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Content creation for digital signage needn’t be expensive or complicated – here are five tools every digital signage marketeer needs to know about. Canva This drag and drop web tool is exceptionally easy to use, and produces seriously professional results. While it can only be used to create static content, such as image and type combinations and other calls-to-action, the speed and ease with which you can create each piece of content – and then stitch together to create a slide show – makes it a must-have in every digital sign makers’ arsenal. It has a wide range of fonts and page furniture available (such as lines, shapes, arrows and other standard graphic design elements). And while it lacks any form of animation toolset, it’s an effective resource for creating key assets that can be animates in another program. GoAnimate Go Animate claims to produce ‘high-end results without headaches’ which is pretty much exactly what it offers. It’s a web-based toolkit, with a large and growing library of pre-recorded animation sequences, characters and effects. Each character and object is fully customisable, meaning you can take a basic template and have a fully functioning animation up and running in a matter of minutes, and you can also add audio tracks and other sound effects. Exporting and publishing your finished animation is easy, too – you can output in full HD for large format displays, while also ensuring your content is shared to major social networks including YouTube and Twitter with a single click.

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Prezi When Prezi first launched it caused something of a storm in the business world, where its comparison to PowerPoint made it look light years more advanced. In truth, it’s more of a presentation and animation tool than a content creation library, but that doesn’t mean it should be sidelined. Its template-driven animations and slideshows are perfect for digital signage, and easy to set up and create, too. Prezi’s only real negative is its export options, which makes it difficult o share your content to large format digital signage. Used in combination with another app, such as Canva or GoAnimate (or even PowerPoint or Keynote) your content can be turned into a format ready for large format digital signage. Powerpoint We mention it here because it’s still at the heart of most corporate communications and presentations, and while PowerPoint’s pre-loaded animations and transitions seem dull by comparison to other tools listed here, it does have its merits. Chief amongst those is PowerPoint’s ability to export to a wide range of formats – perfect for multi-format digital signage. Powerpoint’s greatest strength, however, is that it’s a cheap and effective all-in-one solution for basic digital signage – a laptop running it effectively covers off the necessary player, server and content management and editing system required for digital signage. PowerPoint is just one of many tools for quality content creation Social Media One of the most interesting developments in digital signage solutions is the inclusions of social media channels and content beamed directly to large format displays. Social media provides a more personal, more customisable way to get viewers involved through displays – whether that’s pulling content from an Instagram channel or your brand’s Facebook and Twitter posts. It also enables your customers to interact directly with your brands and offer feedback and communication though hashtag campaigns and even direct messaging. In today’s always-on advertising world, these types of non-direct advertising are proven to be more effective than traditional calls to action.   Get the best content from ASUS Business Hub sent to your inbox. Sign up here.