purchase advertising, or merchandising can be the actual products displayed. It could be printed signs and posters. It could also be a video or TV screen displaying videos or images of the various products or services you are offering.

Why a Screen?
– Screens have far more impact than a printed sign
– Animated images/video has even more impact
– One point of purchase screen will display multiple images
– Screens can be changed almost instantly – remotely as opposed to a printed poster or sign.
– If you sell umbrellas and the forecast is for rain, your screen can quickly be changed to remind customers to buy an umbrella. You can even have the weather forecast included in the display of the screen!
– Images on a screen can be set to display at certain times of the day and certain days of the week or month.

Cost
Your monthly cost for running the screen will be lower than printing new posters of signs and changing it on demand because we do it all for you.

Merchandising using TV screens DOES work

Many companies have tried advertising/merchandising on their own TV screens in their offices or shops with huge success. That’s why more and more businesses are moving to this form of marketing.

On the other hand some businesses are adamant that they’ve tried it and it does not work. There are good reasons why it did not work.

  1. The screens are turned off.
  2. The screens are boring
  3. The screens show the same old content
  4. The screens show outdated content: wrong prices, products

Why are the screens turned off?
Usually there is no content to display. The business had a good idea to use the screens for merchandising, but it became too much of a hassle, too much work to update it. Recently we saw a screen mounted in a store gathering dust that was turned off. Worse, they had not even removed the plastic covering the screen with the logo of the manufacturer.

Why are the screens boring?
The simple answer is the screens contain nothing of substance. They need to be exciting. They need to engage the customer. They need enough images and information to make it worthwhile watching or reading what’s on the screen. If content is not updated very often, it gets boring.

Why do they show the same old content?
It takes work to put the content onto the screen. Even if you have the images and videos, the old fashioned way of updating the screens using a USB doesn’t work. Content needs to be copied onto the USB which needs to be inserted into the slot behind the screen. If the screen is mounted high up, then you need a step ladder, never mind the inconvenience to the customers.

Why do the screens show outdated content?
The answer are for the same reasons: It becomes too much of a hassle to change content and update the screens. Screens remain out of date, eg showing Christmas specials in March.

The common theme is it’s a lot of work to keep screens updated and engaging. That’s where we come in. We like doing the work! We have great technology that allows us to do the job far better, easier and efficiently. We have designed dynamic images that will guarantee that customers look at them.
If the customer looks at them, there is a far bigger chance that the customer will purchase what they see.

In-store sales promotion

It’s good to have an in-store sales promotion campaign. The problem is it does get expensive having extra temp sales people.

Our solution is a permanent in-store sales promotional campaign. Your TV screen is a ready-made sales promotion tool. We help put content onto the screen in a way that syncs with your image, but clearly promotes any product or service.

It’s catchy, not intrusive. We can use images or video – with or without sound. We can add lots of exciting features that will turn a simple TV screen into a productive sales promotional tool.

Best of all we can change the content remotely and instantly. You could have a morning promotion and a different one for the afternoon.

Happy customers spend more

People walk past your shop. They glance inside. They’ve probably walked past the shop many times. If they see something interesting they will stop and see what is there. If interesting enough they’ll come through the door.

They’ll look inside. The look and feel of the shop and the merchandise will make them stop and consider a purchase. They may read a price, or see a special offer. If there is enough to excite them, they’ll spend money.

Imagine a big TV screen on your wall. It’s showing exciting images and videos about the store. It’s showing pictures of your products. It’s not a boring static image like a poster. Multiple pictures and videos are always showing. It enough to make the passerby look twice. If anyone is in the shop, it will enough them to watch and see what you are offering.

What is better? An empty wall or a screen showing coffee or pizza or clothing or paint.

Which is better? An empty wall or a screen showing all your offerings or specials, or what to do with them or how good it will make the customer feel?

Even if they intended buying something when they came into the shop, our aim is to encourage them to spend more. A happy, informed customer will spend more.

In-store Marketing in a World of Coronavirus

You might think we’re out of our minds, or desperate, or both, to want to sell you our in-store marketing solutions, when many companies cannot even afford to pay salaries in this time of crisis.

There is method in the madness. The only way you are going to be able to grow again is to get your market back, and to do it fast.

You cannot easily market via newspapers or magazines – people aren’t buying.

We see the best way to grow business again is to try to sell more to existing customers, those who come through the door of your shop or business. This is in-store marketing.

Our solution is to start advertising and communicating more though TV screens you probably already have in the business.

There is a lot of useful information and advertising that you can put onto the screen. Your customers will thank you for it and spend more.

  • Details of your Covid plans and policies
    • All businesses need to have a Corona Policy. It’s way better to ask us to update a screen remotely than print a poster when policies change
  • Reminders to wash hands, sanitize, keep social distancing
  • Details of the range of products you are allowed to sell. As regulations change you want to quickly add to the list of items you are selling.
  • Prices, special offers, new items in stock
  • General information including news, weather reports, exchange rates

How we would like to help: We arrange to install a media player next to your TV screen. Thereafter we remotely upload your signs, images, videos to the screen whenever you wish. We don’t need to come into the store to make those changes. A truly remote and socially distancing solution. We can even design the content for your screens if you need assistance.

Costs in today’s economy are obviously of crucial importance to you: We charge a fixed monthly fee of R1000 excl VAT to manage your screen. For the next 3 months we are discounting this by 25% to R750 per month excl VAT. This includes supplying the media player and unlimited uploads or content. (Design of content will be extra)

We do not insist on a contract. If the solution does not work for you let us know before the end of the month and return the media player.

If you want more information or to discuss how this will improve your business, please call/email me. We can also do video meetings.

Why not use a USB to Update your TV screens?

TVs are becoming very popular in businesses. Most businesses use a USB to plug into the USB port of the TV screen. Most new TV screens have a USB port, so why not use it? Why use a more expensive media player?

The typical use of a USB or flash drive is someone will create a whole lot of images or videos and copy it onto the USB. Then he/she will plug the flash drive into the TV set which starts playing the images and videos.

Sounds easy? Not so fast! Very often the designer works from an independent office. He then has to upload the images to Google drive or dropbox, or to the local server. Someone has to copy the files from the cloud onto the flash drive and get it to the location of the TV screen. This could be a shop or a branch of a business. The USB must then be inserted into the TV.

This raises many problems. Multiple people have to be involved, with the important one being the person in the shop or branch. Many TV screens are mounted high up on a wall so the person has to climb a ladder or stand on a chair in order to get to the TV screen. Very often it is difficult to find the USB port on a mounted TV screen. Either you have to take the screen down or you have to fiddle around the side of the screen to get to the USB port.

It is no wonder that many businesses using the flash drive approach do not update their screens very often, it is just too much hassle.

There are good arguments why screens should be updated every day or at least once a week. New information becomes available in a business every day. It will be good to add it to the screen playlist. The screen should also be updated for special events, eg Valentines Day, Mother’s Day. Some businesses have a special price on a specific day of the week. That should be advertised and changed every week. If you are ine the food industry then you may want to advertise breakfasts from 7am to 10am, and then change the screen to reflect a lunch screen. Maybe there is a chef’s special each day, and it will be better and easier to put it onto a screen or multiple screens rather than writing on a chalk board.

Our managed screens have current local news, weather, exchange rates on them. This makes it more interesting for the customer and will grab his attention. Your aim is to get him to look at the screen and decide to make a purchase.

Whatever is put onto the screens needs to be changed before the target market gets bored. It is impossible to ask a shop manager to change images on a USB at 7am and then again at 10am. It is virtually impossible to ask a manager to change images every week.

What of the situation of a chain of stores or multiple branches. It may be very good to have the same images on all the screens in the country or even in a large office. It will be good to update all screens simultaneously. Only a remote controlled media player system can ensure this. USBs become redundant. Imagine changing one image and uploading it instantly to all the TV screens in the region, province, the country, the world. Imagine scheduling the change so the system automatically updates at the required time.

Summary:
USBs drives will work, but are an inflexible method of updating TV screens.
As more screens are used, a better method is required.
This method is via remote access to a media player
When you add in the cost of time and hassle to the employees who have to update the screens manually, a remote controlled media player becomes very cost effective.

Digital Signage for a Vet

It was time for the Jones’s family pets to have their annual vaccinations. All three large dogs were put in the car and taken to the nearest vet.

At the Vet the dogs arrived with the family and waited eagerly.

There in the corner of the room was a large digital sign installed and Managed by ET Digital. On the sign was a whole array of interesting information. The Jones’s kids watched as multiple displays of video’s, tips on how to look after your dog and much more was put on display on the screen.

On one of the screens was an advert for pet sitting services. Mrs Jones’s had been worried about her beloved dogs as the family was going on holiday soon and she didn’t have anyone to look after the dogs.

Mrs Jones went up to the reception area and inquired about the pet sitting services she saw on the screen that was supplied and Managed by ET Digital.

Mrs Jones was feeling happy and the Vet was also feeling happy as the investment on their new Digital Sign by ET Digital had brought in some extra business.

A managed digital sign

We see many TVs and video screens at many businesses and offices. Most of them are unmanaged. It could be that someone installed a screen in the business and thought it would be a good idea to use for adverttising. They found some images or a video clip and used a flash drive which they connected to the screen. It was instantly a wonderful addition to point of sale marketing. The business owner or manager loved the idea, and the sign was topical. Some enterprising businesses went a step further and installed a video recorder or even DSTV. The video recorder gave high quality video. Playing a program through your DSTV decoder was also a good idea, particularly if it was tuned to the news or a popular football match.

Over time the same content on the flash drive was beginning to get boring. The manager found he did not have the time or skills to redo the images, so the same old advert was seen by customers month-in month-out. The same video kept playing too. Even if the manager was able to change the images or video he would have had the hassle of uploading it to the flash drive or video recorder.

It’s not a big deal to do this, but when you have a hundred other things to do, this becomes an effort.

So, what can the ED Digital managed service do for you? We know how useful a screen can be at point of sale or for customer knowledge. Business condition evolve quickly and the screen should be the first point that gets updated. If you are going to open late tomorrow due to stock take, let your customers know today. If it is a holiday or special day, let your customers know what special offers you have, for example Valentines Day, Mothers Day.

How is it going to work? We will update your images, or remind you to, maybe via your ad agency. Every month we’ll give you ideas, if necessary meet with you and help you make a calendar of activities for your screens. Since we can remotely update your screens it is a matter of a telephone call or email to instruct us on your preferences. We can plan and set up a schedule so it happens automatically.

A managed service for multiple screens in an office or business can go further than this. We can update all screens with the same information. A business with multiple branches may want the same images, eg special offers to be shown at all branches, or maybe limited to one area or region.