How to Create Digital Signage Content

Digital signage has grown into a billion-dollar market as more and more businesses adopt digital advertising solutions. It’s easy to see why digital signs have become popular: they’re colorful, dynamic, and eye-catching, and they leave lasting impressions on consumers. A recent study found that 55% of surveyed consumers could recall the particular message highlighted on a digital billboard. However, digital screens are only as effective as the displayed content. Therefore, you need dynamic content that excites visitors and boosts consumer engagement. Explore the guide below for how to create digital signage content:

1. Repurpose Content

Creating content is a time- and resource-intensive process, especially for small businesses with limited resources. However, you can repurpose the content you already have to display on digital signs.

For example, your graphic designer can turn the articles on your blogs into themed stories to entertain your guests. Similarly, you can break down a popular blog post into a series of video tips that educate visitors waiting in line. 97% of marketers attest that videos help consumers understand products, which is why you should create instructional videos from old content.

For most businesses, the information on their website is an invaluable asset. Add web pages to your digital signage screens, and let customers experience your brand. Moreover, you can repurpose existing video and image galleries. For instance, you can showcase recent field trips in the digital displays at your school’s entrance.

If you’re sitting on excellent corporate presentations, prepare compelling infographics for your digital signage systems. Additionally, convert successful webinars into a video series. When repurposing content for digital signs, use evergreen messages, that is, content that stays relevant to your audience.

2. Use Content Creation Tools

Creating content can be challenging, as it involves writing, editing, collaborating, designing, and analyzing data. In fact, 64% of marketers want to learn how to create a scalable content strategy. However, there are plenty of digital signage content creation tools at your disposal, including free options. Moreover, you don’t have to be a graphic designer to use most of the design tools. These solutions fall into the categories below:

Video Creation Tools

Video creation software has become invaluable for businesses since 54% of consumers expect video content from a brand they support. Videos will be a profitable medium for your business, as long as you make them stunning and relevant. Some popular options include iMovie, Lumen5, Biteable, and Animaker. If you want a drag and drop editor, you can use RAWShorts to create animated videos.

Image Creation Tools

Perhaps the best-known image creation tool is Canva. This platform boasts a wide choice of templates and hundreds of free icons, illustrations, stock photos, design layouts, fonts, backgrounds, and more. What’s more, users can upload their content. In fact, you can create different visual content for your digital signage on Canva, including infographics, posters, logos. Other image creation platforms include Adobe Photoshop, Pixlr, and BeFunky.

Infographic Creation Tools

Graphics are a fun way to share data and keep your audience informed. When asked about the most engaging visuals, 42% of marketers noted that infographics elicited the most engagement. Popular infographic creation tools include Visme, Infogram, and Piktochart.

Presentation Creation Tools

PowerPoint is a user-friendly creation tool with which you can save slides as PNG or JPEG files. In addition to PowerPoint, designers can use Google Slides or Prezi to create exciting presentations. Google Slides features an easy-to-use interface for non-designers to create digital menu boards or graphics.

3. Display Stock Content

High-quality images on a digital screen attract attention and invite customers into your retail store. However, creating a catalog of photos from various genres is challenging, which’s why stock photo websites are popular with digital marketers.

Professional photos don’t have to be expensive, but you need to avoid copyright infringement. Some platforms provide free stock images for free, such as StockSnap, Gratisography, and Unsplash. However, free plans have a limited library and may limit you to low-quality files.

Paid stock photography sites like Getty Images, Shutterstock, Adobe Stock feature massive image collections, and you can expect many options for the type of content you want.

4. Use Social Media Content

Around nine out of 10 people say that they buy from brands they follow on social networks. What’s more, 57% of customers will follow a company on social media to discover new products or services. As a result, brands are investing in social media marketing. A genius way to encourage your consumers to engage with your online brand is to add social media snippets on digital signage.

During the installation of your digital signage software, ask about solutions that support social media integrations. You can stream your latest posts and broadcast customer’s posts related to your products. Some sophisticated software lets you search for posts or comments in real-time and publish them on digital screens.

YouTube is among the best platforms to integrate with your digital signage. The world consumes a billion hours of video on this app every day, making it perfect for customer engagement. You can show lifestyle content, product tutorials, and ambient background videos. Additionally, you can set up your live broadcasts to promote your brand. Rotate YouTube videos with other content like social media feeds and metric dashboards to retain interest.

Also, you can install a social media wall featuring colorful content from Instagram or Pinterest. However, your content shouldn’t take up all the signage real estate. Include content from your customers as well, including jokes, memes, photos, and comments. Encourage visitors to engage your brand on social media and include discounts and other incentives for active customers.

Tips to Create Dynamic Content

Installing digital signage hardware is only the first step towards attracting a loyal audience. To truly see ROI from your digital screens, you need exciting and compelling content. Explore the tips below to refresh your digital messages:

Customize Content to Suit Your Audience

The most vital step in curating compelling digital content is understanding your audience. For example, a visitor arriving in a corporate building will need navigational content to find the correct department. Similarly, a passenger waiting for their flight in an airport needs entertaining content to pass the time.

If you’re using digital signage to enhance internal communication, you can show content that recognizes employee accomplishments. A study in the Harvard Business Review established that 40% of Americans would work harder if they were recognized often. Digital signs are perfect tools for employee recognition in the workplace, as you can use them to personalize gratitude and send shout-outs.

Rotate Your Content

Visitors will quickly get bored if they see the same content on every visit. Therefore, content rotation is significant to appeal to returning customers. You can schedule playlists on the content management system (cms) to show different content according to the time of day. Additionally, check that the material on the system’s devices is correctly updated.

The major challenge is collecting enough content to rotate. Some companies outsource content creation or hire designers.

Incorporate Branding

In addition to attracting attention, digital kiosks can advertise your brand. Incorporate branding elements like your color scheme or logo into your content. You can use Canva or Google Slides to customize templates by adding custom images and background colors. When choosing fonts, use eye-catching fonts that complement the visuals.

Include a Call to Action

Your digital signage content should include a clear call to action to provide tangible benefits. To design an effective call to action, ask yourself which reaction you intend to get from your audience. Do you want more signups for your email list or more engagement on social media? For retail stores, boosting sales is likely your top concern. Next, use trigger words like “now” or “save” to evoke a sense of urgency. For example, you can promote a discount code for the next 20 shoppers.

You should ensure that taking the intended action is easy. For example, you can provide guest Wi-Fi when encouraging customers to share pictures on social media. By providing an internet connection, a customer will find it easy to engage with your brand because it doesn’t cost them.

In Conclusion

Content is king when deploying digital signage, and you need dynamic and eye-catching visuals to make effective digital signs. Fortunately, you can repurpose existing content, display stock photos, or display social media content. Moreover, you can use content creation tools like Canva, PowerPoint, and Google Slides to curate outstanding visuals.