How to create impactful digital signage campaigns with free-to-use content tools on the Signagelive Marketplace
Overview
Digital signage can be a transformational communications tool, but not without the right content to display. That’s why, here at Signagelive, we have gone to great lengths to ensure that we provide plenty of content creation support, with our free-to-access Marketplace. Packed full of editable and non-editable resources, the Signagelive Marketplace not only provides a vast library of the best paid for subscription-based content and graphic design tools but also, many free-to-use applications for your digital signage.
Here, we focus on some of the most popular free digital signage content tools that we offer. Find out how they can help to support digital signage strategies for a wide range of industry use scenarios, from workplace and healthcare environments to retail, transport, and hospitality venues.
Content planning and strategy
Before you choose which applications you might like to download, it’s always worth considering the exact messaging you want to get across to your target audiences, and importantly, what content they would genuinely find valuable and in what kind of format and design. Even if you don’t have any additional budget to spend on your content, it costs nothing to plan and strategise, and with Signagelive, you have the power to choose exactly the right digital signage layout to help draw more attention to your messaging.
You can choose from a whole host of content templates, including multi-zone options, which enable you to feature multiple messages, or alternatively, a single message, framed by other pre-selected, third-party content that can help to ensure more digital signage views.
12 free-to-use content applications for digital signage
There are many free-to-use tools you can try out on the Marketplace. Here we have chosen some of the most popular.
1/ Signagelive Noticeboard app
Whether it’s for workplace communications, education, health, safety, or training, the Signagelive Noticeboard app serves as the perfect free-of-charge content tool, enabling you to create and display professional-looking communications. Choose from a whole host of template designs in portrait or landscape mode, and then simply add your message to the pre-set text area. If you want to delegate the job of updating your messaging, you can easily assign your Noticeboard to local users.
The app can be utilised, either as an ongoing primary source of content or alternatively, as a secondary resource that can be used in between other communications.
Ideal for use during on-premise customer as well as staff events, or to display important customer notifications, the Noticeboard app ensures that you can maximise your digital signage usage at all times throughout the year.
Create Playlists to cycle through a series of related Noticeboards or select just one to add to a digital signage multi-zone template, if you have additional content to share.
2/ Web page app
Your website serves as a digital shop front window for your business, so why not extend its reach and impact by displaying it on your digital signage? With the Web page app, you can literally display any URL on your screens, whether that’s the homepage or a specific product page from your website, or alternatively, a page from another relevant third-party or partner website.
Enabling you to maximise the use of pre-existing content, the app is easy to use. After you have added the app to your library, you can simply drag and drop it into a playlist. Double click the asset or select the tab on the right to configure the properties, and then add the URL of the page you would like to show.
For maximum impact, you can choose to display your page in either landscape or portrait mode. You can also opt to have the page refreshed as often as required to ensure that the on-screen content is always fresh and up-to-date.
3/ Menuboard
Ideal for any kind of business that sells and serves meals, and/or snacks and drinks, the Menuboard app makes it easy to switch from paper to digital signage. Offering a wide range of professional-looking template designs to suit different types of venues i.e like Quick Service restaurants, the Menuboard app is easy to use.
Simply add your pricing and offer details in the editable pre-set text areas. You can update the text at any time and use the scheduling capabilities within the playlist creator to arrange for different menus to display on certain dates, or during particular time frames, or just on a recurring basis.
4/ YouTube
The display of infotainment or even entertainment can be surprisingly useful, enabling you to keep customers from leaving queues and waiting areas, or to draw their attention to any messaging that is also displayed on-screen.
With the YouTube app, you can display a single video, livestream, or playlist simply by finding the embedded URL on the relevant YouTube video and pasting it into the editable properties of the widget.
If you’re short on new content, then why not make the most of your own pre-existing YouTube videos or use the Search Phrase function to find and display relevant videos? Alternatively, use the Video/Playlist ID feature to display entire playlists from YouTube.
Whatever you decide to display, you can decide to do so on a continuous loop with the Autoloop Video mode, or in between other content in a playlist. As content education can be more powerful than simple advertising, you might also want to display a YouTube product video alongside any product promotional message using the Signagelive multi-zone digital signage template layout.
5/ News Apps
To capture people’s attention, you don’t always have to churn out topical and up-to-the-minute content yourself. You can count on free resources, such as the Signagelive News Apps to share breaking stories that are sure to catch the eye, especially if you opt to display a news feed that is related directly or indirectly to your business.
Signagelive offers a wide range of News Apps, which ranges from CNN and the BBC to Al Jazeera and China Daily. Whatever app you choose, the news can be stylised to fit your corporate identity. You can edit the background colours, as well as the colour of the text, title and content, and even change the publication date format.
6/ Calendar apps
Perfect for workplace environments and university campuses, the Calendar app enables you to display upcoming events by connecting a Google or Office 365 account that you have specifically set up for your Signagelive network.
After linking your selected account, you just need to create a room to decide which calendar items you want to synchronise with Signagelive, and then add and configure the Calendar app within a Playlist.
You can choose to display upcoming events and meetings as full-screen notifications, or as one of many content updates using a digital signage multi-zone layout template.
Customise how you want to present the information on-screen by selecting the maximum number of meetings that can be shown in the App’s list views. Also use the app to decide if same-day and next-day meetings should be displayed, and to work out the start and end times of when meetings should appear and for how long they should remain on view.
7/ Room Booking app
Hybrid working has changed the office dynamic, making competition for on-premise meeting room space even more competitive. With less time spent in the office, staff members have to schedule as many meetings as possible on their days in. The Room Booking app can help, making it much easier for businesses to optimise opportunities for in-person collaboration, and to ensure that their meeting rooms are being used as efficiently as possible.
Double bookings, and meeting no-shows are, for example, easier to avoid, as staff members are able to view meeting schedules on any workplace screens.
With touch screen displays, you can also empower your teams by allowing them to book instant or scheduled meetings, as well as to select time frames and even extend them using a dedicated Signagelive Google Calendar, or Office 365.
8/ Weather apps
Displaying the weather forecast on your screens will always attract people’s attention. It’s a great way to tempt passers-by to look, and can even be used at, for example, event venues, where visitors might want to know if the weather will hold long enough for them to sit outside.
There is a range of weather apps to choose from and in two geographical styles. You can also opt to display a three or five-day weather forecast, which is ideal if you’re in the tourism industry, and want to help people decide if they should book an outdoor or indoor excursion for the coming days ahead.
Choose a full-screen display of the weather, or alternatively, feature the app alongside any other promotional information using a digital signage multi-zone template.
You can also opt to showcase the weather forecast from another geographical location, where, for example, your headquarters is based.
9/ Counter apps
Budget can often be tied up in a handful of digital signage campaigns per year. Rather than do nothing outside these campaigns, why not make full use of your digital signage, and count down to the special event, or launch that you will be promoting? With Signagelive Count Down, you can build excitement, and use your screens to count down to the event – in days, hours, minutes and seconds.
You just need to drag the Counter into a playlist and edit the pre-set text areas to detail the event for which you have arranged the countdown. Either as a full-screen display, or alongside a teaser about the event, Count Down can create a sense of impetus.
Count Up is ideal for counting in day, hours, minutes and seconds from when a customer complaint is raised, or from when an endurance sport or activity has started. It is a constant reminder that the clock is ticking and creates a sense of on-going urgency to help motivate those who are involved in keeping the time that passes to a minimum.
Choose to display your count down or count up timer either in detailed high definition or ultra-crisp 4K resolution.
10/ Clocks apps
Displaying the time is another way to add interest to your screens. Select from a wide variety of clock apps and choose whether you prefer to use a full-screen display, or to feature your clock as part of a multi-zone template design.
11/ Google Docs and Google Slides apps
Apps, such as Google Docs and Google Slides are simple yet effective tools for workplace environments, as well as education. Display stock inventories in meetings with Google Docs, or share your latest corporate presentations on-screen in slideshows with Google Slides. Any edits to your spreadsheets and slideshows in Google will update automatically in Signagelive.
12/ Events
Signagelive offers a range of Event-focused content apps, that enable you to celebrate, and even, in some cases, display countdowns to important holidays, as well as a whole host of other special events and sporting occasions.
Offering graphics for every season, holiday, and occasion, the apps ensure that your content is always topical. With other free Signagelive Marketplace tools, such as the Noticeboard app, you can use this imagery and add your own promotional messaging.
Choose events-based graphics tools for everything from Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Ramadan, and Diwali to Thanksgiving, St Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s as well as Father’s Day.
Summary
There’s no doubt that subscription-based content and graphic design tools, such as Adobe, Canva and Sodaclick are integral to the creation of sophisticated digital signage campaigns. However, that doesn’t mean to say that you can’t develop and execute effective content strategies without them.
With the Signagelive Marketplace, there are a whole host of free resources that anyone can use to boost engagement as well as sales in any industry application. Whether budgets are tight because you belong to a start-up business, or because your budget is reserved for key campaigns, with the Signagelive Marketplace everyone can afford to create and implement an always-on marketing and sales approach.
To learn more about Signagelive solutions and to discuss your digital signage requirements, please get in contact with us.
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