Place a vase with a narrow snout underneath a waterfall, and it’ll fill slowly. Yet put a bucket underneath the same waterfall, and it’ll fill much faster. Here, the source is the same, yet the collection vessel matters more. So is the case with Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). You can be receiving a waterfall’s worth of traffic to your website or OTT apps. However, if only a few of those users are converted, the size of the traffic hardly matters.
These conversions can happen all throughout your website and your OTT apps. They can happen on your homepage, your sign-up page, or anyone of your landing pages. There are several techniques to maximize conversions.
The Stages of Conversion Rate Optimization
CRO can usually be broken down into four stages. Every one of those stages employs its own set of tools. These stages are generally viewed as a permanent cycle. Every stage feeds into the next until the last feeds into the first. This closes the loop and makes the entire process a positive feedback loop.
Performance Assessment and Establishing Baseline Measures
This is a no brainer. Since CRO is about improving your existing conversion rate, you have to start by analyzing your current practices. You need to know the total traffic flowing to your service. You need to know how many users are converting right now and how many are leaving every month. You also need to know which of your pages, screens, etc. have the highest yield rate, and so on.
These metrics will help lay the foundation of your CRO plan. It will help you to formulate steps to help your CRO improve. This information will help you weed out what works and what needs to be improved. Without this information, you’ll be flying blind.
Generating Insight
The second step is to find out what your users are doing. Their interaction with your streaming service will show you what their interests are. If several users are bouncing from your homepage, your attention is clearly needed there. If your visitors usually head over to comedy or action sections, bypassing others, you need to analyze why that’s happening.
You can also find out through their search patterns what your users are looking for. This will help you narrow down your approach to a particular segment of your audience or even your entire audience.
Your pricing or free-trial pages can also deliver insight. For example, if your users bounce after visiting your pricing or payment page, you may need to revise your packages. If one of your packages is more popular than others, you need to optimize the others for better engagement.
Knowing what the audience expects you to deliver will help you work on the core needs of your streaming service’s website and OTT apps.
Brainstorming and Deployment of Best Practices
The third step is to begin materializing all your plans. You can start by creating several versions of different web pages and screens. Then you can start to test these variations and find out which works best. Working with more than two variations will help you narrow down which page or screen works best and why. Only testing two variations won’t give you much insight. It may very well be that the design language and the content both need to be changed.
Implementation
In the final stages, you have to assess results. Has the CRO worked, or are you back to square one? Have you truly differentiated your strategy from the beginning, or are you still stuck in the same place? All these questions need to be answered before any implementation.
You need to examine the click-through rates, increases or decreases in subscription rates, etc.
Tips for CRO Conversion
Look at the Big Picture
Conduct lots of research. Without knowing what the market wants, you can’t deliver successful streaming video CRO strategies. However, you phrase it; you can’t develop a theory without data. Without enough data, you’ll twist facts to suit theories instead of the other way around.
Create surveys and ask for feedback from your customers. Look at how your customers navigate through your service. Analyze the pages that they pause on or spend the most time on. Unravel all the little threads until the picture becomes clear. Only then will you understand what strategy you have to take.
Clarity and Ease
These two things don’t get enough credit. You need to eliminate the clutter from your pages so your customers can see the value. Look no further than Netflix, not only is it the most successful streaming service, but 15% of the world’s web traffic can be attributed to the company.
Netflix’s homepage shows that it’s free for the first month, and a big red button says, “Try 30 days free”. There’s no misinformation, no-nonsense, just the truth. Granted, it’s presented in a way to entice the customer, but that’s CRO 101 in itself.
Netflix also uses the following 3 phycology principals to perfect its customer experience.
- The Reciprocity Principle
- The Cocktail Party Effect
- Idleness Aversion
Test Content & Optimize
When testing out new taglines, ideas and designs begin with user feedback. This will help you narrow down your targets. It always helps to have a blueprint than to come out shooting in the dark.
Look at the inherent value of the ads that you place. Look at what your statements are actually conveying to the customers versus what you want them to see. These questions will help you narrow down the kind of content your customers will value and which will track better.
Emphasize Value and Credibility
Streaming video services can benefit from showing customers value-added services that are otherwise hidden. Customers are wary of businesses hiding valuable information in fine print. Do the opposite, present content to your customers, upfront.
Not only will this show your customers they’re getting a better deal with you, but it’lll also establish trust. A service that convinces its customers that it has their interests at heart always wins. Customers always gravitate to increased value for their money. That won’t change.
Collaborate
Everyone needs help, so why shouldn’t you ask for it? Steve Jobs once attributed a lot of his success in asking for help. In the world of CRO, you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for collaborative help from anyone. If you establish contact with a team of CRO professionals that you can talk to, it’ll help tremendously.
Having a team that you know and can trust will also improve the likelihood of good advice. Someone that can cut through corporate bureaucracy can be refreshing as well as informative.
CRO is more critical than the total traffic your website or OTT apps receive. Remind your team of that every day. Follow these tips to help your service get more out of your existing customers and get more onboard.