It has been stated and confirmed many times that the way to increase awareness and attention around your brand is content marketing. With so many messages floating around on the various new devices that seem to always popping up, and the decreasing attention span of consumers, companies are not being noticed unless they make something eye catching and easily digestible by consumers/businesses. Content marketing is a blanket term that basically means any communication avenue that pushes company messages using pictures, video, words, etc. That could be through email, on your site, through mobile devices or in a store.  If you like more formal definitions, the Content Marketing Institute defines it as:

 “Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Since content marketing has become the go-to method for effective marketing, the phrase “Content is King” has been floating around as a catch phrase t0 emphasizes its importance. More recently the phrase has grown to “Content is King and Distribution is Queen.” As consumers have grown immune to content marketing efforts on forums, email, blogs, and search; now it’s primarily discovered through social media. Not to discount the effectiveness of social media, but even those networks are beginning to be over saturated. In my opinion social media should not be abandoned, but for truly effective impact, companies should returning to their roots and making sure that the content in their physical locations are keeping up with the times. In addition to social media efforts, companies should be updating their physical location for the digital age in order to have as much reach as possible. What’s the solution to that? Digital Signage.

With digital signage companies are able to increase their content marketing efforts because they will have the ability to provide the same or similar vivid content to their customers on-site. This also helps in getting consumers to look up from their smartphones away from all of the other ads and apps that keep us walking with our heads down.  Digital signage also allows for multiple marketing messages to be cycled so content for various audiences can occupy the same space for a lower cost than printing hundreds of posters that will have to be replaced at some point. More importantly, by catching the customers attention in the store there is a higher probably they will stop and engage with your company immediately rather than adding it to their “To-Do List.”

If you are now considering digital signage, or already have digital signage infrastructure in place, you want to make sure that the content you are presenting is effective and utilizes the technology as well as possible. The most overlooked factor I have noticed when companies purchase digital signage is the content. So much time is spent on making sure the technology  is purchased at a good price and it looks awesome, but once that’s done they don’t know what they are going to put on it, or stick up static PowerPoint  slides, and images they could have spent less money on just printing them. When possible its best to use video, or content that has motion in order to catch the attention of those passing by. So before I go I want to leave you with some points to consider when planning your content in the future so that you can make your investment worthwhile:

  • Who is your audience? – Figure out who you are targeting, whether they be male, female, teens, families, professionals, etc.
  • What is being communicated? – Decide if the signage will be used for paid ad space, travel information, even promotion, etc.
  • How long people will be watching? & How frequently will they see the signage? – Will they be passing by or standing around? This will help determine the length a message should be displayed, and how often.
  • Who is going to make it? – Determine if the content will be repurposed from social media messaged, automatically pulled in from social media or feeds on your site, contracted out, or created internally by a designated employee.

Remember the key is consistency. Making sure you address these points before you start creating content will guarantee that the messages will be effective, cohesive, and match the budget you have set for content.

Thanks to our friends over at Pixelfire for helping us with our content, and some of the information above.