Making digital signage content useful and genuinely interesting to your audience is really important. Audiences are savvy and drive the need for a smart approach to digital marketing. Give the audience what they want, when they want it.
According to Geoff Dodds in the Business Reporter, Digital has now leapfrogged Television and accounts for 51% of media consumption. He comment:
“there is some good and bad news here: the good is that we now have more ways to communicate with our potential clients, in places we know they’re listening; the bad is that this marketplace is crowded – and that is only going to get worse.”
Whether you are embarking on digital marketing for the first time or are a long standing convert, there are a few things to remember when creating your content:
Keep it simple
The temptation is often to bombard people with multiple messages showing off your creative skills, all the while perhaps forgetting that there will only be a few seconds to grab someone’s attention. I think that less, is often more. Clarity of the message, use of contrasting colours, sharpness of the image and simplicity of the text, are all important factors.
Do your research
If you don’t know your audience, then you could be throwing a whole lot of time, effort and money at something that may not give you the return you need. Will your campaign be led by data, facts and figures or will it be amusing? Who are you targeting and as an audience, what do they respond to?
Location, location, location
Think about this carefully. In area of sunlight, use high bright screens. Try and get your screens to be at eye level, not too high. If they have to be up high, tilt them down a little. Place your screens in areas where people spend time, avoid really high traffic areas if you can.
Moving images – v – still images
Moving images get noticed five times more than still images, though bear in mind not to create hectic movement, this puts people off and they’ll walk on by. By all means use some video and animation to enhance and reinforce, but not so much that it detracts from the message. Images are key. Text only digital signage should be avoided. Images should be great quality, high resolution – squashed, stretched and pixelated images will undermine your efforts and send out the wrong message.
Put in some effort
Whilst it’s totally acceptable to continue a common theme from say, your website for example, it’s not acceptable to just recreate your website on your digital signage or use a load of PDF files as content. Think uniqueness, – unique content and format and something that’ll make people stop in their tracks and engage.
A return on your investment
Include a call to action in your content, drive your customers to do something that will allow you to measure the effectiveness of your campaign and then you can measure your return on investment.
Communication is important
Often it’s the IT team who installs the digital signage, but it’s down to other teams in the organisation to use it and update it. If you don’t get them on board at the outset, then you may well be fighting a losing battle. Make it intuitive and easy to use for people whose everyday job may not be a digital master!
To infinity and beyond!
Digital signage isn’t a one time thing, it needs looking after, it needs planning, it needs future proofing if it’s to be part of your long term marketing strategy, so show it some love and put a plan behind it. An antiquated system won’t cut the mustard against your competitors, so plan for continual investment and you’ll be able to reap the rewards of your system for years to come.
Invest in your people
I’ve seen amazing digital marketing campaigns disappear, only to be replaced by badly executed ones because of a personnel change. Always make sure you have a backup plan in place and some clear instructions with a training plan, in case your digital marketing guru moves on. It happens, so make a plan. As technology improves, make a plan to keep your guru up to speed, so they can do their best for you.
For more information contact me: info@quadvision.co.uk