The streaming giant Netflix is consistently dominating the charts of streaming entertainment. If we look at the shows to watch on Netflix, they’re grossing high in box offices and chart rankings. 2021 has truly been the year that Netflix rose higher, but how?
It was never the affordability or the brand or the interface that was any different from its competitors. It was also not the fact that it came early in the market. But the real reason lies in the proper use of data.
By use of data, we mean information such as scrolls, clicks, regions, selections, etc. that contribute to improving the experience. In this article, we will take you through the 5 ways Netflix takes the lead, by proper use of data. Most of the time, people question why it records this much data, so here, in this article, you’ll find a joint answer.
1. Personalized Suggestions
Data is such a vast word, which means there’s so much of it to offer to Netflix. One piece of data is the features you watch, the ones you add to your list, or simply search about. All these options give Netflix the power to push personalized suggestions.
It doesn’t just show categories of content based on genre or movie/TV show. Rather it incorporates your watch history, your searches, your favorites, etc., and puts that information to use. This makes the person go “You read my mind!” when all they did was read your data.
This is the user’s most desired feature since it saves them the trouble of scrolling and searching. Although this feature gets messed up if multiple people are streaming on one account. This would mess up the recommendations, but that is why there are separate screens in the first place.
2. What’s Trending?
In everyday conversations, you want to be the most relevant, right? Well, that can happen when you’re up to date on what’s trending. Netflix keeps up with social media to bring you a What’s Trending recommendation.
Netflix surveys a lot of social activities and keeps up with the happenings of the world. That is why it prepares itself to push reruns that are trending. For example, recently Spiderman: No Way Home hit the cinemas. Just a few weeks before it launched, Netflix started pushing Spiderman: Far from Home on its platform.
That roared up the audience like crazy and improved viewership. You will always find a “What’s trending” bar at the top which has the best trending content. It’s even possible you’ll find Squid Game still in this category.
The purpose of this section is to improve your knowledge of what’s trending and keep you updated with what the world’s streaming is. Because it is trending, you know it’s good quality content in the first place. Every popular show you know went viral in this category like The Queen’s Gambit, Stranger Things, Birdbox, and more.
3. Original Content Data
We all know how Netflix has evolved from being just a streaming service to watch flicks, to producing content of their own. Netflix Original Production gave birth to legendary features like Squid Game, Money Heist, The Queen’s Gambit, Red Notice, etc., and more. So how do these features incorporate data?
They analyze their content powerhouse from top to bottom. Netflix even uses the data of pause, play, and rewind to analyze your favorite moments. This helps them shape the future productions with sequences that were loved by fans, rather than skipped.
Neil Patel, a Marketing genius, commended Netflix’s use of analytics in his blog by sharing “To the layman, Netflix’s metrics may appear to be limited to views. They could also believe that House of Cards was picked because Netflix “believed customers would enjoy it.” But there’s a lot more to it than that. The $100 million program wasn’t approved purely on the basis of its intriguing storyline. The decision was based on a number of considerations, with statistics appearing to play a significant role.”
4. Marketing Data
Almost every marketer in the world knows Netflix’s marketing strategy is being customer-centric. That is why they are found very active on social sites, observing the trends and user responses. This data helps them shape the user experience for each person differently.
For example, you may open your Netflix homepage, next to someone else and find that the same features have different pictures in use. For example, if you’re looking at the cover of Red Notice, one might see a picture of Ryan Reynolds, and the other of Dwayne Johnson or Gal Gadot, etc.
Netflix even conducts A/B testing on pictures to see which one gets the higher clicks. They tested this for their show Gracie and Frankie and found more clicks occurring on the picture without Ms. Fonda. It goes to show you how Netflix takes data-driven decisions and enhances the experience further.
This kind of A/B testing has proven to produce great results for businesses and can be used to refine the experience consistently.
5. Value For Money
Their proper use of data is itself a cash cow department of the company. It is this algorithm that reported Netflix’s $1 billion a year profit, just from customer retention. The data also helps them decide when a price hike is called for.
The data backs up the fact that Netflix is consistently producing great content and winning viewers’ satisfaction. The profits from the data that wins clicks are re-invested to improve the experience even more. It fits the price tag of the service perfectly and the users feel that Netflix is overdelivering on such a price.
Conclusion
The future of the internet world has higher dependability on data scientists and analysts, and we can see why. Soon, data scientists will be the primary requirement for the marketing and growing of a business. Companies like Netflix have taken this step into the field of big data for a long while and have dominated it.
Netflix continuously works on improving itself through new technologies, analytics, and value-driven change. It is entering 2022 with a big bang, featuring new hits, exclusives, new data analytics, and much more.