So you think you’ve got a great digital signage campaign. The screens  are up and running, you’ve finally filled in that blank, black space up  on the wall. You may even have created some new content and something  that’s going to entice your audience in to find out more. 

Unfortunately, this is one of the easiest ways to get on track to  catching a little thing we like to call “set it and forget it syndrome.”  So many of us create a stunning digital signage display, get it live on  screen and then….forget all about it.

This is the quickest way to bore your audience, lose engagement and  guarantee that people will eventually stop looking at that screen. 

In a world full of noise, where we have 20 different marketing  channels to choose from at any one time, you have to have a big picture  strategy for your digital signage campaign. More importantly, you have  to stick to it. 

That’s why we’ve come up with this list of 10 seriously important ingredients that every digital signage campaign should have. 

This is fairly relative, given that not every person passing by your  digital signage screen is going to see it start from the top of the  playlist. However, chances are they’re going to see the “opener” at some  point (if you follow best practice for the length of your playlist).

Even if it’s not at the beginning of their viewing experience, a good  opener will ensure that the playlist follows logic and that they can  see that it has a start and an end point. As humans, we look to make  sense of content, and visuals and a strong opener, followed by secondary  content, will help to do this.

An introduction to your company ethos and who you are.

An introductory slide to the rest of your content - see an example we used below for a tradeshow booth display.

Something persuasive, helping your customer to make a decision or take immediate action, such as a time-limited offer.

Useful content: a digital menu board, pricing information,  directions or something which is going to make a lightbulb ping,  indicating that the content shown on screen is worth a watch.

Content that is eye-catching - something bright, a video with  motion, a song or noise - anything which will grab that initial  attention!

Keep your content to six or seven pieces and ensure each is played  for a short period of time (so as to alleviate boredom). Don’t forget -  your digital signage experience is not the same as watching TV. Sure,  they both take place on screen, but it’s unlikely your visitor is  watching in a relaxed state with nothing else on their mind.

Digital signage is often a glance medium, taken in amongst many other things, so brevity is often important. 

We’ve found that generally speaking, studies point towards six pieces of content  as the ideal digital signage playlist format. Often, this comes down to  testing. You may find that six pieces isn’t enough for your office  playlist (which is being viewed day in and day out), but that for your  store window, it’s perfect.

This also depends on the content being shown. If you’re using social media apps,  which update every few minutes, you may not need as much content  variation because from a technical viewpoint, the content is refreshing  all the time. 

4. A story or narrative to hook them all together

One of the biggest errors we see companies make with their digital  signage is randomly hooking together different pieces of content and  expecting it to gel and be visually appealing to their audience.

Think of your digital signage playlist as a TV show or a live news  feed. Rather than adding content at random, this provides a structure.

If we think of a live news feed, the structure is:

Follow up with 2-3 semi-important stories

Mix up the format: an interview, live feed, video footage or similar

A signing-off story: sometimes this is lighthearted or humorous 

On top of the structure, you have a set of “rules” about each piece  of content, such as always starting with an introduction and including  any calls to action towards the end.

Using this narrative will help your digital signage content to flow  more effectively. Perhaps you have the opener followed by two pieces of  company news, then a social media feed, a live news update and then a  special offer, competition or some user generated content from your  audience. 

Copy on screen should be clear, simple and effective. Persuasive  language helps entice your viewer to read on or find out more. Action  words and verbs make them take action. 

Choose a single message for each slide or piece of content and choose  the five or six words you use for that copy carefully. If you are using  longer copy, slightly extend the time that piece of digital content  plays so viewers have enough time to read it.

Digital signage is a visual medium, so the images you use can make or  break your success. One color is never superior over another and  actually, a digital sign that uses on brand colors and fonts will often  look more cohesive and therefore be more attention grabbing than a sign  that uses color for the sake of grabbing attention. 

The screens we view digital signage on are also often larger than our  PCs, laptops or mobiles, so ensure any images you add are high-quality  enough to be stretched out to a larger size. Where possible, resize any  background images to 1920 x 1080 pixels, which will ensure the correct  dimensions for a landscape screen. 

You can also use contrast between the background image and a  foreground image or piece of text in order to highlight what you want  the viewer to see. 

A call to action comes at the end of your playlist or at the bottom  of a piece of content and should incite the audience to act. Use a verb  (e.g. sign up, join, like, share, review) and be crystal clear on what  you want the viewer to do next. If you’re giving them an offer or web  address, make the information as easy to retain as possible. 

Before implementing your digital signage campaign, an essential ingredient to success is to road test your content. Within ScreenCloud Signage, we offer a preview function that allows you to watch your playlist from start to finish.

You could also pop your display up onto the screen and watch it once  through to ensure you haven’t missed any images that are too small or  pieces of text that are too hard to read. 

Once your campaign is ready to go, take a couple of minutes to think  about how you will track your success. For some, having digital screens  up and sharing content is enough. This will undoubtedly lead to brand  awareness; studies show the positive effects of digital signage on brand perception, customer buying behavior, and peer-to-peer referrals.

If you do want to track something more concrete, you could use a  unique offer code in your call to action or a web page link that isn’t  visible from any other medium.

The last step and yet one of the most important! Set an expiry date  on your digital signage campaign. This could be in a month, three  months, or even a year’s time; just ensure that once setup, you don’t  leave the same content on repeat.

The likelihood is that once your displays are up, you’ll get a ton of  comments from staff members or customers on what’s showing and what  they’d like to see more of. The benefit of cloud-based digital signage  systems is that there’s no limit on how often you can change the content  or add more.

Your digital screens are like a chalkboard that can be washed off and  re-written any time you like. So make sure you make the most of them!

So how did you rack up? Were all of the ingredients ready and waiting  in your campaign? We’d love to hear what you think, including anything  that you think should be added. Let us know on Twitter @screencloud. 

If you need help getting started with your digital signage campaigns, then start a free trial with ScreenCloud today. 

Learn the key ingredients that successful digital signage campaigns all have and gain more views with better content, copy, playlists and design.

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10 Key Ingredients to a Successful Digital Signage Campaign

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