ITS NOT THE BUNS, IT’S THE BURGER…
How to utilize one of the best tools
in your marketing toolbox: The Electronic Message Center
By Mark Hackley, Holiday
Signs
This article was written for those employing digital advertising within the
retail financial services industry, but uses an example of how to sell a
hamburger to illustrate effective advertising with digital signage. (It applies to any industry using electronic messaging. Don't know a lot about electronic messaging yet? Contact me for guidance anytime.)
When you first bite into a burger, it’s not the buns that make you want
to take another bite, it’s the meat of the sandwich! If a digital sign was a sandwich, the meat of
the sandwich is what drives people to take action. It’s the well-designed advertising message with
meat that sparks curiosity, drives the senses and ultimately leads viewers to
come into the branch.
Using the hamburger example, it makes sense that good advertising relies
on well thought-out content if it is
to be effective in attracting customers.
Yes, purchasing a digital sign and operating it with at least some form
of advertising is a step above a static-type marquee or no marquee at all. But in order to maximize return on the investment,
taking the time to design effective content is much more important.
How does the financial marketing staff produce great content for its on-premise
digital ads? They just need to consider
what makes a good burger. It all
revolves around what people like and involves some research to see what
attracts customers. Do they like rare, medium
or well-done? Do they prefer thick or
thin patties? Do they go for onions or tomatoes? If seventy-five percent like their burgers
prepared medium-well, then show these types of burgers in tantalizing ways
through creative copy and images on most of the ad sequence. If the rest are
split between rare and well-done, every now and then throw a screen up for them
too. One of the many beauties of digital
signage is having the ability to advertise to specific and multiple market
segments.
Consider the time of day the ads are running. What type of general mood will the customers
be in at 8:00AM versus 5:00PM? Consider
the collective spending power of the customers as ads are developed so that
during a recession period affordability and multi-functional products are
promoted, while all the bells and whistles are promoted heavily during the good
times.
I recently asked one of my
digital sign customers how his sign has been working out for him. He shared with me that every time he runs a “Help
Wanted” ad on the sign, he gets dozens of people flooding the place hourly, but
has had mediocre response otherwise to his retail ad campaigns. While I was talking with him I noticed the
time and temperature announcement, a “Like us on Facebook” message and a Smiley
Face popping up in rotation, so we had a discussion about CONTENT. I told him all those
things are good filler material, but in order for an electronic message center
to pull in the 10-20% extra revenue they are easily capable of doing on
roadways with good traffic counts, there has to be some juicy meat for the
customer to want to take a pleasurable bite.
He is going to work on his marketing message. What’s in your hamburger?
Mark Hackley is a Project Manager
for Holiday Signs of Chester, Virginia
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