How can one increase engagement for your content? This is one question that keeps all content creators awake at night. The simple reason for this being engagement is directly proportional to revenue. The more time you get your user to spend on your platform, the more likely he/she is to continue spending their hard-earned money on subscriptions or PPV events. In this post, we state five ways in which you can increase content engagement.
Know your user
The first step to this is knowing your user. You can only engage your user when you know what kind of content he/she wants to consume. Digital media thankfully allows you to use technology like analytics tools to see what is working and what isn’t. Also, check where your users are logging in from. If there’s a specific region, which has more users coming from – look at creating content for them. For example, if you’re getting a high percentage of users from France, you could probably look at creating content for them in French, to keep them further engaged.
Customise the user’s experience
Use the data you collect constructively, by offering each user a customised experience based on their browsing/viewing history. This could contain personal recommendations too. You can also offer an experience that allows users to carry on watching a certain piece of content from where they left off. Finally, you can allow users to create wishlists. Based on those wishlists, you can not only push the content that they’ve picked to watch but also give them more recommendations. Netflix is a great example of this. It suggests content, remembers where a user exits a show, and also gives recommendations for the same.
Create quality content
This is of the utmost importance. Not only shall your content provide a great viewer experience, but you should also look to provide a great viewing experience. Viewers don’t have the patience and time for sub-standard video content. You must also keep in mind that your viewers could be consuming content across different platforms, and accordingly deliver the right experience. One should also look at offering something over and above the viewing experience competition is providing. For example, while there are different worldwide broadcast feeds for the Premier League, each club has its unique content that provides something more than just what is available publicly. Liverpool FC’s ‘Inside Anfield’ footage is one such example, where the club runs a compilation of clips to form a long video from the sidelines, which no other broadcaster provides.
Weave the Advertising Experience
Yes, advertising earns you your dollars, but make sure that it’s not intrusive. Lots of content providers get slack for running multiple ads during your content. Yes, pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll are great options, but these could get intrusive too. Instead, you can speak with brands and look at subtle brand placements. Product placement is extremely effective and the market was pegged at US$ 7.15 billion in 2018 in the US alone, with growth of 15% expected. OTT providers like Hulu are taking this extremely seriously and have installed a dedicated team that can look at brand integrations on each of their shows.
Keep the content going
No matter what happens, content providers must keep the show rolling. Yes, circumstances like a Covid enforced lockdown might come into play, but that shouldn’t stop you from rolling out videos from the archives. At the end of the day, it’s a combination of engagement, revenue, and content, which contribute to success for any content creator. These are just five ways content creators can look at increasing engagement, and in the end revenue. Interested in growing your engagement and seeing tangible business results? Let’s talk!
