Ask most people why their organization runs a digital signage system, and the answer is usually some version of “to inform people about things.” That is a fine start, but information alone rarely changes behavior. As the philosopher Herbert Spencer put it, “The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” A message that is read and forgotten has not achieved anything. Digital signage can dramatically increase the reach of a message, but if that message lacks a clear call to action, you have to ask – what is the point?
This article combines years of Visix advice on calls to action into one place. You’ll learn what a call to action is, why it belongs in nearly every message, the 12 best practices that consistently lift response, ready-to-use examples by message type, and how to measure whether your signs are actually working.
What Is a Digital Signage Call to Action?
A digital signage call to action, or CTA, is a short, clear instruction that motivates your audience to do something – for example, “register now,” “scan to enroll,” or “learn more”. It tells viewers exactly what step to take next, and it gives you a measurable way to know whether your message worked. In visual communications, the call to action is the most important part of every message you publish: it prompts action, drives engagement, and turns a passive display into a two-way conversation.
Why Every Digital Signage Message Needs a CTA
Digital signage is a form of digital communication, like a website or a social feed, and it follows many of the same rules. The name of the game is conversions – your audience interacting with a message and taking a specific action. Every piece of content should have a clear conversion goal that the audience understands and the communicator can measure.
Including a call to action is not just design – it’s strategy. If you never ask your audience to act, you’ll never know whether your content is landing. A successful message produces results that are obvious and measurable, which means someone has to do something: scan, click, visit, register, or show up. As Gandhi observed, “Action expresses priorities.” Crafting a good CTA forces you to focus. Instead of asking “What do I want to say?”, ask “What do I want them to do?”
With few exceptions, every message should carry some form of call to action. The main exceptions are attractors like news, weather, and data feeds, whose job is simply to draw eyes to the screens.
12 Best Practices for Digital Signage Calls to Action
These 12 practices have been proven to work on digital signs. For a quick visual recap, see our infographic 12 Best Practices for Calls to Action on Digital Signs, or hear the full conversation in our podcast Call to Action Examples & Advice for Digital Signage.
1. Make the call to action easy to see
Don’t bury the CTA in a wall of text and images. Most messages are only on screen for about seven seconds, so the action should be one of the first things a viewer notices – and ideally the last thing they see too. Make it stand out with a different color, a bolder weight, a larger size, or a distinct font, as long as it stays within your brand standards.
2. Be clear, concise, and specific
Vague messages get vague results. “Come to the town hall” leaves too many questions: When? Where? A specific, concrete instruction performs far better. A helpful guideline is the 3×5 rule – no more than three lines of text with about five words each (or five lines of three words). Content written for email or the intranet rarely translates one-to-one to a sign, so trim it down. For more on tightening your message, see our tips on focus techniques and digital content design.
3. Write at an appropriate level for your audience
Match your vocabulary to the people reading the screen. You wouldn’t use college-level wording for elementary students, and you don’t need press-release language on a sign. Use common, high-frequency words: “get” beats “acquire,” and “have” beats “possess.” Shorter, everyday words read faster, take up less space, and work better for audiences that include non-native speakers. You’re not writing literature – you’re communicating.
4. Prioritize verbs, then nouns, and use adjectives sparingly
Verbs create a sense of motion, and the brain treats them differently than other words. Reading a verb activates the motor cortex – the part of the brain that controls physical movement – while nouns are processed alongside faces, colors, and categories. In other words, a verb primes the body to act. Lean on strong verbs, support them with the nouns you need, and reach for adjectives only when they earn their place.
5. Use vivid language and imperative verb forms
Imperative (command) forms are shorter and stronger. “Contact admin today” beats “You should contact admin today,” and “Do this” beats “You can do this”, which carries no useful information. Avoid passive voice, which distances the reader and adds length: say “Register now”, not “Registration can be completed”. When you can show rather than tell, do it – a single high-quality image can replace “delicious” or “fresh” and save valuable screen space.
6. Include persuasive trigger words
Some words consistently grab attention and trigger an emotional, almost instant reaction. Proven performers include you, free, because, instantly, and new, along with easy, save, guarantee, money, health, and discovery. Words that target common needs work especially well. Symbols can do the same job in less space: a dollar sign reads instantly in the U.S., so “Save $” or “Win $” packs a punch with fewer characters.
7. Make taking action easy
The easier the action, the more people complete it – especially in a seven-second window. QR codes are ideal: they’re compact, easy to make, and now familiar to most audiences, and they tuck neatly into a design (just keep the contrast high so they scan reliably). If you use a URL, never display a long, messy link. Use a short, memorable vanity URL through a service like Bit.ly so people can act at the sign or remember it later. Whenever possible, let people act right then and there, because once they walk away, the moment is gone.
8. Focus on benefits and common needs
Put yourself in the audience’s shoes and answer the question they’re really asking: “What’s in it for me?” Modern, benefit-led copy is more “you” focused. “Our apples are delicious” becomes “You’ll love our healthy, delicious apples”. Tie the action to a clear personal payoff rather than an organizational one. For more on what drives people to respond, listen to Understanding Audience Motivations and read about employee engagement.
9. Create a sense of urgency
Phrases like “limited time”, “today only”, or “next hour only” make acting now feel like the smart choice. Think of the old Kmart blue-light special: a burst of attention that signals “act fast”. You can recreate that energy with animation, a bold color treatment, or even a touch of audio on the right players and in the right locations. Time-limited offers also make great test cases, because they let you compare which prompts drove the strongest response.
10. Offer a small reward
A small incentive is a powerful motivator. A discount code, a coupon, reward or loyalty points, or gamified content can all nudge people to act immediately or to keep coming back. Even a modest perk – free coffee, a punch-card stamp, or points toward a reward store – can lift participation well beyond an abstract benefit.
11. Cross-promote across channels
Digital signage is one part of a comprehensive communications system, so reinforce key messages everywhere your audience already is. Echo the three things you most want people to remember from a town hall, promote your social pages, or run coordinated versions of a message across email, intranet, social, and signage for blanket coverage. This works because not everyone sees every channel.
12. Build in a way to measure ROI
If you cannot track it, you cannot improve it. Build measurement into every call to action so you can adjust future messages. Use a dedicated QR code or a unique landing page for each channel so you can see exactly where responses came from – signage, intranet, LinkedIn, and so on. For a deeper dive, listen to Measuring the Effectiveness of Digital Signage Designs.
Call to Action Examples for Digital Signage
Almost any message can carry a call to action – some are just more obvious than others. Use this table as a starting point and adapt the wording to your audience and brand voice.
| Message type | Example call to action |
| Welcome notice | Scan to read speaker and visitor bios. |
| Event promotion | Scan to get details and buy tickets. |
| Benefits / 401(k) | Enroll now – scan for online enrollment. |
| Menu board / café | Show this code for $1 off today only. |
| Meeting announcement | Scan to add it to your calendar. |
| Social media promo | Follow us – scan to connect. |
| Bookstore or retail | Take a photo for a 5% discount. |
| Interactive kiosk | Tap here to start the survey. |
On an interactive screen, people can act right at the kiosk – simply include the link, form, survey, or media you want them to use. And remember that strong imagery sells, too; see our image tips for digital signs and 12 ways to increase engagement for more ideas.
Stronger vs. Weaker Wording
Small wording changes have an outsized effect. Notice how the stronger versions are generally shorter and use imperative verbs with a clear benefit to the viewer.
| Weaker | Stronger |
| Free gift for signing up | Sign up for a free gift |
| You should contact admin today | Contact admin today |
| Our apples are delicious | Try our delicious apples |
| Registration can be completed online | Register online now |
| Information is available about benefits | Scan for benefits info |
How to Measure Your Results
A successful message produces obvious, measurable results, so decide up front what action equals success and how you’ll track it. Unique QR codes and dedicated landing pages let you attribute responses to a specific screen, campaign, or channel. Limited-time prompts make natural experiments: run a series of “today only” messages and duplicate whatever drew the strongest response.
Run Every Message Through This Quick Check
The fastest way to put all of this into practice is to give every message a quick gut-check before it goes on screen. If you can answer yes to each of these, your call to action is ready:
- Can someone spot the action in the first second or two, without hunting for it?
- Is it specific enough to answer when, where, and what, rather than a vague “learn more”?
- Does it lead with a verb in command form, with every spare word cut?
- Could your audience read and understand it at a glance, in plain, everyday language?
- Is the action genuinely easy to take right now, through a clean QR code or a short, memorable URL?
- Does it make the benefit to the viewer obvious, instead of the benefit to you?
- Is there a reason to act now instead of later?
- Afterward, will you be able to tell who responded and which screen or channel they came from?
That last question is the one that separates a sign that informs from a sign that works. Anyone can put words on a screen. The difference is whether those words move someone to act, and whether you can prove they did. So, before you design your next message, stop asking what you want to say and start asking what you want people to do. Answer that clearly, and the call to action tends to write itself.