7 Tips for Building and Scheduling Your Digital Signage Content in Retail
Digital signage is a rapidly growing market. Valued at $21.9bn in 2021, this figure is set to almost double in the next six years, with forecasters predicting the industry will be worth $42.54bn by 2030. Retailers like Walmart Group, Target, and Home Depot are already deploying digital screens in-store. For those of you kickstarting your digital signage content strategy in 2023, it can be daunting not knowing where to begin. Fortunately, Wovenmedia is the in-store retail media expert. Keep reading to discover our seven tips for effectively scheduling digital signage content.
Why Schedule Digital Signage Content?
Planning and scheduling your digital signage content in advance makes managing your network much easier. Not only does it save time, but it can also help you keep track of what’s playing where and when. Enabling you to monitor the results and make adjustments to reach more of your audience.
There are lots of tools you can use to create content for your screens. Not to mention vast video content libraries like WovenContent, which contains thousands of hours of premium content curated especially for digital signage networks. But what about digital signage scheduling software?
Digital signage scheduling software is especially useful for retailers with large networks. Push content across your entire network, vary it by location, or schedule videos to play to individual screens – whatever gets the best results. The content you share should be timely and relevant, but even scheduling at the beginning of the month will take some of the stress out of managing your content strategy.
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7 Tips for Scheduling Digital Signage Content in Retail
1. Plan ahead
What’s the purpose of your digital signage? Who are you trying to reach? Use the answers to these questions to shape your digital signage strategy. When creating your content calendar, you first need to decide what kind of content you want to share. Our top tip is to mix it up a little to keep viewers engaged with your messaging.
However, your content plan doesn’t need to be rigid. Some of your content should be evergreen (optimized and relevant to your audience year-round), but you should keep monitoring your strategy to see what works and change what doesn’t. Leave room in your scheduling for real-time content and the latest industry trends or in-store deals and promotions.
2. Keep it relevant
One of the biggest advantages of digital signage for retailers is that it’s more versatile and easier to update than traditional print signage. With WovenManager, you can change your displays with the touch of a button, even during trading hours, without causing any disruption to shoppers.
Scheduling real-time content can be difficult because you don’t have the information a month in advance. But you can plan to keep screens up-to-date with sale prices, stock availability, and more. Additionally, if you are planning to change the layout of your store, you can use wayfinding technology, like interactive screens and floor projectors, to guide your customers to their favorite products or departments, e.g., the restaurant, pharmacy, or checkout area.
For retailers with multiple stores, WovenManager also allows you to schedule content at a specific time and day of the week on your entire network or for individual screens. This means you can optimize your playlists for different audiences and update product information throughout the day/week to ensure your customers are always seeing the most relevant content for them.
3.Make it visually appealing
For an optimized viewing experience, use high-quality images and graphics, and consider adding video content into the mix. Movement draws the eye, which means videos are more likely to catch your audience’s attention. And once you’ve got it – WovenContent has the largest online collection of 4K content for your screens. Keep shoppers entertained and reduce perceived waiting times in high-dwell areas with the latest movie trailers, music videos, or documentary clips, all in high definition.
4. Be concise
In most cases, shoppers don’t want to stop. For maximum visibility on the go, use a mix of text and graphics. But keep it short and to the point! Customers should be able to get all the information they need from your screens at a glance.
Learn more about how to write effective copy for digital signage in our best practices guide: Layout Design Guidelines.
5. Use a mix of content
Keep your customers engaged throughout their in-store journey with a diverse content mix. Your playlist can include product promotions, company news, and industry updates. And in high-dwell areas such as the pharmacy and checkout lanes, schedule entertainment content, like movie trailers and music videos, to reduce perceived wait times and improve the customer experience.
High-dwell areas are also a good opportunity for retailers to grow their return on investment (ROI) in digital signage. Monetize your retail media network by selling advertising space on your screens to other brands or advertisers and run the ads where your audience is most likely to stop and watch them.
By the time customers have reached the checkouts, it might be too late, but retailers with kiosks and other high-dwell spots in-store can take advantage of the people waiting by interspersing entertainment content with third-party ads.
Sam’s Club have fully monetized their In-Club digital signage network with the help of Wovenmedia. Their team uses Wovenmedia’s purpose-built CMS to schedule content, manage campaigns, and stream endemic ads to the right screens at the right times.
Read the case study to find out how you can use WovenManager to build a retail media network that works for you.
6. Use scheduling software
It is best practice when scheduling signage content to use a dedicated digital signage scheduling software. Your software should give you control over where and when your content is displayed. And ensure screens are consistent across your entire network.
WovenManager is the content management system (CMS) designed specifically for use with digital signage. Its easy-to-use interface allows you to create playlists, channels, and campaigns. To then schedule playback of content for a specific time and day across your entire network, or down to a single screen.
7. Monitor and adjust
Scheduling should be a continuous and evolving process. You need fresh content to keep your viewers engaged each month, but what kinds of content should you be using? The answer to this is in your current content calendar. Monitor the efficacy of your content and adjust next month’s schedule accordingly to give your viewers more of what they want. This will boost engagement and improve the customer experience, to increase repeat sales.
Building and Scheduling Your Digital Signage Content with Wovenmedia
Setting clear goals, creating a defined (but flexible) content strategy, and scheduling your content makes managing your digital signage network a breeze. Build a diverse and visually appealing content pie and schedule digital signage content for specific days, times, and locations. All this will ensure your audience always sees content that is relevant to them.
Wovenmedia’s CMS is designed for digital signage and comes complete with amazing, rights-cleared content from the biggest online digital signage content library. Get in touch with our expert team, or sign up now for your 30-day free trial.
Written by Katy Farmer
