Your business’ digital signage content should be a dynamic, technology-driven way to communicate and share information with your customers with the goals of increasing sales, growing loyalty and providing an interesting and relevant customer experience with excellent service.

This list is broken into parts. The first three relate to environments where the goal is to catch customer or client attention. They are separated into the type of activity in which they would be seen. This is relevant because at different stages of the customer experience the dwell time will vary. If you pick a short point of dwell time to share a longer message, then that message risks not being seen through to the end.

The final section addresses digital signage in a corporate setting to communicate primarily with employees.

Use this list as a starting point from which to pull your own ideas together. Adapt anything you think will be relevant to your situation and your customers.

Point of Transit

Point of transit (POT) is a situation where your customer or digital signage content “viewer” is moving past signage on their way to a different place, not with your location as their intended destination. Messaging here should be tailored for customers who are “on the go” and not expected to dwell or linger but instead view the messaging while they are passing it or to grab their attention enough to stop.

Often, POT signage is either a digital billboard, signage literally within a transit system or exterior-facing retail signage.

Short, easy to digest bites of information that take up the full screen that switches every few seconds. Advertising messages should switch back and forth between the useful, practical information that these audiences are interested in. This will train them to know that if what they are seeing isn’t the information they seek, then they just need to wait and it will switch. This will help with dwell time.

Transportation hub content ideas:

1. Wayfinding
2. Current time
3. Announcements
4. Transit information
5. Weather reports
6. Facility amenities
7. Business directory
8. Business advertising
9. Restaurant wait times

For exterior-facing POT content ideas:

10. Business hours
11. Current movie or show schedule (theaters/venues)
12. Upcoming movies or shows (theaters/venues)
13. Properties available for sale or rent (real estate)
14. Travel deals (travel agency)
15. Vacancy (hotel)
16. Amenities (hotel)
17. Before and after photos (beauty)
18. Interest rates (financial)
19. Menus (restaurant)
20. Brand messaging (retail)
21. Current sales promotions (retail)

Point of Purchase

Point of purchase (POP) refers to the space in your business where your customer makes the decision to buy an item. This is often at the shelf, in areas where staff are not continually positioned to be available to help. The goal for your digital signage content here is to help your customer make the decision to buy.

22. Sale information on nearby items
23. Current product or service promotions
24. Giveaway or contest information
25. Loyalty program sign up
26. Reward program information
27. How-to videos
28. Product demos
29. Testimonials
30. Product comparisons
31. Competitor comparisons
32. Product FAQs

Point of Sale

Point of sale (POS) refers to the area where your customer pays for their selected items. As the goal is to move the audience through this point as efficiently as possible, messaging needs to be short and to the point.

33. Loyalty program reminders
34. Promotions for items related to the customer’s purchase
35. Items that may be related to a customer purchase (batteries)
36. Rebate information
37. Email sign up

Point of Wait

Point of wait (POW) generally refers to two situations: the point at which a customer is literally waiting such as in a line or waiting room and the point in which a customer is participating an activity such as while eating in a restaurant.

In many cases, the goal of your digital signage content will be to take the customer’s mind off of the time they are waiting. Additionally, if the location is a doctor’s or dentist’s office, the audience may be hyper focused on the reason they are there. Because wait time can be 30 minutes or more, you want your programming loop to last at least this long. Your audience will become bored (or possibly even frustrated) if they re-experience the same content multiple times; the very opposite of what you are trying to achieve.

POW digital signage has a longer dwell time so you can share longer individual content pieces as your audience will be looking for a distraction. But keep in mind, you’ll be competing with their own smart devices, so offer something different. Make it entertaining and informational.

Health and wellness POW content ideas:

38. Health education tips such as how to reduce cholesterol or recognize skin cancer
39. Flu Shot reminders
40. Elective services such as tooth whitening
41. Doctor and nurse spotlights
42. Doctor and nurse interviews
43. Music and ambiance programming
44. Trainer spotlights
45. Fitness class previews and scheduling
46. Workout tips such as the importance of hydration and stretching

Food-industry POW content ideas:

47. RSS news feeds
48. Sports
49. Trivia questions
50. Menu boards
51. Nutritional information
52. Promotional content
53. Chef interviews
54. Positive customer reviews
55. Interactive games

Corporate Communications

Not only is digital signage content great for communicating with customers, but in a corporate setting, it’s an amazing tool for employee communications.

56. Company Performance Metrics
57. Visitor welcome messaging
58. Important announcements
59. Company trivia
60. Company milestones
61. Event photos
62. Company Twitter feed
63. Company Facebook feed
64. Cafeteria menu
65. Financial performance
66. Stock share price
67. Goals and targets
68. Productivity metrics
69. Open positions
70. Important contact information
71. News from other branches
72. Shift schedules
73. Holiday schedules
74. Conference room schedules
75. Awards
76. Digital directories
77. Professional development opportunities
78. Charity events
79. Health and wellness reminders
80. Benefit reminders
81. Lost items
82. RSS feeds
83. Google alerts for the industry
84. Current news
85. Employee bios
86. Employee awards
87. Employee recognition
88. Employee anniversaries
89. New team member welcome messages
90. Local sports scores
91. Weather forecast
92. Safety tips
93. Traffic updates
94. Parking information
95. Building rules
    96. Security Alerts

Ready to start your digital signage program? Make sure you consider the essentials with our digital signage planning checklist.