Digital signage doesn’t have to be complicated. Or expensive. Or only a concern for the IT department. 

It’s also not a glorified PowerPoint presentation that just shows in loops on a TV screen.

Just take a quick scroll through our blog and you’ll be presented with hundreds of ways in which digital signage can supercharge any area of any industry; from utilizing data in the manufacturing industry to improving internal communications within a franchise. It’s the perfect weapon in the fight for the next stage of digital transformation. 

But while we might philosophize over the various uses of digital signage, sometimes it’s useful to take things back to basics. To go back to the beginning and explain in simple terms: how do you get your videos, social media and images onto any TV screen (*spoiler alert: you use ScreenCloud).

Any screen with a HDMI port

It’s a common misconception that you need an expensive smart screen or complicated hardware to get content up onto a TV screen or monitor. The secret lies in the HDMI port, built into almost every screen over the past 10 years.

If you have a smart screen (i.e. one that has in-built internet connectivity), then you can ignore the HDMI port for now. If not, then you can make any screen ‘smart’ by plugging in a device like an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K. These kinds of devices are cheap and as easy to use as downloading ScreenCloud from the ‘app store’. Check out our guide to the best digital signage hardware. 

Download ScreenCloud

ScreenCloud has been designed around simplicity. While coming up with a digital signage strategy might take a bit more work, the actual execution of it – i.e. getting your content up onto your screens – couldn’t be easier. (For detailed instructions on getting started, click here). 

1. Sign up for our 14-day free trial (no credit card details required) and start playing around with the software, or, request a demo. You don’t even need a screen to get started. 
2. Once you’ve signed up with us, one of our team will take you through set-up and how to roll ScreenCloud out to your business. They’ll also help you with your digital signage strategy and getting your first bits of content up and running. 
3. Pairing a screen to your ScreenCloud account is just like setting up a Bluetooth connection. Your account will generate a unique code, which you then enter on your TV once you’ve downloaded ScreenCloud.

Manage from anywhere

One of the issues with the old way of connecting a screen to content is that there would be a lot of wires involved. If a screen went down, you’d have to be physically present to do so. And to change content this might require downloading a document, making the changes, saving it and then re-uploading. 

ScreenCloud removes all of these irritants. 

ScreenCloud’s CMS can be accessed by anyone with an account. You can also set certain permissions to limit the access other collaborators can have. Regardless, making changes to your content can be done on the fly, from anywhere. It’s as simple as adding an image to a playlist, or editing content directly within ScreenCloud, hitting refresh, and seeing those changes happen in real-time. You can schedule content to dis/appear, and even see which screens are live or not. 

Easy content creation

There’s no need to duplicate your work; you can use the marketing collateral you already have to make your screens come alive. ScreenCloud supports images, PDFs, videos, documents and HTML content (URLs). You can also create your own custom content with our in-built app, Canvas. It’s essentially like a simple version of Photoshop where you can save branded templates, brand colors and fonts (etc) so that any simple changes don’t require official design time.

Harness the power of social media

Social media is an untapped goldmine of useable content. Resurface it in a strategic way using digital signage and app integrations like Walls.io or Taggbox. They  allow you to create a custom dashboard of content, defined by social media feeds, hashtags and advanced search queries 

At ScreenCloud, we’ve built a series of powerful app integrations that allow you to show feeds from social media accounts like Instagram and Twitter, through to RSS and analytics dashboards.

Scheduled content

ScreenCloud allows you to schedule content, so you can plan ahead to show the right message at the right time – to the right people. This makes it easy to tailor the content shown to day of the week, time of day, season, weather etc. Like any marketing practice, when content is customized it’s more successful. 

Try it out - for free

It’s all well and good telling you how affordable, scalable, flexible and secure ScreenCloud is. But you need to try it and see whether it works for you. Sign up for our 14-day free trial or request a demo. The team is here to help you make the most of your digital signage strategy. We can even build custom app integrations.