Wanna Netflix and Chill?
There are very few businesses in the world 🌎 that have grown like Netflix.
From an old-fashioned DVD 📀 rental service to the world’s largest content streaming service, Netflix’s marketing strategies have some great lessons for every business striving to make it big out there.
Reportedly, Netflix’s revenue has grown 📈 183% between 2016 and 2020, coming close to $25 billion by the end of 2020. Same goes for its subscribers. By 2020, Netflix had crossed 200 million 💰 paid subscribers, which is more than any other streaming service provider! That is definitely some tremendous growth right there, and it is no secret that each entrepreneur envisions the same for their business.
Here are 5 🖐 marketing lessons from Netflix that you should implement in your business:
1️⃣ Original content
What is Netflix’s core product - the shows or the streaming platform? The answer is both. People tune to Netflix for a great 👍 entertainment experience, but the platform would simply have gone obsolete if Netflix did not have an equally great content collection.
Therefore, Netflix now produces its own content, such as Netflix Originals, which helps them create engagement 🤝 on the platform and exclusive content that incentivises users to sign up for a subscription. Additionally, by producing original content, Netflix can retain active users with a constant supply of new content to watch 👀 and build content credibility.
Today, there are several forms of content that a B2B or B2C business can delve into, each with its own set of goals 🥅. Netflix’s idea of generating original content can be replicated by your business in many ways. It is all about understanding your niche, the kind of problems you can solve for your audience, and creating guides, articles 📃, blogs, videos, etc. on the same. The motive is to make content the reason why your users give attention to your product or service.
2️⃣ Data-driven marketing
Netflix is not only looking for which show gets more views. They employ Artificial Intelligence to uncover new dimensions of user behaviour, to take strategic marketing decisions 🤔. For example, Netflix finds out a correlation between individual user watch-time ⏰ and the probability of cancelling the subscription. People who watch less than 15 hours of content in a month are highly likely to cancel their accounts.
Hence, Netflix can figure out what shows the users with low watch-time will gravitate to, and start retargeting 🎯 them. This could be done either by marketing emails, in-app notifications, or favourite show prompts. All of which are designed to increase the re-engagement of the user on the platform. This way, Netflix is reducing 📉 the probability of losing paid users. The complex data crunching required to make this happen is carried out by AI and ML algorithms.
Netflix is increasing profitability by taking its data seriously. Your business can also do the same by setting up a strong 💪 data culture. Ensure that your POA is backed by statistics when you sit down to draft the marketing plan for the month. Figure out user problems, and design ✍️ campaigns that solve them. It might also mean that you need to train your employees with data science 🧪 skills. You will not be able to market it well because till the time you do not understand your audiences and their interaction with your product.
3️⃣ Multi-platform integration
Netflix has about 5,000 titles available to the US audience. Letting one stream for free will not harm their business. Netflix’s YouTube channel has about 2 million subscribers, while their IGTV videos 📹 garner up to 100k views. Therefore, they do not have to invest a fortune in promoting a new show. Their social presence does it for them.
The important lesson to learn here is strategic content sharing. There is no point in keeping your content exclusive to your web 🌐 properties. Publish it on platforms that have a larger user base, and piggyback on the engagement hence generated.
Your business can even start generating content that specifically targets a social media platform. You can delve into video content for YouTube, create informational content for IGTV, or simply distribute guest posts. The business value associated with shared content will find its way back to you 🔁, in one way or another.
4️⃣ Do not be afraid to pivot
Netflix’s idea 💡 of pivoting the pricing plan was a huge success. The Chief Product Officer at Netflix, Gregory K. Peters told India Today that the plan outperformed their expectations. Netflix has increased their user base in India and has been able to ramp up revenue.
Netflix could have gone with its standard 499/- plan, but it saw an opportunity in India’s massive smartphone 📱 domination. They decided to make a strategic pivot in order to make use of the opportunity which turned out well for them. The key 🔑 is to stay on top of the user data and market data, to derive strategies that could push your marketing efforts towards success.
Similarly, you can look for opportunities in your target audiences 👥 and try to pivot your ideas to better suit them. Making such radical shifts in your pricing model requires testing and validation, but the important point is to have the courage to pivot.
5️⃣ Email marketing
Netflix’s marketing strategies 🧠 use email for multiple things, unlike generic marketing emails that try to sell a singular offer to the subscribers. On a whole, they are using emails for engaging current users with show recommendations, bringing back lost users with new offers and shows, increasing watch time for users with low activity on the platform, and making new release announcements 📣.
Most of these emails are hyper-personalised, which means they will carry content based on your watch history 📚. You will be suggested shows that you are probable to watch, both in marketing and transactional emails.
The three biggest takeaways from Netflix’s emails are:
📧 Deep segmentation - helps you cater to user journeys and make it easier for the users to convert.
📧 Hyper-personalisation - makes the email highly relevant to the user, and clean email design.
📧 Clean email design - makes it easier for the user to skim through the email, and not deviate away due to cluttered information.
Take inspiration from these Netflix marketing strategies and start implementing in your business. Being an internet company, Netflix has the data advantage over traditional entertainment platforms. The marketing teams have used the same with brilliance, and now that you know what they did, you can too! Slide into our direct messages to learn more 🤩😎!
Reference:
Sharma, N. 2021, April 8. 5 Lessons from Netflix Marketing Strategies Your Business Can Use Today. Business 2 Community.
