While you Netflix & chill, you can be sure that your favorite streaming platform’s staff is hard at work preparing the next movie or show that’s going to be on everyone’s to-binge list. Netflix, HBO Go, Disney, Hulu, or Amazon have been thriving during the pandemic. With most of the world stuck inside their homes for almost a year, it’s no surprise.
But their success story starts long before the pandemic. We’ve all been Netflixing and chilling for years now. The drivers behind their success are pretty much in line with the increased adoption of digital products and the increased access to internet.
However, not all digital products were as successful as streaming platforms. So it’s worth taking a deeper look into their strategy and learn something from it.
Treat Your Content like a Product
Streaming platforms sell content. Every movie and every series is a piece of content. To promote it, they use other types of content: social media posts, ads, trailers, influencer posts, and more.
Even if you don’t sell content, you can treat every piece you publish as a product. Think about why people would want to read your blog post/watch your video? This is the first step in your strategy to promote it.
Create a “trailer” for your content. This could be the most interesting paragraph in your blog post or an actual trailer of your most recent video. Post that on social media with a link to the full material.
Next: create buzz around everything you publish. Remember the Pareto 80/20 principle: invest 20% in content creation and 80% in promoting it. Game of Thrones had a $20 million marketing budget, so no wonder there was a time when everyone was talking about it.
Diversify Your Portfolio
Different people prefer different types of content. Some like to read blog posts, others enjoy podcasts while driving or running, others like videos, and so on. Of course, some of these types of content will work better than others, but this doesn’t mean that you should completely ignore one segment of your audience.
Look at the Disney example: it may still be every kid’s dream but they don’t just stream kids’ content. They even own the Star Wars franchise now. The same goes for Netflix, HBO Go, and others: they create different types of content for different audiences. You can find climate change documentaries on the same streaming platform where you watch your favorite teen drama or the latest dystopian science-fiction movie.
Keep Investing in Your Greatest Hits
Ever wondered why streaming platforms invest considerable chunks of marketing money in announcing they’re now running shows like Friends or Seinfeld? These shows are decades-old, so surely everyone’s watched at least one episode by now.
Right. But let’s remember the superfans. The ones that will watch the same episode over and over again even though they know all the lines by heart now. In a way, it’s like going back to your parents’ house for Christmas: you know everything there, you’ve had the same food hundreds of times, but it’s still comforting every time you do it.
Just like the immortal series, I’m sure you have some pieces of content that get the best traction when it comes to organic traffic or social media traffic. Show them some love.
Update them frequently so they don’t drop in their search engine rankings. Re-publish them on social media with a new caption every once in a while. Add them to your home screen.
The Revival/Reunion Everyone’s been Waiting for
Speaking of Friends: a reunion of the hit series has been rumored for years. It looks like it’s finally happening. The same goes for series like Sex and the City, Gilmore Girls, and others. Fans crave them. They’re just as popular as spin-offs, if not even more so.
How can you borrow this for your content marketing strategy? You can start with the suggestion in the point above: revamp your older, best-performing content.
But you can also repurpose some of that all-star content. A webinar that attracted a lot of leads can turn into a series of blog posts. A blog post can be turned into an infographic or a video. An eBook can be a great basis for a series of blog posts and vice versa. You can find more content repurposing ideas here.
Key Takeaways
Just like movies and TV series, not all your content is going to create an army of raving fans. Some pieces will fall flat even before season one is over.
But that’s OK. You’ve still got your superstars to help you gain traction and even attract some crowds to their underperforming siblings.
Need help creating and implementing a content strategy that can put you on a growth path similar to that of streaming platforms? My expert team of content marketers is just a click away!
