Best Practices for Creating Dynamic Content for Your Retail Store’s Digital Signage
From big-box stores to small boutiques, retailers use a wide variety of digital signage solutions to attract attention and increase engagement. That’s because displays are particularly well-suited for use in retail environments. Digital surfaces and interactive screens provide way-finding, fill information gaps, and entertain — freeing staff to focus on other crucial aspects of customer service and satisfaction.
For retailers, making smart buying decisions about which types of digital signage are appropriate for their stores is not overly complicated. Manufacturers and integrators provide plenty of guidance on purchasing equipment. Deciding what content to display on digital signage, however, may seem like a more formidable hurdle. Creating engaging content, keeping it fresh, and staying within budget pose challenges for many retailers.
Let’s take a closer look at how to create appealing, effective content for digital signage for your store.
The First Step
Before plunging into creating content for your digital displays, it’s best to develop a sound content strategy. Start by identifying your customer’s needs and consider where your screens and surfaces are (or will be) located. Are you seeking to give directions, showcase new products, provide product specs, enable customers to browse catalogs, or promote limited-time offers? Your content decisions will vary depending on the signage’s location.
Your content goals will also have an impact on your content creation. Are you aiming to increase conversions, boost customer engagement, or strengthen your brand?
Determining your store’s content-creation abilities is another critical element in developing your content strategy. Assess your budget and staff to determine the resources available for content creation and the skill levels of the employees who will create your content. You may want to consider outsourcing some tasks.
Top 12 Digital Signage Best Practices for Retailers
Once you’ve mapped out your strategy, you can implement the following strategies for creating content for digital signage for your store. These suggestions will help you take full advantage of digital signage’s many features and benefits.
1. Integrate content that you already have.
You don’t always need to create new content. To save time, effort, and costs, repurpose existing images, videos, and messages from advertising, emails, and other marketing assets you already have.
2. Develop content that makes sense within the context.
Make sure images and messages will resonate with your customers at the time and place the content is presented on your digital signage.
3. Incorporate a call to action.
In the appropriate circumstances, using digital signage to present call-to-actions will encourage your customers to take your desired action, whether it’s checking out new products, seeking advice from your sales staff, or signing up for a loyalty program. QR codes and other interactive elements are effective ways to present a CTA using digital signage.
4. Follow your brand guidelines.
From color palette and typography to logos, ensure that your digital signage content adheres to your branding.
5. Make the content dynamic.
Include slide transitions, video backgrounds, and other active elements in your content. However, avoid overloading the screen with content by using as much white space as possible. Brief, memorable content often has a greater impact on viewers.
6. Select darker colors.
When creating content, keep background colors and content dark, yet colorful, to reduce overall brightness. Don’t hesitate to use bright, vibrant colors when needed, but avoid using all-white or overly bright images. Designers should use RGB colors rather than CMYK colors.
7. Ensure all text is readable.
To make text-based content easier to read, avoid using more than two fonts. Also, do not use italics and all capital letters because they’re difficult to read.
8. Display a variety of content.
Digital signage is a wonderfully flexible technology. You can provide a wide variety of different types of content, including welcome messages, announcements, reviews, and promotions.
9. Rotate content regularly.
Changing content is vital. You don’t want your content to become stale, and you want to avoid image retention (screen burn-in). If it’s necessary to play the same content for long periods, alternate between several versions with different graphics or color schemes to make the content appear fresher.
10. Pay attention to screen specs.
Screen size, aspect ratio, and resolution affect the appearance of content. Many digital displays have a 16:9 aspect ratio. If you use content designed for a 4:3 screen (iPad), for example, viewers may notice distorted images or text.
11. Double-check everything.
Once your content is ready, test it on the screen and review the designs from the various distances that your audience will view the content. Do the graphics and colors work? Do you notice any pixelization? How long does it take you to read the text?
12. Monitor and Maintain.
Regularly monitoring your content’s performance and making those necessary adjustments once your digital signage is live is key to ensuring that it is successful. Pay attention to audience engagement metrics, such as dwell time and interaction rates, to gauge the effectiveness of your content.
Get the Most Out of Your Digital Signage
Digital signage content is a key part of your marketing outreach. Eye-catching, captivating content can drive sales and increase revenue. Effectively using digital signage enables you to attract new customers, provide an immersive shopping experience, earn loyalty, and build enduring consumer relationships. You’ll also maximize your investment in digital signage technology, helping you remain one step ahead of your competitors. For more information on how digital signage can boost your business, check out our digital display and projector solutions.