Investing in digital signage without a well-defined content strategy can be an investment that is not well executed. The content strategy is going further than deciding what videos or images must be displayed on a screen. It is important to understand digital signage language and how to create quality content and segmented messages. It is necessary to identify our medium and long-term goals, our target audience, to track and measure the engagement. And above all, be clear about how and who is going to manage this content.

We will explain the most important considerations and tips to keep in mind during the content strategy in a digital signage project:

1. Identify the goals and objectives. This is not only important during the strategy, but it is also important before starting the project. Identifying the objective will indicate the checklist requirements such as the type of display (screen), the screen orientation, the placement, the brightness, and finally the integration in space/furniture. It is not the same to inform, to boost sales or just entertain. It’s important to have a clear goal because it will define the whole content strategy planned.
2. Identify the target audience. Who are you trying to reach? Older people who need a lot of reading time or young people who do not have time to read? For example, in display windows, if we sell toys, we know that our target is the parents, but who will look at the product will probably be the children. In this sense, you have to know what is more engaging: an unbeatable price or a big image of the trending toy. Surely the toy or even the advertising will be more impactful and have a greater claim for a child.
3. What and how. Quality, quantity and size. It is so important what we say that the how. Give a short, clear and concise message. Thinking about where and from what distance the message will be visualized. It will help us to understand what size of the font will be enough to be read, and how extensive the message should be. For example, in a display window, short sentences with large letters are easier to read, so they can be viewed from more than 5 meters away. Once, we understand these screen dimensions, we should be able to adapt the content to the screen orientation (landscape or portrait) as the screen resolution that matches. It is important to know that a video for social media does not always work in digital signage.
4. Content length and “call to action”. Someone who does not see the content from the beginning should always be able to understand it. Spaces with low attention times require a quick call to action. For instance, in areas with high attention times, such as waiting rooms, require longer and more informative content. The total length of the content loop must be reasonable at the time of the user’s exposure, the renewal of the audience and the social moment.
5. Targeting and segmentation. Target content is very important but it is also important to ensure that messages are timed to display at the proper time of day, for example, the affluence between the week and the weekend is not the same. In crowded areas, we need more direct and concise content. Therefore, a content management platform allows you – in an easy-to-use interface – to schedule content and deliver the most effective message to your audience. That’s it the success that the content strategy works effectively and help you reach your goals.
6. How and who will manage the content. We have to choose a CMS that simply allows us to display the images and videos in an easy and fast way. Once you have a marketing plan, it is important to assign a manager for updating the content. The marketing department is usually in charge of this. But in case of this department can not do this management, it is important to know that there are companies as Waapiti, which offer the management service to update content through its digital signage platform. Waapiti Manager is a web-based platform, manageable from any computer, browser and mobile device.
7. Tracking and data measurement. It is essential to measure the campaigns to prove their effectiveness. In digital signage, we can track different data, from the most basic, such as the number of times each content has been broadcast in a specific time, or more enriched data such as who has watched each content and for how long. In addition, we can cross-check data with other information such as a sale to really measure the effectiveness of the strategy. It is said that digital signage must be “tracked, measured and improved.” Good content can generate engagement, but only a very well-worked content influences the buying decisions.
8. Maintenance. You may consider this point are not related to our content strategy and generate doubts. Do I really need screen maintenance? This is a minor aspect until the client experience a black screen or needs to remove a video immediately and the content player has dropped its Internet connection. This is when all the alarms power on. A technical assistance department continuously monitors the equipment and is proactive to solve any possible issues. Still, we must know that technology is unpredictable and can not be guaranteed 100% that nothing will happen. But it guarantees security in the sense that there is a specialist team working on continuously, available 14/7, who will solve the problem quickly – according to the SLA (Service Level Agreement) agreed with the client.