Why Contextual Marketing became important for the Telcos during the COVID-19 lockdown?

A telecom subscriber parks his car near Walmart. Immediately he gets a message on his phone which says this:

“Thanks for being a loyal customer! You have an unused balance of XXX loyalty points in your account. Use YYY points from those and get 10% discount in Walmart for purchase of up to ZZZ!”

Keeping this offer in mind, there is a pretty good chance that this subscriber will take advantage of the suggestion that he just received on his phone. The same customer could also think about saving some money on other similar purchases and might check out your other latest recharge plans to avail applicable discounts or cashback. But only if he receives the offer at the right time.

Though many Telcos have applied robust marketing strategies in the past, the need for campaigns to become more relevant and contextualized has become very evident during the COVID-19 outbreak. Over the last few months, internet connectivity has become the lifeforce of global businesses, thereby fueling higher data consumption. Here are some of the key findings to corroborate the truth about data usage during COVID-19 lockdown.

Key Findings:

● As per the digital consumer survey conducted by EY, nearly 11 percent of the basic data users upgraded their existing packs to either unlimited or 50-100 percent higher data to address their content streaming, gaming, and video calling requirements.

● According to the same survey, there was 11GB data consumption per user per month, a 30 percent spike in usage, pushing data consumption to two to three years into the future. The survey further revealed that nearly 33% of survey respondents upgraded broadband plans to higher data packages with unlimited plans accounting for 40% of total upgrades.

● Vodafone saw a rise in data consumption by 30% in the UK and 50% in some European countries during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Now, as a telecom operator, think about all the strategies you adopted to make an existing customer upgrade his/her plans. You made him/her aware of your brand, pocket-friendly offers, and conveyed why your plans are better than other telecom service providers. But during this lockdown, this customer stops buying plans from you and instead opts for your competitor’s plans despite all the efforts from your end. What might have gone wrong?

Let’s explore the possible reasons.

The unpredictable shift in customer behavior and consumption patterns

As per research reports by a Frankfurt-based internet exchange, DE-CIX, data consumption on OTT, and video on demand (VoD) platforms shot up by 249% during March and April compared to February 2020. And, from March to July 18, this demand jumped to 947%.

This radical change in data usage explains how people consumed more content from the internet through OTT sites, gaming sites, ECommerce, and video conferencing platforms. Some telecom operators even disabled high-quality video on OTT sites and optimized bandwidth usage to facilitate this growing demand. But, in most scenarios, most telecom operators didn’t reach their milestones in terms of engaging customers with the right action and offer at the right time and at the right place. In the coming months, data consumption patterns are going to remain the same or even rise further because people’s lives have now started to revolve around this new lifestyle, of work, and stay at home”.

For example, a particular member of the family who now seems to spend most of his/her time watching movies online might not even know that he/she can avail a free month subscription of Netflix towards the purchase of a particular data plan. And if he/she doesn’t receive the offer message at the right time, then the offer will cease to become somewhat irrelevant.

The decline in new customer acquisitions and fall in revenue per user

Despite the radical shift in data consumption, some might think that the coronavirus pandemic didn’t hit Telcos that hard, given the higher consumption of data across various platforms. But that’s not entirely the scene, and why? As per many industry reports, Telcos witnessed a sharp drop in people who came into stores to buy new SIM cards and connections. This has impacted many operators’ new 4g and 3g product additions in metros, towns, and cities were working, and commercial groups of people reside. Apart from the reduction of the number of footfalls, network tariff in many countries has surged, leading to the exit of many customers and prevented the entry of new ones.

Though the Telcos are busy enabling a smooth transition to simplify this recent change by offering less or free Talktime, data, and content services to customers, it might take some more time for them to bounce back from the plummeting revenue.

How some of the major players in the telecom sector addressed these pain points?

Although the telecom industry is scrambling to tackle a host of challenges, many operators managed the crisis effectively and emerged stronger after the COVID-19 lockdown.

Let’s understand how!

Focus on the changing needs with faster response rate, relevant plans, and offers

What’s hard to comprehend, is the fact that many messages that subscribers received were not as per the activities they performed during the lockdown. Out of many offers and marketing messages that come in customers’ way, only a few become relevant. Faced with twin challenges of making the existing customers aware of new offers and acquiring the new ones, contextual marketing is now looked upon as one of the saviors by Telcos in these testing times. The key is to instantly attract the customer’s attention at the very start of their research and avoid missing out on engagement opportunities. By integrating customer’s data with analytics, Telcos are achieving ‘ultra-personalization’ for their subscriber base. They can now inform the subscriber about relevant plan upgrades or better-suited plans based on the customer’s need.

For example: If the customer exhausts his/her data before the stipulated data expiry plan while browsing on the internet, it might lead to his/her inconvenience. However, if he receives real-time triggers and notifications along with messages of data extension plans whenever the data threshold is attained, he/she can continue enjoying the uninterrupted service.

Whether the engagement is related to promotion or customer satisfaction, a reliable and substantial differentiator for the Telecom brand is to be able to proactively offer or recommend an adapted solution before the customer starts searching. And that’s when contextual marketing helps! It allows the carrier to resolve issues by reacting faster with the best solution or plan.

Building relentless customer support with real-time and relevant offers

Since it’s still uncertain whether the foot traffic in stores will increase or not in the foreseeable future, starting omnichannel customer-centric approaches can ensure that customers have the telecom operator’s required help and support. Even in the coming days, call centers will continue to receive humongous customer inquiries, and if not handled with the right action plan, customer exits will further shoot up. Telcos might decide on reallocating their marketing team’s priorities to support customer feedback/inquiries with appropriate and contextual solutions and offers.

Some of the major players in this sector have already deployed contextual management tools and chatbots to better understand and address customer needs and initiate real-time recommendations.

For example: Having a chatbot might help start a conversation with the customers while browsing the carrier’s site to pay bills or make purchases. The Telecom brand may also use the chatbot to redirect the engaged customers to a particular landing page or help center, where they can receive personalized assistance in real-time. The live engagement can build more trust among the customers and can serve as CTA and help redirect online customers to a product page (offers and plans) based on their requirements.

Introducing Empathy based services

As the tariffs of voice, as well as data packages, continue to soar, Telcos might consider introducing Empathy based offers to customers to manage higher pricing rates. For example, Telcos can introduce ‘internet booster packages’ designed for uninterrupted work from homes and, in parallel, inform those who work remotely with various messaging channels. They can also support their customers with late fees removal and payment flexibility options and provide one-on-one advice or offers to individuals who have bought new mobiles, broadband, or TV packages. By taking this small step, Telcos can regain the customers’ trust and build loyalty among them.

New Opportunities in the ‘New Normal’

According to a report from Forrester Research, it costs five times as much to acquire new customers than it does to keep the existing ones. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, several Telcos tried to retain the lost customers by launching short-time promotional goals, and it did work effectively for some time. But the situation is quite different and challenging now. Telcos need to up their marketing game as they bear the massive pressure of investing in the right customer without dwindling the revenue. Though this pandemic has taken a toll on new customer sign-ups, there are many opportunities around, which could prove helpful in strengthening the existing customer base with contextual advertising.

As customers’ expectations continue to evolve at an unprecedented rate, Telcos need to gear up and play a key role in helping them sail through this crisis smoothly. Having said that, the telecom operators spearheading active customer engagement with an integrated focus across contextual campaigns will stay relevant and essential to customers during these challenging times and gain tremendous value during and beyond the recovery phase. Other telecom brands that are yet to build their contextual marketing strategy should ramp-up their marketing efforts or risk being left behind in the competition.

Pelatro’s mViva contextual campaign management solution executes targeted individual campaigns and tailor-made offers to suit the customer’s behavior. We can help create and run real-time campaigns based on real-time triggers that allow the marketers to ensure that the campaign is most effective and contextual.

Connect with our experts here to know more.

Stay safe and stay relevant!

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