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Conquer Audience Engagement Through Personalized Experiences

Learn how to improve connections with subscribers so they consume more of your content

November 18, 2021. 3.5 MIN READ

Millions of people across the globe tune in to their favorite shows to unwind, often bingeing multiple episodes in one sitting. Others mount stationary bicycles or treadmills and tune out the world to focus on achieving momentary bliss through exercise. Still others look to websites or paper copies of publications to read the latest news, gossip, or other captivating stories.

These consumers have seemingly endless options when it comes to their subscriptions. But that often means consumers aren’t loyal to a particular brand. Rather, they jump back and forth between services when they find something tempting on a competing platform — such as when a game debuts exclusively on Playstation Now, leaving competitors like XBOX and Nintendo high and dry, or when a service like Walmart+ offers more perks than Amazon Prime. With all of these choices, how do you maximize audience engagement and keep your customers using your service longer?

Alt Text: Astro with customer and child using Einstein Recommendation

Every one of your channel partners has a unique profile.

What is audience engagement?

Audience engagement is when brands inspire customers to interact with them, their products, or services. It is an essential component for any company, especially those offering subscription services. Brands that hook their customers and keep them engaged are more likely to build trust. Customers will repeatedly return to their sites to consume more content and likely share that content with their friends or colleagues. Engagement is key for a wide spectrum of industries and organizations, but achieving it requires:

Offering a breadth of content

A robust selection can keep your subscribers engaged longer. If they prefer to listen to ’80s music non-stop, they will favor a service that includes as many of the decade’s tunes as possible. If their preferred flavor of TV show is ’90s sitcoms, they will most likely subscribe to the service that allows them to revisit a full complement of those shows. The more your catalog aligns with your customers’ preferences, the longer you can keep them hooked.

Providing personalized recommendations

The goal for any company with a subscription service is to encourage their customers to consume their offerings. An intelligent, AI-powered recommendation engine can tailor every customer experience by taking into account what they have already consumed and serving up additional content that’s relevant to that history. If a customer played numerous football and basketball games on a video game platform, your recommendations should prioritize similar titles to sustain that customer’s interest. Minimize the amount of time they search — for a new e-book, a workout class, or a new show to binge — so they can spend more time enjoying the service.

Serving up exclusive content offers

The cultural zeitgeist can have a profound influence on audience engagement. During the pandemic, exercise enthusiasts sought solace in Peloton’s connected bike not only to replace in-person classes but to also find a community while physically distanced. HBO relished the years of mania surrounding each season of Game of Thrones. Taylor Swift fans subscribed to competing services when the artist boycotted Spotify. Enthusiastic Mario Kart Tour players quickly signed up for a monthly Gold Pass subscription to get perks that gave them a leg up on their competition. Offering something your competitors don’t can help grow your audiences and unlock compelling experiences that drive increased audience engagement.

Delivering a seamless experience

Many have panned HBO Max’s user interface, with one writer saying, “if you are a streaming video service and you make the act of streaming video a chore, you’re setting yourself and your users up for failure.” User experiences are key for keeping your audience engaged. Whether it’s a smooth app or website UI or the ability to access and control the service through different channels like voice assistants, bridging the gap between the content you create and the fans who consume it can keep your customers tethered to your platform.

How do you measure audience engagement?

Audience engagement is all about content consumption, and time spent is one of the clearest indicators of success. For a streaming service, it could be the number of hours a person spends watching programs. For a fitness platform, it could be the number of classes they complete each week. For a publisher, it could be the length of time they spend on each page or how many pages they visit. Shares are also important. Does your audience share links to your content with their friends? Do they talk about your content on their social channels?

What are some good examples of audience engagement?

Trailblazers in the media industry are using the power of their technology platforms to innovate across their businesses. They are consolidating processes onto one platform to make their teams more efficient. They use data to deliver personalized experiences for fans. And they’re building audience communities that can deeply engage with the brand through immersive experiences. See how these trailblazers are making the most of their technology to separate themselves from the pack and keep their audiences engaged:

Maximize Audience Engagement

Learn what it takes to implement an audience engagement strategy that delivers personalized and resonant consumer experiences.

Connect siloed teams with a converged advertising sales platform
Optimize the sales cycle with industry-specific processes, tools, and automation
Drive ad revenue and elevate campaign performance using predictive analytics

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