Abstract
Netflix created a plethora of compelling original programmes, analysing its user data to serve subscribers better, and above all allowing viewers to consume content in the ways they prefer, Netflix disrupted the television industry and forced cable companies to change the way they do business.
Netflix, Inc. heavily relied upon the Organic Google Search Campaigns that resulted in phenomenal 3X growth from 177M Visits to 418M Visits to their website.
Introduction
Netflix’s Marketing Management at Digital Age
As the spread of COVID-19 has affected most of the industries and economies worldwide, people have been forced to stay contained at home to prevent the spread of coronavirus. People have also been bored to death as they have nothing to do.
In this locked up scenario, your best partner could be your Netflix account which contains thousands of interesting movies, series, and shows. We were discussing which brand to take up for this week’s case study, then one of our team members got an idea, let’s take the famous OTT platform Netflix which has managed to entertain a large population in no time.
Here is the story of Netflix platform that is providing us streaming services or as we call it video-on-demand available on various platforms- personal computers, iPods or smartphones. Netflix cut through the competitive clutter and with its latest Subscription Plan Prices globally, making Netflix’s subscriptions 60% cheaper than its competitors across the globe reaching-out to its targeted audience by curating some interesting brand communication strategies. Netflix’s robust Organic Growth strategy, could achieve a disruptive 3X growth through Google Search, saving millions of dollars.
Let’s get into the success story of Netflix’s Journey.
Netflix was founded on August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California when their founders Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings came up with the idea of starting the service of offering online movie rentals. The company began its operations of rental stores with only 30 employees and 925 titles available, which was almost the entire catalogue of DVDs in print at the time, through the pay-per-rent model with rates and due dates. Rentals were around $4 plus a $2 postage charge. After significant growth, Netflix decided to switch to a subscriber-based model.
In 2000, Netflix introduced a personalised movie recommendation system. In this system, a user-based rating helps to accurately predict choices for Netflix members. By 2005, the number of Netflix subscribers rose to 4.2 million.
Business Model of Netflix
The platform has advanced to streaming technologies that have elevated and improved Netflix’s overall business structure and revenue. The platform gives viewers the ability to stream and watch a variety of TV shows, movies, documentaries through its software applications. Since Netflix converted to a streaming platform, it is the world’s seventh-largest Internet company by revenue.
Now, let’s have a look at the business model of Netflix.
1.Netflix’s Key Partners:
- Netflix has built more than 35+ partners across the world. They have partnered with different types of genres for subscribers to select from and enjoy watching.
- Built alliances with Smart TV companies like LG, Sony, Samsung, Xiaomi and other players in the market.
- Built alliances with Apple, Android and Microsoft platforms for the purpose of converting the business leads from mail-in-system to streaming.
- Built alliances with telecom networks like Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone.
2.Netflix’s Value Proposition: Netflix aims to provide the best customer experience by deploying valuable propositions. Here is how the online streaming brand strives to do so:
- With 24*7 streaming service, users can enjoy shows and movies in high-definition quality from anywhere whether they are at home or are travelling.
- Users get access to thousands of movies and TV shows and Netflix Original movies or shows.
- New signups can avail a 30-day free trial and have the option of cancelling your subscriptions anytime.
- Receive algorithmic recommendation for new items to watch.
- At Netflix, users have the flexibility to either turn on notifications and suggestions or keep them switched off.
- Netflix “user profiles” gives leverage for users to personalise their user account and preferences. The User profiles allow the “admin-user” to modify, allow or ever restrict certain users.
- Sharing accounts options is one of the rarest features a movie platform can provide. Sharing accounts feature on Netflix allows spouses, friends or even groups to share an account with specific filters and preferences already set.
3.Netflix’s Key Activities
- Maintain and continue to expand its platforms on the website, mobile apps
- Curate, develop and acquire licences for Netflix’s original content and expand its video library.
- Ensure high-quality user recommendation to retain customer base
- Develop and maintain partnerships with studios, content production houses and movie production houses.
- Operate according to the censorship laws. Netflix always promotes and operates within the boundaries of censorship.
4.Netflix’s Customer Relationships: Netflix has designed customer-friendly platform which offers:
- Self-Setup: Netflix platform was originally designed to ensure that it is simple and easy to use. Developers of the website ensured to associate elements and themes that serve, promote friendliness and provide self-setup.
- Unbelievable Customer Experience: Customers can solve their queries by reaching the Netflix team through website portal, emailing enquiries and directly reaching the representative on call or live chat.
- Social Media Channels: Netflix also engages its audience through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. It advertises, offers deals to gain the high attraction customers and enhance customer base.
- Netflix Gift Cards: Netflix offers its customers special promotional discounts and other gift cards as a part of their subscription plan.
Netflix’s Revenue Model
Netflix gained major popularity when the platform launched online streaming services. Let’s have a look at how the platform earns.
- Subscription-Based Business Model: Netflix offers monthly subscriptions fees with three different price options like basic, standard and premium plan. Today, Netflix has over 125 million paid members from over 190 countries and generates $15 billion annually.
- Important partnerships: Built its alliances with a wide range of movie producers, filmmakers, writers, and animators to receive content and legally broadcast the contents required aligning licences.
- Internet Service Provider: One of the most influential tactics implemented was its ability to build alliances with a wide range of movie producers, filmmakers, writers, and animators to receive content and legally broadcast the contents required aligning licences.
Netflix was able to establish a well-reputed image worldwide and increased its customer base day-by-day. When it comes to giving a competition, the brand has devised various digital marketing strategies and have gained wide popularity on digital media platforms. With the help of best digital marketing services, they have kindled the excitement and craze in the people to travel and host.
Digital Marketing Model of Netflix
In less than 4 years, Netflix has gathered a major share of the Indian market. Today a majority of households in India subscribe to Netflix, and that number is expected to rise this year and further the years to come. The product is designed so well, that you remain engrossed in the content they deliver. They adopted top digital marketing strategies. Consult the best brand activation agencies. Further, let’s talk about a few of the digital marketing principles that Netflix has successfully implemented to gather customers.
1.Search Engine Optimization: Netflix had identified a gap & the demand in the market on Google Search leading to User Subscriptions through intended searches.
Through strategic search engine optimization (SEO) activity they improved significant organic visitors and established their brand presence. Which resulted in a phenomenal 3X growth from 177M Visits to 418M Visits to their website. Netflix as a brand aimed at the best search engine optimization services to drive the visitors organically and adopted both on-page and off-page SEO strategies. They optimised their content with potential keywords that show up high in search results. They also tapped the strategy of International SEO to gain organic leads globally.
2.Personalised Content Marketing: People love using Netflix because they get a broad range of things to watch. Netflix’s library of TV shows and movies from all over the world is there for consumers to choose from at any time.
The reason that Netflix won the personalisation game is that its advanced algorithm continues to rearrange the programmes over time on the basis of your viewing history. Hire some of the best performance marketing agencies for personalised content.
3.Website Development: Netflix has designed its website with a user-friendly interface which allows customers to rate TV shows and movies, which then goes through Netflix’s algorithm to recommend more content they might enjoy. With the onsite optimization for the website, they have optimised each and every page for enhanced customer experience.
To easily get in the minds of customers, they have optimised their website for content by title, by an actor’s name, or even by a director’s name. By leveraging the best website development services, they added a host of personalisation features to their website with clean looks no matter which platform you are using.
4.Email Marketing: Netflix tapped on email marketing techniques as a part of their digital marketing strategy and as a key component of customer onboarding and nurturing. New Netflix customers receive a series of emails that make content recommendations and encourage new users to explore the platform. Netflix marketers invest hours in building creative email marketing campaigns designed to engage and delight recipients. With the help of best email marketing services, they continue to enhance the experience of the customers
5. Social Media Optimization: Today, social media platforms have become an integral part of the digital marketing strategy. If you want to connect with your audience in real-time, then it is the best platform to establish your brand image. As social media plays a vital role in the lives of the people, Netflix decided to leverage the best social media optimization services that made them earn billions. They made use of following platforms:
Through creative social media optimization strategies Netflix has garnered more than 61 million Facebook followers. In just one year, the brand added 11 million followers to its account. Netflix posts nearly 90% videos and rest images. Videos featured on Netflix’s
Facebook page of Netflix typically contains clips from interviews with the actors from the upcoming movies, clips from the upcoming movies and TV shows to the users. Besides videos, the OTT platforms share images, GIFs, funny memes and about current movies and TV shows.
Netflix carries 19 million followers. The majority of Netflix’s posts on Instagram are images, post scenes from TV shows featuring engaging captions to get a conversation going, and behind the scenes clips and interviews with actors. A recent video featured a behind-the-scenes bloopers video from the set of Stranger Things, which garnered 1.2 million views and almost 3,000 comments. Netflix uses a simple approach to posting, with most posts not featuring any hashtags at all.
Netflix carries 6.8 million followers on Twitter and has tweeted over 30,000 times. Netflix is renowned for its witty replies and comebacks on Twitter, and the brand tweets an average of 14 times a day. This shows just how important engagement is for the brand and how much it values brand awareness.
These are the digital marketing techniques which the famous OTT platform adoptes time to time to the subscribers’ engagement and retention. Hence it has yielded high returns for their business.
Social Campaigns of Netflix that gave higher Brand-User engagement and influenced Google Search Rankings
1.FU2016: To launch season four of the political drama House of Cards, Netflix worked with BBH New York and built a fake presidential campaign around the show’s lead character Frank Underwood. The campaign became the top trending topic on Facebook and Twitter during the debate, and it won a Grand Prix in the Integrated category at Cannes in 2016.
2. Netflix: The Spoiler Billboard: Netflix’s new campaign uses spoilers of its most popular shows, including Stranger Things, Money Heist and Narcos, to promote social distancing amid the COVID-19 crisis, and while the effort is getting a lot of buzz, it’s a fake.
3.The Censor’s Cut: The streaming company wanted to advertise Narcos Mexico in Thailand. Netflix worked with JWT Bangkok and cut around the offending images within each scene, leaving a clear enough outline that anyone could still identify what had been removed. The campaign achieved the opposite effect of what censorship is supposed to do by reaching 34 million people.
Conclusion
Netflix is a rare example of a company doing everything right. From their branding and content right down to their business model and product, the company has always excelled at making smart, strategic decisions. With their large market share on Google Search with a focus on the numbers, Netflix has managed to develop a deep understanding of their audience that very few others have. This knowledge, paired with a strong, affordable product subscription plans, there’s no limit to what this brand can do in the future.
Resources:
Semrush domain overview – Netflix
