We spend a lot of time talking with our sales team and dealer partners about the marketing power of LED signs. While it seems like a simple concept that should be universally understood, this core product benefit is often taken for granted.
To better understand how digital signage serves as a marketing benefit for commercial sign customers, let’s look at a basic marketing tenet – the consumer decision-making process. At its most fundamental level, any purchase decision follows this path, whether the buyer realizes it or not:
Awareness → Information → Evaluation → Decision → Post-Decision
- Awareness: Makes sense, right? To buy something, you first need to know it exists, or on a deeper level, realize that you’re in the market for it (more on that in another post).
- Information: After that, you gather details about the product or service – prices, options, competitors, and reviews.
- Evaluation: With the information in hand, you begin evaluating. Is price your top concern? Are certain options exclusive to particular vendors? Do you even want the product at all?
- Decision: Here, you either make the purchase, go back to a previous step, or abandon the idea altogether.
- Post-Decision: Once you’ve made the purchase, you’ll immediately form opinions about your experience. Do you like the product? Was the buying process smooth? Did you need, want, or receive after-sale service? While this phase isn’t crucial to the direct purchase, it plays a key role in future purchases and referrals.
This decision-making process is something we go through every day. It might take just a few seconds when deciding what to eat for lunch or months when evaluating a significant purchase, like a new home.
So, where do digital signs fit in? Exterior LED displays are incredibly powerful tools for driving awareness and information. By showcasing dynamic messaging, digital signs create brand and product awareness right in front of your potential customers. Simple price or product messages deliver awareness and information, while promoting your team, projects, or awards helps build a brand image that influences evaluation.
Every business knows that acquiring and retaining customers requires many factors, but it’s a huge advantage when you can impact the crucial early stages of the consumer decision-making process. An LED display is a powerful, cost-effective way to ensure you reach your audience when it matters most.