You might think that the magic formula to great digital signage content equals awe-inspiring visual effects and hours of animation. This formula might be visually appealing and might make your customers look but will it inform and influence their buying decisions? Probably not. Great digital signage content must be engaging + relevant + measurable; and the magic comes in when you skilfully manage your content sources aligned with your marketing strategy to deliver engaging, relevant and measurable content.
According to Ryno Colyn, Head of Moving Tactics Digital Content, the leading South African digital signage solutions company, “Each brand has its own identity and values, so when planning visuals, animation or UX development, you need to make sure that the content echoes these brand differentiators. Content strategy sessions with brand marketing are absolutely vital so that every touch point and content piece aligns with marketing’s strategy and standards.
Colyn believes that digital signage content development and management are very different to that of traditional media. “You have many different factors to account for when animating content or developing software for an in-store digital touch point. Digital touch points are strategically placed to offer maximum exposure but each touch point doesn’t necessarily offer the same dwell time or environment. For these reasons your content pieces have to be created with this in mind. For example, shorter dwell times need quicker calls to action, but in areas where customers have higher dwell times, for example, when queuing, the content can be longer and more informative”.
Tailoring content to where and how it will be consumed is one thing but marketers also need to take into account the time when messages are flighted (eg time of the day/day of the week) to target content towards peak or low traffic times, as these scheduling factors will impact the relevance of the content.
Measurement tools in the digital signage space are relatively new but they do offer valuable insights. “We offer clients audience measurement tools that track a shopper’s eyes on screen, conversion rates, or gender and age. With this type of digital signage retail analytics data, content can be changed in real time to respond to the viewer’s behaviour and demographics.
Colyn exalains, “A similar type of measuring system is used with our interactive kiosks and tables. We can track a variety of interactions such as what type of content is being interacted with in real time, when in the day the content is being viewed, the average amount of time spent viewing each page of content and where, geographically, the engagement is taking place. Based on the stats received from the above measurement tools, marketers can plan their future content or marketing campaigns more strategically to ensure a higher level of engagement and relevance”.
Colyn exalains, “A similar type of measuring system is used with our interactive kiosks and tables. We can track a variety of interactions such as what type of content is being interacted with in real time, when in the day the content is being viewed, the average amount of time spent viewing each page of content and where, geographically, the engagement is taking place. Based on the stats received from the above measurement tools, marketers can plan their future content or marketing campaigns more strategically to ensure a higher level of engagement and relevance”.
When asked what his top tips to creating engaging, relevant and measurable content are, Colyn is adamant: “Track, measure and improve. Good content engages people, great content influences buying decisions. To develop great content you have to continuously analyse the content engagement value and, most importantly, the relevancy of it,” adds Colyn.