As you’re surely aware, digital signage is meant to be engaging. Its purpose is to draw the attention of onlookers and keep it. The presence of digital signage, in pretty much any professional setting, is bound to keep people interested in the goings-on of the company they’re visiting. It needs to be said, however, that not all digital signage is equally effective. Content is key. The images, graphics and text you choose to display make all the difference in the world.
By taking advantage of digital signage at your place of business, you already have a leg up on your competitors. Therefore, wasting digital signage can be considered a cardinal sin in the business world. Don’t do it!
Here are three sure ways to waste your digital signage:
Put a wealth of content on the screen all at one time.
Is each screen that appears on your digital sign easy to ingest? Can the text be read in plenty of time before the shot changes? Are the photos visually stimulating or hard to make out? And is there far too much to take in all at once? The beauty of digital signage is that it can spread out your messages over several pages. Don’t inundate your viewers with an overwhelming amount of content to take in on each screen.
“If it takes too long for a person to read your message, then you’re doing something wrong,” states Debbie Wilson-DeWitt on DigitalSignageToday.com, “You have only a few seconds to grab their attention, and then another few to keep it. Cluttering up the screen with too many content zones is one way to make sure your message gets lost — it’s confusing on the eye and people will just walk on by.”
Keep content on the screen for long durations of time.
Boring! This is what viewers of your digital signage will be thinking (or saying out loud if they are so bold), if you don’t change the content on your screen at regular intervals. Those intervals, by the way, should be timed to ensure that the content can easily be consumed. For example, if you own a restaurant and choose to display an item and its price, such an image can easily be consumed within 10-15 seconds.
However, if you operate a doctor’s office and you’re displaying pertinent health information on the screen, you’ll want to ensure that there is ample time to read the messages. Depending on the length of the text, perhaps, 30-40 seconds would be wise.
“The mistake many early-stage digital signage networks make is under-investing in and under-planning content — leaving images on the screen too long or simply repurposing content from other mediums such as online or broadcast,” writes digital signage veteran, Dave Haynes on Samsung.com.
Display images that are of poor quality.
The importance of using high-quality images should not be underestimated. The quality of the images you use can make or break your message. Your photos should most definitely be high-res so that they appear crisp, clean and vivid on high-definition screens. In 2020, there’s no room for compromise here. Old, faded and blurry photos simply won’t cut it. Viewers of your digital signage will undoubtedly formulate opinions of your brand based on the quality of the images it chooses to use.
“Text-only digital signage is almost certainly doomed to failure, so you want to use imagery,” stresses Wilson-DeWitt, “But make sure it’s high quality — using stretched, squashed or pixelated pictures makes all your efforts seem amateurish. Common clipart also no longer works on today’s visually-sophisticated audiences. High resolution images that help reinforce your message are the key.”
For more information about how Screenfluence can help you to not waste your digital signage, please don’t hesitate to contact us by calling 1-844-772-7336 or emailing info@screenfluence.com.
