Branded TV Like Gas Stations Have

Have you seen the TVs above the pump at your local gas station? Wonder how that unique quick-hitting network came to be?

Digital Signage at The Pump

Gas stations utilize custom TV software to deliver programming and digital signage to customers as they wait. Whether you have a gas station, retail store, restaurant, car dealership or office, you too can benefit from having a customized TV network in your business.

While most of the gas station tv networks are owned by closed groups and ad-supported, you can create your own TV network and generate additional revenue for your own business by using custom tv platforms like It’s Relevant TV.

Longer Short-Form Content

If your customers are in your business for more than a minute or two, you’re going to want content that’s longer than what you typically see on Gas Station TV Platforms. Most gas stations have content ranging from 10-30 seconds in length, and often repeat their content every few minutes. Businesses benefit more from displaying content that is longer, and that doesn’t repeat so often.

Create Your Own Ad Network

Once you have a custom TV network in place at your business you can take full advantage of it by forming your own ad network. TV networks, billboard companies, newspapers and more have made a fortune off of ads they’ve sold over the years. So why not you? You can use the same principles that television networks have used for years to generate additional revenue for your business regardless of what industry you are in. With something like It’s Relevant TV or Rele.TV you can make your own Ad Network and keep all of the profits!

Ad-Free TV for Your Business

Keep ads out of your business!

Business owners are looking for solutions to remove ads from their TVs. Whether you operate a restaurant, retail location, medical office or car dealership, you’d likely prefer an AD-FREE TV option for your visitors to enjoy. But cable TV is riddled with ads, and streaming services like Netflix aren’t legal to use inside of a business. So what can you use that gets rid of the ads, is legal, and will still entertain and inform your visitors?

There are a few “custom tv” options out there today that can help you achieve these goals. They are all services that have secured content for commercial display to save you from licensing worries, but they are not created equal. The services differ in the following ways:
1. Size of Content Library
2. Variety of Content
3. Cost

If you don’t care to read about all of the details and would rather skip to the punchline, we believe that It’s Relevant and Rele.TV are the best options for Ad-Free TV.

1. Size Matters (for content libraries)

Q: What’s worse than seeing a TV filled with countless ads?
A: Seeing the same programs over and over on an endless loop

Many companies that provide tv services to business operate with a limited library of content. Content is costly, and many of the largest custom TV operators purchase their content to use forever. And they only purchase just enough content in order to keep their expenses low and maximize their profits. This leads to a lot of looping channels, and unsatisfied viewers.

As a business owner you want to find a company that works with TV networks and content producers regularly to make sure you have fresh content year round. The more content they have the less “loopy” you will feel watching the TV.

2. The Greater the Variety, the More People You Will Please

No matter what you do you can’t please everyone all of the time. But if you use a TV provider that is only offering a limited set of content, or only a handful of channels to choose from, it’s even harder to make your visitors happy.

Many industry folks think that their visitors want to hear about their industry while they wait. But it’s just not true.

Just because you are at a car dealership waiting for your car to be repaired, or at the doctors office waiting to be seen by a doctor, does not mean you want to hear about car or medical stuff the whole time. People in those situations are typically happier when they can take their minds off of the fact that they have to be there. Location owners can do their visitors a great service by putting a variety of content in front of them.

A lot of services tout their ability to remove outside ads from TV, but they also remove TV programming from the TV at the same time! A lot of times these services are referred to as “digital signage” and they have pretty much tossed the baby out with the bathwater. They use a television to display a looping set of videos or image slides (signage) instead of TV programming. And who wants to watch a sign???

3. Ad-Free Doesn’t Mean It’s Free. You Still Get What You Pay For

The third thing to look out for when selecting an Ad-Free TV provider for your business is cost. Cost is typically the top of the list for most businesses when considering their options, but the TV is one area you do not want to skimp on.
Here’s why:
1) The TV shapes visitors impressions of your business environment.
2) The TV can be a great tool to communicate with your visitors.
3) What’s on the TV can generate more business for you, or take business away.
4) Positive waiting experiences lead to better online reviews.

A lot of business owners gravitate towards “Free TV Services” for their businesses. And who wouldn’t want something for free? Well the old saying “you get what you pay for” holds true here. Free TV services typically have limited content, and are often ad-supported. And if you can’t control the content and/or advertising, it’s not worth it. Not even for “free”.

There are a number of services you can find for under $100 a month that will give you better content, an ad-free experience, and provide ways to promote your own business on the TV. We recommend taking a look at It’s Relevant TV and Rele.tv for feature-rich ad-free TV options.

These platforms include licensed television shows without the commercials that usually accompany them. So the content is high quality, but the focus remains on you, and providing your visitors with a great experience. And unlike the majority of television, these are built for your business, not for advertisers.

Using a Smart TV as a Cable Alternative in Your Medical Office

Are you looking to get rid of cable TV in your medical office or waiting room? You don’t even need a cable box anymore with so man affordable smart TVs out there now. More and more owners and office managers are becoming grossly aware of cable’s rising costs. Their monthly cable bills just aren’t worth the mediocre content and the risk of upsetting patients. With a smart TV armed with choice apps, you have much more control over your TV’s content. Content, in this case, is really what makes a smart TV stand out over cable; because what you choose to put on your TV will determine its success.

It’s Relevant TV is the Best Smart TV App for your Medical Office

It’s Relevant TV is the TV programming you were looking for when you decided to get rid of cable. IRTV has the content (half-a-million videos), the variety, (40+ categories), the customizability (upload your own videos & messaging), and features such as social media integration and Competitive Ad Block.

In 10 Words or Less: It’s Relevant is innovative TV that visitors enjoy watching.

It’s Relevant TV sets itself apart from waiting room TV software that is strictly medical, or boasts “patient education videos.” For reasons described in this article, you might be surprised to learn that well-intended medical content does more harm than good. It all boils down to patients finding medical content boring, or even graphic and unsettling at times; which if you’re stuck in a waiting room for however-long, it can be pretty stressful – especially if it loops every 5 minutes. Medical-related content can be appealing to doctors and office managers looking to put something “fitting” on their waiting room TVs, but they get carried away and forget that visitors most often find it a lot less interesting than they do.

TV Tip: Don’t fall for the “Free Waiting Room TV” scam.

The Smartest Thing you can do with your Smart TV

The It’s Relevant TV app is the best in custom television for medical office waiting rooms because it’s patient-focused, and designed to generate success for your practice. Start your search at itsrelevant.com, chat with the TV experts there, and see what a custom TV network can mean for your waiting room. It’s Relevant is available on many smart TVs including Amazon’s Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku.

Related: “Top 3 Waiting Room TV Services for Medical Offices.“

Retail Digital Signage: What Can You Do With The TV In Your Store?

As technology grows, more and more business owners are exploring their options when it comes to retail digital signage. Nowadays, it isn’t uncommon to see TVs in clothing stores, furniture outlets, and shopping centers; wherever people tend to gather, you can usually count on a TV screen being close by — that’s because TVs are eye-catching, and strangely comforting. Forward-thinking business owners using that to their advantage and building retail TV networks for their stores. This article takes a closer look at the technology that is taking retail digital signage to a whole new level.

Retail Digital Signage: How Effective is it?

The average adult is believed to watch about 4 hours of TV a day. That’s a lot of screen time. But because of that, human beings are naturally drawn to colorful, moving, or otherwise animated displays. Often when we see a TV, our guard is lowered — if only for the sake of seeing what’s on, and choosing whether or not to keep watching. Unlike banners or traditional paper signage, digital signage is bold and inviting. People notice it more, for obvious reasons, and all it takes is a properly-placed TV to host it.

How do you Get Customers to Engage with What’s on Your TV?

Getting customers to notice the TV and watch the TV are two very different things. That brief window of opportunity when they notice the TV and are choosing whether or not to keep watching is the golden moment. What determines their choice usually relies on a few factors:

1.) What’s on the TV? Obviously, this is the most important part. “Digital signage” users tend to just show ads that showcase sales, or reminders for customers to sign up for X or become a member of Y. This is smart, and it’s a great way to utilize the TV, but if all you’re showing is JUST marketing messages, your customers will see it as “just another ad” and tune it out. However, the solution to this is easy; instead of using digital signage, create a custom TV network. A custom TV network will mix in fun and entertaining videos with your marketing messages and your customers will be MUCH more receptive to your ads.

2.) Where is the TV on display? Second to what’s on the TV is where you choose to put it. Is it hanging on a crossroads pillar between sections? Is it part of a living room set acting as the TV? Or is it above the checkout for customers to see while waiting in line? All of these are great. You want it to be in a place that customers can consume what they are watching for more than a few seconds before feeling they are obligated to move.

3.) How are your customers feeling? This one is slightly more difficult to account for, but what’s going on inside a customer’s head plays a big part in whether or not they’re receptive to your messaging. Are they upset? Annoyed? Or bored? A captive audience doesn’t mean that they’re appreciative of your ads. Echoing point #1, mixing in content that might uplift a customer’s mood or alleviate their boredom can go a long way towards improving visitor experience, which improves your chance of making an extra sale.

The Best way to Utilize Retail Digital Signage

You might have gathered that the best way to use retail digital signage is by combining your marketing messages with content that your customers will enjoy watching. Not just any content; you want content that is fun, interesting, and not-necessarily related to your brand, but will put your visitors in a purchasing mindset. Ideally, you also want that content to be on the short-side, since your customers are mostly lingering and waiting. You want videos that anyone can start/stop watching at any time, and are short enough that people are more likely to see something that interests them.

Shorter Videos = More Variety.

Accomplishing this through retail digital signage alone is nearly impossible, that’s where a retail TV network comes in handy. A retail TV network combines the best aspects of digital signage + television; bringing them together in a unique and effective way. Imagine your digital signage board being part ad, and part TV; with occasional ads playing in between or next to engaging videos. That’s how It’s Relevant TV approaches retail TV networks.

The Best Retail TV Network is It’s Relevant TV

It’s Relevant TV licenses over half-a-million short-form videos spread across 40+ customer-favorite categories. As a store owner, you don’t need to being anything to the table except for your own goals and aspirations. It’s Relevant TV allows you to easily create marketing messages — which you can upload into the system and have play alongside countless entertaining videos. The technology is fully-automated, meaning that you can set-it and forget-it knowing that your TVs are delivering a mix of ads + interesting content. Additionally, It’s Relevant can be used to promote your social media, or barter ad space to other local businesses in order to generate even more revenue.

IRTV is the most feature-rich custom TV network on the market. Chat with the television experts at itsrelevant.com and get an online Zoom demo to learn more.

How Much Does It Cost To Advertise On TV? | It’s Relevant TV

How Much Does it Cost to Advertise on TV?

Great question! The answer depends on whether or not your ad is going to be local, or national. Local ads cost significantly less, and are the go-to for smaller businesses for obvious reasons; your business with 1 to 3 locations on the East Coast doesn’t need to reach people in California. National ads- on the other hand, will cost much more per spot, but will cost less when divided among the viewers you are reaching.

If you’re reading this, chances are that what you’re interested in is a local advertisement — however both will be covered. Before we start, it is worth noting that there’s a third option that most business owners don’t think of; which is running your ads on the TV within your business itself. If you think that’s counterintuitive to the point of playing an ad on television, keep on reading and see why more and more business owners are adopting this new strategy.

Want to Advertise on TV? Here’s what to Expect

Business owners looking to run a local ad can expect to pay upwards of $1,500 for a 30-second advertisement on a broadcast network — compared to national ads, which can cost as much as $120,000 for an ad of the same length. Cable TV networks in limited areas can cost as little as $50 per spot, but the viewing audience for those ads is very small.

A Quick Calculation:
Just think if there are 200,000 cable subscribers. 50% of them may be watching TV at any given time, so that’s 100,000 audience. Now, those people have the choice between a thousand different cable channels. Most will gravitate towards the broadcast stations like NBC, Fox, CBS and ABC. So you may only be left with 40,000 viewers that are choosing between the other 1,000 channels. Divided evenly between the channels you might expect that ad to be shown to just 40 people. So even for a “cheap” ad on regional cable purchased for $50, you’d be paying $1.20 per viewer in the example above.

Television ads are costly, and that money spent is a lot for a small business — especially when there’s no guarantee that you’re going to make that money back. When it comes to most advertising platforms; cable TV, billboards, newspapers, etc. — you’re paying to have your message exposed to thousands, if not hundreds-of-thousands of people on the off-chance that a large number of them will see it, be interested, and then act on it. That’s a lot of off-chances.

Don’t bet your advertising budget on the Law of Averages. Not when you can achieve the same goals, with the same ad, for far less money.

The Advantages of Advertising on your Own Business’ TV

Some might argue that the point of having a commercial ad is to have it play on broadcast television; in people’s homes. The “I don’t need to advertise to customers who are already in my business” stance comes from a place of logic, but it has its flaws. Most notably, it’s ignoring the simple fact that those customers- who are already in your business, are there because:

1.) They trust you, or they trust your brand

2.) You sell a product that they need, or you offer a service that you provide.

3.) They are statistically more likely to (re)visit your business than someone who had never been there before.

Less often than you might think it’s because they saw your ad at home on TV. The small handful of “those-interested” that you might get out of a TV ad will have an equal mindset to those who are already visiting your business naturally. It’s far easier, and way more cost-effective, to target customers who are already in your location.

Why spend thousands of dollars fishing for 1-in-1,000 people who are interested in your brand when you can instead target 1,000 visitors who you know are already interested?

Selling visitors on additional products and services while they’re right there — where they can buy or act on it that second, is the best strategy for generating more sales and repeat business. If you were advertise on TV, your product, service, or message would REALLY have to motivate the consumer to stop what they’re doing, get up, go out, and visit your business. No matter which way you look at it, the best place for your business’ ad is your business’ TV.

Finding the Right Advertising Platform to Stream your Business’ Ads

DIY solutions cost time, money, and upkeep to maintain; trust a business TV provider to do all the hard work for you.

Finding the right platform can be a little overwhelming, especially if you’re new to the technology. The best place to start looking for business TV software is It’s Relevant TV. The TV experts there know businesses, and they know television; schedule a call with them for a closer look at the technology, or chat with a representative if you have any questions about using custom TV software in your business.

If you’re going to advertise on TV, make it your business’ TV.

Why Customer Retention Should be a Higher Priority than Customer Acquisition

In-Location Marketing vs. External Advertising

Customer retention is key. Most marketing budgets center around getting a company’s message out to the masses. TV commercials, print ads, billboards, sponsorships, direct mail, are all forms of external advertising that are commonly used to attract new customers to businesses. But once you bring someone in, what are you doing to get them to come back?

Companies that have to advertise all of the time in order to stay in business are likely not doing enough to keep their customers happy.

Many business owners focus most of their efforts on attracting new customers in order to make more money. But you don’t only need new customers! If your goal this year was to grow your revenues by 10%, would you care if that increase came from new business, or increasing the average spend from your current customers? Of course not! More revenue is more revenue.

Money earned from new customer vs. existing

They look the same, don’t they? Because they are! An added dollar earned from an existing customer is just as good as a dollar form a new one. But it’s proven to earn that extra dollar from an existing customer than to get it from a new one.

“Research shows that it can cost up to 30 times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. It pays to stay very close to your customers, so you know their exact needs, today and tomorrow. Your aim is to be irreplaceable as their supplier.”
–Mike Johnston, The Chartered Institute of Marketing

An Inexpensive Solution

It’s Relevant TV has come up with an easy way to increase customer retention (getting customers to come back more often). Each custom TV network IRTV creates is unique to each business that displays it. Short-form TV programs grab the attention of visitors while the integrated real-time social media and promotional tools help get the business’ message across.

If you own or manage a business and have a TV, It’s Relevant TV offers a free consultation. You can explore various types of programming with an expert and start to craft something that will do much more for your business.

For more information check out It’s Relevant TV’s official site: http://www.itsrelevant.com or call their U.S. Headquarters at: (203) 588-1689

TV Advertising: Traditional Isn’t Cutting It Anymore

The Main Goals of TV Advertising

Branding has long been the First, Middle and Last reason to advertise on Television. If potential customers don’t know about you, why would they buy your products or use your services? Brand awareness creates trust, generates leads, and ultimately creates sales and the growth of your business.

For this reason businesses have used TV advertising to:
• Create brand recognition by reaching the greatest number of viewers.
• Attaining a frequency level that will promote memory retention.
• Demonstrate value through emotion and visuals

And TV ads are great at achieving all three. But TV ads have become more expensive and less effective in the last few years due to a number of changes. Let’s take a closer look at the current state of Traditional TV Advertising.

The Current Characteristics of Traditional TV Advertising

Broadcast TV ads are expensive.
Television advertising is broadly targeted and ad buys usually include a lot of “waste” (the ad reach you pay for that is not relevant to your message).
Clutter Ridden – Television is overflowing with advertising. 25% to 35% of the broadcast airtime is now being filled with commercials
Ads are purchased based on ratings. Ratings are based on a small sample of the population and cannot guarantee how many people actually tune into any particular program.
TV ads are sold on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis.
Audience delivery is impossible to measure, as ratings are estimations and it is impossible to track what percentage of viewers stay tuned during your ad’s playback.
Under-delivery is fairly common
Reporting is horrible and slow. Actual run time/placement is only available by requesting a program log. It is nearly impossible to receive a log in a timely fashion. Especially from a Cable Operator.
Return on investment is very hard to calculate. Direct marketing messages are the only surefire way of seeing true ROI and actual effect on purchases based on the ads

Modern Television Advertising from It’s Relevant TV

It’s Relevant TV allows advertisers to forge brand recognition with pin-point accuracy and benefits. Unlike cable TV that targets channels and times of day, IRTV goes deeper.

1. Reach screens that are located in businesses in specific categories.

2. Market through televisions in specific zip codes.

3. Your commercials are shown in single ad breaks. This means that your ad is the only ad in a break, so all attention is on it.

4. You can target location types that have screens near point-of-purchase, allowing product owners to push their products in areas that they can be immediately purchased.

5. Reliable and immediate reporting. You can see the exact screens and the minute and second your ads have played on them.

6. Affordable at just $0.30-$0.50 per play per screen.

7. Extremely scalable with 24/7 controls. You can concentrate your ads when it makes the most sense for you, and scale back when it doesn’t.

8. Multiple ad messages. You can run multiple video ads at the same time and It’s Relevant will automatically distribute the messages evenly.

9. Ads are associated with family-friendly programming displayed in prominent public places.

For more information on this new advertising platform please contact John Lunghi by emailing him at: john {at} itsrelevant.com or by dialing the main office at: 203-588-1689.

Utilizing Television to Benefit Your Business

Your Customers Didn’t Come to Watch TV

If you print a sign to promote a new service, and then you never hang it in the business, you’re missing an opportunity, right? That seems pretty clear, and yet business owners think nothing of buying a TV and filling it with useless programming. But how is that helping your business and customers?

Reality Check

There is an important reality about including a TV in your business location: your business is not the customer’s living room. They have a TV in their own living room and they have complete control over that one. Having a TV in your business with the remote freely available is not going to draw anyone off their own couch to come sit in your waiting room.

You may have a television in the waiting area of your doctors office or automotive service center. And you might leave the remote out for your customers to pick what they want to watch, but why? Did a customer ever say “I feel like watching the Steelers game, so I’m going to the doctor’s office”? Of course not!

Additionally, leaving the channel selection to your customers poses some risks. What will they choose to watch? Will they be annoyed by the preferences of the other customers? Some business owners who hold the remote at the desk or behind the counter complain that dealing with changing the channel wastes time and frustrates employees also.

Customization is your Right and Duty

The truth is that you designed your business location with purpose. The paint color, the flooring, the lighting, the furniture: you selected these to create a certain feeling in your space. Until now there were very limited options to customize your TV with that same care, but now you can.

Your TV can influence your customers to spend more money, come back more often, and follow your business on social media. Choosing the right programming is all you need to do to make your TV worth something. With It’s Relevant TV, your TV is an asset that helps drive greater sales.

Magnetic Television

Whatever channel you have on, your customers will look at the television at least once – it’s human nature. But how can you keep them looking without giving them the remote? Keep changing the type of content every few minutes automatically!

If you have national news, sports, travel, gardening, food/cooking, fashion, kids programming and more available to mix at all times, you’ll have something for everyone. It’s Relevant TV is the subscription service that provides you this flexibility. The system automatically mixes content from categories you choose so your customers are never bored or frustrated with what’s on the TV.

And While You Have Their Attention

When your customers are looking at something, you put your brand on it, right? Custom water bottles, notepads, refrigerator magnets, this is a pretty common practice. With your TV, you have the opportunity to do so much more! Put your logo on the screen, add your own informational videos, and add your own marketing messages and specials as images next to the broadcast. Show off your social media posts to gain followers. All of that would be impossible with cable TV.

It sounds like a promotional dream, but it’s very easy to achieve with It’s Relevant TV. Get your customers to look, keep them watching, and harness their attention to grow your business.

Facebook Video Ad Viewing Times Inflated, ROI Questioned

Recent news has broken about the inaccurate reporting of video playback times on the Facebook platform. Facebook’s reporting suggested higher message playback than actually happened. In a post on the Facebook advertising help site, Facebook announced the discrepancy and explained the difference between how it defined the statistic, and what was actually measured.

We had previously defined the Average Duration of Video Viewed as “total time spent watching a video divided by the total number of people who have played the video.” But we erroneously had calculated the Average Duration of Video Viewed as “the total time spent watching a video divided by only the number of people who have viewed a video for three or more seconds.

New Changes In Place

Then in response to this discovery, Facebook says it’s introducing two new metrics in hopes to save face:

Video Average Watch Time: the total watch time for your video, divided by the total number of video plays. This includes plays that start automatically and on click. This will replace the Average Duration of Video Viewed metric.

Video Percentage Watched: reflects the percentage of your video somebody watches per session, averaged across all sessions of your video where the video auto-played or was clicked to play. This will replace the Average % Video Viewed metric.

What does this mean for you as an advertiser? It means that if you advertised on Facebook over the past couple of years you have likely been misled. You likely have an unrealistic ROI measure if you were using the “average duration of video views” metric. Most noteworthy is that Facebook is never aiming for a 100% playback of your video. The platform operates with distracted individuals in mind and is not the place to deliver a real ad message.

A Facebook Ad Alternative

TV Advertising Digital SIgnage Business Television — TV Advertising on It’s Relevant TV

Instead of playing back fractions of your video ads to viewers that may be largely irrelevant to your messaging, you could be utilizing It’s Relevant TV’s Advertising Platform. It’s Relevant TV puts your video messages on television in public places and only charges you for FULL PLAYBACKS. The price is about 1/100 of what standard TV ads cost. Advertisers can target by geographic location and business type.

For more information you can call the toll free office line: (855) ITS-RELE or visit online at: http://www.itsrelevant.com/advertising.