How to define the Vision and Goals for your IPTV/OTT project
How can you be sure that your IPTV/OTT service will be a success?
As we’ve mentioned in our earlier posts, starting an IPTV/OTT service can be a challenge that requires covering a number of aspects to turn the project into a successful endeavor. Read on to find out what roles the vision and the goals play in the success of your project.
Just like with any other business project, there’s never a guarantee of success. However, with proper planning and research, you can set yourself up for great achievements. A lot of businesses quickly get in trouble because of a lack of initial planning and failure to properly validate their project before offering new services on the market.
The first step in this journey is creating a plan that will help you (and make you) look at your IPTV/OTT project from different angles and get you the necessary answers regarding your project and how you’re going to make it work.
To learn more about creating a marketing plan for a successful IPTV/OTT service download our whitepaper “HOW TO PREPARE A MARKETING STRATEGY THAT WILL SUPERCHARGE YOUR IPTV/OTT SERVICE”
This preparation process is not easy but it is worth the effort because if you do it properly it will save you a lot of time and money later on, not to mention save you from unnecessary headaches.
If you need help any step of the way feel free to get in touch and our UniqCast experts will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have. With successful IPTV/OTT/DVB projects for big and small service providers on 4 continents, we have plenty of IPTV/OTT know-how that can save you both time and money.
The Vision
Before you do anything write down your vision for this project.
What do you wish to achieve and where do you see it going in the near and long-term future?
Being able to define your vision will enable you to set your goals (in 1 year, 3, 5, 7, or 10 years). To achieve your business goals you need to offer an IPTV/OTT service that is appealing to your target customers, and in order to be appealing, it needs to be different from other video streaming services. When you are able to define how are you unique and how you differentiate you are one step closer to defining your unique selling proposal. You need to know why viewers would pay for your service and why they would select you instead of your competitors. Typically first two factors are the price and the content, but they can be different in some special cases. In this process, define how you plan to measure the success of your service and the expected results. When you know what you need in order to attract new customers, you will be able to select OTT/IPTV platform that will help you achieve your goals.
Depending on your starting level of knowledge and expertise, chances are, you will most probably need to do some additional research. Doing the research will help you define your budget or timeline or it will give you an answer whether your planned budget will be sufficient or perhaps you will need to adjust your business model or need additional financing. Whatever the outcome is, the best possible time to learn this info is right here and now, before you even begin with the project.
When creating your plan, write your initial idea of the vision and then revisit this section. After you finish answering all other questions in the plan you will have a clear idea of what your vision is. Then you will be able to clearly define your goals and purpose.
Goals
It's important to have targets to aim towards if you are going to create a plan for an IPTV/OTT business. Goals, particularly ones that stretch you, are tremendous motivators as well as provide crucial data to help you make informed decisions and corrections. If you don't have a goal for, let’s say, revenue or the number of new subscribers, it's impossible to measure your progress.
Break your goals into business, strategic and tactical goals. Plan on updating and changing these often and one word of caution – as you create a goal that motivates you, be just as clear about how you plan to track and measure your goals.
Business goals should include total annual revenue, number of new subscribers per month/year, number of repeat subscribers, number of referred subscribers, average $ amount per subscriber, number of transactions per subscriber, and number of testimonials or positive reviews.
Strategic goals can include capturing a certain IPTV/OTT market share, being seen as the industry leader in your city, region, or country, or even further, opening offices in X cities, being acquired, obtaining a level of customer satisfaction, or user engagement. User engagement is very important for IPTV/OTT service and in positive correlation with user experience. The higher the engagement the more you can reduce churn. To measure user engagement you can analyze the number of playouts per user per day, number of purchases, number of minutes used per subscriber per day, etc.
Tactical goals might include large action steps, such as completing a website overhaul, setting up a customer success team, and adding new content.
Purpose
Describe the greater purpose that the execution of this plan and the growth of this business will fulfill. Try to fill this statement with as much passion as possible. This is your organization's rallying cry; it's meant to be the reason you absolutely believe the world needs this business. You may never actually share this idea with your customers, but they will feel it.
For more detailed approach to creating a comprehensive marketing plan to start your IPTV/OTT service download our blog HOW TO PREPARE MARKETING STRATEGY THAT WILL SUPERCHARGE YOUR IPTV/OTT SERVICE.
