In the recent digital age, the one thing that matters for the IT businesses is profit that they generate from supplying digital solutions. OTT solution is one such service that is being provided even by the big IT based businesses. In the following year the revenues generated from the OTT will top by $83.4 billion which is the half of the revenue generated by the paid Tv service. OTT has steadily taken over the market and replaced the traditional television sets.
The OTT platform or solution offered by your company should be such that it keeps the audience highly engaged and entertained at the same time. It should be user friendly, easy to handle with simple navigational features. You can launch a single OTT channel supporting all the major devices.
Use OTT that gives leverage to the monetization opportunity and offers unique user experience to the subscribers. Some of the features of OTT like the subscription benefits, live streaming, additional use, changing of app interface can attract and engage a huge customer demand.
What is OTT Platform?
The OTT platforms are the places where you can easily access the content through your computer, phone, smart tv, tablet etc. You may need a subscription plan to watch content on the OTT platform but then it depends upon the OTT service that is being provided to you. You may also not need a subscription plan for some OTT platforms as the revenue is generated by showing the viewers ads while they watch the content. There is a rising demand of the OTT media services for which a wide array of OTT platforms have emerged in the market. The easy access to content is the biggest reason why OTT is a popular platform for watching. For OTT streaming the customers only requires a highly secured internet connection with a connected device supporting the apps and browsers.
What is OTT Content?
Over the top (OTT) is sharing the content over a high speed internet connection instead of content being shared through the traditional distributors.
While the content which is available on such OTT platform is called as OTT content which can be watched on the phone, connected TV, tablet. The OTT content can be of varied range for fulfilling the needs of different consumers and it’s consumption rate is on rise. Due to it’s wide variety of content and genres the OTT subscription service and apps are rising rapidly. It provides seamless and endless streaming of entertaining content online on these various platforms.
Ways to Engage Your Users On Your OTT Platform
- Understanding your users or subscribers
For engaging your users and keeping them attracted towards your OTT platform the one vital thing that needs to be taken into consideration is the choice of the users. Launching of an OTT channel or platfrom requires an extensive research of the market trends and customer demands and needs. The features built within the OTT must definitely support the expectations of the users.
Knowing and understanding the user starts from the questions like:
-What is the age group that we are targeting through our OTT?
-What drives the viewing behavior?
-How the viewers shall engage with your service?
-Studying the behavior pattern, age, demand, personality, interests and many other attributes that influences the decision and choices.
-Right pricing structure for the users (reasonable price).
-Effective User Interface to make user experience intuitive.
Understanding the expectations of the users is the first step towards the engagement of the users and they shall remain loyal for your brand. - Segment the viewing experience
Majority of the people say that the brands are not tailored to their needs. The reason can be a poor market research on demand of the users and poor knowledge of the latest market trends. When you want to invest on the personalized experience of the users it requires a hell lot of efforts on the part of the company. Many big global leaders such as the Netflix and Amazon are keeping up with offering a personalized choice and service to their users. The small brands have no choice but to keep up with the demands of the users.
The OTT platfrom built should be specific and cater to aa particular audience with certain preference. Your content on the platfrom must be presented in such aa way so that it caters to all the users according to their viewing preference or choices. This is known as segmenting the user experience. It is more of like segregating the choices of the viewers in sections or just targeting a particular section of viewers. - Show Users you care
You got to show to your users that you care for their needs. It is the most important aspect for the customer service. A good and effective customer service team helps in building the trust, brand awareness and reduces churn. When you address to all their queries and resolves their issues on time this makes you gain a permanent subscriber for your OTT. This generates high revenue, brand loyalty and attracts the potential customers towards your OTT channel or platfrom.
There are some unique methods through which you can ensure that the customers or users remains as an active member of your OTT platform. Just show them that you are more than a help desk operator. Some of these following ways are :-
A): Remember simple details like birthdays of your subscribers. This may look unimportant but it is important for your business growth. When a person signs up his account on your OTT then grab some personal details of the user. This really is considered useful for the business to craft marketing campaigns where you can give discount and tailored promotions.
B): Make the process of unsubscribing difficult for the users. Sometimes people get easily bored of suing a certain platfrom for tool long but you should not let them do it so easily. As for gaining a subscriber you invest a lot of money and efforts which should simply not go in vain. Incase if some subscriber wants to leave then don’t let them do it quickly and seamlessly. You must first offer them the discounted price or other unique benefits that you may offer for minimum one year subscription.
C): With the right collection of user data you can optimize the promotional campaigns around the most loyal customers. You can even offer an initial 30 days trial to the potential users or subscribers so that they exactly know what you offer in your OTT service. You can even offer a one month free usage for the users with the highest subscription for a long time.
D): Say thanks or recognize them as users through an electronic mail, post or via on screen message. This really takes your business to the next level as your customers are top most priority which shall retain brand loyalty for your business in the long run. - Have your own voice
Brands with no voice of their own and rather copies the idea and marketing strategy of the other competitors in the market they can never stand out. Since after the pandemic the competition in the OTT market has risen drastically due to an increasing demand of the users. It has become the prime duty of every brand to come up with something new and exciting in it’s OTT service which can build it’s user base.
If for instance, your company comes up with the idea of offering streaming services which has social interaction involved in it. This shall definitely keep the customers or users interested in your content and service. It adds up to the personality of your company that helps you to build deeper bonds and relationship with their audience base. - Leverage real-world events
If you are a business building OTT for the clients globally then you must hire the best marketing experts for the promotion. As we know that there are several events that are taking place around the globe and throughout the year which gets a lot of media coverage and attention. It is always an ideal opportunity for your marketing and content scheduling teams to get together and build any such promotional campaigns that can easily generate the engagement within your service.
But sometimes there can also be an opposite effect to this where you need to immediately hide the content if featuring any famous celebrity associated with any crime. OTT providers should have tools which can quickly squash out any negative association between an individual and service. - Offers content mixing to enhance storytelling
Ever since mankind has evolved from the stone age he has always been extremely interested in the storytelling session. Such stories revolves around many tales that has been part of our glorious past and has been constant throughout the history.
While in 21st century, there is no shortage of premium content which can easily entertain the public with numerous platforms which can offer such content. The content streaming has tripled in the last few years due to the pandemic situation around the globe. Audiences has taken a complete advantage of the OTT streaming platforms to consume this content. If you offer mixed content for the range of audience such as in the form of documentaries, short films, clips, highlights, interviews, live streaming etc. It can highly engage a wide range of audience with different choices in terms of content. The operators and brands who leverage their unique ability to tell stories in format that suits the user’s schedule it offers a great market share. - Advertise in the right way
Advertising is a complicated but very important marketing tool that makes a whole lot of difference to your business growth and revenue. At a global scale the digital advertising revenues are rising at an exorbitant rate crossing $100 billion. Your OTT should promote a minimal presence and impact of the advertisements on the viewing experience otherwise people start using the ad blockers that can greatly impact your revenue. These advertisements must be targeted to the interests of the users viewing it. The viewers should not be subjected to a long load times.
Your advertisements should be presented in such a way so that it does not impact the growth of the business. The ad blocker trend has put a lot of pressure on the operators who rely upon or in part on ad revenue to fund their OTT video operation. - Master the perfect design
Mastering the art of creating user-centric designs that can have great impact on the business growth and revenue. Effective UX design is very vital for any of the businesses to get successful which can convert the potential users into the permanent users. Even though we know that content is king but it takes excellent designs to stand out in the market.