How Do I Reach Cord Cutters?

Across the United States, cable and satellite TV subscriptions have continued to drop by more than four million subscribers between 2019 and 2020. Even though these consumers have cut the cord to traditional cable services, there are still plenty of ways for business owners to reach them. 

What is a Cord Cutter?

Cord cutters are households that have chosen to "cut the cord" to traditional cable and satellite providers. Instead, most of them turn to streaming services to get the television they want to watch. These streaming services allow viewers instant access to the programs they're loyal to and the shows they're interested in watching. The average American household subscribes to three streaming services, likely because different streaming platforms offer access to different programs. In fact, cable TV subscribers often choose to subscribe to one or more streaming services within the home as well in addition to their traditional cable services. This makes OTT and streaming an excellent advertising medium for continuing to reach consumers who may have cut their ties with traditional television providers. 

Why Marketing to Cord Cutters is Increasingly Important 

As Millennials and Gen Z  become more dominant when it comes to purchasing power, marketers must consider that many of them have never set up a traditional cable subscription service in their homes. They have not just cut the cord; rather they never purchased one. Over the next ten years, these generations will make increasingly powerful buying decisions, and your ads need to be targeted to their needs as well, including services they’re using now.

Failing to advertise to this demographic could leave your business missing out on significant revenue potential. In fact, cord cutting is growing with Genx and Baby Boomers as well in part due to rising costs of cable subscription services. More than half of the baby boomer generation subscribes to at least 1 streaming service in their homes. In order for your business to reach your entire target demographic, you’ll want to include both traditional television and OTT ads as part of your overall marketing strategy. 

How to Target The Cord Cutting Audience 

Business owners can find cord cutters: through OTT, streaming, YouTube, social media, and even the old-fashioned bunny ears with an antenna. Creating content to reach those who have dropped their cable subscriptions means creating content for OTT platforms. Often, that includes highly targeted content geared directly toward your specific audience. 

When you market to cord cutters through OTT, you can target your ads based on the demographic parameters that you specify as your target, or a specific type of program that fits the demographic that you are trying to reach. For example, you can target based on the user such as auto intenders, specific age ranges, and interests. Or you can select types of programming for your ad to fall in such as sports, news or lifestyles based programming. This targeting capability allows you to cater your creative in a unique way that speaks directly to your target audience. Ideally, you want to create a comprehensive advertising strategy that integrates across all the platforms on which the target user might interact with your business.

With 71% of US households regularly engaging with OTT content, it has become increasingly important for businesses to take that extra step to reach your chosen demographic.. 

Cord cutters, or people who have never had a cable or satellite subscription to begin with, will continue to increase in buying power over the next several years. If your business fails to properly target those individuals, it could prevent you from reaching your full potential.