When and How to Keep Digital Signage Content Updated and Fresh

One of the many benefits of digital signage, beyond its engaging nature and versatility, is the option to upgrade and keep content fresh. In fact updating content with regular new displays is not just a nice touch, it’s also important as a way to keep people engaged and interested.

Whether you’re using digital signage as a public facing display, or for internal communication in the office, having a process to update your digital signage should be part of your weekly or monthly processes.

Why do you need to update digital signage content?

Digital signage content isn’t set-it-and-forget-it. If you display the same content over and over, people will eventually stop noticing it altogether.

You see this happen in advertising too with a phenomenon called ad fatigue, where viewers are exposed to the same message so often that it loses its impact. 

With digital signage content, engagement drops, attention shifts elsewhere, and the content no longer drives action. To keep your screens working effectively, your messaging needs to feel fresh and relevant every time someone sees it.

Here are more reasons why you need to keep your content fresh and updated.

1. Maintain viewer interest

Customers and visitors (not to mention co-workers in the office) have a limited attention span. In order to capture their interest and keep it, digital signage content needs to be relevant, attention-grabbing, and fresh. 

Regular updates ensure your content remains appealing and engaging and keeps your audience both engaging and guessing. 

2. Stay relevant to time-sensitive content

Digital signage often carries messages that are time-sensitive, such as promotions, special events, or seasonal messages. And while these can be a great way to build excitement or anticipation, leaving these messages to age can be detrimental to the overall impact of the event. 

Ensuring you update your signage displays ensures the information remains accurate and timely.

It can also help with avoiding any confusion or misinformation for your audience. For example, still running your Black Friday promo content in December? Or running announcements about ice and snow safety as the clocks go forward is just going to confuse people.

3. Reflect brand growth and evolution

For many businesses, as the brand grows, things change. This might be the branding, the company font; or any business milestones or updates to the company mission.

Consistently updating the content on your signage ensures your brand message and branding remains up to date. 

What sort of content is most engaging on digital displays?

Like any form of display content, capturing and keeping the attention of your audience is an artform in itself. Digital displays can increasingly look like part of the landscape, especially in busy retail environments where there is a lot of signage.

If you haven’t already, check out our guide: How to design signage content.

To avoid display fatigue, or ad fatigue if you’re running ads, creating engaging content is the best way to stay fresh and engaging.

1. High-quality images and videos

It goes without saying that visually striking images and videos attract attention and stimulate the required response. Beautifully shot images of your products, exciting videos of your last business away-day, or emotive images or video to get people to donate to your chosen charity.

However, you also need to ensure that your choice of images is quality. 

This means:

• Well lit and color balanced
• Correctly framed
• In focus or not blurry
• Video needs to be smooth 

While this might all sound like obvious advice, it’s something that can easily be glossed over in a rush to get content out.

One poor quality image amongst your digital display can totally undermine your efforts, so run a quality check.

2. Infographics and data visualization

Sharing information is good. Facts, stats and data are all great content that people love to engage with and will even focus on the screen after this information has been shared.

Presenting complex data in a visually simplified style makes it easier to understand and digest. This means pie charts or bar charts, as opposed to numbers on spreadsheets.

If you have a lot of information to share you can display groups of data, or individual statistics, on individual slides. This makes your data easier to digest than simply cramming all of your data onto one screen.

3. Real-time information

Using real-time information, such as live weather updates, news headlines, or social media feeds, is a great way to keep content relevant and timely.

Even if you feel that it’s not really relevant to your display or location, it can be a highly impactful way of drawing the eye and keeping attention. And people might be more likely to digest the other information on your digital display if there is locally relevant data too.

By using ScreenCloud you can overlay additional relevant data to your display. For example, stream your recent business performance statistics or advertising content, with a breaking news or sports scores ticker along the bottom.

4. Interactive content

Being able to engage with content is always going to be a crowd puller. While this might mean touch screen displays, there are other ways to make content interactive.

• Virtual games
• Using augmented reality or AR through their devices
• QR codes on displays to access more information
• Facial recognition screens and content
• Quizzes
• Surveys and feedback

Wayfinding or directional signage can also be used as interactive content. Think treasure hunts, gaming style Easter Eggs and unique or surprise content in certain locations.

How often should you update digital signage content?

Determining the ideal frequency to update your digital signage content depends on several factors, including the specific goals of the display, audience expectations, and the nature of the content. To strike the right balance, consider the following questions:

• Is the displayed content time-sensitive or evergreen?
• How often do customers visit your location or are exposed to your digital display?
• What update frequency will keep your content engaging without overwhelming your audience or overwhelming your content creation team?

As a general rule, it's better to err on the side of updating your content too frequently rather than too infrequently, ensuring that your display remains visually appealing, relevant, and engaging.

While this can be time consuming, and another thing in your to-do list, tools such as ScreenCloud templates can greatly help to speed up new content creation.

Another idea is to create a content matrix . This is a process which can help you come up with lots of great ideas rapidly, saving you a large amount of time and helping you ensure you always have something useful to post.

Ideas for fresh signage content

If you’re looking for some inspiration, or content ideas for your digital displays, there are certain types of content that go down well. Whether you’re running in-store displays in a retail setting, or looking for ways to offer great content in your office or business location, these are all excellent and useful elements as part of your digital signage content strategy.

1. Seasonal themes

Switching your digital display to align with seasonal changes, holidays, or special events keeps content timely and relevant. This might be one of the more obvious digital signage content ideas, but it’s definitely one of the most effective. 

You don’t even have to limit yourself to Halloween, Christmas or other popular holidays. Add things to your calendar such as International Women's Day, Black History Month or International cat/dog/obscure pets day… 

This way you’ll never run out of fun seasonal content!

2. User-generated content

UGC or user generated content has come to be seen as one of the most important and engaging content forms on social media. It also works really well as part of your digital signage content strategy.

Incorporate customer reviews, testimonials, case studies, or social media posts that showcase your brand or products for an authentic touch.

3. Employee spotlights

Highlighting employees' achievements or introducing team members humanizes your brand and helps build rapport with customers or staff.

You’ll often see content in gyms where the personal trainers offer their advice or inspiration. This can work well for any other situation where an individuals personal input or advice might be valued too.

4. Behind-the-scenes footage

Offering a glimpse into the inner workings of your business, production process, or product development can generate curiosity and interest.

Whether it’s video, photo collages or a gallery, insight into the way things are done can be a fascinating way to create fresh signage content.

5. Product highlights

Always a good way to attract attention to your brand and new products. Showcase a specific product or service using high-quality images, videos, or interactive content.

This can build a buzz and attract people to try and even buy. Think of it like a movie trailer for your new product lines, or even to focus on underperforming products.

6. Limited-time offers

The oldest trick in the marketing book. But it still works! 

Only 24 hours to grab that discount? Buy one get one free every Tuesday? Buy X and get a free Y on every day with an A in it during July?

Use your digital signage to push those exclusive discounts or promotions, create a sense of urgency and motivate your audience to take action.

7. Loyalty programs and rewards

Use your digital signage content to promote your loyalty program, reward points, or other exclusive benefits. 

While many businesses run a loyalty program, they don’t always have the most efficient use or uptake. Using digital signage to jog everyone's memory can encourage customers to engage with your brand and use your rewards program.

8. Content collaborations

A great way to expand and reach new audiences, content collaborations can be a fun way of creating fresh content too.

This can include partnering with influencers or other local businesses to create joint content.

You’ll often see branding crossovers in fashion or food. But this can be a great way to inject new life into a marketing campaign or a tired old brand, or even improve engagement within an office setting.

9. Animations

Using animation can reimagine your content in a fresh and exciting new way. While this  might mean simply animating static images, you can also use some fresh graphic design to change how your brand is perceived.

Get some anime style images for younger facing brands. Or embrace the classic comic book style for a vintage/retro look.

10. New business announcements

A simple use for digital signage is to share exciting news, achievements, or updates related to your business.

Been nominated for some awards? Company looking at expansions? Perhaps some new partnerships in the works?

Share it in your digital signage content updates. An easy content win.

11. Local community updates

A great way to highlight your support for the local community. Use your digital signage content for sharing events, news, or initiatives related to nonprofits, local sports teams, or cultural events.

If you’ve done some great work in the community, make sure to present it through your digital signage too.

12. Countdown timers

Here it comes! It’s almost here!

Creating a sense of urgency by counting down time left for a sale, event, product launch; or even a national or global event such as the soccer world cup or New Years Day.

Countdown timers serve several great purposes. First of all, they put the timing into perspective. They also help to build excitement or anticipation.

And finally, they can also act as a trigger to act - or a call to action - when the time does arrive.

Pair your countdown timers with sneak peaks and previews at what is coming once the timer hits zero for maximum effect.

13. Trivia and fun facts

Trivia, fun facts, or interesting tidbits related to your industry, products or even your team can spark customer interest and make content more memorable.

This can work with any industry, from retail to finance; or even for in-house signage content.

14. Hashtag campaigns

Need some more social media love? Getting people engaged with your socials is a full time job in itself, but you can make it easier by leveraging the power of your digital signage content.

Encourage customer engagement by launching social media hashtag campaigns. You can then reward engagement by featuring user-generated content on your digital signage.

It’s a win-win for everybody.

15. Polls and surveys

Drive interaction and gather opinions by incorporating live polls or surveys on your digital display, offering insights into customer preferences.

QR codes can be a great way to make this happen. 

Encourage more uptake by offering a reward for taking part.

16. QR codes

We’ve mentioned QR codes a few times in this article, and there is a reason for that. Post-COVID, most of us are used to using QR codes for almost everything from accessing menus or placing an order, to getting more details or communicating with a company.

Integrating QR codes into your digital signage content is an excellent way to encourage engagement and even expand the content you offer.

A QR code can lead to a website landing page, an app, social media pages or even hidden content.

They can even be used with our next point in this list…

17. Augmented Reality (AR)

Overlaying images in your camera app usually means funny faces in Instagram/TikTok/Snapchat. But AR can be used for a broader range of applications than just cute anime faces.

Use AR to guide your audience around your space - a modern form of wayfinding signage. Or let them see or engage with your products in the digital space.

While the Metaverse is still a work in progress (a subject for another day), AR is still a great form of digital content that people love to engage with.

18. Inspirational quotes

Inspiring and uplifting quotes can brighten the viewer's day and create positive associations with your brand. 

While some might see these as a bit cheesy, you can actually have a lot of fun with your quotes.

• Pick the best quotes from your reviews/testimonials
• Choose a funny line from your favorite movie
• Pick a funny one liner from your fave comedian
• Add a unique spin to old or overused quotes
• Ask Chat GPT for some industry specific quotes

Inspirational quotes don’t necessarily have to mean ‘inspirational’ quotes. 

19. Safety and health reminders

While this might be the driest content on this list, it is also very important. And while health and safety reminders might not be the most exciting form of digital signage, they can be done in a fun and engaging way.

• Add a safety reminder in amongst your other content
• Animate your safety content
• Use humor or more edgy language to get your health and safety message across

20. Memes

While some memes might be a bit 2015, some are still very on the nose and can be fun to include in your fresh signage content. 

The fun thing about memes is that they relate to popular culture, and can be used for commentary on anything related to your industry, office culture or even your products.

Adding meme content can be a fun nod to those in the know, especially if your audience is into pop culture.

Updating your digital signage content with ScreenCloud

Keeping your digital signage network up to date is simple with ScreenCloud. By connecting all the signage displays in your network, you can send a single update and ensure that your content streams seamlessly.

As well as easy access, ScreenCloud also offers templates, integrations with social media and popular online services, and additional content options such as sports scores and breaking news.

Find out how easy it is to manage your digital signage content. Get started with ScreenCloud for free.