OTT: How to increase video content views
Streaming service operators are always striving to boost user engagement within their service and, more specifically, increase video content views. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways operators can leverage their content, service, and even experience to optimise discovery for their users, including maximising their metadata for search and running external marketing and social campaigns.
Optimising the User Interface and Experience
One of the best ways to increase video content views is to optimise the interface and enhance the user experience within the streaming service. If users have a positive experience, they’re more likely to return and recommend it to others.
There are several ways operators can optimise the user interface, including making quality content easy to find. Curating rich categories of entertainment and positioning content high up on the discovery page of the service is one such solution.
Magine Pro-powered streaming services allow operators to curate the discovery page thoroughly, including content category curation and selecting content to hero within the top carousel. Our partners can also use the CMS Console to select what artwork and poster sizes are presented and add engaging and informative titles and descriptions to entice users to choose particular movies or series. Adding additional content, such as trailers and even editorials, will also help expand the discovery experience and give users a clearer idea of what’s available.
Making the Most of Metadata
Another way operators can help to increase content views is to ensure metadata is as SEO-friendly as possible. Metadata is data that defines and describes the data object it is linked to. In this context, metadata describes, via text descriptions, the content of a video, making it readable for search engines.
Ensuring that metadata is SEO-friendly will help content appear much higher in search results both inside and outside a streaming service. To do this, providers should focus on using keywords throughout metadata descriptions, including attention-grabbing and descriptive titles, and adding content summaries that accurately reflect what users will see.
Using the Magine Pro CMS Console, our partners are able to upload, manually edit, and even use custom metadata to help enrich their user experiences and improve search results.
Running External Marketing Campaigns
Service operators can also look to increase discovery and views by running external marketing campaigns focusing on select content instead of the entire streaming service. A strategy like this works particularly well when the chosen content is well-known, sought after, and/or exclusive to the service itself.
Utilising digital channels is a fantastic way to generate interest and track a campaign’s success. Google ads and sponsored social media on audience-relevant platforms are great starting points. And can build out further to partnering with trusted companies or influencers who will promote the content to their loyal audiences and help penetrate new markets.
Magine Pro’s Data Insights toolset gives our partners a clear 360 view of their service’s performance, enabling providers to follow the entire user journey from marketing attribution to engagement throughout the customer lifecycle. Data-led insights like these give operators a complete view of a marketing campaign’s performance and whether focused external content strategies are cost-effective and capable of producing the desired outcome.
____________________________________________________________________________________
At Magine Pro, we offer a flexible OTT platform that can be customised according to your OTT business needs. Create a video streaming service with us and monetise your live events, linear and VOD content seamlessly through subscription, advertising, and/or transactional business models. What’s more, we have a team of experienced experts on hand who can help you launch and grow your OTT business successfully.
For more guidance on increasing content discovery, views, and engagement, check out our blog. And if you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you build and launch a successful OTT business, get in touch with us today.
How to set up a streaming service for success before signing a service contract
You’ve heard the old adage about making sure you have a solid business plan before you start any big project, and that saying is truer than ever with streaming services. Create your brand from the ground up, outline your payment options, structure your content and create a marketing strategy.
GET A PROFESSIONAL TO CREATE YOUR BRANDING FOR YOU
You need a great brand, and you need it to be unique. You need a catchy name, one that people will remember. You also need a logo and colours that will make your brand stand out from the crowd. You can create your own branding or hire someone to do it for you. It’s better to have someone with experience and knowledge of how streaming services work.
This will cost money, but it’s an investment that will pay off in the long run. A professional will be able to create a logo and colour scheme that reflects the feel of your brand, and they’ll make sure everything is designed in a way that’s easy to read on different devices.
WRITE TERMS AND POLICIES FOR YOUR SERVICE
Yes, most of your customers will not read your terms and conditions or your privacy policy. You need to have them anyway for two reasons:
- Payment gateway and app store providers will request them before you can sign a contract or release apps.
- They define the relationship with your customers. They give you a framework of what you can and can’t do. And tell your customers what they can and can’t do.
Writing legal texts usually takes the longest so you best get to it as soon as possible. If you are wondering what should be included you can have a look at other streaming services.
SIGN UP FOR A PAYMENT GATEWAY
Earning money with your content is probably your most important goal. If you want to sell subscriptions or rental content you will need a payment provider that
- can handle transactions
- support your preferred payment methods
- allow you to handle refunds and payment disputes
- helps you to prevent fraud and manage risk
- gives you the necessary financial reports
Magine Pro is already integrated with Adyen and Stripe, two reliable and professional payment gateways with a wide range of supported payment methods. Signing up with them can take some time. If you have a business plan and at least an outline of your terms and conditions you can start the conversation with your preferred provider.
When the contract is done the technical integration takes only a few hours and you can test the full purchase flow the same day.
You can also sell subscriptions through apps. Besides an app store account you need a merchant
agreement with the store provider. Don’t let the revenue share discourage you from using this opportunity. Apple, Google and Amazon have launched Small Business Programs that reduce the revenue share from 30% to 15%.
STRUCTURE YOUR CONTENT
Content is king! That saying still rings true. Potential customers will choose a streaming service mainly because they are interested in the content.
It is one thing to transcode the content. The big organisational part is actually knowing how you want to sell it. You can plan ahead by structuring your content into bundles.
Want to give access to everything? – Create one bundle.
Want to sell theme packages? – Create a bundle per theme.
Want to combine subscriptions with rentals or Pay per views? – Create a bundle for the subscription and one bundle per rental or Pay per view.
Prepare your metadata:
- Get images: 16:9 and poster
- Have a title, short synopsis, cast, directors, genre and any other essential information you think is necessary to present your content
- Add labels. In the Magine platform labels are used to categorise content e.g. for collections without presenting the label to the customers.
Last but not least, think about translations. If you offer your service in multiple countries with different languages you will need translations of your metadata.
CREATE A MARKETING STRATEGY
For your streaming service to stick out from the crowd you need to know your target users very well. If you know where they are it will be easier to find channels to address them. Partnerships can help you to increase your reach and raise brand awareness.
At Magine Pro we can support your efforts with:
- Dynamic links
- Push notifications
- Integrations with content discovery services as Just Watch and PlayPilot
- Marketing integrations through Google Tag Manager e.g. Gift cards, referral and affiliate programs
And when you think about the price point for your content, don’t give everything away for free. Sure discounts help to increase the interest in your service. Giving away your content for free first in a trial and then with 100% discount will leave your customers wondering if your content is actually worth something. Be brave, charge something even if it’s nominal.
PREPARE YOUR SERVICE FOR SUCCESS
Finding the right vendor for your streaming service can take time. There are plenty of details to discuss. Use the time to prepare yourself and your team. Planning out your streaming service before you agree to any contracts will make the process more manageable after the agreement is signed. It will help you to launch your streaming service on time and beat the competition. At Magine Pro our onboarding specialists will guide you through the setup process.
Magine Pro offer a flexible OTT platform that can be customised according to your needs. Create a video streaming service with us and monetise your live events, linear and VOD content seamlessly through subscription, advertising and/or transactional business models. What’s more, we have a team of experienced experts on hand who can help you launch and grow your OTT business successfully. And if you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you build and launch a successful OTT business, get in touch with us today.
How To Drive Awareness & Video Service Discoverability: Part Two
In part two of How to Drive Awareness & Video Service Discoverability, we look closely at the importance of proactive subscriber care and specifically what digital channels are essential to boosting brand awareness and increasing conversion rates.
Subscribers are much savvier today than when streaming services first launched. Omdia’s recent report highlights users are becoming increasingly accustomed to the notion of subscribing and cancelling online video services regularly to meet their content needs. Those fluctuations in subscriptions are driven by multiple factors, including promotional activity, content titles and seasonality such as holiday periods or key events such as sports tournaments and the release of new seasons of must-watch drama series. So how can video streaming services turn subscribers from seasonal sign-ups to long-term loyalists?
Omdia states, “The dominant global players in streaming video know that the key to success is to proactively encourage users to make the most of the subscription, including making personalised profiles, by watching content on more than one device, and of course, to ultimately make them watch more content and more often. To thrive in a fierce online video streaming market, proactive subscriber care is a must.”
Proactive Subscriber Care
Proactive subscriber care should be forefront throughout the lifetime of the subscription, including during sign up onboarding. Communicate clearly how to best use the service from day one, educate subscribers on features, watch content on different devices, and most importantly, what to do if they encounter issues. And keeping subscribers regularly informed about new content releases, features and promotions should be ongoing.
Subscribers that feel valued or part of the journey with new streaming services are more likely to show loyalty and stick around. Consumers having a positive association with your brand can be just as effective on retention and growth rates as regularly updating your service with new content.
At Magine Pro, we advise our partners to build a reliable digital ecosystem that features all relevant acquisition and retention channels to support their marketing efforts and proactive subscriber care plan. We also integrate with Mandrill and MailChimp to enable them to regularly communicate with their users, via email and targeted in-app messages.
Digital Channels
Social Media
Social channels are undoubtedly one of the most important in the digital ecosystem for new online video services. As Omdia’s research suggests, ‘over 23% of consumers rely on recommendations from online platforms and social media when deciding what to watch.’ It’s, therefore, crucial to leverage social platforms throughout the funnel to drive awareness and build buzz around your content and service. The real-time nature of social posts makes it a great way to connect with users around current events or popular trends. It’s also a useful way to gather user feedback on content and service features and, when managed well, can help build a loyal user community.
Reach out regularly via email to your subscribers to inform them about promotions, new service features and content. Email is an essential channel for onboarding, and it’s also a great way to engage with subscribers and re-engage dormant users regularly. Build a comms strategy to support customer service and your marketing efforts, and send personalised emails where possible. For example, you can send targeted campaigns about specific content to users based on their previous viewing habits.
In-app Messages
In-app MessagesWhen timed well and positioned carefully, in-app notifications are a great way to communicate promotions or new/upcoming content on your service with users. We recommend using pop-ups to promote content that can be watched immediately or added to a user’s watchlist to enjoy later. Be mindful with the timings pop-ups appear to avoid inconveniencing users and be aware that only those using the app will receive the notification.
Push Notifications
You can also reach out to users when they aren’t using the service via push notifications. They are a helpful way to communicate a short-term promotion, new content or remind users that the content they have added to their Watchlist is coming to an end. Push notifications also enable you to add deep links, which can open a specific page in your service.
Download our white paper now, OTT Discovery: How to stand out amongst the crowd, to find out more about the benefits of proactive subscriber care and essential channels in the digital ecosystem. This white paper also includes partner case studies that highlight their in-market experiences. You’ll also discover what new streaming services can do to boost brand awareness, drive discoverability and increase conversion rates through marketing efforts and service features.
And if you missed part one of this blog series, ‘How To Drive Awareness & Video Service Discoverability’, you can catch up here and learn more about the benefits of promotional incentives.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Want more advice and support on driving awareness & discoverability? Get in touch with the Magine Pro team and find out how we can help. You can also learn more about our branded OTT solutions and services here.
Magine Pro Marketing eBook: 8 essential steps to launch
When it comes to OTT, content is quite rightly considered king, which can mean only thing, marketing is its queen. Sure, you need great content and a fantastic OTT service but if people don’t know a thing about it, how can you generate sales? Quite simply: You can’t. You may know everything there is to know about your OTT service, and in particular what makes it better than the competition but if you don’t communicate that effectively, you won’t see subscriber growth.
A well thought through marketing strategy is essential for any business. Not only does it help educate potential customers about your service it also builds brand awareness, can increase sales and reduce churn. In order to improve your chances of long-term success, put a solid marketing strategy in place before launch. Even a little effort can go a long way if you’re working to tight budgets or have limited resources. Engaging with customers (new and existing) on social media platforms, for example, costs nothing but is a great way to build your brand and business’s future.
In our latest eBook, we share our top marketing tips and tactics that can help you lay the right foundations for launch. In this guide, we take you through some marketing fundamentals that will help you generate leads and convert them into loyal subscribers.
You’ll learn:
- How to optimize your sales funnel
- Design your digital ecosystem
- Improve your conversion rates
- Reduce churn
- And much, much more
Download the eBook now!
____________________________________________________________________________
Looking for a little more marketing advice to get your OTT service off the ground? Check out our blog where we regularly publish articles that can help you build and grow your business. You can also get in touch with us and speak to an experienced member of the Magine Pro team.
To find out more about Magine Pro and our global OTT solutions and services, head here.
How to build an effective communications strategy for your OTT service
It’s vital for any new business to have a solid customer communications strategy in place before launch. For OTT services, how you choose to communicate with your users will have a direct effect on the long-term success of your service.
Take our own partner’s for example; combined they add over 650 hours of new content every month. However, without an effective communications strategy in place, no one would know a thing about it; not their current paying subscribers or new potential customers. And with content being the key reason people sign up to a service in the first place (and return every day, week or month), it’s pretty important it’s not overlooked.
One Magine Pro partner, in particular, will see on average around 30% of their paying subscribers active in a month when no new content has been added. By comparison, this will rocket to over 80% when new content is made available. But it only does so because they have actively promoted new content through their marketing channels.
The digital marketing channels you choose to utilize are important but don’t pit them against one another when you’re planning your CRM & communications strategy. Social Media marketing and email marketing are as important as each other. Sure, social gives you the best chance to reach large audiences instantly, but email enables you to nurture relationships and convert leads (generated through social) into actual paying subscribers.
You can use social as a tool to help drive traffic to your website, landing page or even service sign up screen. And it’s here you can encourage visitors to stay in touch by submitting their email address for further info your service and future updates on new content or features and service promotions etc.
At the very least your email communications strategy should include:
- Automated welcome email sent to all those who submit their email address.
- Onboarding emails sent to introduce new subscribers to your service.
- Re-activation emails sent after time period delay to encourage visitors to return, re-subscribe or complete signup.
- Automated customer service reminders to inform users when payments have completed or subscriptions are coming to an end etc.
- Weekly or monthly newsletters to update users on new features, content, and any service promotions.
Onboarding emails
At Magine Pro, we recommend all our partners prepare their onboarding comms prior to launch. Onboarding emails can educate customers about the service and also relieve some pressure from the customer service team. We also recommend our partners send a short survey to their users during their first week after sign up; this will not only help improve their experience but also the product in the future.
Proposed Onboarding Funnel:
- Day 0: Introductory welcome email
- Day 1: Welcome offer/promotion
- Day 3: Overview of devices to stream on
- Day 5: Overview of the services offered
- Day 7: Short survey to feedback on their experience so far
- Day 10: Deep Dive into the service and features
- Day 14: Upsell email that promotes additional content packages
- Day 30: Reactivation #1 (if a user has not returned and completed sign up)
- Day 50-70: Reactivation #2 (reminder if a user has not returned after sign up)
Onboarding emails can be set up before launch to send autonomously. You can also A/B test with emails to see which subject lines and messaging work best.
Email campaigns
Alongside sending automated onboarding emails, regularly reach out to your users. Email is considered a retention channel, designed to keep customers interested and engaged after they’ve signed up or subscribed to a service. A weekly or monthly newsletter, for example, is a great way to keep your users informed on service updates, promotions and new content.
Don’t let subscribers slip away either, entice inactive users back to your service with promotions via email. You can do the same for those who have recently canceled their subscription; remind them you exist, what they’re missing and make it easy to get back onboard!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for a little more marketing advice to get your OTT service off the ground? Check out our blog where we also cover how to convert leads into loyal subscribers, reduce subscription churn rates and optimize your OTT service for Search.
You can also get in touch with us and find out more about our global OTT solutions and services here.
How to optimize your OTT service for Search & boost subscriber numbers
Search Engine Optimisation, otherwise known as SEO is integral to building brand awareness and your online presence. Although SEO is commonly associated with websites, it can, in fact, be just as beneficial when applied to your web-based OTT service and apps. Making your content and service visible to search engines like Google, either organically or through paid activities, really is vital if you want viewers to find you and subscribe.
If you’re currently planning, curating or even updating your video service, now is the time to optimize and improve your SEO. Some of the key benefits of an effective SEO strategy include:
- Increased and higher quality traffic
- Better visibility online
- Creates credibility and trust
- Cost effective marketing
- Gives you a better insight into your audience and traffic
Here are a few of our top tips to help you get started:
Identify your keywords
Keywords are an extremely important part of your SEO strategy. To research short and long-tail keywords successfully, you’ll need to get into the mindset of your audience and consider how they may search online for your content or service. It’s also a good idea to check out what words your competitors are optimizing. That doesn’t mean you should optimize the same words though (it will cost more to do so, particularly if they’re already well established).
To research keywords, check out some helpful online tools, including Google Keyword Planner and Keyword Tool. Once you’ve identified your keywords, position them within the copy on your service and web page. Don’t overdo it though, Google, in particular, is great at sussing out keyword overuse and it will penalize you for it.
Use keywords effectively
Thoughtfully position keywords within the copy of your service and/or website. Scattering keywords all over the place really won’t be effective.
Of course, there are obvious places you should use keywords, such as in movie, series or program titles etc. However, you can also utilize keywords in filenames before uploading new content to your service. Simply ensure video filenames match that of the film title or TV program. This will make it much easier for search engines like Google to locate your video content when it’s being searched for online.
Be meticulous with metadata
Metadata will not only help your users locate great content within your service, but can also impact online search results. Metadata effectively tells search engines like Google, what the video is about and helps them to determine where it should appear in results.
Always use keywords in content tiles, descriptions, and tags. But, as we mentioned earlier, try not to overdo it. Keyword stuffing is frowned upon by Search Engines and can result in lower rankings. It can also be off-putting to your users. When it comes to writing video descriptions or general web copy, make sure sentences flow and read naturally. You should also experiment with keyword variations, including synonyms as well as singular and plural keywords.
Promote, Promote, Promote!
Social media is one of the best ways to reach out to your target audience and promote your OTT service. Although it’s important to note that social media won’t have a direct effect on your Google ranking, it can still aid your SEO efforts.
Building a strong social community is one of the best ways to promote your service and content organically. Loyal followers will help build buzz by sharing the links you post on your social channels. These links should take followers directly to your service, new content, relevant web pages etc. In turn, this will drive more traffic to your website/service, which Search Engine’s like Google actually recognize. Links on social media that have been shared hundreds of times (if not more) have been known to improve web page rankings for keywords/phrases that are very competitive. In short, don’t overlook the importance of digital marketing and your social presence.
How can we help?
At Magine Pro we appreciate how important SEO is to launching your own OTT service. And in particular the impact it can have on building your subscriber numbers. Because of this, we provide all our partners with the advice and the tools they need to effectively optimize their service for launch and in future. This not only includes digital marketing guidance but also access to the Magine Pro Console, our web-based management tool.
Using the Magine Pro Console, our partners can independently curate and manage their Pioneer or Premium video services. The Console enables them to edit their service’s start page, content categories and assets metadata with immediate effect. This gives them full control over where and how keywords appear in their service. Want to find out more about our global OTT solutions and services, or have an SEO related question? Get in touch with the team today.
Our partners can independently edit their service’s content categories, titles, descriptions, tags and metadata using the Magine Pro Console
Converting Leads into Loyal Subscribers: Part One
Loyal subscribers don’t tend to form long virtual queues on the day a new OTT service is launched. A well-executed pre-launch marketing plan may drive a lot of traffic but there’s no guarantee those that show up will sign up and stick around.
Converting potential customers into paying subscribers requires pre-planning and a good marketing strategy. To be successful, you need to optimize your conversion funnel and user journey. Conversion funnels apply to all online sales-focused businesses and outline the journey a potential customer will take before they commit to purchase. In it’s simplest form, the conversion funnel has four main steps that we’ve outlined below.
Awareness
The first stage is all about building awareness around your brand and service. At this point, the funnel is broad because although a large volume of people may become aware of your service through marketing, they may not be interested in going further and finding out more.
In order to successfully build awareness that leads to subscribers, focus your digital marketing efforts on a defined target audience. Use social media to reach out and spread awareness, run targeted paid ads online and ensure you’re website and service is SEO optimized to improve organic reach.
Interest
At this stage, only those who are aware and interested will look for more information and effectively enter the funnel. This may be reflected in increased click-through rates on your paid ads or even a boost in organic SEO-lead traffic.
The trick here is to keep interested visitors engaged. You need to give them a better understanding of what your service includes and the value it provides. Offering promotions or discounts on your website in exchange for visitor emails is a great way to keep them moving through the funnel. Once you have their email address, you’ll be able to send more helpful info and reminders to them later.
Desire
The funnel will shrink further because not all those who showed interest will actually want the service after they learn more. This stage is predominantly influenced by the service itself and in particular what content is available and whether it appeals to them. It is here that you need to show potential customers why they need your service – what are you offering that others on the market aren’t? Or, what is it you do better?
Ramp up your marketing efforts here and retarget those who have visited your website or service but not committed to subscribe just yet.
Action
This is the smallest part of the funnel as only a small percentage of the original leads will want to take action and subscribe. It’s important at this stage that the process to do so is simple and straightforward to minimize bounce.
Even after customers have taken action you need to stay active to reduce churn. Automated onboarding emails are a great way to introduce customers to your service and remind them to come back regularly to watch new content. You can also use your social channels as a tool to keep them engaged and up-to-date on new features, content or promotions.
The funnel above gives a great overview but mapping out a detailed user flow will ensure your strategy is tight and easy to follow. It also gives you an opportunity to outline what channels you want to utilize, alongside customer comms that need to be in place pre, during and post launch. Here’s an overview of a typical user flow, which also includes the retention stage you’ll need to consider after action.
In part two we look more closely at the digital ecosystem and the ideal channel mix for marketing a new service. You can also check out our post on 5 ways to reduce your OTT subscription churn rate.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Want more advice and support on converting leads into loyal subscribers? Get in touch with the Magine Pro team and find out how we can help. You can also learn more about our branded OTT solutions and services here.