The Complete Guide to Choosing Digital Display Boards

Digital signage is everywhere. 70% of Americans say they’ve seen a digital display board in the past month. It’s no wonder that the global market for electronic signage is expected to eclipse $30 billion by 2025.

With stats like these, your company may be ready to start utilizing smart signs. To do so, you’ll need to find the right digital display boards. Don’t worry if you’re not sure how to do that. We’ve put together the following guide on electronic signage boards to help you out. Keep reading to learn:

The different types of digital display boards available to you
The pros and cons of touchscreen display boards
How to pick the right digital signage solution for your company

What is a digital display board?

Digital display boards (also called smart screens) are screens that present multimedia content to an audience. They’re often made from LCD and LED screens. Business display boards are used to interact with their customers in more engaging ways than traditional signage allows.

There are several benefits to using digital signage boards. They’re easier to update than traditional signage, for one. Business owners can quickly change advertisements, menus and other information on an electronic display, taking away the need to physically print something or remove anything from their walls.

Electronic display boards also offer interactivity. Companies can use electronic display boards to run entertainment, display fun trivia questions or even share guests’ social media posts. This helps businesses provide their consumers with more engaging experiences.

Different types of digital display boards for businesses

Indoor digital information display boards

Indoor digital signage is a catch-all term that you may see thrown around while looking for digital display boards. It can include everything from freestanding displays and digital information boards to digital menus and posters. As the name suggests, it just means any type of digital signage that you keep indoors.

Digital wall boards or digital poster signage

Digital posters are exactly what they sound like: posters with a multimedia display. They’re hung on the wall and available in both portrait and landscape orientations.

Digital posters are a good choice for business owners who want to save space. They typically hang flat against the wall. You can use them as digital advertising boards for your products or simply as digital announcement boards to convey important information to your guests without infringing upon the limited space you have in your building.

Freestanding digital media boards

Business owners can also place free standing digital display boards throughout their venues. These business display boards stand upright on their own. Often, a freestanding display will function as a kind of centerpiece in a space.

The downside of freestanding displays is that they can obstruct your customers’ space. But they’re also one of the best ways to capture your guests’ attention. You can even let your visitors interact with the display by purchasing touchscreen LCD monitors for it.

Freestanding digital media boards are a great way to direct your guests and advertise your products. Restaurants can even use them to let customers order their food.

Restaurant signage & digital menu display boards

Digital menus are entirely self-explanatory. They’re becoming increasingly popular in restaurants and bars. Business owners will find it much easier to update digital menus since they can do so through software instead of having to reprint all their traditional menus.

Customers enjoy digital menus too. Restaurants and bars can add engaging animations to them and display them in prominent locations so that everyone can read them with ease.

Ceiling-mounted digital display boards

This type of digital display board is also very self-explanatory. Ceiling-mounted signage has the benefit of being less obtrusive than other types of display boards. But a ceiling-mounted digital light board comes with the downside of commanding less attention from your guests, which is why this type of signage is one of the least popular.

Outdoor electronic display boards

Outdoor digital signage can be tough to manage. You need to install it in a weatherproof casing to make sure that it doesn’t break. You also have to make sure that the system has good ventilation so that it remains cool.

The most common use-case of outdoor digital signage is billboards. But you may also consider installing something like a freestanding display outside of your business if you have a large outdoor space. You’ll just need to be very thorough during the installation process to ensure that signage will last.

Digital display boards: touch or not to touch?

As you shop for the right digital display board for your needs, this is one question that you’ll need to answer. Will you opt for interactive touchscreen displays or not?

You need to understand the objectives that you have for your digital signage to answer this question effectively. This can vary significantly from one company to another, and even from one of your digital display boards to another.

For example, you might have a freestanding board that you want your visitors to engage with to strengthen your brand image. In that case, it probably would be a good idea to invest in touchscreen technology.

Alternatively, if you just need to efficiently display your menu, then you probably don’t need to spend anything extra on touchscreens. Unless you plan on allowing your customers to order from that display as well.

Ultimately, the key idea is that you only need touchscreens if you’re planning on using them for a specific objective. Touchscreen isn’t the only way to connect with your customers either. There are various contactless communication options that can work with smart signs to form a nice alternative for customers who are a bit wary of interacting with touchscreen devices.

Here are a few reasons why you might choose interactive display boards:

The display is located in a captive environment where consumers have time to engage
You want to personalize your customers’ experience in your venue
You want to promote physical engagement with the digital display board to strengthen your brand
You want to measure consumer engagement to see what’s working for you

Which digital display board should you get?

There are lots of different digital display boards to choose from and your choice is going to affect which digital signage products you end up buying. . So how do you pick the right digital display board for your business? You start by spending some time thinking about what you hope to accomplish with your digital signage investment.

Do you want to keep your customers engaged? Direct them throughout your venue? Or provide a more personalized customer experience?

Maybe your goal is to make things easier on yourself. Digital signage simplifies advertising new products or services. You can swap out your in-venue ads digitally instead of having to continuously print out and hang physical posters or displays.

Start by figuring out the goal that you have for your digital display boards and move forward with the decision-making process from there.

How you use a digital display board depends on your business

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for digital display boards. The best way for you to use them will vary based on your business.

For example, you might have a smaller space to work with than many of your competitors. In that case, you would want to prioritize digital display boards that are unobtrusive. Options like digital posters and ceiling-mounted digital signage would work best for you.

But those digital screen displays wouldn’t serve your needs if you’re trying to make a statement with your digital signage. Large venues often favor big indoor digital display screens for advertising that prominently showcase ads, guests’ social media posts, engaging trivia questions and more.

It’s worth mentioning that you don’t have to stick with just one type of digital display board. You may find that you need a different digital signage strategy in different parts of your space. Investing in a few types of smart signage would be a good option in that situation.

Ways to use your digital display boards

Get more out of your digital display boards with UPshow

Electronic signage boards won’t advertise your products or keep your guests entertained on its own. You need to combine the display boards with powerful software to make that happen.

That’s why you should give UPshow a chance. Our solution is the only in-venue marketing and engagement platform that delivers a robust suite of analytical tools alongside interactive entertainment and hyper-targeted marketing.

Our technology seamlessly connects all of your screens so that you can optimize the results you get from each of them. With UPshow, you’ll find it easy to unlock the full potential of your digital displays.

But don’t take our word for it. Try our powerful solution to experience the UPshow difference for yourself. Getting started is as easy as filling out this form to schedule a custom demo for your company. We look forward to hearing from you.