One way of getting the most of your outdoor advertising is to monetize digital signage. Outdoor digital signage can advertise more than just your business. If you’ve got a digital screen in a good location, you can lease time on it to other local businesses. This is most useful for businesses that are near you. It encourages consumers to treat your location as a place where they can get multiple shopping chores done.

Creating (and Selling) a Plan

You’ll want to monetize digital signage with multiple plans. This allows nearby businesses to test what they can afford. If you offer them one plan, they’ll just say no. If you offer them various options, they’ll see one or two that fits their needs.

When you do this, follow through. One benefit of sharing time on your outdoor digital signage is that you can foster an attitude of community among nearby businesses. This helps you look out for each other, refer customers to each other, and that feeling of community will spread to your customers and how they view you, too.

You can adjust prices based on location of the screen, time of day, and type and length of ad. A static ad shouldn’t get the same charge as a video ad, for instance. An ad shown at 9 p.m. on a weekday should be less expensive than one shown at 5 p.m. during rush hour, or 8 p.m. on a weekend when people are out and about. Keep these plans and prices simple, just be willing to explain the logic underneath them. Don’t make anything too over-complicated or needlessly detailed.

Manage the Content

Make sure the ads are something that you’re comfortable with featuring alongside the ads for your own business. If they’re skittish about designing a digital ad, you can also offer them templates. You don’t want their ads to look exactly like yours, but templates are relatively easy to put together. If you’ve got any that you’ve used, but don’t plan to use again, this can be a good solution. Because part of the work is done already and all they have to come up with is the content, it’s a much easier “yes” from them.

Keep in mind that this amounts to leasing time on your equipment. They don’t co-own it just by renting ad-space. This means that outdoor digital signage maintenance and weather-proofing is still your responsibility. Leasing that ad-space can be a useful way to monetize digital signage and foster community with other local businesses that appeals to customers.