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!
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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 build a profitable OTT business
As the OTT market has grown considerably in recent years, new market entrants face fierce competition. But you don’t have to square up to the likes of Netflix or Amazon Prime to get a good piece of the proverbial pie. At Magine Pro, we believe there’s still plenty of room in this growing market for new services to set themselves apart from the mainstream competition.
In our latest white paper, we look into the opportunities for new market entrants who want to independently monetize their live, linear and/or VOD content. Download it today and find out why we think niche services that appeal to particular audience interests are the way forward. We also outline the best types of content for OTT, monetization models that make the most sense, as well as, global distribution and how Magine Pro can help you get your OTT business off the ground!
Within the white paper, you’ll also find out more about Magine Pro’s OTT solutions and services, including our VOD encoding and quality assurance capabilities and our Pioneer and Premium OTT products. Hit the link below to download now and get in touch with us to discuss how we can help you. Alternatively, book a meeting and meet the team at IBC this September in Amsterdam and demo our services for yourself on stand 14.C25.
Download white paper
Data-driven OTT services
The OTT market has grown considerably in recent years. There are more video streaming websites and apps for consumers to choose from than ever before. With so much choice, it’s no surprise that viewers have become more critical of the value and experience an OTT service has to offer. How else are you going to justify staying on and paying another month?
Because of this, service providers can’t afford to sit back and see how things go at the end of every month. By that time, you could have lost a big chunk of your subscriber count. Consumer expectations and demands change quickly, so it’s imperative service providers stay one step ahead. Analytics is key to user retention and even win back, as you’re able to identify what is working and what needs to change.
Data can help to reduce churn and improve the customer experience. It can also identify upsell opportunities and even increase ARPU by enabling players to take concrete actions based on findings from sign up funnels, payment flows, customer journeys, subscriber engagement, and user pain points.
Analytics are at the core of Magine. Data informs every decision we make, from content acquisition for our own consumer services to service updates based on user engagement levels. It even helps us to determine whether to invest in more infrastructure in new markets around the world. The data and learnings generated from our consumer services also ensure the continuous and rapid development of Magine Pro’s partner OTT services.
At Magine Pro, our partners get access to deep data via the Magine Pro Console. With near real-time feedback, they can make informed decisions on content, user behaviour, and monetization. The Console enables them to review service usage and operational analytics as well as build custom KPI dashboards to track users and behaviour. It’s designed to help our partners better understand their audience and most importantly what content is working and where it’s being watched.
To find out more about how analytics informs our services and solutions, get in touch. You can also learn more about our OTT Solutions and the Magine Pro Console here.
Introducing Plejmo by Magine Pro
Magine has operated its own consumer services for over seven years in Germany and Scandinavia. Our journey began back in 2012 when Magine TV, our SVOD linear TV service, was founded and launched in Sweden. In 2015, we expanded into Germany with Magine TV Deutschland, and Plejmo officially joined Magine.
Plejmo was founded in 2002 in Stockholm, Sweden and is the largest movie library in the Nordics market. The TVOD service delivers great movie content to viewers anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Plejmo joined Magine looking to migrate their streaming service and subscribers from their existing OTT platform vendor to Magine Pro’s OTT platform with no downtime or loss of quality experience. Unlike our other B2B partner’s, Plejmo also became part of the Magine family, and to this day continues to operate as one of our two consumer services.
We build OTT services for new business and also work with existing services that want to change their current platform providers like Plejmo and Draken Film. Our B2B solutions and services are based on our in-market consumer products, which means our partners can leverage our experience and technology to streamline their operations and build their own successful OTT business.
You can find out more about Plejmo’s migration over to the Magine Pro platform here. And head over to their website to sign up and start watching great movies.
Here’s a sneak peek at the Plejmo service
Put your best face forward: build a recognisable OTT brand
Branding is as important for new and small businesses as it is for the big guys with big budgets. Your branding tells your customer who you are as a company. It’s also more than just logos and slogans, it involves every part of the customer experience, from your OTT service to your website and even customer care.
Brand perception is how consumers view your brand. You can influence it, but you can’t control it. Every interaction a customer has with your company should be positive from day one. Consumers are more likely to invest in products or services that are trusted and recommended by their peers, which is why word of mouth is the most effective way to build awareness, particularly for new or small businesses that have limited marketing budgets. It takes time to build a positive brand perception though, but with commitment, a clear strategy and consistency, you’re on the right track.
For any new business, it’s essential to lay a strong foundation. Brand recognition doesn’t happen overnight, to stand out from the competition you need a clear and easy to recognise design aesthetic. Your choice of logo, colours, and fonts can impact customer perception, so make sure you put your best face forward when building your brand.
At Magine Pro we appreciate how important your branding is to your business, especially for new OTT service entrants. Our templated OTT web services and apps are customisable, enabling you to add your own logo, unique brand colours, and content. You can tailor your service entirely to you and provide customers an engaging experience from sign up.
Customise your own OTT service. You can choose light or dark themes, add your logo, brand colours, and upload as much content as you like!
We also work with you to build a positive and memorable brand experience for your customers. Leveraging our years of consumer experience, we can support you with marketing strategies and customer care. We provide 1st, 2nd or 3rd line customer support systems with our services. From experience, we know that great customer service builds trust and loyalty, reduces churns and better still increases the likelihood of positive peer recommendation.
You can find out more about our branded video services and products on our website. Get in touch if you’re keen to get up and running with an OTT service that heroes your brand and content.
Finding the right customer service setup for your OTT service
Customer care is an integral part of operations at Magine Pro. We know from experience that great customer service builds trust and loyalty, which ultimately reduces churn and can even encourage customers to make additional purchases, such as package upgrades, later on.
It’s important for any OTT service to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction but it’s particularly important for new market entrants. This generates positive word-of-mouth, which is not only great for brand awareness but it’s also good at enticing new customers to sign up!
Building a subscriber base isn’t always easy but maintaining a subscriber base can be even harder, which is why having a good customer service unit is essential. They are the first point of contact for your customers and can not only take care of their needs but also give you insights into your customers so you’ll be able to make informed decisions on marketing strategies and customer experience.
Outsourced customer service
Outsourcing your customer service needs to a provider is not always straightforward though, particularly if you’re a new business. Fact is, if you don’t have your own customer service team already in place and don’t have plans to build one, you may have difficulties finding a partner that can take you on board. This is because your subscriber number and expected tickets at launch are deemed too low. The business model of an ordinary call center is based on the number of agents they can dedicate to your service. If for example, you would like to have email support for seven days a week with customers getting the first response in 24hrs, they will need to train at least three people plus a supervisor. This results in high costs for you and idle time for the agents.
Our solution: Price per ticket
We launched our own consumer service, Magine TV in 2013, and invested in building a multi-skilled customer service unit to support our users. Our experienced team continues to serve our customers alongside several of our partners, who have built their OTT solutions with us. We currently offer second and third-line customer support to those building a Magine Pro Pioneer or Premium service as part of the package!
Working across various services enables our customer support unit to spot technical issues and bundle trends faster, which means we are able to fix problems quickly and improve our apps continuously. With years of customer experience under our belts and an in-depth understanding of our services, we’re able to satisfy your customer queries and needs quickly. Plus, we offer first-line customer support to our Premium partners at an additional fee but it’s still a better price than an outsourced call center, and you can choose if you want to pay per incoming ticket or a fixed monthly fee!
Sounds good, give me more details
A price per ticket model is a lower cost and gives you more flexibility than a customer support provider that has dedicated agents working full-time. We offer different prices per ticket based on your subscriber number. The more subscribers the lower the price per ticket. If you would prefer monthly costs to be more predictable then you can opt for the monthly fixed fee. Contact us to get the complete price list.
Customise you Customer Support
Second and third-line customer support is included in our Pioneer and Premium service prices but first-line customer support is also available to Premium partners at an additional cost.
We currently provide email support to all customers in English but if you would like to offer your customers more, please contact us and we’ll help you to find a solution. We have experience with support through telephone, chat, and social media and we can easily add Swedish and German as support languages.
You can find out more about our video solutions here and contact us directly if you would like to discuss your customer service needs and costs.