Carrier business is changing and how carriers communicate this transformation is critical to their long-term success.
The market is increasingly complex and carriers are challenged to tell their customers and prospects exactly how they are adapting and evolving their businesses. When selling traditional carrier services, it was enough to tell the market where you have network and that you can be trusted. In the world of cloud, content, and partner enablement, carriers have to do more.
They have to define how they are going to play in the market today and in the future.
It isn’t enough to transform the focus of their business, their approach to the market and their sales team without telling customers and prospects exactly what it all means. Carriers need to clearly define why transformation matters and how it will impact their customers, prospects and employees.
Marketing and repositioning a carrier’s business drives understanding and leads to new sales in new areas.
We see four things that carriers should focus on in marketing and communications as part of a transformation strategy:
1. Direct Communications – Carriers that are in the middle of transforming their businesses should directly tell their customers and prospects their plan in the very short-term (three to six months) as well as the long-term (2-3 years). There should be a cohesive set of milestones that they can point to on their transformation journey. This might be a statement piece from their CEO or a campaign where they chart their transformation visually, through blogging and announcements to the media.
2. Demonstrating Understanding of the Complete Value Chain – Carriers that are going to be successful in the long-term understand the complete value chain from wholesale through to retail. They need to demonstrate this understanding and tell not just their direct customers but enterprise customers and consumers that they get it. Carriers should develop an authentic voice when discussing the concerns and opportunities of partners and their partners’ customers. They can position themselves with a series of reports or simply messaging end user value in their product sheets and web copy.
3. Repositioning Against Competitors – The competitive environment has also grown in complexity. OTTs, new carrier entrants and a whole range of service providers are competing for the same revenue. Carriers need to decide how they are positioned to compete against these players and what value they deliver in the market. Infrastructure and reach isn’t as important as customer service and a strong partnership strategy.
Carriers should rethink who they are from a marketing and communications perspective and lock in a set of messaging that positions them to compete in this new competitive environment.
4. Helping Partners to Sell – As partner enablement becomes the go-to strategy for the future of carrier business, carriers should think about how they are helping their partners to sell and resell their services. White-label marketing tool kits, tutorials and instructional videos and a whole range of collateral can help partners to sell more services.
This drives carrier growth and supports the creation of long-term sustainable revenue streams from the channel. The emergence of cloud connectivity platforms, software as a service (SaaS) and other cloud-based solutions has pushed carriers to look at how they are marketing via the channel. It is a huge opportunity for carriers that get it right.
With the right partner, carriers can use marketing and communications as an efficient way to make their transformation real for customers, prospects and employees as well. When you get the communications right it leads to customer buy-in and trust. It gets employees on the same page and focuses them on the same goals.
The transformation of carrier business is an exciting opportunity and the winners will be defined by how well they communicate this change.
Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss how marketing can support your carrier business in this time of change.