Marketing agencies help clients reach people through search, social media, email, websites, video and paid advertising. Many clients also have an audience standing inside their physical locations every day.
Digital signage gives agencies another channel for reaching those audiences. The agency can take content, campaigns and creative services it already provides and extend them onto screens inside the client's business.
Digital Signage Is a Marketing Channel
A screen can display promotions, product videos, seasonal campaigns, brand messaging, social content, events, testimonials, menu items, employee communications, QR codes and calls to action. The display is where the message appears; the agency's familiar work is deciding what to communicate, creating the content and scheduling the campaign.
Your Agency May Already Be Creating the Content
Social graphics, promotional videos, product photography, brand assets, event graphics, testimonials, motion graphics, seasonal promotions and educational content can often be adapted for screens. The agency gets more value from work it is already producing.
Connect Online Campaigns With Physical Locations
A fitness center can reinforce membership campaigns with screens promoting training, classes or events. A restaurant can reinforce a seasonal campaign on menu boards. A retailer can carry the same product campaign from email and social into the store.
Digital Signage Can Add Revenue to Existing Accounts
Revenue can come from software, account setup, content adaptation, original signage content, campaign management, reporting/account management and hardware/installation coordination.
A Practical Agency Example
A marketing agency serving a 15-location fitness company already manages social, email, graphics and video. Existing TVs can become a coordinated network promoting training, classes, member events, referrals, merchandise and seasonal campaigns. Corporate campaigns can run everywhere while local facilities retain selected local content.
Recurring Revenue Fits the Agency Model
Offer Platform Only, Platform + Creative, Managed Digital Signage or Integrated Marketing + Signage. Digital signage can fit naturally inside an agency retainer.
Digital Signage Can Increase Client Retention
Managing campaigns across online channels and physical locations makes the agency more integrated into the client's marketing operation and broadens the value it provides.
Multi-Location Clients Are Particularly Attractive
Centralized software lets agencies distribute national, regional and local campaigns, schedule content in advance and manage different user access without emailing graphics to every location.
Digital Signage Can Create More Work From Existing Campaigns
Create 16:9 display graphics, portrait-screen creative, short-form videos, multi-zone content, menu layouts, promotional rotations and location-specific versions from the same underlying campaign.
Agencies Do Not Need to Become Hardware Companies
For larger projects, agencies can work with AV integrators, IT providers, MSPs, sign companies or local installers while remaining responsible for strategy, content and campaign management.
Content Ownership Should Be Defined
Define whether the client creates and uploads content, the agency creates while the client publishes, the client supplies assets while the agency schedules, or the agency manages the entire workflow. Scope matters because unlimited content changes can damage service economics.
Build Digital Signage Into Campaign Planning
Ask where the campaign appears online and inside the business, when screen content starts, whether every location gets the same creative, whether regional differences apply, which orientations are needed and whether QR codes connect screens to landing pages.
Digital Signage Can Connect Physical and Digital Calls to Action
Screens can drive QR scans, email signups, landing-page visits, app downloads, social follows, event registrations, product pages, reviews and loyalty programs.
What Marketing Agencies Should Look for in Digital Signage Software
Look for multiple customer accounts, user permissions, scheduling, multi-location management, flexible layouts, remote management, hardware flexibility and a partner-friendly structure.
Review the CMS workflows behind scheduling and publishing.
Do Agencies Need Their Own Digital Signage Software?
No. An agency's advantage is client relationships, creative talent and marketing knowledge. Developing a CMS would add infrastructure, compatibility, playback, account management, security, updates and support.
Where Zoney Fits for Marketing Agencies
Zoney Enterprise Solutions provides a platform agencies can incorporate into client services without developing their own CMS. It offers granular user controls, security tokens, dynamic monthly billing, flexible hardware and AWS-hosted cloud infrastructure.
Sell the Content in More Places
Digital signage gives existing campaigns another place to work. The client receives coordinated messaging across online and physical environments; the agency gains another service, another source of creative work and another potential recurring revenue stream.