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.
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.