Internet ‘content’ looks a whole lot different than in the early days of 2011. And yet, its importance for business is more important than ever. A whopping 71% of marketers say the demand for content will grow 5x over the next 12 months.
But walk a mile in your content team’s shoes, and you’ll realize that scaling to meet this demand won’t be that easy. This is especially true of digital signage campaigns — where (let’s be honest) most CMS platforms were designed for 2011.
Thing is, your content team already knows how to bring great content to life, and how to get it scheduled. They just don’t have access to modern platforms offering the tools, features, and workflows needed to scale that content output.
So as you can see, there’s a working theory here: that your signage CMS should work the same way your content team already thinks. To prove this research question, we’re looking at five key thought processes to consider, plus CMS features you should acquire for your team.
So why does signage often lag behind?
There’s been a very long, very obvious historical gap between content marketing teams and their software of choice. If you’re even a little bit familiar with content management systems, or CMS platforms, for digital signage, you’re likely all too accustomed to:
- Hardware-first thinking. Most CMS platforms care a lot about the hardware it works on, like specific screens or OS systems. But it doesn’t always account for user experience. Like how easy it is to navigate, or use correctly, or put into practice.
- IT-owned tools instead of marketing tools. Some digital signage CMS platforms are built with a developer-first approach. This means they’re easy to customize for the right IT professional, but cumbersome and nearly unusable to the average marketing professional.
- Manual file uploads and device management. Send in your PowerPoint Slides or Canva templates to manually push onto a screen. Or worse, struggle through endlessly disparate device management requirements, with no centralization available.
As a result, your screens can feel harder to manage than social media.
This isn’t how your signage should be.
But thankfully, this is also a problem that can be fixed.
5 key thought processes your signage CMS should follow
The average content team typically creates content using a company-specific workflow. And while the execution process depends on the team, it typically follows a system like:
- Brainstorm
- Develop
- Create
- Audit
- Publish
So why does digital signage often live outside that system? In many instances, content teams need to cover the gaps for their technology stack, and not the other way around. This could cause screens to become disconnected from the rest of your marketing stack. And we both know the consequences of desynced marketing content.
The solution, then, is finding a CMS that naturally follows how content teams think.
This is typically along the lines of:
1. Planning before publishing
The best content teams don’t just push out assets and hope for the best. Instead, they plan campaigns across time.
Typical workflows include:
- Social media calendars
- Campaign launch timelines
- Email schedules
- Product marketing calendars
Your digital signage screens should follow a similar cadence. It should be simple and easy to schedule signage on a ‘calendar,’ decide when content switches off and on, and schedule promotions, events, and campaigns to appear automatically.
Calendar-based scheduling, for example, lets you select a length of time to run specific content or content playlists. You might couple this process with drag-and-drop timelines, which let you easily make adjustments without needing to manually code anything.
Other tools, like multi-location scheduling, let you schedule content calendars across multiple locations or zones. You might schedule specific content for your East Coast locations compared to your West Coast subsidiaries, for example. Or, you could publish unique content to lobby screens compared to your conference room TVs, and so on.
2. Central asset organization
If you’ve ever worked on a content team, you know how quickly assets can spiral out of control. One campaign might involve dozens of files like social graphics, video clips, brand imagery, templates, and alt versions. Others might only require one or two documents. But without a system to organize everything, you’re still wasting hours digging through folders, Slack threads, and old emails.
That’s why many content teams these days need CMS platforms with centralized management tools. These give marketing teams a single place to store and organize digital signage content like:
- Campaign graphics
- Brand assets
- Video files
- Reusable templates.
No need to upload files directly to players, or store them on shared drives, or pass them around on USB sticks. With a modern signage CMS, you can set up digital signage integrations that establish a centralized content library for screens. Just store assets once and reuse them across locations, playlists, and campaigns. And if you update an asset, every screen currently showcasing said content can update automatically.
Better yet, many signage platforms connect directly to DAM systems like Canto, which teams can use to pull approved assets straight from existing marketing libraries. That way, your screens become a natural extension of your content ecosystem rather than yet another disconnected tool to manage.
3. Rinse-and-repeat content
Gone are the days of building content from scratch. Instead, most content teams rely on reusable templates that make campaigns faster to launch and easier to scale. A social post format, a product announcement layout, or a campaign banner, for example, can all follow the same visual structure while swapping out specific messages.
That’s why trying to build a signage program without templates causes so many problems down the line. For one thing, every screen update becomes a mini design project. Local teams may improvise layouts, stretch logos, or use outdated branding because they don’t have an approved starting point. This, over time, leads to inconsistent screens.
A CMS platform that thinks like your content team can support your efforts with locked brand templates with editable content fields. That way, headquarters can define the layout, fonts, colors, and required elements. Then, local teams can update specific pieces of content like text, pricing, or regional offers.
The best platforms also include an easy-to-access content design studio, which makes it easy to build, store, and reuse these templates across campaigns. Instead of starting from scratch every time they need new content, your team can quickly spin up signage using layouts that already match your brand.
4. Automate what you can
Automation is the future for most content teams. You likely interact with this on an almost daily basis.
Social posts, for example, can be published automatically at scheduled times. Or you can set up email campaigns that run through drip sequences. The goal isn’t to remove humans from the process. Instead, it’s designed to remove repetitive manual steps that could lead to human error or slow down your content.
Worryingly, many signage systems still rely on manual updates (i.e., someone logging in every day to swap menus, remove promotions, or update announcements). That might work for one screen in a small business. But it isn't sustainable when managing dozens or hundreds of displays.
A better approach is to treat your digital signage like any other automated marketing channel. You’ll want tools that support automated scheduling so content goes live and expires at the right time without intervention.
More advanced platforms also support triggers and conditional playback, for example. These allow screens to react to real-world conditions like time of day, data thresholds, or external events.
In practice, triggers can help you switch to a happy hour menu at 4 PM, celebrate a sales milestone when a target is reached, or display alerts when a system issue occurs. All this takes place automatically based on the conditions you set, without needing someone to manually change your content.
5. Cross-role collaboration
Publishing content is rarely a one-person job. Most campaigns move through several hands before they ever reach an audience. For example:
- Designers create visual assets
- Marketers plan and schedule the campaign
- Managers or leadership approve messaging
- Regional teams adapt content to fit local markets
Modern marketing tools understand this inherently. Instead of assuming one person controls everything, they’re designed for role collaboration across job titles and responsibilities. The best platforms include features like role-based permissions, approval workflows, and shared campaign calendars so everyone can see what’s happening and when.
So let’s bring it back to the topic at hand. If your signage CMS assumes a single administrator manages every screen, it won’t take long before it becomes a bottleneck (or worse, a security liability). A better approach is to find a CMS that ‘gets’ it and offers role-based access controls based on what your team needs.
Role-based permissions help maintain your internal governance while allowing teams to work efficiently. For example, the best CMS systems come with built-in user roles that determine what someone can view, edit, or publish.
Here’s a quick overview of the default roles available in Fugo:
- Owner: Owners have full administrative access. This includes managing screens, media assets, billing settings, and user permissions. The Owner typically acts as the primary contact for the account.
- Manager: Managers can manage screens and content within the Spaces they’re assigned to. However, they cannot create or edit Spaces, invite users, or access billing settings.
- Content Creator: Content Creators focus on building and organizing content. They can create Studio content, upload media, and build dashboards, but they cannot publish content to screens or control playback.
- Publisher: Publishers control what appears on screens. They can update playlists and change what’s currently playing, but they cannot create new content or upload media files.
- Viewer: Viewers have read-only access. They can see screens, content, and dashboards within their assigned Spaces but cannot make any changes.
- Billing Manager: Billing Managers can view and manage billing details for the Spaces they’re assigned to. Their access is limited to financial settings and does not include content or screen management.
- Quick Caster: Quick Casters can mirror or cast content directly to screens within their assigned Spaces. They do not have access to edit content, manage screens, or view other account settings.
Get more information in this comprehensive breakdown:
How to choose a modern signage CMS
Before signing on the dotted line for any CMS, be sure to carefully vet it with this simple checklist:
✅ Calendar-based content scheduling. How difficult is it to schedule content for release? Can you natively automate any of these processes?
✅ Budget. Is the cost within your range? Do you get good value for your dollar? And how much do you have to upgrade to unlock more features as you grow?
✅ Centralized asset libraries. If the CMS tool doesn’t offer anything itself, can you connect with a DAM like Canto or Bynder?
✅ Template-driven design systems. Is there an easy-to-use content design studio available? Can you create locked templates for your team?
✅ Automation and triggers. Are there built-in workflows available? What about triggered content? Or AI features like AI-powered content generation?
✅ Role-based collaboration tools. How much governance control do you have over your users? What security certifications, if any, does your CMS have?
✅ Third-party integrations? Does the CMS connect to the same systems that content teams use elsewhere?
Learn more about evaluating digital signage software features.
Creating a simpler system for managing digital signage.
Your content team already knows how to manage campaigns across channels. You just need to equip them with the right tools for hyperspecific workflows, like with digital signage.
Thankfully, great signage CMS platforms don’t reinvent marketing workflows. But they do extend them to the physical world. The goal should be to effortlessly turn screens into another channel in your content ecosystem. That way, your team is free to do what it does best: create incredible content that impacts internal and external audiences.
Resources for further reading:
