Digital signage content tips for marketers

Content management
Digital signage represents a new age for marketers--and a new way of thinking about content, one that addresses the ways consumers think and act in the purchase environment. Digital signage is not television; it’s a completely different medium and requires a different approach.. Content segments should be short, highly visual, and should answer the “tell me about your product” questions that are important to consumers while they’re shopping.

Recommended message length in a retail environment is around 10 seconds. Other environments can support longer messages, depending on how long the audience can reasonably be expected to linger in the vicinity of the digital sign.

More content management tips:

Digital signage content

Consumers are on the move; you have only seconds to engage them. Here are some attention-grabbing strategies to incorporate into your messages:

• Use bright colors
• Use the word “sale” and show sales items when appropriate.
• Keep your message cycle length appropriate to the amount of time your average customer will be in the viewing vicinity. Many successful retail message cycles are three minutes or less in overall length.
• Refresh signage content often to reflect sales, special offerings--and sales goals.
• Know your customers. Speak to their interests. Content should be dynamic and reflective of what people are doing.
• Make sure the digital media experience complements all marketing objectives, from merchandising to branding.
• Keep the look and feel of your content consistent with your brand equity.
• Avoid excessive text. Keep your messages as visual as possible.
• Don’t try to deliver full advertising messages, as you would for television, print or long-form video. Show product glimpses that pique curiosity or provide information. Too much hard-sell switches on the audience’s anti-advertising radar.
• Try to incorporate product tips and information
• Experiment. Have fun.

Digital signage strategies

• Use larger signage when possible.
• Reinforce product and branding messages; don’t pressure (hard-sell messages will switch on the audience’s anti-advertising radar).
• Make sure your messages are relevant to the time, place and purchase opportunities at hand.
• Create designs that can exist independent of sound; assume that it will not be heard. On the other hand...
• Use sound when the signage location allows it.
• Incorporate touch screen technology when interactivity is appropriate and useful for the audience.
• Utilize motion sensor technology when appropriate and useful for the audience.
• Keep the customer experience at the front of your mind as you choose content. Digital signage should enhance--rather than intruding upon--the shopping experience.
• Use a monthly editorial calendar to determine content.
  Incorporate frequent brand IDs for your company and its products.
• Use your signage to create add-on sales: accessories with that dress, extra cheese for that burger, etc. This strategy has created double-digit sales increases for many companies.

Digital signage placement

• Place product-specific content where products are, preferably at eye-level or shelf level. (DSX servers allows you to deploy different messages to different screens on your network.) The closer the advertising to the purchase opportunity, the more effective it will be.
• Place department identification signage above eye level, where it will be visible from a distance. Reinforce company and department branding on these screens.

Call DSX Media at 316.440.2550 or e-mail info@dsxmedia.com to learn more about the endless marketing uses for digital signage.