5 Tips to Nail Modern Marketing Like Netflix

Netflix’s impeccable marketing strategies earned it more than 221.64 million subscribers worldwide without much advertising.  

What’s the secret? It has a knack for creating value and catching virality even in the small things!

Netflix’s authentic voice gives it the ability to communicate and interact with its audience like a fellow fan. This creates a level of relatedness and connection that resonates, which no other entertainment company can copy.  

As your trusted digital marketing agency in Miami, we’ll dissect Netflix's simple yet very engaging tactics that win over subscribers. Take note of Netflix’s best practices and incorporate them into your own marketing strategy to experience success!

Humor in Marketing

Evoking humor in your audience works wonders. People love to laugh, and they’re more likely to share something they find funny. This is why memes, silly tweets, and funny videos go viral quickly.  

Humor generates the most engagement. This creates positive emotions around your brand. When you can make people laugh without being offensive, you can gain your audience’s trust.  

People are also likely to remember things that make them laugh, which helps promote brand recognition. Netflix uses humor in their marketing very tastefully. It is why millennials resonate with them well!

Let’s see how Netflix uses wit across its marketing strategy.  

Netflix’s 5 Modern Marketing Tactics Your Small Business Should Follow

1. Use Social Media to Grab Attention and Spark Curiosity

Over the years, we have seen Netflix’s social media team create original memes, funny tweets, and cheeky statuses their target audience can relate to.  

Even though they don’t spend money on social ads or sponsored posts, their content still goes viral and is widespread among users.  

Check out this tweet, for example:

Picture from BoredPanda

Their goal is to encourage people to talk about Netflix or engage with their content by grabbing people’s attention and sparking curiosity.  

Here’s how Netflix does this:

• Ask relevant questions that stimulate users to have a casual conversation about Netflix. This helps them become one of the trending topics in the Twitter space.  
• Disclose what’s new on the platform to intrigue people and encourage them to check the shows and movies on Netflix.  
• Promote movies and series by posting teasers and memes, as well as asking questions that prompt fans to talk about them. As a result, other people are interested in them too.  
• Create cheeky polls that stimulate a response from viewers and encourage them to continue engaging and having conversations with them. This also helps the company gain insights into their audience and to inform their decisions.

Here’s an example of a Twitter poll created by Netflix:

As your trusted digital marketing agency Miami, we know based on experience that humor can be very personal. What's funny to one group of people might be offensive to another.  

So, before you whip up a humor-based marketing campaign, get to know your target audience first. Research your buyer persona and keep your jokes simple.  

2. Embrace Pop Culture

Incorporating trending topics and pop culture references into your marketing campaigns is the key to remaining relevant in the digital space. This also makes your brand more relatable to the public.  

Have you heard of the term “Netflix and chill”? In the innocent days, this phrase literally meant chilling out and watching Netflix. Today, it’s a slang term for going to another person’s house to have casual sex. It was added to Urban Dictionary in April 2015.  

Today, every time someone uses this phrase, it’s free marketing for Netflix!

Like Netflix, you can harness the power of pop culture in marketing. Here’s what you need to do to use pop culture to your advantage:

• Build a bridge between popular topics and your brand. This allows you to grab people's attention and get them hooked with your content, especially now that humans have very short attention spans.  
• Experiment with new content formats. In this age of distraction, it has become imperative for brands and businesses to use the latest content formats that people seek.  
• Take advantage of current events and news to help your branded content reach a wider audience. Here’s an example by Cerave:

• Feel free to incorporate new buzzwords and memes into your caption and tweets. Be witty, share memes around significant events, and join the conversation about the latest trending topics.  

3. Acknowledge Your Followers

Aside from being relatable, witty, and cheeky, people love to engage with Netflix because it acknowledges their followers. It retweets followers’ funny tweets, replies to their comments, and features user-generated content.  

The company’s interaction with its followers looks fun and genuine. It helps keep the brand on top of mind too. Plus, it’s another way to market the business for free!

Aside from sharing posts and creating original memes, take the time to interact with your followers too, and feature their original content in your business accounts.  

Doing this helps keep your followers engaged and motivates them to post about you and engage with your content.  

4. Personalize Everything

Netflix knows how to keep its subscribers coming back for more. Using data-driven personalization, it’s able to create a custom interface that recommends movies and shows based on a user's interest.  

In fact, the content of every subscriber’s homepage is tailored according to their preferences. If you have an account, you will find TV series, documentaries, and movies you're interested in.  

It also provides several suggested lists based on what's trending in your country. It offers a unique experience that makes people "addicted" to using the platform. You no longer have to put in a lot of effort and scroll endlessly to search for shows you like.  

Aside from its homepage, Netflix also personalizes its email campaigns and push notifications.  

Emails

People hate receiving irrelevant and generic emails. Aside from the fact that they take up space, they also push important emails down. Fortunately, Netflix gets this and uses its subscribers’ browsing behavior to tailor email campaigns.  

Here are some of the data that Netflix collects to personalize email content:

• Time and date subscribers watch Netflix
• The genres of movies or shows you like to watch

• The rating you give each movie or series
• The number of episodes you watch at a time
• The type of device you use to watch a particular movie or show

This data helps Netflix provide its users with email content they're likely to respond to.  

Personalization in emails isn’t just about addressing your customers by their first name. It's also about providing the information that sparks interest and developing irresistible offers that get them excited.  

Check out this email from Netflix:

Photo from ReallyGoodEmails.  

Aside from personalization, Netflix also keeps its emails simple and free of clutter. This makes it easier for subscribers to see the call to action and act on it.  

Use customer data and follow these email marketing best practices to provide your subscribers with tailored email content:

• Email content that cites the products they were last looking at on your site. You can use this to recover abandoned carts or cross-sell goods and services.  
• Automatically send emails based on a subscriber's action. This makes your customers feel like you know them on a deeper level. Examples of triggered emails are welcome emails, reminders, and lead nurturing emails.  
• Use a familiar “From” name. When people know that an email is from you, they’re more likely to open it and not think it’s spam.  
• Send out anniversary, birthday, and milestone emails to show them that you remember these special dates and to give your business a human touch. As a result, your customers will reciprocate by taking part in your promos.  
• Provide a clear and compelling call-to-action button.  

Push Notifications

Aside from emails, Netflix also does a good job at keeping its push notifications relevant and simple. Here's a post in which a user shares how delighted he feels when receiving alerts from Netflix.  

Image from Customer.io

5. Collaborate with Other Businesses or Brands

Partnering with other businesses is a smart move, especially for small business owners. Regardless of the industry you’re in or the type of business you have, it’s the connections you build with other businesses and brands, and the different ways you collaborate with them, that will help you thrive and rise to new levels.  

Through collaboration, you can double your reach, expand your customer base, and boost your revenue!

This is exactly what Netflix did to expand its reach across the world. By collaborating with various institutions and companies, it’s able to get more people to subscribe to its services.  

For example, if you have an account with a bank that's a partner of Netflix, you can get 50% off on your plan! If your mobile network provider is a partner of Netflix, you also get a discounted Netflix subscription plan.  

Netflix is constantly negotiating new licensing deals with networks, filmmakers, and TV shows to keep its subscribers satisfied with movies and shows.  

As the leading digital marketing agency in Miami, we suggest that you explore partnering with businesses and other brands that complement your products or services. It will help you achieve rapid growth and allow your business to thrive.  

Take Your Business to The Next Level! Hire the Best Digital Marketing Agency in Miami!

Do you want to turn your brand into something more relatable and develop digital marketing campaigns that resonate and connect with your target audience just like what Netflix did?

Don’t worry! Digital Resource is here for you! As your trusted digital marketing agency in Miami, we will develop a custom marketing strategy that will not only put your business on top but also help you achieve your business goals.  

Contact us today to get started!

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