It is imperative for every business to develop a marketing strategy that enables organizations to build long-term relationships with their customers. Developing and executing such a marketing strategy is not an easy task, especially in the ever-changing telecommunications industry. There are a myriad of ways to create and design a marketing campaign, and even more ways to manage your entire marketing strategy.
To help you wade through the complex world of telecom marketing, we have searched far and wide to gather the top telecom professionals’ marketing ideas that will hopefully inspire everyone in their marketing path.
Yaniv Masjedi, CMO of Nextiva, says being your own biggest competitor is the greatest motivation. “Being in such a competitive industry is a roller coaster, and at the same time, we like to see ourselves as our own biggest competitor. We aren’t striving to be like the other companies in our space because Nextiva is quite different from any other company. So, every day, we try to be better than the last, and that’s a great motivation for us. I would advise any CMO to strive to see their own company, and their own efforts, as their biggest competitor.”
Christopher Williams, Board Member/Investor/Advisor, Global Chief Marketing Executive and former CMO of Amdocs, focuses on customers and what marketing needs to do to succeed. According to this highly experienced professional, great marketers need the ability to listen. What matters most in marketing is not who shouts the loudest; rather, it is about delivering simple, powerful messages, telling stories, and being close to customers to hear their views and concerns. Williams says it is important to work with the sales division to create common definitions of what an opportunity is and what a success is. It is important to have the courage to be creative and innovate, be aggressive, and push new business models forward.
Rickard Bäcklin, former CMO of Telia International Carrier and currently a Brand Evangelist at CBBrand, focuses on the customers and the purpose of the company. He focuses on the future and what the consumers need. Also, he puts customer needs first, versus putting products and benefits as the top priority. According to Bäcklin, it is important to manage the customer experience at all points of contact. In addition, interesting and useful content and thought leadership is what helps to attract the customers ’attention.
Janine Pelosi, Head of Marketing at Zoom, says their approach is to rely on digital marketing for what it does best: targeting the right people at the right time as they enter the funnel. In terms of content marketing and communications, the aim is to enhance happy voices, share success across multiple platforms and focus on customer content – short and long, written and multimedia. Zoom also creates informational content based on products. Pelosie says: “We don’t wring our hands over short-term clicks and views for any individual piece of content. Instead, we focus on our overall share of voice in our market and on being true to our core messaging.”
Former CMO of BT, Suzi Williams, emphasizes the importance of branding and brand value. According to Williams, while strategy and data are very important, instinct, insight and zeitgeist are imperative as well. It is important to hire people and agencies that encourage and inspire their colleagues. Williams wants more companies to understand that a brand is much more than just a logo – it is a way of getting in touch with people, so companies should be clear about what their brand stands for. Building a brand through action, not just words, will create more value for the brand.
Keith Messick, former CMO at Dialpad and currently the Senior Vice President of Marketing at LaunchDarkly, says it is hard to get people’s attention. You need to be creative and willing to take risks. According to Messick, B2B businesses can find success using branding and emotion just as well as B2C businesses. In his eyes, analysis and attribution are important, but you do not want to obsess over it in a way that you can not start a brand initiative that does not immediately lead to a sales attribution. Keith also says it is necessary to give time for new ideas to mature and grow, as great ideas often seem ridiculous at first. “I don’t think we always appreciate how little attention people have, and how unimportant our thing is in their day-to-day life. Getting their attention is harder than ever. It takes more creativity than ever before. You have to be willing to take a risk.”
Iris Meijer, Director of Marketing at Vodafone, advises peers to keep all the needs of their community top of mind . As communication people, marketers know how important communication is. It is a simple thing, “it’s something we advocate for our customers, but at the start of the crisis (Covid-19), what I realized is that we should really focus more on communication and cooperation within our teams. Sometimes, when you’re busy, your focus is on delivering, but it really should be on getting everybody together and ensuring everybody’s clear on priorities.” In addition, Meijer conducted a study that showed that focus on social programs, such as those that support the environment and sustainable business, sets a company up for success. She believes this approach is being passed on to a new generation of marketers and this encourages her positive attitude towards the future.
Nina Bibby, CMO of O2, says that marketing is about inspiration: inspiring customers to choose them, buy from them, stay with them and recommend them. According to Bibby, marketing leaders need to be key storytellers, engaging and coordinating the entire organization to deliver their best performance to the customers. It is very exciting to inspire your colleagues to pursue ambitions, Bibby says: When it comes to marketing “ I have a simple mantra: ‘We have to create value for our customers in order to create value from our customers.’ It’s got to be a win–win.”
Conclusion
In summary, marketing professionals in the telecom industry focus on customers and on creating value, so that those customers remain loyal to the brand. The marketers see so many opportunities by just listening, communicating and not being afraid to be creative. Their goal is to deliver stories, inspire, touch people, motivate them and create brand value through actions and not just words.
So, stand out, think out of the box and inspire your customers! We hope these thoughts from the greatest marketers in the industry brought out some ideas of your own for your marketing approach. Remember, that these ideas came to you for a reason, so work towards achieving them. Good luck!
