How many streaming platforms do you subscribe to? With so many digital content options for your audience to choose from, it can feel like a constant battle to get more views–and keep them.
In fact, 53% of American households said they subscribed to three or more streaming services in 2021. That’s a lot of content to consume! It’s certainly a lot of competition for creators to keep up with.
But don’t let this discourage you–look at it as an opportunity! How do you break through the noise and improve your OTT viewership? It starts with great content, and it continues through consistent measurement of OTT analytics and performance.
Don’t have time to waste? Let’s jump right into our top five recommendations for creators to leave the competition in the dust and get more views on their OTT channels.
1. Prioritize your content strategy.
To get more views, you should be creating content that people want to watch. Sounds simple, right? It can be. Creators often struggle with increasing their OTT viewership because they’re distracted away from what matters–the content itself.
The most basic way to get more views is to produce unique content that cannot be found anywhere else. If your content provides informational resources, education, or entertainment, you’re already ahead of the game. Provide a unique point-of-view, and you will get more views as the leader in whatever you’re creating.
In addition to setting goals to get more views, should be an effort to keep those views. Audience retention rate refers to the amount of time people spend watching your video. A few ways to increase audience retention rate include:
- Start your video with the most exciting and entertaining clips.
- Don’t use clickbait in your titles, descriptions, or thumbnails.
- Get to the good stuff–avoid longwinded intros.
2. Focus on the user experience.
One way to improve OTT viewership is to make sure the user experience is positive. You should make it as easy as possible for viewers to watch your video. This may mean higher quality videos or your personalized mobile app where users know exactly where to find your videos.
Even minor inconveniences or barriers to watching may discourage OTT viewership, so to get more views, we recommend working on improving the viewing experience.
Things to Incorporate
- A channel hub that’s easy to use, like a mobile app
- Automatic subtitles
- Player controls like pause, fast forward, and full-screen
- Multi-channel distribution so users can watch at home, on the go, or in the office
Things to Avoid
- Low-quality video
- Low-quality sound
- Inconsistent quality across multiple videos
- Shaky or choppy filming
- Distracting video editing
- Platforms that buffer frequently or load slowly
3. Connect and personalize.
A surefire way to get more views is to make your viewers feel like part of the family. Connect with them one-on-one and in groups by opening communication and listening to their feedback. You can do this through social media and other forums or take your conversations virtual and host a live stream for your viewers.
In your live stream, you can introduce a Q&A session to answer your viewers’ burning questions in real-time, or you can simply share your daily activities with commentary from the crowd. Endavo’s engagement hub allows plenty of opportunities to connect with an interactive chat function, live social walls, polls, and trivia next to your live video. Plus, you can invite your viewers to join Zoom rooms to keep the conversation going after the event.
Building a strong connection with your audience through one-on-one communication is imperative to improving OTT viewership–and it’s fun too!
4. Get active on social media.
To get more views, you have to share your videos. Whether you’re sharing them in an exclusive Facebook Group or on Instagram, finding your users where they’re spending their free time is a great way to increase OTT viewership.
Share new videos as soon as they premiere, and don’t be shy about resharing those videos regularly. Your social media accounts are the perfect place to share one-of-a-kind exclusive content like behind-the-scenes clips that encourage followers to want to watch more. Don’t forget the most important part–always link back directly to your video to make it as easy as possible for your viewers to watch with just one click.
On the flip side, you can encourage your viewers to help you out by making it easy for them to share the videos they love on social media. Get more views from word-of-mouth recommendations, and your OTT viewership may just spread like wildfire!
5. Review OTT analytics to improve your strategy.
In a world where trends change from day to day, you must constantly analyze your performance and make changes to your strategy based on the learnings you gain. Review your OTT analytics frequently and let performance guide your content strategy.
When it comes to performance metrics like engagement and OTT viewership, what lessons can you learn from the performance of specific videos? Was it the content of your video, or the day and time that you posted it that impacted its performance? Was it the keywords that you used in your text or did the OTT viewership come from an email blast?
Pay attention to which videos get more views than the others, and re-create similar content. Those videos that underperform? They can serve as a learning opportunity too! Discover why they may not have hit the mark with your audience and improve upon those types of videos in the future.
It’s also wise to look into your OTT viewership audience analytics. Review the basic demographics like age, gender, language, and location to make sure that your content is relatable to this audience.
Did these tips give you a new sense of motivation to get more views? Let Endavo handle the heavy lifting with an innovative streaming platform that scales your video business. Launch your OTT channel with the tools you need to grow–sign up for a 30-day, risk-free trial of Endavo’s leading content distribution software!
