Content Is More Important Than Any Display or Channel

Thanks to the rapid advancement of display technology, more and more displays such as digital signages, digital kiosks, video walls, and LED screens are being introduced in the market. Manufacturers from various brands are competing to develop displays with various powerful features and the best possible visual quality. Sometimes, claims such as true high definition, slimmest screen, and high dynamic range are nothing but gimmicks.

While we agree that some display innovations are worth exploring, most advanced or fancy features are pretty useless or too much for common business applications. The excessive focus on display technology has caused businesses to ignore the fundamental importance of reaching audiences with high-quality content.

In this article, we will discuss the reasons why content is king and how to define good content.

1. Good content builds brand awareness.

Whether a business is successful or not depends greatly on how well the brand is recognized by potential customers. The very first step in selling any product or service is to attract and acquire customers.

Grabbing attention is indeed pretty easy when you have a giant LED screen that creates WOW moments with your customers. However, the effectiveness of an LED screen or a digital display will be reduced greatly if good content is lacking. An LED screen is nothing but a lifeless black screen when the content is not engaging.

While the right digital display can create a first impression, it is the content that makes the impression lasts. You want your customers to be able to recall and recognize your brand. This can help to create a sense of familiarity. When the customers become comfortable with your brand, they are more likely to purchase from you.

2. Content is always the king throughout the whole customer journey.

A customer journey is a term used to describe how a customer interacts with a business brand, product, or service. The three most important stages of a customer journey for a retail business are the awareness stage, the consideration stage, and the decision stage.

Let’s take an example of a shoe retail store in a shopping mall. During the awareness stage, the shoe retailer should use good content to attract the attention of both unaware and aware customers. Unaware customers are those who have never heard of your brand or have not yet identified their problems. Aware customers are those who recognize your brand.

The shoe retailer should use content that highlights the problems that customers have and solutions or products that it can offer to solve the problems. For example, the retailer can display a commercial video of sneakers that can help to reduce foot pain on the LED screen at its storefront. When the right message is being relayed at the right time to those who have the need, it can help the shoe retailer to invite walk-in traffic.

During the consideration stage, the shoe retailer should provide useful information to help the walk-in customers to understand more about the sneakers. In addition to trying the sneakers on, the retailer can display product information or videos by using digital signages in the store.

After the walk-in customers understand how the sneakers can help to relieve pain, the shoe retailer can display content such as testimonials and promotional messages to try to convince the customers. The content can be displayed on digital signages or other digital displays that are installed at the payment counter.

Content must be tailored to each stage. No matter how marvellous your digital displays are, if the wrong content is used, the customer journey will be affected badly.

3. Good content builds trust.

Without trust, customers will never place an order. When it comes to building stronger relationships with customers, content marketing is always the best approach.

Businesses use content to explain their visions and missions. It is the content that helps to highlight your products or services, not the digital display.

Digital displays such as LED screens and digital signages are merely mediums that are used by businesses to display their content. The authenticity of a brand is not defined by how expensive or how large an LED screen is. It is the brand voice that matters.

4. Content provides a level playing field.

Imagine a world where content is not the king. Large companies with more resources can just keep buying advertising spaces to grab the attention of potential customers. They can also go crazy by investing in the largest or the most expensive LED screens or digital billboards. This will be unfair to both small businesses and consumers. Small businesses will have no ways to compete with large companies, and consumers are forced to buy products from only a few monopolies.

Content provides a level playing field where both big and small businesses can compete to win customers. It is a healthy environment where businesses are motivated to produce the most engaging and exciting content that will ultimately benefit the consumers.

How to define good content?

First, good content is relevant. A business should always find out what are their customers’ pain points before it publishes any content. The content should highlight relevant products or services that can help customers to solve their needs or problems.

Second, good content can engage with customers. All businesses love repeat customers. Building relationships with customers can help a business to go beyond a one-time sale.

Third, good content focus on value. Too many sales-oriented messages can drive customers away. Customers do not care how good is your product or company. What matters is how well you can help to solve their problems. If a business focuses too much on promotions, achieving sales goals can become difficult.

Fourth, good content must be tailored to your choice of digital display. While we keep highlighting the reasons why content is king, we do not ignore the fact that digital displays are still playing important roles in helping businesses to reach customers. What we are trying to say is that a digital display can only reach its maximum potential when the right content is used.

For example, a quick-cut montage can be pretty exciting to watch when it is displayed on a digital signage in a store. However, the montage is a big no when it comes to an outdoor digital billboard that is located next to a highway. Drivers and passengers in moving vehicles do not have enough time to watch a continuous video sequence that contains too much information.

Conclusion

While investing in digital displays is one of the most effective ways in reaching your audience, always remember to prepare good content too. When good content works together with the right displays, you will get closer to your audience more easily and thus improve your sales numbers ultimately.