When you need to advertise your business to the masses with maximum impact, digital and online advertising can be extremely effective.

Sameer Kazi, senior vice president at cross-channel market group ExactTarget, spoke to IBTimes UK about how important it is for retailers to embrace digital and online marketing if they want to thrive in a competitive marketplace. He said, "In order to engage with your target market effectively, you need to keep your marketing fresh, unique and stimulating. That might mean creating interesting content, engaging over social networks or investing in new digital technology that will get your message across beautifully." These are wise words indeed.

For businesses trading online exclusively, the obvious solution is to invest in high impact web marketing. For bricks and mortar shops looking for the edge over their competitors, the answer might come in the form of an unlikely player, a digital projector.

With a projector as part of your marketing strategy, you can now design your marketing material and display it effortlessly whenever and wherever you need, without incurring a big cost.

Flat screens vs Projectors

Flat screens are a popular choice when it comes to digital advertising such as digital signage, though the downside is cost and often a challenge to set up. Also, ambient light indoors and outdoors can make colours appear washed out. An alternative to flat screens, also a more cost effective and easy option, is to use an LCD projector which can be positioned almost anywhere and project the image to a screen – but in the absence of a screen, you can also project onto the wall of your shop, the ceiling, or even the floor. Leading manufacturers for LCD projectors include Epson and Sony, two Japanese electronics giants in imaging equipment.

It's all about colour

Colour plays a critical role in image quality. Choose a digital projector that will ensure optimum vibrancy when displaying colourful images. Check for its colour brightness, measured in lumens, is as high as the white brightness. If colour brightness is lower it could cause colours to look dull and faded.

The leading tech review site PCMag.com has an excellent article explaining what colour brightness is and why it matters. The writer also included visual images of his experiment to show the substantial difference in image brightness from a projector with high colour light output and from one without.

The edge

In a nutshell, see beyond the typical scenarios where your digital projector can work for your business, like corporate presentations and training courses. Tap into the mighty power of projection technology and explore the application of digital signage. Use it to customise your marketing in line with changing trends, show a new product video, and display new offers, to name a few. Put simply, use it to wow your customers. When you invest in a high quality, cost effective digital projector, you invest in a digital marketing tool that will pay dividends for your business for many years to come.