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

Email

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

When 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.