Marketing Plan for OTT Platforms

The number of video-on-demand services has been increasing. They are all trying to win the hearts and attention of the user.

Quality content does not guarantee success. Your videos may be entertaining, but if they don’t reach the right people, your video platform will not win users.

As a streaming business, you would like to capture your audience and make them watch one episode after another, but it takes much more than binge-worthy shows to captivate your users.

It would be best to have a customer-centric marketing plan to take your content to users.

Let’s dive deep and analyze some winning strategies for your OTT platform.

Market your streaming service on multiple platforms

An average user spends around 78 minutes streaming videos every day. How do you make them spend this time on your streaming service? The answer is quite simple. Marketing. Market your service in every possible channel, say print media, social media marketing, or other paid digital channels like SEO marketing.

Eventually, your users will also spread your fame. This will be word-of-mouth marketing.

You will need all these sources to drive traffic to your website or apps.

Send emails that can’t be ignored.

Some marketers say email marketing is dead. No. Not at all. It will never die as long as there is a need for communication over the Internet.

Studies show that the click-through rate of an email campaign is 14x higher than that of a social media site.

But, your email campaigns being a hit or miss depends upon how you craft them.

Dull, unimaginative emails head straight to the trash and spam folders, while personalized and engaging emails increase conversion.

Understand your users’ preferences. Group them accordingly, and send different emails to different groups.

What’s the point in having tons of data if you don’t know how to use it?

Take the help of bots.

Customer service plays a significant role in how your customers perceive your brand. Ensure your responses are quick and services are available round the clock.

A chatbot can handle simple issues quickly and pass on only the complex ones to your customer service executives, thus reducing the latency to reply.

56% of users said they would rather text customer service than call them to resolve the issue.

Moreover, bots can analyze the most common issues, letting you know whether your media player or apps need to be tweaked.

Social media marketing

The three main reasons to build your social following is

• Generate traffic from the right audience
• Build brand awareness
• To engage your audience

To market your streaming business effectively, social media is one of the most critical aspects, as millions of users log onto social networks every day to pass the time.

For instance, in 2012, Netflix had only 25 million subscribers; by 2017, it had almost 4x-ed its subscriber base with 99 million subscribers, and by 2022 it had further doubled its subscriber base to 221 million. All this is not just because of its great content but also because of the proper social marketing.

As you do when creating streaming content, create social media content no one else can match you with.

Create content for the world.

Research proves that viewers who use subtitles are likelier to complete watching a video, and the viewership is also high. Subtitles increase video viewing by 40%, and where subtitles appeared, 80% more people watched the entire video.

A video’s reach will be increased by adding subtitles and captions. It helps to break down communication barriers and connects people from all over the world, regardless of the language in which the original content was created.

Moreover, subtitles can improve your SEO ranking. The transcribed text can be embedded with the multimedia file. This helps in searchability for users, and they can find video content based on the textual content of the video they want to watch.

User nudges

Push notifications help boost user engagement by 88%. You can achieve high user engagement with push notifications while remaining low-key in your communication style.

Push notifications for your OTT app can help you run targeted, personalized campaigns to attract attention toward OTT content relevant to your user’s choice.

Also, use in-app messaging to engage users while using your app.

Delight the customer

Discounts, coupons, free months, or goodies encourage existing users to invite referrals.

Targeted coupons can introduce new product lines, and subscribers may be encouraged to try a more profitable new service. Vouchers can also help to win back to your streaming platform.

Take Away

Knowing your audience to tailor your content to meet their needs and interests is essential. Ensure you delight your loyal customers and improve your communication with them. You can monitor their activity on selected channels through social media and initiate successful conversations.

You must personalize the experience of your users and make them feel special. And finally – listening to your audience! With a streaming service, take advantage of the analytics and give your users what they want rather than hoping they’ll like what you create without knowing their preferences.