Keep Your Digital Signage Effortlessly Updated

Keep your digital signage content fresh, and you’ll score big points with repeat customers. Not only do they recognize quality content, they also become responsive and engage with your digital signage on a more serious level. With that said, know that keeping the content fresh requires a bit of focus, but not as much time as you would originally think. The trick is to create an easy-to-update layout, and create a habit of reviewing and updating content elements.

Build digital signage templates and layouts

Digital signage software providers will offer you tools to customize existing templates in order to create your own. By building content templates, you’ll ensure your content is consistent over time, making it easier to process for the viewer. Sticking to templates also makes the process of updating much faster and easier.

Instead of creating a brand new image from scratch, then uploading it to the platform, you can set the visual assets as you like, then update information areas, such as product prices and descriptions, as needed within the platform. 

Create data-driven content elements

Apps and tools on digital signage platforms are compatible with data sources. In the case of OnSign, these are Data Feeds, which contain information which will be inserted into other places on the platform. For example, a Menu Board app can load product names, images, and pricing from a Data Feed. This type of setup allows you to alter the content on the display just by editing the data it uses. So when you change the price, or add/remove a product from the menu, the visual elements adapt automatically.

Using Data Feeds is particularly useful if you go through frequent content adaptations. Furthermore, it allows you to transfer existing data into a new visual layout or an app. As a result, you can test and adjust your visuals much faster, and figure out what works best!

Implement a schedule for content updates

To ensure everything runs smoothly, set a schedule for yourself or your content manager to do an overview of currently running content to update, of course, depending on the complexity of your setup. Updating content on the go leaves more room for mistakes and neglecting an update in key visual elements. It’s much simpler to keep an eye on everything by doing a quick overview of current and upcoming campaigns every once in a while.

Another good idea is to implement a checklist when doing these updates. Alongside the regular overview, such as checking for errors, or doing minor visual tweaks, points for the checklist can be added throughout the month. As a seasonal promotion starts, add an update reminder as the end of the promotion approaches. In a sea of tasks, it can be easy to miss something, so having a concrete list to be reviewed at the end of the month will come in handy! With a playback restriction you can make sure a content does not play past its validity, but it never hurts to give everything a check.

Use consistent sizes for images and graphics

Keeping a library of content consistent to size and style is a very neat thing to have when working on new campaigns. As you build your templates, you’ll quickly identify the resolution you utilize most. In case of multiple resolutions, group items and mark them with tags to make it easy to find a specific resolution or orientation.

Another useful tip is to upload visual assets which are not tied to a highly specific date or context. For example, upload sales banners or backdrops without a date range on them. Instead, overlay the date within the digital signage platform. This will allow you to quickly re-use the sales banner at a later point.

Do occasional cosmetic tweaks!

The nature of ads and promotions inevitably pushes you to update them. Some content elements, however, don’t need much updating. Menu items, entertainment displays, or interactive setups tend to have the same content available, more or less. Often, changes do happen, but they may be minor and not as noticeable at first glance. For a bigger splash, play with different color layouts, section frames, or animations which create a sense of change.

This is where it comes in handy to have multiple image or video variations of products. Via the aforementioned Data Feeds, it is an easy task to run through listed items and do quick tweaking to shuffle and update the appearance of items and layouts.

Start building your Data Feeds and create a quality content layout with OnSign, for free!