TLDR Key Takeaways
Rolling out digital signage across several locations can feel overwhelming - but it doesn’t have to be. Whether you’re managing two stores or 200, this guide will help you build a strategy that’s scalable, consistent, and easy to manage.
No matter what industry you’re in, you need to ensure that your hardware is consistent throughout all your locations.
Why? Because consistency matters. It helps you:
Imagine walking into Nike’s flagship store in New York City. Everywhere you look, there are top-of-the-line digital displays, and it’s breathtaking. Each space is carefully designed to promote their brand and encourage your interaction.
Now, unless your hometown is in a major hub like NYC, your local Nike store probably doesn’t even have half of the digital signage that’s in that single flagship store.
While this might seem like it’s not that big of a deal, it leads to many problems.
For one thing, it creates an inconsistent customer experience. If customers see different hardware at different locations, they might feel like you don’t care about their location or fail to recognize how they’re supposed to interact with your signage.
For example, if you’ve decided to use a Smart Mirror in one location, but you equip other places with a kiosk, then customers won’t know what to expect when they enter the fitting room, potentially ruining their shopping experience.
This doesn’t just apply to retail. Healthcare, restaurants, educational institutions, and corporate offices must have consistent signage throughout their locations.
On top of ruining your brand image, inconsistent signage is much harder to manage since every hardware has its own method for updating content. Compatibility issues can arise from using different media players and hardware specifications at each location, making it difficult to ensure smooth operation across all sites. If you need to make a change, you’ll have to update every location individually, but using standardized media players can help streamline updates and reduce compatibility issues.
Audit your current tech before buying anything new. Choose hardware that works well with your existing screens and systems - or consider standardizing across the board to future-proof your setup.
Your CMS is the command center of your digital signage network. The right one makes it easy to manage content across all your locations.
Look for a CMS that:
Questions to ask when choosing a CMS:
Since your CMS functions as the backbone of your digital signage system, it will determine how easy or difficult it is to manage your content and easily manage devices, so choosing the right one is critical.
Cloud-based CMS platforms - like Wallboard -make managing multiple screens from anywhere a breeze. Just log in, update content, and push it live across all your displays.
When you’re looking to scale your digital signage solution to multiple locations, it’s crucial to coordinate your installation. Large scale signage projects often involve deploying multiple screens across various locations, requiring careful planning and coordination to ensure a smooth rollout. This means having a plan that covers how you will roll your displays out and where they will be placed in each location.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, but having a clear rollout plan is key.
Two common rollout strategies:
No matter your approach, keep it consistent:
Involve your on-site staff during installation. It helps them get familiar with the system and makes troubleshooting easier down the road.
Even if you have digital signage solutions in multiple locations that are similar, you’ll need to build location-specific content, tailoring your displays to fit the specific needs and interests of each location (both geographically and the space within the building). Content creation tools are essential for developing engaging signage content tailored to each location, ensuring consistency while allowing for local customization.
Ask yourself:
Tips for customizing content:
Let’s go back to that Nike flagship store for a second. In the bustling metropolis of NYC, visitors expect their shopping experience to be more impressive and unique than their local stores.
So Nike created a digital signage solution that matches the scale, boldness, and technological savvy of the city it’s located in, giving customers the ultimate experience.
Additionally, they use their digital signage to create defined spaces where they offer targeted content, like their Bluetooth sensors that activate when a shoe is removed from the shelf. Digital signage content can be customized to support promotional displays and synchronize with marketing campaigns, ensuring message consistency and maximizing promotional impact. See how it works here:
[Embed video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCMr6G6OuGY ]
For instance, visitors can interact with and request shoe sizes using an interactive kiosk in the shoe department. If that kiosk was located in another part of the store, it would confuse visitors.
Businesses can easily change signage to reflect local needs and branding, while also analyzing customer interactions through sensors and tracking software to further refine content strategies and improve engagement.
Building relevant content for each location may take some extra effort, but it’s worth it when you consider the benefits.
Use sensors or interactive elements (like kiosks) to make content more personalized - and collect data to improve over time.
The short answer: more often than you think.
Even if you’re using the best software and hardware available, your solution won’t be effective unless you keep your content updated on a regular basis. Establishing regular maintenance schedules is essential to ensure optimal performance and to avoid technical issues.
Content has a shelf life, and it’s pretty short. If you’re displaying the same content day after day, your audience is likely to tune out.
Why content updates matter:
Update frequency depends on your business:
Depending on your business, you may need to update your content daily, weekly, or even multiple times throughout the day. For example, restaurants may change their digital displays three times a day to reflect their changing menus.
If you opt for a cloud-based CMS solution, like Wallboard, you’re able to set up a schedule for your content, and it will automatically push out to all your screens. Scheduling updates during off-peak hours is important to minimize disruption and maintain a consistent experience across all locations.
Additionally, you can leverage APIs and data integrations to come up with a never-ending stream of fresh content, such as social media feeds, real-time stats, and more.
Set an update schedule that works for your team. Most cloud-based CMS platforms support automated scheduling - perfect for pushing content during off-peak hours.
Managing digital signage across multiple locations can quickly become overwhelming without the right tools in place. That’s where remote management comes in. By leveraging a robust digital signage platform, you can control your entire digital signage network from a single, centralized dashboard - no matter how many sites you operate.
By choosing a digital signage platform with powerful remote management capabilities, you’ll streamline your operations, maintain control over your messaging, and ensure your digital signage always reflects your brand - no matter where your screens are located
With the right platform, you can:
Benefits of centralized control:
Choose a CMS that offers health monitoring and remote diagnostics, so your team can stay proactive.
The more locations you manage, the more critical security becomes.
Best practices for security and compliance:
Also consider:
Ask your CMS provider about their security certifications and compliance support before you scale.
To get the most out of your digital signage network, it’s essential to measure its effectiveness and continually optimize your approach. Using analytics tools built into your digital signage solution, you can track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as audience engagement, dwell time, and conversion rates.
Your digital signage should work just as hard as any other marketing channel. So track it.
Metrics to watch:
Ways to optimize:
Many CMS platforms include built-in analytics tools. Use them to make data-driven decisions and continually refine your strategy.
Need help getting started? Let’s talk strategy - or check out how Wallboard makes scaling simple with flexible, cloud-based tools built for growth.
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