Content is King- Create and Schedule Media that Will Make an Impact

In the marketing world, presenting a unique and interesting message is critical to producing a positive result. Would be customers are bombarded with messages at an astounding rate and advertising, in any format, is often seen as clutter. With so many factors that play into Digital Signage, how can you ensure that your content stands out from the “clutter” today’s media presents?

Understand your Content Mix

Digital Signage can be used to distribute a limitless number of content types. Everything from live TV feeds to interactive kiosk applications populate screens. But in the Financial Industry, we find the most often used content types are as follows:

· Promotional Content- Represents specific products and service offerings.
· Entertainment Content- This might include live television, news feeds, stock tickers, trivia, famous quotes, riddles, local weather forecast etc.
· Community Events- Philanthropic involvement, local sports team affiliation, company awards, customer recognition and employee recognition to name a few.
· Training- This information could range from a previously recorded video on Cross Selling to a live video conference feed from the CEO to the branch employee or even a Training Manager addressing compliance issues.

Understand your Goals

With the types of content defined into the four categories listed above, it is now just as important to understand how each of those content types can contribute to the objectives of the institution. Below is the short list of goals our customers say Digital Signage can help them achieve and the correlation each has with specific content types.

· Lower perceived wait time.
· Increase product sales.
· Strengthen the brand.
· Promote goodwill.
· Lower training costs while increasing frequency of contact with front line employees.

As might be expected, content types and business goals are nearly identical. It is important to point out, however, that the right content mix contributes greatly to the successful attainment of each business goal. It is also necessary to recognize that goals may fluctuate from day to day and even from hour to hour. Considering the following 3 scenarios:



Paycheck Friday

Your branch is filled with customers from 1-5 and they come in waves. At certain times, you may have people in line for 10-15 minutes with the equivalent queue in the drive-thru lanes. Now is the perfect time to push product right?

The answer is yes but in moderation. We suggest a 60/40 mix of entertainment to branding and product content with the length of the loop as near as possible to the specific wait time during each event. In other words, if you have a 10 minute wait in your branch lobby line, mix in 6 minutes of content which concentrates on Goodwill, Community Events and general entertainment (trivia etc.) and use 4 minutes for your product promotions. By taking the edge off of the effort to sell product, you will have better success retaining the attention of the customer in line and ultimately make more impact when your product message is displayed.

Midweek Afternoon

It is Thursday afternoon and some of your commercial accounts are visiting the branch to make deposits. Your teller line is approximately 2-4 minutes in length and you know your customers are in a hurry. They are all in a hurry. Now is the right time to lower perceived wait time and impact the experience of your best customer’s right?

Not really. Small business owners have one thing on their mind- their business. Although the elimination of entertainment content is not recommended, a higher percentage of product content focused closely to this demographics needs is crucial. Again, it is important to consider the length of the loop as it pertains to the wait line in the branch. We like to suggest a mix of 70/30 product content to entertainment media in these scenarios.

Early Morning

It is Tuesday morning and you have a low number of customers in the lobby. Most of them are long standing clients that your tellers know by name and they are typically from the Baby Boomer Generation.

These customers like personal interaction and they place high importance on feeling good about the relationship they have with their financial institution. This is a great time to reinforce brand image and promote the goodwill events your institution supports. Make sure that the right product is interspersed with your goodwill campaign messaging and make the best effort to enhance cross sell opportunity.

The Basic Keys to Success

Keep it fresh:

No matter what make up your content ultimately takes, the single most important aspect to employing impact media is your ability to regularly update messages. As the previous scenarios represent, Digital Signage allows for the display of pertinent media based on time of day and location. Be sure you have the budget to allocate towards the consistent creation of new media and that you choose a vendor who supplies you relevant media on a continuous basis.

Flexibility:

Ensure the Digital Signage system you are employing allows you full access to change media when and how you want. If you have very complex scheduling requirements, be sure your vendor meets those demands without great expense or time commitment.

Continual Review:

Digital Signage is a powerful marketing tool and carries a significant investment to deploy. Once installed, it is important to continually review the success of your media plan as it relates to your business goals. There is no exact science which can be used to ensure performance but through constant review of branch statistics and content choice, the opportunity for improvement can certainly be narrowed.