For perhaps the first time since the 1950s, the retail and restaurant franchise environments are undergoing a huge transformation right now. In-store trackers, geolocators, and increased digital/brick and mortar integration mean that owners need to be as tech savvy as they are sales savvy.

A big part of that discussion is how best to utilize digital signage. Driven by demand, opportunity and the dropping cost of digital screens, it’s an increasingly popular option for franchise owners.

Top 10 benefits of digital signage in the modern franchise environment:

1. Minimizes perceived wait time.

One of the best things you can do to improve customer experience is to keep them entertained. A digital screen gives them something to do-it’s a lot less annoying to wait in line if you’ve got something to watch. As a result, perceived wait time drops.

2. Run time-sensitive ads.

The lead time on a print ad is at a minimum six weeks. For most restaurant franchise companies, it’s even longer. But digital signage is connected to the internet, which means that fresh ads can be rolled out as easily as a social media post. It also means:

• You can run social media feeds, weather, blog posts – whatever you could run on a website.
• You can run extremely relevant and local ads (since you’re not relying on a national brand to send you collateral)

3. New creative is inexpensive.

Compared to traditional print signage, it’s far less expensive to develop and roll out new ads for digital screens. This means that you can run more targeted, local marketing campaigns. Your digital marketing plan can now take into account local events as well. For example, you might create two ads depending on the outcome of a local football game and then run the relevant ad.

4. You can run relevant ads depending on the time of day or day of the week.

Breakfast ads during breakfast if you’re a restaurant franchise, for example. Alternatively, if you have a retail clothing franchise, you might run ads featuring rain gear on rainy days and sunglasses on sunny ones.

5. Digital signs increase sales.

A report in from DataTrend found that digital signage increase purchase amount and dwell time by almost 30% each in retail business. In terms of digital marketing tactics, it’s hard to get a better bang for your buck.

6. Digital signage can be interactive.

You can use digital signage to interact with your customers and thus learn more about them–“Data-driven marketing”. For example, you might run a social promotion where customers can sign up to receive email newsletters in exchange for a discount. Waiting in line to check out with their smartphone is a prime time to deliver that message to customers.

7. You can double up your marketing efforts by using content online and on digital signage.

Most major franchised brands, from Krispy Kreme to McDonald’s, produce far more digital marketing content at both the national and local level than ever ends up offline. With digital signage, you can leverage a lot of that creative work and reuse it, quickly and effectively updating your in-store marketing.

8. You can quickly test and iterate your marketing tactics.

Because you can put up and take down different ads at the click of a button, you can be extremely effective in testing which marketing messages work best. Over time, you can hone your digital marketing strategy accordingly.

9. Reduces administration cost.

Digital signage might be expensive to install, but you save money in the long run by reducing print and administration costs. As a one-time expense, digital signage equipment is generally regarded as a capital investment and comes out of an operations budget and not your marketing budget. Even better, there is no print cost.

And, digital administration can be done by one person in a central location. So if you own 10 franchises, you can update all of them at once. With just one person updating it, it’s easier to manage and you can ensure peace of mind that it’s been done, and done consistently with brand standards. In comparison to coordinating a new print roll out, digital signage:

• Is faster and easier
• Creates a more consistent brand experience across franchises
• Is easier to comply with changing regulations

10. Digital signage lets you leverage video.

Video is far more engaging than stills. Digital signage lets you leverage the hypnotizing power of video to snag and hold customers’ attention. Even simple animations like pause and zoom effects on still artwork provide a more engaging viewer experience.

Think your franchise could benefit from implementing these digital screens? Get in touch and we’ll get started on a compelling digital signage plan for your franchise!