Tips on How to Pick the Best CMS for your Digital Signage
When deciding on a Content Management System [CMS], how do you choose? There are so many different options; where do you begin? Federal Heath understands the decision can be difficult; however, we hope these few tips can help with your decision-making process.
Know Your Objectives
Do you know what your objectives are for your digital signage initiative? Is it to increase sales, educate and inform your customers, promote sales, products, or specials? How many locations will you want the signage for? Where will you place the screens? Understanding your objectives and what you want/need the CMS to do is key.
Software Usability
How easy is the software to use? How easily will you be able to update content, schedule content, send different content to multiple screens? How will you manage the integration capabilities, perform reporting, monitor screen status, and access technical support? Having a CMS solution that is user-friendly is crucial to your long-term success. If it’s so complex you get frustrated trying to use it, you are probably wasting your time and money. Finding software that you can learn to use in a few training sessions will more likely yield better results.
Integration Capabilities
What integrations does the CMS offer? Are they easy to use or do they require IT’s help? Simply pushing out content on your own to your displays is not enough, especially as technology advances and customers demand more. Your content needs to connect to your audience at the right time and at the right location. Check with the CMS to see if they connect to your point-of-sale system, are there customer analytic capabilities, tracking software to alert you of a down display, connect to your social media, and are there other data feed options available? There are a lot of software integrations and these are just to consider.
Post-Sale Support
How does the CMS handle post-sale support, especially when technical support is needed right away? An in-person service call can be pricey, and so can a display that is down. In addition, are there consistent CMS software updates? How do they develop, test, and release their software? What does their team look like – is it a large team or just a few? Get to know the ins and outs of the company, so you understand how they will work together with you for the success of your digital signage.
You don’t know what you don’t know. You can do a lot of research and interviews to find the “right” solution, but it still may not be “the one.” See if you can take the CMS for a “test-drive” before implementing it to make sure it will meet your objectives. Testing puts you in the driver’s seat for how the CMS works, plus it gives you an idea of how the company handles service and support.