Every communication should have a goal and a way to measure progress against that goal. But if you’re creating messages on the fly, how can you think strategically? Use these 9 tips to build a content plan for your digital signage to save yourself time and improve engagement.
1) Do some housekeeping.
- Review your content contributors – managers, approvers, users, orgs & suborgs.
- Update your software to see what’s possible with new features.
2) Reexamine your goals.
- Are they the same as last year? (They shouldn’t be – all organizations evolve.)
- Use a fresh eye to decide if you’re measuring the right things.
- Create a list of calls to action in your policies to make it easy for content creators.
3) Reassess your audience.
- Have their demographics or preferences changed?
- What new technology or trends might affect the way they view communications?
- Can you localize, gamify or personalize more than you have in the past?
- Ask them – not just bulk surveys, but at the team level and one-on-one.
4) Build on what worked; scrap what didn’t.
- Clean out old content and artwork. Old messages may inspire new ideas.
- Redesign anything that’s evergreen. Use new imagery to recapture attention.
- Refresh your layout designs. Even moving your logo can make it look new.
5) Start a calendar.
- This lets you visualize where the holes are in your schedule.
- Color code for different content buckets – playlists, departments, topics or type.
- Mix and match to make sure there’s a wide variety of content.
6) Start with the easy stuff.
- Always on screen – weather, date/time, events, directories, etc.
- Birthdays, anniversaries, trivia, motivational quotes.
- Any weekly or monthly messages like recycling, DEI, wellness reminders?
7) Start scheduling creative time now.
- Get projects on designers’ calendars ASAP and discuss content goals with them.
- Create and schedule in batches whenever you can.
- Automate everything you can with data widgets and subscription feeds.
8) Share your content plan.
- Share your calendar so people see the big picture.
- Update your policies – include a mission statement for your digital signage.
- Refresh your team’s training.
9) Execute against goals.
- Measure success for your calls to action.
- Survey your audience to see if the quantity and quality is good.
- Adjust your strategy as you go.
It may take a bit of time and effort, but once you build your content plan, it’s easy to work from that versus starting from scratch each time you want to craft a message or campaign. Think about building a plan for three months, see how it works and then make adjustments.
With a solid digital signage content plan in place, you’ll streamline workflows, deliver a better mix of content at a steadier pace and engage more people.
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