The benefits of effective internal communications have been known for a long time: improved efficiency, productivity, morale, retention and loyalty. 

All of which translate into better outcomes for the business in question. I often say, “Without your people, you wouldn’t have a business!” Despite this, when I started working in internal communications, it was definitely regarded as the poor cousin to external communications, attracting smaller teams, smaller budgets and, in many instances, less respect and attention from the powers that be.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before… that all changed with COVID-19. Suddenly, employees were remote and harder to reach, yet the need to have them engaged and motivated was greater than ever. 

Harnessing Effective Communication Through Human Behavior Insights

Internal communications professionals were front and center—brought in at the start of key conversations and with a seat at the boardroom table. They no longer had to argue the value of effective internal communications. It was known. 

During the lockdowns and the intervening months, there was a huge focus on employee engagement and wellbeing; and there was genuine hope and optimism this renewed view of internal comms was here to stay.

When the lockdowns ended and businesses sought to recalibrate to find a new normal, some did try to maintain their revised approach to internal communications. 

Sadly, just a few years later, what I have heard from a number of in-house professionals in my network is that,for many, life as an internal communications professional has largely reverted back to how it was before. 

This has not been helped by the current economic climate. With redundancies, hiring freezes and budget cuts taking centre stage, internal communications has been high up on the list of casualties.

Instability and discomfort in the office, coupled with many employees feeling financial strain outside of work, means there is still a huge need to communicate meaningfully and effectively with our workforces—making them feel informed, valued, and giving them an opportunity for their voices to be heard. 

But this isn’t necessarily happening. And it's in these sorts of situations where internal communications needs to come to the fore.

The organizations who seem to be bringing internal comms back up the agenda are those who are looking to implement a change programme or are undergoing a restructure. 

I heard a statistic recently that 70% of change communications fail because there is not sufficient buy-in from employees or leaders. I totally agree that internal communications should be a key priority with any significant change. 

But I fear this is illustrative of a concerning trend: that organizations are only using internal communications when there is a problem or a crisis. If this is your approach, then employees will see through it and know you only ever communicate when there is an issue or concern.

The three points I’d urge you to take away from this article are:

Don’t forget what makes your company tick: your people. If you want them to be there through good times and bad, you need to look after them—and one way of doing that is by communicating with them in ways that helps them feel informed and part of something bigger than just their day-to-day role.

You don’t have to do a lot to have a big impact. If money is tight, you don’t need to do big flashy events and expensive campaigns. Just make sure employees are hearing company updates in a timely fashion, that leadership is visible—whether that’s in Town Halls or walking around offices/sites—and speak to your people and hear how they are doing, first hand.

Referring back to the statistic I mentioned earlier, if you are undergoing a change or restructure, or simply a tough time for your business, don’t be afraid to involve your employees in the conversations. Yes, what they have to say might not be sunshine and rainbows, but it’s important for you to hear what they've got to say and to incorporate it into your plans and messaging (where appropriate). Make them feel heard and respected!

When I look at the internal comms profession now, compared to when I entered it, there has been a significant improvement in how it’s perceived—both by new entrants into the profession and key stakeholders in businesses. 

However, I think we’ve still got a way to go to ensure that strong and effective “business as usual” internal comms are the norm in all businesses, without the peaks and troughs.

Internal Communication is Not Just For a Crisis

Excellent writing, strong people skills, empathy, openness, and an ability to communicate clearly are just some of the common attributes listed in your typical Internal Communications job advertisement.

But today, it's rare to find a role listed that doesn't extend beyond effective writing and interpersonal finesse. In an era where information inundates every corner of organizational life, merely disseminating information is not enough; organizations demand to know whether communications are truly landing and resonating with their intended audience. And rightly so. Interpreting data to evaluate and improve internal communications and employee engagement is now a "must-do" for all modern communicators.

Gallagher State of the Sector Report 2023/24

 shows that employee understanding improves by 10% when communicators are strategic. Boiled down, strategic communicators measure more than their peers. They can slice and dice data, use it to support their content plans and calendars, and, ultimately, prove their value to the C-suite. The power of advanced analytics, offering real-time visibility and data-driven results, serves as indisputable evidence of the efficacy of Internal Communications.

However, the true significance of advanced analytics extends beyond mere validation; it forms the bedrock for transformative outcomes within organizational settings. 

 pave the way for better performance, bolstering the narrative of Internal Communications value and return on investment (ROI) to the broader business. By 

quantifying the impact of Internal Communications initiatives

, organizations can unlock budgetary allocations and cement the role of Internal Communications as a strategic business function that directly contributes to overarching business goals.

Here are six ways to mature your measurement practices beyond superficial metrics and elevate the efficacy of IC efforts.

1. Compare Performance Across Employee Segments to Uncover Engagement Challenges

Understanding the nuances of employee segments is the best starting point for establishing meaningful engagement. Robust segmentation involves categorizing employees based on various demographics, roles, departments, work styles, or other characteristics.

Learn How Poppulo Can Help You Improve Employee Engagement 

Being equipped to compare performance across employee segments through a measurement tool offers invaluable insights into uncovering engagement challenges within an organization. By systematically analyzing data metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and feedback responses across different segments, communicators understand how communication strategies resonate within diverse groups.

Discrepancies in engagement levels among these various segments highlight any potential communication gaps or barriers that may hinder effective engagement. This kind of granular analysis enables organizations to pinpoint specific areas for improvement and tailor communication strategies to better address each segment's unique needs and preferences.

Let's say the internal communications team notices lower engagement levels in the IT department than the sales team. Instead of sending one generic email, they produce the usual newsletter plus gamified sales challenges to Sales and introduce a more specialized technical newsletter for IT. Both engagement metrics improve, evidenced by increased participation in feedback surveys and higher click-through rates. Through segment-specific adjustments, the team successfully addresses the engagement gap.

Ultimately, the ability to compare performance across employee segments facilitates targeted interventions and strategic adjustments, leading to stronger employee engagement and a more cohesive organizational culture.

2. Connect Comms with Business Goals by Tracking Calls to Action

CTAs are specific directives embedded within communications, prompting recipients to take a desired action, whether it's clicking on a link, completing a survey, or attending a meeting. By tracking CTAs, communicators gain invaluable insights into the effectiveness of their messaging and the level of audience engagement.

Gauging Effectiveness and Planning Retargeting

Call-to-action tracking involves monitoring and analyzing recipient interactions with communications to gauge effectiveness and refine targeting strategies. Using analytics tools, communicators can precisely identify who engaged with CTAs and who did not, enabling them to tailor subsequent communications for maximum impact.

Retargeting efforts can be personalized based on the recipient's previous interactions and preferences, making the follow-up communication more relevant and compelling. It allows communicators to nurture engagement and guide employees through the desired action pathway, ultimately increasing the likelihood of achieving the intended outcomes, such as higher participation rates in training sessions, surveys, or company initiatives.

For example, suppose an internal communications team sends out a company-wide email announcing an upcoming training session and includes a CTA prompting employees to register their attendance. Through CTA tracking, they identify a group of employees who opened the email but did not register for the training. Retargeting could involve sending a follow-up email to this specific group, emphasizing the importance or benefits of attending the training session, and providing a direct link or even an incentive for registration.

Refining Strategies for Driving Engagement and Effectiveness

Understanding the correlation between CTAs and desired outcomes enables communicators to craft more compelling calls to action that directly contribute to achieving organizational goals. Ultimately, by tracking CTAs, communicators can connect communications with business objectives, enhance the effectiveness of their messaging, improve employee engagement, and better align communication efforts with overall business goals.

3. Go Wide and Deep to Understand How Your Strategy Lands Across Your Enterprise and Locally

Sub-account reporting refers to analyzing communication performance within different geographical regions or sub-groups within an organization. This approach allows communicators to get into the complexities and intricacies of content reception and delivery structures across various locations.

Understanding Communication Dynamics Across Different Geographical Locations

Sub-account reporting offers a multifaceted view of communication dynamics, particularly across disparate geographical locations. Connecting with employees within your local geographic area is one challenge, but navigating diverse languages, values, and cultures presents an entirely different dynamic!

For instance, consider a global company rolling out a new employee engagement initiative across its regional offices. Through sub-account reporting, the internal communications team can assess the initiative's effectiveness in each region by comparing metrics such as engagement rates, feedback responses, and participation levels in related activities. They may find that while the initiative performs well in one region, it faces challenges in another due to cultural differences or varying levels of accessibility to communication channels. Armed with this insight, the team can tailor their approach for each region, perhaps adjusting messaging tone or delivery methods to better align with local preferences and overcome barriers to engagement.

By leveraging sub-account reporting, organizations can ensure that their communication strategies resonate across the enterprise while accommodating the unique dynamics of each geographical location.

4. Harness AI to Discover Next-Level Insights

 believe that AI can guide where, when, and how to deliver comms—and they would be right! AI offers advanced capabilities for analyzing vast amounts of data and extracting actionable insights. AI-powered tools can efficiently process communication data, including content and employee engagement metrics, to uncover new patterns and trends.

Executive Brief Download: Generative AI for Employee Comms

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Analyzing and Optimizing IC Strategies

AI can employ natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to identify contextual themes within communication content, providing communicators with valuable information about the topics that resonate most with employees. Additionally, AI enables predictive analytics, allowing organizations to proactively anticipate communication needs and optimize strategies. AI empowers communicators to make data-driven decisions, enhance message relevance, and refine communication strategies for maximum impact.

AI-Powered Insights for Smarter Decision-Making and Improved Engagement

Having these kinds of insights at your fingertips is invaluable and results in smarter decision-making and improved engagement outcomes. For instance, let's consider a scenario where a large corporation is implementing a new remote work policy. The IC team uses AI algorithms to analyze their communications across departments. The AI identifies engagement spikes with particular themes, such as culture, technology, and HR policies. By having these insights at their fingertips, HR and management teams gain a clear understanding of the primary topics on employees' minds regarding the new policy. This allows them to tailor their communications and support strategies accordingly, addressing specific concerns and ensuring smoother implementation of the remote work policy.

5. Assess Send and Open Times to Find the Ideal Engagement Window

At this stage, you know what to send and to whom, but when is the perfect time to send it? We all know that timing can make or break a comms campaign. Tracking email sends and opens per hour offers valuable insights into determining the most effective communication windows for maximizing engagement. This real-time pulse allows communicators to identify peak periods of activity when employees are most likely to engage with content. By analyzing trends in email interaction over time, organizations can pinpoint optimal send windows that align with employees' schedules and preferences, ensuring the right messages reach their audience at the right moment for maximum impact.

Let's imagine an internal comms team within a large company that regularly sends out newsletters to employees. By tracking email sends and opens per hour over several weeks, they notice a consistent trend: emails sent during the late morning hours receive the highest open rates and engagement levels. Additionally, they analyze which team members' emails tend to perform best and which types of content formats resonate most with employees. Armed with this data, the team strategically adjusts their email send times to align with the identified peak engagement window and increases the inclusion of video content from leadership. This leads to a surge in readership, elevated click-through rates, and enhanced overall engagement with their internal newsletters.

6. Tracking and Measuring Holistic Campaigns to Optimize and Assess Impact

Analyzing metrics and data points across all your different channels and touchpoints empowers you to understand the overall performance and effectiveness of a campaign. Essentially, you are answering the question, "Are my critical comms reaching employees and employees taking desired actions?" The goal is to optimize the campaign by identifying areas of improvement and assessing its impact on the intended audience or objectives. It encompasses a thorough evaluation of all aspects of the campaign to ensure it aligns with organizational goals and delivers the desired results.

Measure All Your Channels in One Place to Refine Your Channel and Content Approach

Consolidating the measurement of all communication channels into a single platform provides comprehensive insights essential for refining channel and content strategies. By centralizing data collection, communicators gain a holistic view of campaign performance, allowing for informed decision-making and strategic adjustments. This approach enables organizations to identify high-performing channels, understand audience preferences, and refine content delivery methods to maximize impact and engagement across all communication platforms.

Let's say an internal communications team launches a campaign to improve employee engagement within a company undergoing significant organizational changes. The holistic campaign includes a mix of communication channels, such as company-wide emails, town hall events, mobile push notifications, and in-office digital signage. The internal comms team aggregates all data into a centralized analytics platform to track and measure the campaign's impact.

Doing so gives them a comprehensive view of how each communication channel contributes to the overall campaign's success. They can analyze reach and engagement metrics for email, mobile, and other touch points side by side, allowing them to identify which channels are most effective in conveying key messages and engaging employees.

For example, they notice that email open rates are higher when the subject line explicitly mentions upcoming changes, indicating employees' interest in staying informed. They also observe increased engagement on mobile app articles that explain the changes and their impact on employees.

The internal comms team can use these insights to refine their communication strategy, focusing on channels and messaging that resonate most with employees. This will ultimately lead to improved engagement and smoother navigation through organizational transitions.

The Gallagher State of the Sector Report 2023/24 reveals a stark contrast in the use of measurement between strategic and non-strategic communicators. Only 27% of the latter leverage measurement to influence leadership compared to 47% of their strategic counterparts.

For organizations striving to gauge the impact of their internal communications and make informed, data-driven decisions that bolster business objectives, Poppulo's advanced analytics offer a transformative solution. By providing insights into employee engagement, benchmarking performance, and pinpointing areas for improvement, Poppulo empowers communicators to align organizational efforts effectively and keep leadership informed on key metrics, going way beyond the limitations of manual reporting approaches.

Advanced analytics insights empower communicators to refine their communication strategies, optimize engagement, and keep pace with evolving organizational needs. By quantifying the effectiveness of their efforts and making data-driven decisions, communicators position themselves as indispensable assets in achieving organizational goals. Embracing advanced analytics is not just a trend but a necessity for communicators seeking to thrive in today's dynamic, competitive business landscape.

Experience the power of advanced analytics with Poppulo—

Find out how the best communicators in the business are measuring the impact of their comms.

Going Beyond Opens and Clicks: Measuring Internal Communications to Become a More Strategic and Effective Communicator

Being honest without spreading panic. Responding quickly without being too hasty. Empathizing without losing objectivity. Managing comms in a crisis is like walking a tightrope. Treading that line between transparency and reassurance can pose considerable challenges.

PwC’s Global Crisis and Resilience Survey 2023

, a staggering 96% of organizations have grappled with a crisis within the past two years. So, it follows that organizations should remain in a perpetual state of preparedness, right? And yet, despite the inevitability of crises, time and time again, the necessary plans and processes are either non-existent, outdated, or inadequate. As the frequency - and complexity - of crises continue to escalate, organizations cannot afford to keep repeating 

Open and regular communication is the antidote to anxiety and confusion. Successful crisis communications provide clarity and confidence during turbulent times, ensuring business continuity, facilitating resilience, and, above all, protecting brand reputation.

So, let’s learn from the missteps of others and empower ourselves with the knowledge needed to steer through crises successfully. Check out the top five crisis management comms mistakes you need to avoid.

1. Not having a tried and tested system in place.

Gallagher State of the Sector 2023/24 Report

 less than half of organizations have a crisis management plan or process in place. Unthinkable! Equally astonishing is the number of organizations lacking a 

 crisis management system. Seasoned communication professionals know that a plan alone is simply not enough.

Essential elements include pre-approved templates, a dedicated response team, and a ready distribution network poised for immediate action when a crisis unfolds. This proactive approach avoids last-minute scrambling, ensuring materials align with the organization’s purpose and values, are rigorously tested, and consistently updated. With predefined roles and responsibilities, those involved in the response are well-versed in the agreed process and well-prepared to act promptly and effectively.

As Internal Comms expert, Priya Bates points out: “The thinking we do when we aren't in crisis most helps create calm amidst chaos.”

. Stakeholders anticipate a timely, factual, and authentic response. Beyond that, they want their leaders to acknowledge the emotional toll a crisis imposes and to demonstrate empathy through both words and actions.

The efficacy of a leader's crisis management directly influences the trust vested in them. Any attempts to manipulate, procrastinate, or obfuscate people will lead to mistrust. In times of crisis, leadership must not only navigate the storm but also be visible and accessible to their employees. No hiding! In critical moments, leaders should be present and refrain from delegating important announcements to spokespeople, embodying accountability and 

This is a common pitfall, not limited to crisis situations! Choose a language that resonates universally, devoid of industry jargon, complex acronyms, or catchphrases that mean nothing to the reader.

Prioritize clarity, transparency, and straightforwardness in all communications. Don’t leave content open to interpretation. By adhering to this principle, you ensure that your messages will land and enable swift comprehension and alignment across all stakeholders.

A robust comms strategy entails synchronized messaging across diverse channels such as social media, text, email, and other digital platforms, ensuring a comprehensive, cohesive approach.

Social media can play a huge part. Immediate updates and responses on platforms like X, Facebook, and LinkedIn are essential for addressing concerns promptly.

Text messaging and employee mobile app comms provide direct, personal avenues to reach stakeholders, conveying critical information efficiently. However, a comprehensive omnichannel approach extends beyond the digital sphere. Traditional media remains a potent force during crises, requiring coordinated efforts in press releases, interviews, and official statements. This seamless integration across both traditional and digital channels enhances the reach and impact of crisis communication.

Placing employees last on the priority list is a misstep that can lead to severe consequences. 

 are pivotal in ensuring employees feel valued, informed, and supported during tumultuous periods. One concrete action to underscore this importance is establishing a dedicated internal communication channel that provides timely updates, transparent information, and a platform for employee feedback. Acting on this feedback, whether through policy adjustments or addressing specific issues, demonstrates a commitment to a collaborative, responsive workplace culture.

Backing up this commitment involves proactive measures such as hosting virtual town hall meetings, where leadership can openly address concerns, share the company's strategy, and acknowledge the challenges faced by employees. Another action-oriented approach is to prioritize employee well-being by offering resources for mental health support. Providing access to counseling services, organizing wellness webinars, and checking in with employees on a regular basis all contribute to a supportive environment.

“Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.”

This Andy Grove quote serves as a stark reminder that achieving success can inadvertently lead to a sense of complacency. Long periods of stability mean that communicators and leaders can neglect to plan for unforeseen challenges. This “paranoia,” or let’s call it a healthy level of vigilance, is not a harbinger of pessimism but a call to action—an insistence on being meticulously prepared for the unexpected.

Leadership and communications are the two words that rightly spring to mind in the context of crisis comms. During tough times, uncertainty permeates organizations, affecting everyone - customers, employees, and partners. And once this uncertainty reaches a certain level, it jeopardizes company culture, reputation, and overall productivity. Exceptional leaders navigate uncertainties with transparency, empathy, humanity, and a keen understanding that success is an ongoing journey. By acknowledging the severity of the situation, detailing the steps being taken, and expressing empathy for affected employees and customers, leaders demonstrate their candidness and show a commitment to confronting challenges head-on.

The result is that an organization not only survives but emerges stronger from the challenges it confronts.

So, embrace a proactive mindset. Gather good people around you. 

 a crisis to occur. Make success your catalyst for continuous improvement, not a precursor to complacency.

Top 5 Crisis Management Comms Mistakes

Many leaders I work with observe a consistent, puzzling pattern.

On the one hand, their team is working hard, and there’s often a frenetic feeling of overwhelm.

Yet, on the other hand, the disconcerting truth is that somehow the outputs and results don’t quite seem to sync up to the level of effort and resources invested.

I’m intrigued by this dynamic, which I hear about quite consistently across sectors, industries, and locations. As I wrote about in my piece 

  my sense is that it’s the product of several factors combining, including:

A pandemic hangover effect where every incoming message on email, text, or chat feels like a crisis—we are twitchy, our nervous systems are shot, and our discernment skills are fried.

Generalized “catastrophe burnout” resulting from the relentless stress of COVID, war, climate change, political extremism, and economic crisis.

Universal change fatigue tied to the pandemic, relentless transformation in the workplace, and the cataclysmic impact of generative AI.

Widespread disengagement and disillusionment in work, amplified by a resentment that somehow the deal has changed. The fundamental promise of meaningful work as a ticket to financial stability and home ownership has crumbled. For the first time, we have lost a sense of confidence that our children’s economic wellbeing will be more prosperous than ours.

The global recession and the pandemic have depressed innovation and connection. People sought refuge in their homes and had little energy to spare for positive forward motion. At work, this same instinct prevails.

Digital overwhelm and the ubiquity of the 

 in the workplace. Recent studies show that the average attention span of an employee is 

 and that wholly half of interruptions are coming from ourselves!

As the traditional boundaries and time constraints of in-person work have crumbled, many people feel overwhelmed because they are, in fact, trying to do two jobs at once—their employment and parenting. Many families have chosen to forgo expensive daycare and instead are trying to juggle full-time work and focus with the constant demands and priority attention of looking after young children.

The insidious creep in bureaucratic processes was established in an attempt to address the risk of the unknown and shore up stability and control. The unintended consequence of this crushing administrative burden is an epidemic in learned helplessness, dis-empowerment, and the normalization of phoning work in.

In the context of these factors, the essential question is: how can we raise a team’s metabolism?

From my experience with leaders, the most practical avenues to explore are:

The first step foward achieving forward motion is to clarify the North Star. Employees are craving a sense of crisp, clear direction, and many are unmoored by organizational chaos and clutter. Generally, I find that teams are information-rich and meaning-poor—a combination that sets up a downward spiral toward disengagement and alienation.

To get unstuck, think in terms of a lightweight process to define a muscular statement of intent and use storytelling to animate what success looks like. Employees deserve a clear sense of where they’re going and how they’ll know they’re on the right track.

The most effective approach is for leaders to clearly define the North Star and then have the courage to focus on the what and let go of some of the how—inviting employees to step up and contribute ideas and energy to advancing the cause. 

This balance between clarity and creation can have a transformational impact on results, including employee experience and engagement.

There has never been a more urgent need for leaders to edit their organizations. After all, we are all gorging ourselves on empty-calorie information diets of Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Sadly, many organizations have piled on with high-fat corporate speak, dense employee communication, and heavy bureaucracy.

Leaders are wise to attend to the cost of this informational clutter and keep in mind that racehorses need to race. Employees don’t come to work every day with an ambition to plow through hundreds of emails and catch up on endless strings of chat messages to have to figure out what’s going on and how they can best contribute. 

Employes want to do their best, and their employers have a responsibility to enable that to happen.

Here are specific steps to achieve more signal and less noise:

Creating a team communications charter to set guardrails on how the group shares ideas and information efficiently (here’s a good 

 sessions with teams to identify processes, habits, and assumptions that are holding employees back;

 so that their energy and focus can be maximized;

Eliminating burdensome bureaucracy by creating lightweight processes using agile or 

At the heart of moving from chaos to calm is intentional leadership. Leaders play a pivotal role in setting expectations and role-modeling expected behaviors and mindsets around how the team collaborates and communicates.

In the current environment, organizations need to break out of rigidity to become regenerative. This imperative calls for empathetic leadership that is supportive, imaginative, and brave.

This process begins by breaking free from outmoded models of change management that may get you bodies but not souls. The alternative is to embrace community as an instrument of change—inviting employees to participate in co-creation and reinforcing their sense of agency and belonging in achieving forward motion.

Goodbye command and control—hello open communication, connection, and culture.

Working on the connective tissue of the organization, and investing in creating a culture that is respectful and fosters belonging is essential. After all, fundamentally, humans are social animals—part of the existential disruption of the pandemic was the erosion of foundational structures of belonging and connection. 

Organizations that can satisfy that emotive need are those that are set up to win.

Leading an Overwhelmed Team? Here's How to Get Their Mojo Back.

Look around. Unless you’re under a rock in the Mojave Desert, technology is delivering communications to you. 

From the smartphone in your pocket to digital signage when you go outside your door—everything from information displays in airports, banks, shops,and hotels, as well as meeting room signage, KPI displays, and employee engagement screens in your workplace—our lives are enriched by omnipresent digital signage.

No wonder businesses in all industries are increasingly embracing digital signage as a highly effective way to grab and hold the attention of their key audiences—whether customers or employees—and deliver key content in a more impactful way. To underline how effective digital signage is in virtually every business you can think of, the market continues to grow rapidly: 

today it’s worth $26bn and within four years this is predicted to grow to $39bn.

Similarly, for employee communications, where companies use a variety of channels to connect and engage workers through platforms such as 

 digital signage is really coming into its own. 

report showed a 6% increase in digital signage usage since last year and a 24% increase in the perception of its effectiveness.

Clearly, whether you’re a moderately-sized business or a large enterprise with tens of thousands of employees, like many of our customers, you’re going to want to give serious consideration to creating a scalable digital solution that adds value to your business and delivers ROI.

If you don’t want to be left behind your competitors or are just starting out on your digital signage journey, we’ve created a guide to help you, from pre-implementation to tips on how to scale the solution. You can download 

How to Create a Scalable Digital Signage Solution That Delivers ROI

, or read on for a quick run-through and grab the main guide later.

# 1. Make Your End Goal Your Starting Point

Don’t begin your digital signage journey by thinking about how many screens you might need and what you’re going to put on them. Start instead by clearly defining your objectives and what success would look like. What problems or challenges do you want digital signage to solve?

For example, if you know that your business needs to improve productivity on a manufacturing floor, this allows your signage partner to deliver an impactful solution thatmaximizes time to value on your project.

And it allows you to create benchmark data to measure success over time. An important added benefit from being clear about your goals from the outset is that additional channels like mobile and email can be scoped into the project early to help you better reach your audiences. 

Scoping these additionalchannels early, even if they’re not implemented until later, saves time and costs in the long run.

What's Possible With the Poppulo Harmony Digital Signage Cloud

# 2. Select the Digital Signage Provider That’s Right for You

The digital signage market can be difficult to navigate, with seemingly hundreds of niche vendors. However, all digital signage vendors are not created equal. When selecting a new digital signage platform or deciding whether to replace an existing provider, it’s vital to ensure you’re evaluating each vendor on a variety of capabilities—for current and future needs. 

Ask: Is it scalable, powerful, and intuitive for anyone to use? Can it streamline device management, and is it able to integrate other comms channels such as email and mobile?

#3. Plan Content Based on Signage Location and Purpose

The content you post will determine how successful your digital signage will be, but before you create a content plan or strategy, complete a journey map for your various audiences: who they are and where they are physically located at different times of the day. You will need this because different locations require different types of messaging.

For example, in a workplace, signs in hallways should be more like billboards with short, impactful messages and minimal detail, while break area screens can have more detail since people have more time to digest the content. 

And while content on manufacturing floor screens will focus on operational comms such as KPIs and safety alerts for employees, screens elsewhere can deliver organizational comms such as people updates.

First, make a list of the types of messages you need to communicate to all your audiences and their locations: customers, guests, and employees wherever they work: in the office, on the frontline, or manufacturing floor. 

Remember, your content strategy should be fully aligned with company goals. How you create your content is a different matter. Content for some applications—such as KPIs for factory floors, and meeting room signage—can be driven by systems integrations, while other applications need to account for frequent updates from content contributors throughout your organization.

To get the most value out of your digital signage network, content should come from every corner of your business. So, one of your first steps should be to identify stakeholders in every department—as well as backups—who will be responsible for content contribution and educate them about the opportunities digital signage presents. And it’s also critical to set timelines around content contribution so you can ensure your screens are always updated with relevant content.

Provide guidelines for consistent communications. Create a style guide for content creators to ensure communication consistency. Inconsistent content will erode the impact of your signage and work against the initial goals of your project.

Enable content contribution and management from anywhere. Your content contributors need the flexibility to update and schedule content from wherever they need to, whenever they need to.

Leverage pre-built, ready-to-use templates, allowing contributors to edit content within an approved layout.

Include a Call-to-Action (CTA). This helps drive people to places where they can find more information about the content displayed. Given the increased need to provide touchless options, many organizations are relying on QR codes to enable their audience to access additional information quickly and easily.

Content governance is essential for the successful implementation of any digital signage network. To streamline governance, you will need a centralized, cloud-based content repository that gives anyone at your company a place to upload and store rich media assets, and then easily access and schedule that content from any device, anytime.

Create a content and application request submission process. This is key to driving content because some of the best ideas for content and applications will come from your audiences, the people who consume the content on your network.

Ensure you have a scalable way to manage users and permissions. When it’s time to scale your network, the ability to easily add contributors—only giving them access to the tools and permissions they need—is invaluable.

Integrate your digital signage network with your company’s identity provider (IDP) to streamline access and remain compliant with your company’s security protocols.

Document your digital signage processes. Process documentation may not be the most exciting aspect of managing a digital signage network, but it is critical. Things like defining the process for identifying backup resources, creating guidelines around the removal of content, and implementing rules for content contributor permissions, are all integral to the ongoing success of your digital signage network.

There is little point in creating and deploying content on your digital signage network or any other communications channel unless you know whether it’s getting the results you set out to achieve. 

So, you need to be able to measure what content is hitting the mark with all your target audiences. 

You need to be able to track engagement across every channel that your business uses—digital signage, email, mobile, Intranet, and collaboration tools—to find out what’s working and what’s not and what needs to change to achieve your goals. 

Leverage Pre-Bbuilt Solutions to Scale Rapidly.

Given the increased need for flexible communications solutions, many 

 clients prefer to deploy pre-built, configurable solutions for employee communications and meeting room management so they get faster time to value.

After ensuring that they can effectively communicate across their entire organizations, our clients then begin expanding the scope of their solutions to include more customized applications to solve wayfinding, performance management, lobby experience challenges, and much more.

Scope Digital Signage into New Buildings and Renovations

To create a more cohesive digital experience in new or renovated spaces, you need to scope screens into the architectural drawings, as well as collaborate with your designers, developers, and systems engineers. 

Adding screens to a building as an afterthought often minimizes the impact of the network, while proactively planning for screens during renovation or new construction projects helps ensure the location of each screen is optimized for the purpose of the application.

This creates the best possible opportunity to leverage digital signage to achieve your business objectives.

If you would like to find out more about how Poppulo’s digital signage platform can help you achieve those goals—and how we’re making a difference for our many A-list clients—we’re 

7 Steps to Create Value in Your Business with Scalable Digital Signage

You really have to wonder if some companies place less value on their deskless and non-wired employees than their office-based and connected colleagues.

How else can this unacceptable statistic be explained: deskless/non-wired employees—traditionally considered unreachable or difficult to reach—are not only in the top 10 barriers to success in 

 report, but it jumped three places since last year.

Yes, the situation is getting worse, not better, even though there’s a powerful and proven solution for people who don’t have access to traditional communication channels like email or mobile: digital signage. 

Whether non-wired,deskless employees work on factory floors, warehouses, retail outlets, hotels, casinos, or airports, modern digital signage is an immensely flexible way of keeping them connected, informed, productive, and engaged.

And we’re not talking about a small minority of the world’s workforce here. Quite the contrary: around 

80% of workers globally, 2.8 billion people

That’s not to say that every company is missing the opportunity to reach and connect with their deskless employees. Poppulo’s digital signage

 is a critical communication tool for companies ranging from Daimler to the Hilton Group, Delta Air, the US wholesaler Ferguson, and more. 

It’s no surprise that leading organizations are turning to digital signage, a fact that Gallagher’s recent report also underlines. When comparing the results from the last two years, it’s clear that perceptions around digital signage are shifting, with a 6% increase in usage and a 24%increase in the perceived effectiveness over last year. 

And that’s solely related to the usage of digital signage for employee communications—it doesn’t even touch on the many other applications the technology powers for global businesses.

Key Digital Signage Applications for Employee Communications

: Digital signage delivers instant alerts and information that can be prominently displayed where deskless workers are located, increasing the likelihood of message absorption.

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