Content is the foundation of today’s most successful marketing efforts, but simply having content is not enough; businesses need to have a content strategy, too. An organized and well-documented approach is key to the successful execution of a modern marketing initiative. Cultivating an understanding of the current trends in display content can go a long way towards informing your content strategy, but often these trends are difficult to conceptualize without hard figures to provide context. Sometimes, the best way to comprehend a growing trend is to cut through all the flowery language and take a look at some cold hard stats. With that in mind, here are four relevant statistics to help inform your digital signage content strategy:

1. According to Little Jack Marketing, 211 million pieces of content are published every minute.

This means that in order for your content to stand out, it needs to be exceptional. Consider how many pieces of content you are exposed to just while walking down the street. How many of those do you actually remember? Modern consumers crave authenticity from their brands, and they expect businesses to be transparent about their ideals. Content that reflects the heart and personality of a brand will resonate at a much higher level with today’s customers, while generic run-of-the-mill content will fall flat. Fortunately for you, genuine brand-centric content, though certainly not the easiest to create, is among the most accessible. After all, who knows the heart of a company better than their own employees? Gather your in-house team together and brainstorm ideas that showcase what your company wants to represent about itself.

2. A study by Reevoo indicates that 70% of consumers trust peer recommendations more than professional marketing copy.

Marketing is about telling a story, your business’s story, and one of the most effective modern ways of doing so is to have your customers tell it for you. Studies have shown that consumers are more likely to trust information that comes from peers rather than from the brands themselves. This presents a challenge to traditional marketing efforts. In today’s digital world however, brands are adapting by encouraging consumers to create their own content, which the brands then promote on their own channels. User-generated content is not only more trustworthy, but it also extends a much greater reach because display does not exist solely on the display where it is showcased. It can be seen anywhere with a Wi-Fi signal, and its reach is capable of expanding exponentially, rather than linearly like traditional content. And to top it all off, it’s free!

3. According to a study by John Medina of Brain Rules, when people hear a piece of information, they remember 10% of it three days later. If the information is accompanied by a relevant image, people remember 65% of it.

This is makes sense intuitively; more sources of information ought to increase the likelihood that that information is retained. This stat tells us more than that though. It emphasizes the importance of images. It’s often repeated that a picture is worth a thousand words, but in truth that idiom may not be generous enough. In fact, eye-tracking studies have shown that readers pay much closer attention to images that carry information than they do to the accompanying text. Plain text is boring! It is less engaging than an image, and it’s also more difficult to take in. Just think about it; you can grasp an image almost immediately without any effort, but to understand a piece of text you have to actually read it.

4. In a 2016 study by Hubspot, 41.5% of marketers said that infographics and other original graphics were the most engaging visuals.

This statistic falls in line with the previous figure about the importance of visual graphics, but it is necessary to emphasize truly how game-changing quality imagery can be. One of the most popular ways to absorb an audience while also imparting a critical piece of messaging is to use infographics. Infographics satisfy consumers’ desire for imagery while also conveying the vital textual messaging the marketer is trying to deliver. They are engaging, entertaining, and eminently shareable because they make learning fun. Ultimately, an infographic is just another form of marketing content but to most consumers, it’s more than that. It’s an activity. It’s an opportunity to learn something new through colorful text and helpfully coordinated imagery.

Consumers’ attention spans are shrinking, and marketing content needs to adapt to keep pace. That means including more authentic content to advertise the values of your business, encouraging customers to generate their own content in order to expand the reach of your brand, and generously implementing visual imagery into every piece of content you publish. These statistics obviously do not tell the whole story, but hopefully they provide you a snapshot of the larger marketing picture as it evolves. To find more information about display content strategy, check out our blog here!

~ JOE’ LLOYD
Vice President of Global Marketing