Marketing in the Netflix Era: Accommodating Your Buyer’s Appetite to Binge [Infographic]

3 minute read

Upland Admin

When’s the last time you watched just one episode of House of Cards in a sitting? As marketers, we’ve entered a new era of content engagement—one in which interested buyers consume content much in the same way they “binge-watch” their favorite shows on Netflix.

We’ve put together a new infographic to help you understand, at a glance, what the Netflix era means for marketers and why leading brands are shifting from scheduled to always-on marketing. Here’s a quick summary of the key takeaways.

It’s Always Primetime

You can’t always tell when or where your buyer will want to engage, so you need to be ready. Traditional “one-and-done” marketing programs, such as lead nurture campaigns, impose a slow, episodic “primetime” cadence on a busy and impatient audience that craves content and doesn’t want to wait.

Attention Comes in Bursts, Not Drips

When you’re researching a topic of interest or a new purchase, do you read just one article and then wait a week to read or watch the next piece of content? To self-educate, your audience wants to “binge” on your content in much the same way they binge-watch on Netflix, so let them. If you don’t, instead of accelerating engaged prospects on their path to purchase, you’re leaving them behind.

Your Audience Is in Control

Your audience has a strong desire to control their own time. Empower buyers to engage with your content on their timeline, not yours. Scheduled “one-and-done” marketing serves marketers, not their busy prospects.

Your Audience Craves Content

Engaged buyers consume a lot of content in a short period of time. How you package your content and when you deliver it is as important as what you say in it. To keep buyers tuned in, think in terms of delivering content journeys, not one-off content events.

Personalization is Powerful

Are you delivering the right content to the right people, at the right time? Think about what personalization really means. For Netflix, it’s about building “a different channel for everyone.”

Better Content Experiences Start with Better Data

Netflix knows every nuance of their members’ viewing behavior and they use this data to guide what content they produce, recommend, and serve up next. Marketers need to stop relying on proxies for engagement (clickthroughs, form completes, social shares) that are weak signals of buyer intent, and start using real engagement metrics that track what people are actually reading and watching and for how long. Actionable content engagement data provides much stronger signals of a buyer’s interest and the seriousness of their intent to purchase.

Respect Your Audience and They’ll Stick with You

Respecting your audience means getting to know them: who they are, what they like, and what they don’t, so they’ll trust you and your recommendations for what they should read or watch next. It’s about treating individual buyers as people, not as “conversions” or “lead scores.” Smart marketers know that the buyer’s journey doesn’t end with the sale, and that engagement is tied to customer loyalty, retention, and advocacy.

For a deeper dive into the research, check out our eBook Engagement Marketing in the Netflix Era: 7 Things You Need to Know.

Reliable products. Real results.

Every day, thousands of companies rely on Upland to get their jobs done simply and effectively. See how brands are putting Upland to work.

View Success Stories