Getting it Right: Digital Signage Content Best Practices and Tips

So your company has decided to get with the 21st century and adopt digital signage. Awesome! You’ve got your screens ready to go. Looking good! You’ve decided on the content management hosting. Phew! The boss is getting excited about ways the company will make more money by influencing customers at point of purchase and the HR team are stoked that they be able to get key announcements out to staff in an engaging way. Now can you make your content more effective! Good job!

But wait… how do we get the content right?

What the heck is the plan to produce and distribute a constant stream of targeted, engaging and FRESH content to your target segments? Oh.. and how on earth do you put processes in place to ensure it all sticks within brand guidelines?

1) Place your most important messages first to captivate your audience.

Introduce the first item on the list at a slower speed, and leave enough time at the end for people to remember the last item. Big caveat: think about teh average amouint of time you get for your audience e.g. a client in a bank lining up to see a teller would be exposed to screens for minutes whereas a possible customer in a retail mall may only be with the area of screen influence for 10 seconds.

2) Chunking and coding

Group concepts,CTAs and key phrases together – batches of three work well. Repeat important words and phrases 2-3 times in a row for reinforcement.

3) Use alliteration, rhyme and catchy terms

People intuitively respond to language patterns which flow and and easy to understand.

4) Targeted messages and segmented content

Optimize for context and eliminate distractions. Use language, imagery and symbols that are relevant to the viewer and the context.

5) Crafting your copy and call-to-action

Keep your text simple and clear. When writing your call-to-action, start it with a verb, keep the verb and subject close together, and either leave the call-to-action on screen the whole time, or show it several times per spot.

6) Fonts, meta, sizes and styles

Use sans-serif fonts and large font sizes so that viewers can read your message at-a-glance. Don’t use too many fonts in a single piece of content, and don’t go overboard with colored text. Avoid writing in all caps.
Linking your digital signage campiagns to social media, blog posts and other online activities? Don’t forget to use the correct meta tags and headings.

7) Colors and branding

Choosing one color over another rarely has any impact on the success of your content. So, pick colors that meet wit your branding, campaign persona and stylistic goals, e.g. those that match the color schemes of your venues or advertisers.

8) Use contrast to your advantage

More contrast between foreground and background recommended. A minor change like increasing the contrast by 10% can make the content easier to read, and recognizable to a much larger audience.

9) Motion, silhouettes and animation

Use motion selectively: you don’t want to interfere with readability or comprehension. Give people enough time to read the text, and don’t move your text around abruptly. When you’re animating an element, try to pick something that has a strong and easily-identifiable silhouette. Consider keeping your logo and other important features on the screen at all times, without excess motion.
Or.. forget most of that and go with a cool segmented screen offering different forms of content in different blocks.

10) Composing shots and scenes

Match up your text and visuals, and treat each slide like it’s a stand-alone poster. Use visual transitions to link related slides within a larger piece of content.

11) Digital signage CMS options

Employing powerful Digital Signage content management tools is now as easy as setting up a website. Its all drag and drop, WYSIWYG, DIY widgets and cool metrics! The technology available for a standard licence fee gives communication pros the ability to link up with your other marketing and communication channels and segment as they require!

There’s a staggering amount of money flowing into digital signage because, as a comms channel, it offers uniquely attractive numbers. Eyeballs are on screen for much longer, revenues are higher when digital screens are influencing a purchase environment, branding is reinforces, conversations with employees and stakeholders is reinforced, new advertising fees can been generated and much more!

12) Create a content calendar

Once you’ve got all the technology and best practices in place its time to put it all together with an awesome content calendar. A calendar will help you organise timeing and nature of campaigns and it can then all be automatically uploaded and managed.

Article Source: http://www.lsquared.com/blog/digital-signage/getting-it-right-digital-signage-content-best-practices-and-tips/

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