4 Things Netflix Can Teach Your Business About Digital Marketing

I know I’ve never really learned a whole lot just watching Netflix.  Of course, I’m talking about literally watching my favorite shows.  However, there are four things Netflix can teach business owners about digital marketing that has nothing to do with Blockbuster.

Personalized Content

Have you ever had a friend pull up their Netflix account for you?  It’s completely different than yours.  In fact, everyone has their own netflix home screen with currated content (albeit automatically currated) based on what they have been watching.   You might think that you couldn’t do this as a business owner.   You’d be wrong.

How do you personalize content like Netflix?

Pretty simple.  One easy example is a real estate.  Often there are two types of opportunities for real estate agents.   Home buyers and home sellers.  You could change the wording of your email to communicate specifically to those two groups.    This will work for almost any business.  Change your wording for large fortune 500 corporations vs your wording for your small business client.   B2B wording vs B2C.   In almost any business you can niche your customers down into separate groups.  In those groups change the wording, just like some will love Action while others will love Drama.

Mutli-Channel Approach

Netflix feels like it’s everywhere.   That’s because it is.   They advertise on Facebook, Instagram, in your email box and more.   Too many businesses get focused on one channel when there are a bunch of channels to attack.  Don’t let this be your excuse to be scatter brained.  The key is to make progress in one, be consistent and then move on to add the next channel.      Be like Netflix.   Master e-mail.  Then decide how you want your business to market itself on each channel.    Some ideas:

  • Facebook Live or Video Story Telling
  • Instagram Customers, Locations or cool uses of your service or product
  • Linkedin for B2B – target the actual decision makers.
  • Google – B2C Adwords (PPC)
  • Blog Posts about how to use your product, do posts of reviews of your product and how it fares against competition.

Simplicity

There aren’t a lot of features on Netflix.  There aren’t a lot of options on how to play.   It just starts and frankly hasn’t changed in years.  Business owners should simplify their message.   Donald Miller, author of Storybrand, says, “if you confuse you lose.”  This is true of apps, software and business missions.

One good exercise is to work on your elevator pitch.   Whether your a corporate conglomerate CEO or a 1 man service business, you should be able to articulate what your company does and what it’s mission is in 90 seconds.    This isn’t just great for networking it’s a great clarifying exercise.

Email Marketing

We’ve covered Email marketing in another episode, but Netflix has this down.   In fact, you can see them using two of these keys we mentioned above in the email marketing.   The message is simple, “here’s a show we thought you’d like” and the it’s tailored based on my preferences.  Bodybuilding.com is the only other place I’ve seen do this well.   They know what I’ve bought and suggest similar products or complimentary products in their mailing.

Don’t have an e-commerce business?   You could easily do this as a:

  • Real Estate – “have you seen these new listings in [Client’s desired area]
  • Real Estate -“did you know the [client’s desired area] market did this?
  • Financial Planner – “did you know that [client’s investment vehicles] is often combined with [new service] for a 10x effect?”
  • Insurance “bundle and save”
  • Plumber – “Did you know you can batch my services to get the biggest bang for the buck – here’s some suggestions”
  • Inspector – ” before I perform the inspection, do you want me to check for cancer causing Radon?”

I’m sure we could spend another episode learning from Netflix alone, but these tactics are something that every entrepreneur can do.

 

Picture of Joshua Jarvis

Joshua Jarvis

Joshua has started and sold several businesses over 15 years. Recently he left a 15-year career in real estate as a business owner to pursue my dream of writing and helping business owners grow their own dream.

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