After years of searching, there’s only one content marketing secret weapon I trust to put my content in front of millions. And I bet you haven’t even heard of it.
One of the worst feelings in the world is when you click “publish” and it goes … nowhere. Your content efforts are hard-fought and never enough. The audience comes, but it’s slow-going. You feel like you’re spinning your wheels — wasting time, money and talent — on content and distribution that just misses the mark.
And the bottom-line is: You’re just not moving fast enough.
So what do you do? Keep pushing forward, doing the best you can? Well, that’s what I did. Until I was so frustrated that I became determined to find an easier, more effective way to reach people.
And the secret was in the distribution.
What’s OTT Distribution?
Netflix, Hulu and other web-based distributors changed the entertainment world when they began streaming movie and TV content directly through the internet to a connected device in your home.
Why? They figured out how to bypass the need for viewers to subscribe to a traditional cable or satellite package. Instead, they could reach viewers on their own, through the internet. By reaching viewers on their own, they also had the opportunity to decide how they wanted to monetize their content.
That’s exactly how Over-the-Top (OTT) distribution works: it delivers content online through streaming devices like Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV and more. The content captures viewers. Over-the-top (OTT) distribution refers to the insanely popular, nontraditional channels we love as viewers: Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Netflix, Hulu, etc. If you distribute through these OTT channels, you no longer have to go through a massive TV network (aka “the middle man”) to get our content aired in front of millions.
It’s like having DIY access to a TV network … and all the marketing opportunities that come with it. YOU get to decide how to monetize that audience.
The Benefits of OTT Distribution
Today, we can go straight to the source and use OTT distribution to create binge-worthy content that captures millions. So when it comes to content, try to focus on creative ways to get your content noticed. OTT distribution will handle the rest. Here’s why:
1. It puts control in your hands.
When you’re blogging or vlogging, you can only put the content out there. And that’s it. You have no control over who sees it, or how many eyes it goes in front of. It’s just out on the internet without any direct channel into people’s lives. Sure, there’s social media advertising and email marketing, and both strategies help. But they can only take you so far, and they can quickly become costly avenues for distribution and promotion.
When you produce a formatted video show, however, you can use OTT distribution to stream into millions of homes through the platforms of your choosing. You don’t have to go through networks or agents or any other type of middleman. It’s just your content, your channel and your results.
2. It’s a data goldmine.
Not only does OTT distribution give you more control over how you reach people, but it also allows you to understand your audience more deeply — so you can shift your content and marketing strategies based on actual data. That’s right. With OTT distribution, you can collect an immense amount of data on viewers habits, likes/dislikes, demographics and geo-locations. You can track who’s watching, how long they’re watching, and when they fall off. This kind of information helps you create a detailed, in-depth picture of your audience, and even better, you can adjust accordingly. By watching these stats, you can hand-pick content for the actual people who are watching and supporting you.
3. Take advantage of interactive advertising.
By choosing OTT distribution, you also have more control and opportunity when it comes to advertising. In fact, digital media gives you the chance to try my favorite kind: interactive video advertising. Interactive video content allows you to share and purchase directly from the video you love with clickable, linked product placement, campaigns and ads. It’s like blending the engagement of video with the purchasing power of the web.
Interactive video ads can be used many different ways, including: sponsored content, in-stream video ads, linked product placement, direct sharing, direct purchasing and more. Imagine you’re sponsoring a popular web show, and during your video spot, viewers can click on a promotion while they’re watching. That’s the conversion power of interactive video ads.
