Digital billboards are excellent tools to advertise and promote your business. As a result, these billboards are very high in demand in the market. Unlike traditional billboards, these can display an unlimited variety of content. Besides, it offers a brilliant and vivid display screen.
But there is one thing to consider very seriously. It is the billboard content. So often, we see that the billboards are of excellent quality. But the content that they display doesn’t meet the standards. Without compelling content, you can’t achieve the true purpose of the billboard. Thus, billboard content is as essential as the quality of the billboard itself. In other words, I would say that digital billboards are all about content.
I will give you eleven tips on creating compelling content in this article. How to design your content according to your business needs. These tips are:
1. Try to make easy-to-read billboard content.
2. Use contrasting colors in your billboard content.
3. Highlight only the central message of the content.
4. Use a limited amount of elements in your content.
5. Use a visual priority in your composition layouts.
6. Use bold, large, and easy-to-read typefaces in your content.
7. Use visual cues to attract the audience’s attention.
8. Avoid using white backgrounds for billboard content.
9. Use the right images for your billboard content.
10. Never hesitate to use imagination and creativity in your billboard content.
11. Always test your content before running it on the billboard.
Above are 11 tips from my side on how to create effective billboard content. Now, I will describe these tips one by one in detail.
Try to make easy-to-read billboard content:
I will start with the basic rule or criteria for creating any content. Content creators often make this mistake. They use complex terms or complicated vocabulary. It would be good for you to remember that ordinary people are viewing your content. They are your target audience.
Not everyone has a high IQ or a college or university-level education. Thus, it would help if you tried to use simple words in your message. Besides, you can try to make readable content. So that even a person with primary education can understand your message and content.
Use contrasting colors in your billboard content:
One creates content to deliver some message to the people. If your content isn’t clear to see, your content is worthless.
I would say that the billboard content or any content is about clarity or readability. One way to produce such content is by using contrasting colors.
You must be thinking about what this phenomenon of color contrast is. Using contrast colors means using different color combinations. Usually, we will use a white background in a dark environment. And for a bright environment, we will use a black background.
I will explain it more. You can achieve color contrast by using opposite colors on the color wheel. By this, I mean complementary colors.
Using contrast colors can give us another benefit. You can separate your main message or elements by using it. Sometimes, your message gets lost in a mixture of colors in the content. As a result, people can’t focus on it. As a consequence, they don’t understand your message. Hence, you can highlight or underline your main message using contrasting colors.
Highlight only the central message of the content:
Digital billboards can display images, text, videos, and animated graphics. At the same time, traditional billboards can show images or picture only. But don’t use lengthy videos or graphics on digital billboards. Instead, it would help if you aim to create content as short as possible.
It is a fact that time is the most precious thing. No one has any free time to stop and view your content thoroughly. Moreover, everyone has a short attention span nowadays. Thus, delivering your message as straightforwardly as possible is always better.
Your audience is pedestrians or people in moving vehicles. They have only a few seconds to view and read your message.
You should identify the keywords of your message. What are the essential words or lines you want the people to view? You should highlight these critical points.
Use a limited amount of elements in your content:
As discussed above, people have very little time to view your content. Thus, always keep your content simple and meaningful. For example, a headline should have seven or fewer characters.
Keep every frame as simple as possible if your content is in video format. Besides, you should avoid mixing too many images or graphics.
For instance, Apple uses a single photo to highlight its message. It is enough to tell people that Apple has high-quality camera performance.
Use a visual priority in your composition layouts:
Your billboard content can be text, picture, video, or graphics. If your content has too many elements, people may find it hard to determine the main message. Your content may puzzle them. Even after viewing it, they may still not know your main message.
The solution to this problem is the visual priority. It can bring a hierarchy to your content. Your main message should appear as the most prominent element of your content. It is because human eyes scan and read from top to bottom. Thus put your message on the top. After this, you can keep the other less essential elements.
Use bold, large, and easy-to-read typefaces in your content:
Your content must be legible. Legible content efficiently delivers the message to the viewer. One of the factors of legibility is the easy-to-read typeface.
Firstly, digital billboards can be quite large. And secondly, the viewers can view the billboard from a distance. In such cases, the content needs to be easy to read.
The text height should be at least 20 inches for the headline. And the text height should be at least 12 inches for the body. These are just examples. The text height should be according to the viewing distance and billboard size. Remember that your text shouldn’t be too small or too big.
You can use typography in this regard. It is a design principle that can determine whether your text is easy to read or not. It depends on the spacing, arrangement, and styling of the text.
I will tell you to keep a few things in my mind about typography.
- Always use large and bold fonts. Avoid small and thin ones as they can be hard to read at a distance.
- Don’t capitalize all the alphabet of long sentences. It can become hard to read and understand.
- Give proper spacing.
- Try to keep the same font design in your content. But don’t mix too many types of fonts.
Use visual cues to attract the attention of an audience:
While reading this heading, you must wonder what the visual cues are. I will explain this to you. Visual cues are the directional cues. These signs or elements can help attract viewers’ attention to desired areas.
I mean the spots on the billboard that display your main message in desired areas. These areas include call-to-actions, products, or main messages.
Some of the most common visual cues may be:
- Arrows
- Face or eye direction
- Color contrasts
Visual cues are sometimes vital. Sometimes, you don’t follow the visual priority rules. You may need to place the critical messages aside. It may be due to some design factors or some other reasons.
Similarly, your design may not be good sometimes. In these conditions, visual cues are of significant importance. They can help you to attract the audience to your main message on the billboard.
Avoid using white backgrounds for billboard content:
Although white backgrounds attract the most, they can be distracting sometimes. Many LED panels comprise digital billboards. And these panels consist of many tiny bulbs or packages.
Red, Green, and Blue are the three primary colors for these LED bulbs or packages. So if you want to achieve white background, all these must be on. Besides, all red, green, and blue LEDs must have maximum brightness. And you may know that full brightness means higher power consumed. Thus, power consumption is very high for white backgrounds on digital billboards.
All in all, white backgrounds are not very cheap for billboard content. Thus, you should avoid using these backgrounds. The billboard background may appear bright, especially on a night with full brightness. Moreover, it can distract road users. And it can be irritating as well. Thus, it can make your content hard to view on white background.
Use the right images for your billboard content:
Firstly, I think images or pictures are pre-requisite for any content. Images or pictures are a powerful source of displaying your message. It is a powerful way of telling your story.
Images can deliver your message more effectively than simple text. And, thanks to the LED screen, you can easily display colorful and vibrant images on the billboard.
But you must select the right images for your content. You should choose the images that portray your message the best. You shouldn’t use pictures just for decorative purposes only. It isn’t very sensible and will occupy most of the space on the screen. Thus, you should use images that have a message. It is also important because the viewers have a limited time viewing the screen.
Thus, select the images that are meaningful and display your message effectively.
Never hesitate to use imagination and creativity in your billboard content:
It is a fact that every content should be creative and engaging. One should not look just for straightforward content. There is so much content and so much to see out there. Your content should be creative and innovative if you want people to see it. Your content should stand apart from others. Thus, it would help to use creativity and imagination in your content.
It is also one of the reasons that businesses are using digital billboards. It is due to the ability of these billboards to display a wide range of content. It is its ability to express creative content that makes it valuable. You can show text, images, videos, and animated graphics.
But, if you look at traditional billboards, there is no creativity. Or you say minimal creativity. You can’t display videos or graphics on it. Whereas on digital billboards, you can display almost anything you want. Use the best format that is suitable for your business. And use it to create something unique and engage the audience.
For instance, 3D LED billboards are becoming popular these days. Businesses are using it to promote and advertise themselves. These billboards display the content as if you are seeing it in reality. They install 3D billboards on facades in busy areas. It targets the people walking in these active areas. They feel mesmerized by viewing the creativity in this content.
Always test your content before running it on the billboard:
It is simple. Always test your device or anything you made before finalizing it. The same is the case with billboard content. I know that buying a digital billboard or advertisement slot can be expensive. And standard or below-par content can ruin your business.
Thus, it is wise to test your content and seek advice on it from experts. The content can be average even when you have followed every basic rule. Even if you are working hard to create the best content, you should test it. I would suggest you show your content to some experts and take their reviews.
Please show them your content and ask them for their opinion:
- You can get an idea of whether your design is good.
- You should play the content in real-time.
- Ask your friends or experts if they understand your message or not.
In my view, this is an essential step and tip to creating mind-blowing content.
Conclusion:
I have tried above to explain the importance of good content. And how can you create creative content for your business? Digital billboards are an effective tool in outdoor advertising. You can say that they are one of the most powerful advertising tools. But if you don’t know how to use it for your business, then what is its benefit? With the right billboard, you will also need the right content. Only then can you advertise your business successfully. I hope the above tips will help you create great content.
