Converting Leads into Loyal Subscribers: Part Two
In part one we looked at optimizing the marketing conversion funnel and user journey to turn new leads into loyal subscribers. This week we dive deeper and take a closer look at the digital ecosystem and ideal channel mix for marketing a new OTT service.
The digital ecosystem gives an overview of the channels you should be utilizing pre, during and post launch. The channels outlined work together to build brand awareness, user interest, drive action and improve retention rates.
The Digital Ecosystem
Your website homepage and the OTT service itself are central to your digital ecosystem as all channels feed into them. They are the area on your funnel and user flow where potential customers take action – whether that’s submitting their email for future comms or subscribing to the service.
To break it down, there are two channel categories in your digital ecosystem that help drive leads and convert them into subscribers – the first being acquisition channels and the second, retention channels. Some channels, like social for example, can and do fall into both categories but play different roles depending on where the customer is in the user journey (as outlined in last weeks blog post).
Acquisition Channels
Your acquisition channels essentially help build customer awareness and interest. Acquisition channels for new OTT service entrants should include:
- PR
Work with an external agency or build your own PR strategy pre-launch. To get the word out, you’ll need to build relations with publications that your target audience is likely to relate to, solidify your key message and create an exciting press release for launch.
- Social (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
Identify which social channels are most commonly used by your target audience. You don’t need to be on all social networking sites. It’s better to have fewer pages on a handful of sites that are active and engaging than a lot of neglected pages everywhere.
- Paid SEM
Put a budget in place for online advertising and stick to it. Paid ads can help boost awareness and enable you to stand out in a crowded market. Research your competitors, identify your keywords and experiment with ad copy and A/B testing.
- Organic SEO
Search engine optimization is essential and will help drive organic traffic to your website and service. Identify your keywords and phrases and use them in the copy on your webpage and within the service. Content metadata that is SEO optimized is a great way to boost traffic – for example, potential customers could find you simply by searching online for a particular TV show or movie.
Retention Channels
Your retention channels keep customers interested and engaged before and most importantly after they have taken action and subscribed to your service.
Create an email comms strategy that includes, welcome emails, onboarding emails, and even weekly or monthly newsletters. It’s important to keep subscribers engaged, and emails are a great way to promote new content, offers and inform them on service updates or new features.
- Social
Your social channels are as important for retention as they are for acquisition. Build a trusted online community for your users where you can keep them up-to-date on new content releases and service features. Your customer service team can also play an active role here and use social channels to communicate directly with customers.
- Overlays and Push Messages
Overlays are a fantastic way to promote new content, offers, and discounts in your service, and even encourage visitors on your website to sign up to a newsletter. Push messages are useful if you want to send direct messages to users to remind them to open the app if you have new content available for example.
Check out last weeks post where we looked at the convesion funnel and ideal user journey here. You can also read more on reducing churn rates.
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Want more advice and support on converting your 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.
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.
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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.