7.16.2014

A/B Testing on LED Outdoor Signage

Marketers love to test everything they can. Let a marketer write this statement, and they’ll write it four different ways and distribute it to four different market groups as equally as possible. Then, they’ll pour over the results looking for any and every advantage they can get.

Maybe we shouldn’t tell them about the marketing possibilities that abound with LED illuminated outdoor signage. Sure, animated, colorful, carbon footprint-reducing displays are the best of everything, but those displays can do more than sing & dance. In the hands of marketers, LED outdoor signage becomes powerful marketing tools where messages, brand themes, products and price points are put through the ringer to see what washes out.

Test one element at a time with A/B / Multivariate testing

If the world was run by marketers, A/B testing would be third and fourth on the Bill of Rights - just to see where it would be best placed. A/B Testing allows one specific element in an offer, price or product to be tested. For example, if a marketer wants to know if a product or service would sell better at either a $999.99 price point or a $947.47 price point, the A/B test would set it so 50% of the time, the customers would see the $999.99 price point and the other 50% of the time they would receive the $947.47 price point. Then, they would check the revenue.

Because LED illuminated outdoor signage allows for quick and ease updating, A/B testing can now be in a sign owner’s arsenal.

Price points, colors and CTAs all count

It doesn’t begin and end with price points. Colors, Call-to-Action messages, even down to a phone number can now all be tested to see what gets the customers off the roads and into the stores.

Marketing software is not required

Unlike digital advertising software where every impression can be randomized, outdoor signage can be performed manually - so long as someone remembers to change out the signage and the prescribed intervals. Those intervals can be every hour, every 15 minutes, every day. The trick is to make sure each message gets the same chance to reach the same customers with the same frequency. And, yes, track the weather on those days as well.

The bottom line is: the bottom line will thank you

It’s a new day for outdoor signage. Thanks to LED technology, outdoor signage has gone from a passive to an active advertising tool. Now is the time to get active with it.