Sure, branch visitors like having the moving images of TV instead of only static posters and artwork to look at, but what does it do for your institution? Except for a short-term advantage of reducing perceived wait time, there are two major pitfalls to using TV to liven up your lobby.

1. You have no control over the "message" being sent. Public television shows the good with the bad, so chances are there will be images of war, natural disasters and crime — not really the ideal in-branch experience.


2. Your competitors are on TV. Along with catching up on the latest news with CNN or the local weather, your viewers might also see commercials from competing financial institutions including mortgage brokers and investment firms. It doesn't get any worse than that.

Digital signage can eliminate both the boredom of static print displays and the lack of control of TV programming. You can display exactly the message you want with moving images and "entertain" your visitors with content that is relevant to them. If you have a branch in the financial district, you could run stock tickers, for instance. Have a branch in a rural environment? Broadcast the local farm report. The choice is yours.

When you're new to digital signage, management sometimes questions how it can best be used. Your Board of Directors might ask about the real advantages over well-produced lobby posters or tasteful artwork. There are typically three major advantages of digital signage over classic lobby displays.

1. It moves — very important when your lobby line doesn't. The dynamic nature of digital signage provides dramatic contrast to all other visuals in the space.


2. It is constantly changing. Regardless of how well designed and produced the beautiful logo or artwork behind your teller counter is, it is always the same. Digital signage provides diversity and "in-the-moment" messaging.


3. It allows you to deliver the specific information you want to offer TODAY. Why not announce your new car loan promotion now? Why not tell about things you're doing for the community now?

The wonderful benefit of digital signage is the flexibility to say exactly what you want, when you want.

You're familiar with the term "broadcasting"; radio and TV networks broadcast their programming to a broad audience around the world. While, "narrowcasting" is a term used to describe a selection of programming delivered to a specific audience or location.

A digital signage network is a form of narrowcasting that allows you to create a custom "playlist" that can be as simple as delivering news, weather, and sports along with your marketing messages to your branches. It can be extraordinarily effective and a wonderful use of marketing resources.

Everyone knows a strong sense of trust and comfort is a primary factor in selecting and staying with a financial institution. By reinforcing your commitment to the local community, customers or members often begin to trust you more and feel an enhanced sense of pride in their choice of financial institutions.

Digital signage allows you the flexibility to tailor messages specific to each branches' community quickly and easily. Local events and organizations can be highlighted in your playlist with other product or service information.

Even more specifically, content can be geared to specific demographics of the branch. For example, should you have a retail branch on campus at a university, using digital signage to promote free checking accounts to students that gets them a "University" ATM card is a great way to underscore your affiliation. At the same time, your branches in family neighborhoods might greatly benefit from promoting their contributions to the local youth organizations.

A major benefit of digital signage is the avoidance of "money mistakes." If you've ever experienced a new printing of thousands of brochures containing a typo that wasn't caught in proof reading, or had a major change in a product's terms just after a large print run, you are familiar with money mistakes that can appear from nowhere. Digital signage is dynamic and content can be quickly changed to remove the mistake, or change the terms.

Digital signage can be particularly effective to deliver a message that is interesting and welcomed by your visitors. Asking a pertinent question is a wonderful technique to grab interest and promote a product.

For example, if you've just lowered your interest rates on home equity loans, your digital signage might ask, "What would you improve in your home if someone handed you $25,000?" After giving your viewer a few seconds to think about it, you can display your new and exciting terms for home equity loans.

Using digital signage, in less than a minute, you've accomplished:

• Grabbing their attention.
• Engaged them by asking pertinent questions.
• Promoted a new product you want to succeed.

This result is the antithesis to junk mail. You've maximized the opportunity of having a captive audience by getting their interest in one or more products you're actively promoting. And, neither you nor your staff had to lick envelopes or stamps to send marketing materials that are too often never even read.