You might be trying to influence customer behavior with marketing messages including product information, pricing and promotions, or you might simply be trying to attract them to a particular aisle or to select a particular product or service. You might also have important information you need them to read like the check-in procedure at a doctor’s office, or the schedule for the week for a conference room. Whatever the use you also need to consider carefully where you locate each digital display and over what distance you expect people to read what’s on it. From a far distance might you want to attract customers into your store, tradeshow booth or other location. From a medium distance you want to direct people to the right aisle or area within your store. From a close-up distance you may want to influence them to purchase a specific product through some kind of promotion, or may simply want to communicate with them. Understanding this will help you select your content and give you some idea how many words to use on each display (most people use too many, so plan now to use fewer!)

Your goals will influence the display you select (plasma, LCD, photo frame), how large it is, where you mount it, what playback device you use and what software you use to create and manage your content. In the rest of this guide you find more information about selecting each component for your first digital signage display. As you read it keep your goal in mind so you can understand the choices you will need to make when selecting and operating it.

Next –> Selecting a display for Digital Signs