Put simply: good digital signage enhances an experience by making it easier, faster, or more engaging. Bad digital signage, on the other hand, can unnecessarily complicate an experience, or slow it down. 

The fundamentals of creating and deploying great digital signage are simple: deliver a clear message, use consistent branding, ensure accessibility and inclusivity, use strategic placement, and ensure integration with your wider content strategy. We’ll dive into each of these fundamentals, below.

Deliver a clear message:

Good digital signage is easy to understand. When digital signage is done right, the viewer will immediately understand its message and any actions they’re meant to take. In a restaurant, for example, digital signage that’s meant to help customers view the menu or order food should focus on streamlining those experiences. 

One way to ensure clarity is to highlight one message or theme at a time. When digital screens offer multiple or competing messages at once, customers are more likely to be confused or frustrated.  

To facilitate this, be sure to avoid overcrowding your screens with densely-packed text or images. It’s tempting to include as much information and design as possible, but digital signage should be easy and enjoyable to read or watch, and that’s difficult when screens are cluttered or busy. Studies have shown that our brains prefer ‘white space’ when we’re digesting content, so it’s important to ensure that your words and images have room to breathe. This includes ensuring that there’s adequate space between lines, paragraphs, and pictures. Simple tips like this greatly improve flow, and make it much easier for viewers to distinguish between different pieces of information. This leads to better comprehension and information retention.

Use consistent branding:

Your digital screens are an integral and unique part of your overall brand. To ensure that you get the most out of your investment into digital signage, you should ensure that your branding remains consistent across your screens.

This doesn’t mean just adding your logo to every screen! Staying consistent with your branding means ensuring that your tone of voice, style, and visual brand are reinforced across all of your content channels, including your digital signage. When you create this kind of consistency, you’re reinforcing your brand identity and earning more opportunities to purchase mental real estate in the minds of your customers. 

On the other hand, when your digital signage doesn’t use the same style, tone, font, or colors as your other channels – or when it uses them inconsistently – you’re missing opportunities to build brand equity with your target audience. 

Ultimately, when it comes to branding, think of this as one of the best and most powerful ways that you can maintain your connection with your audience. 

Ensure accessibility and inclusivity:

Good digital signage is accessible and inclusive. From the colours and contrast used, to the actual messages being delivered, the difference between good and bad digital signage can often come down to whether it’s been designed with these basic principles in mind. 

To ensure that your digital signage is accessible, make sure to use sufficient contrast and clear fonts. It’s also best practice to offer closed captions, audio descriptions, and braille text where possible to ensure access for those with hearing or vision impairments.  Even the height at which you place your screens can impact how accessible they are: for example, digital signage which is placed too high for wheelchair users to reach is not accessible. 

When it comes to messaging, it’s important to remain as inclusive as possible. You can do this by avoiding unnecessarily gendered language and by choosing words, terms, and images that are intentionally diverse, representative, and culturally sensitive. 

Use strategic placement:

Your digital signage can only make an impression if people see it!

It’s important to think about how and where you’re going to place your screens, and it’s key to choose locations that maximize exposure and engagement with your content. Good digital signage works with its environment: for example, a screen which is located outdoors must be weather-resistant, energy efficient, and bright enough for people to see. And a screen which is located in a higher-trafficked area should focus on designs and text that are as attention-grabbing and engaging as possible. 

Ultimately, if you don’t take these items into consideration when deciding on the placement of your signage, your screens are less likely to have their intended impact. 

Ensure integration with your wider content strategy:

The biggest differentiator between good and bad digital signage is whether it’s been planned and created in line with a broader content strategy. 

When digital signage content is incorporated into your wider marketing and communications approach, it’s more likely to create a consistent brand experience that reinforces your messaging and engages viewers. Moreover, this approach makes it possible for you to engineer an experience that drives the type of action you want your audience to take: if you understand your total content landscape, you can ensure that your digital signage content fits in with the rest of your marketing or communications plan. This avoids conflicts in your messaging, streamlines your content cadence, and ensures that your audience is exposed to the right content, in the right place, at the right time.

Creating the best digital signage content starts with choosing the right digital signage software

Ultimately, creating good digital signage content is a combination of several key factors. By keeping clarity, consistency, accessibility, placement, and strategy in mind, you’ll be best-positioned to deliver digital content that makes an impact. 

And when it comes to getting the right tools in place to build and deliver high-quality content for your digital screens, it’s important to look for a solution that streamlines everything. From content creation and editing to delivery and management, your digital signage software should have the features and functionality you need to easily, quickly create high-quality, high-impact content that leaves nothing to chance. 

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Yodeck is the first and only intelligent digital signage platform. Cloud-powered and incredibly easy to use, Yodeck is designed to help you transform your screens into dynamic displays that grab attention and drive engagement. With a huge library of free, customizable templates, Yodeck makes it possible for teams to create incredible content that resonates with your audience, all without the need for IT support or expertise. 

To explore the best-in-class features that Yodeck offers, you can sign up for free or you can explore this page.

*Katie Rose Hester is a senior content strategist and writer working with product-led businesses bringing interesting, helpful innovations to market.