The Global OTT revenues are estimated to double their size between 2016 and 2022, owing to the tremendous success rate of SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand). Cheap plans of high bandwidth internet and easy access to smart devices are definitely some of the biggest reasons for this whipped-up OTT boom.
Consumers are no longer dependent on Pay TV content as they can access any content on-demand. OTT platforms are offering quality ad-free content for a premium, and a significant percentage of customers are highly interested in this value proposition.
But there is enough evidence on how the increasing variety and complexity of on-demand OTT content leads to the exit for various OTT users. Most of us can easily recollect the times when we aimlessly scrolled the contents of an OTT app, only to reluctantly resign after a few moments, as we cannot decide what to watch.
The problem with SVOD is that a customer can simply walk out of the deal with a click. And this is why it becomes crucial to engage her in a rightly calibrated way. Since customer acquisition is costly, OTT players need to look for alternatives to retain their current customers. This right here becomes the whole essence of optimizing an OTT customer’s journey.
Understanding the Customer
Even before putting the finger on a specific strategy, try to understand individual customer’s array of preferences. This can be done by deploying smart analytics and tools. Make intelligent and relevant content recommendations that help a user make a decision in as little time as feasible. Ensure that she finds something good to watch, which a critical consumer need that is often unaddressed.
Engaging with the Customer
Engage with the customer with timely notifications and alerts on fresh and relevant content. While content and value for money remain the key factors for customer retention, alerting consumers on exciting and relevant new content (without attacking them with vaguely relevant ones) can be a real pull factor.
Additionally, the choice of how to watch- with or without ads, TVOD or SVOD, needs to be evident and easy to make. Registration and purchase flow need to be spontaneous and as smooth as possible. Consumers should be able to pause on one device and flexibly resume playback on another device from the same point where they had left off.
Easy Content Discovery
The best way to optimize the customer journey is by offering a neatly curated content library to make content discovery easy and flexible. Further, simplify and amplify the user’s engagement rate by offering language options and subtitles, actors in the scene, and details such as location, artifacts used, designers for the dress used, etc.
Also, try to eliminate conversion discord by limiting endless buffering and lags during streams, complicated payment processes, and complex navigation. That’s precisely why successful streaming services work so hard to enable high performance for streamlined video delivery and at the best possible quality. Technical performance has a great impact on customer engagement rates. Excellent video delivery simply means the content is working.
Aesthetics of UX
Excellent user experience is virtually undetectable to the average consumer who just notices and enjoys the content they like. It’s when user experience goes wrong that consumers find fault. A disappointing search experience or streaming issues can be harmful when it comes to customer retention.
The bulk of OTT streaming services worldwide extends almost the same user experience and design across all their apps. This happens irrespective of the user’s profile, personal preferences, or how they’ve communicated with the platform before.
So, while specific characteristics enable OTT players to achieve demographic-based segmentation, a level of differentiation still needs to be involved. Any type of viewer has diverse needs and expectations regarding functionalities and design. Offering a fantastic possibility to deliver a highly personalized experience will help minimize churn as a result.
The conventional one-size-fits-all strategy to content delivery could have worked five years ago, but not anymore. Exceptional levels of personalization is a multi-tenet thing. So for OTT players seeking to tap into the modern market advancements, the solution lies in the way watchers engage with the content and state-of-the-art user experience.
