The Revenue EDGE Beacon
Turn the subscriber edge into your Revenue EDGE
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Executive Vice President and
Chief Operating Officer, Calix
Amazon is worth $1.59 trillion. Google is worth $1.2 trillion. As a communication service provider (CSP), why should you care?
These consumer giants are the biggest threat to your business. They grow by leveraging customer data to own and monetize that relationship. They're looking at the subscriber's home as a great source of data. That is why Amazon bought Ring, Eero, and Alexa. That is why Google launched Google Wifi.
Why these brands are a threat to you.
These companies understand that the company with the best data wins. Wi-Fi is their path into the home so they can capture subscriber data, own the customer relationship, and turn your broadband service into an easy-to-swap commodity.
If your goal is to be in business for decades to come, it’s critical you recognize this threat. Many CSPs don’t. In fact, they resell the brands of these consumer giants.
If you follow this path, make no mistake—you’re in dangerous territory. The consumer giants will build a direct relationship by putting their mobile apps in the hands of your subscribers. That means their brands will be front and center when subscribers have great experiences, and they will use targeted marketing campaigns to expand that relationship. Your brand will be relegated to the negative—the one the subscriber calls only when he or she has a problem or is angry.
In 2019, Amazon spent $19 billion on marketing; Google spent $18.5 billion on marketing. If you lose that subscriber, do you believe you'll win that subscriber back against such a formidable competitor? Doubtful. Worse yet, in this scenario your broadband would officially become a dumb pipe and you'd see a decline in revenue over time because you'd be more susceptible to price competition (think how easy it is to simply flip a WAN cable).
You can win the battle by owning the subscriber experience.
It does not have to be this way. You will win if you own the subscriber experience.
At Calix, we believe CSPs of any size can beat the consumer giants. In this issue, we outline the three key strategies you need to win:
Your battle against the consumer giants is truly a “David and Goliath” tale. As Terry O’Reilly points out (“Goliath, Meet David”), it’s well within your reach to be the ultimate victor. For proof, look no further than the story Gabe Petersen shares (“Strata Networks’ App-Downloads Contest Increased EDGE Suites Sales 59%”), showing how an apps-download contest drove incremental revenue, plus a 60 percent increase in app downloads.
If you have questions, comments, or ideas, please connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at michael.weening@calix.com. At Calix, we only win when you win. We look forward to winning a lot together!
Host of the CBC Radio show, "Under the Influence."
Co-Founder, The Apostrophe Podcast Company.
Speaker. Author.
Back in 1919, Jess Willard was the most feared heavyweight champion of the era.
He stood 6’ 6” and weighed 235 pounds. He had killed a man in the ring once. When Willard was set to defend his title against a young up-and-comer named Jack Dempsey, Willard laughed and said this would be his easiest fight. He insisted on being indemnified in case he accidentally killed the kid in the ring.
Dempsey gave up 5 1/2 inches in height and over 50 pounds in weight. But Dempsey was a new breed of fighter—he bobbed and weaved and employed fast footwork. Willard was powerful but slow.
In round one, Dempsey knocked Willard down an astounding seven times. By round four, Willard couldn’t answer the bell. It was one of the most legendary fights in history—because it turned the boxing world upside down.
It proved a much smaller challenger could beat a giant champion.
Be nimble.
Giants like Amazon and Google are trying to muscle their way into your customer’s homes. Amazon Alexa now sits on kitchen counters. Google Nest is the first time the search company has placed a device inside the home. They are pushing to own subscribers. But you can defend your turf with smart marketing tools and rich data. That powerful combination lets you see different patterns of behaviour and usage—even under the same roof—allowing you to be nimble and respond to your customers with tailor-made solutions.
Be quick.
Google and Amazon are the perennial 800-pound gorillas. But 800 pounds doesn’t move fast. Listening to your data allows you to anticipate what your customers want, so you can be proactive, not just reactive. And being a local CSP means you can react quickly to your community.
Punch above your weight.
Data gives you a constant stream of insights that allows you to deliver great customer experiences. Smart, new marketing tools give you a dedicated channel so you can communicate directly to your subscribers without needing a big budget and with no clutter from competitors.
It’s a brand-new era. With the technology available to you right now, you can punch way above your weight.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever sent a direct mail touting a “new customer special” … to existing customers. Okay, this is probably something we’ve all done. But is it really such a bad thing to do?
In short, yes. Given today’s tools and advancements (which all the billion-dollar home invaders are using), mass marketing campaigns aren’t a best practice anymore. Here are the risks involved.
Are mass marketing campaigns easy to produce? Yes. But they’re also expensive, irrelevant to many recipients, and less likely to cut through the clutter of other offers.
Today, you want to use data to create targeted marketing campaigns. Your competitors—the home invaders—have access to subscriber data, and they wouldn’t consider crafting a marketing campaign without using it.
The power of using data to develop targeted campaigns.
Here’s the power of data. It helps you identify only the prospects eligible for your campaign, target only them, and craft messages designed to appeal specifically to their needs. For example, using subscriber data, you can identify and target the following prospect groups with these powerful messages.
Calix Marketing Cloud helps you target campaigns because you can use it to segment and target campaigns and offers effectively. With data, you can ensure your message is relevant and personal for your prospects. Data-driven campaigns are also more cost effective and yield higher ROI. You can run shorter campaigns and see results more quickly.
Use data to craft relevant messages so you can center your brand and win more subscribers.
If you’re new to using data to create targeted campaigns, the Calix Success Team is here to help. Reach out to your success manager anytime, and we’ll help you identify the opportunities and offer suggestions about content and channels.
Yes, it may take just a bit more time than a mass marketing campaign, but the effort is well worth it (click the press release link below to read about the success West Carolina Tel had with targeted marketing campaigns). Relevant messages keep your brand relevant to subscribers and deliver positive ROI—over any other competitor. Even the industry giants.
Your Recommended Action Plan
If there was ever a perfect time to transition your Wi-Fi offer to a Wi-Fi 6 technology, it’s now. Your customers are using more bandwidth and devices in the home than ever before. Older technology just can’t keep up.
The benefits of leading with Wi-Fi 6.
That means you must shift away from managed Wi-Fi offers and launch your new Ultimate Wi-Fi experience. Calix GigaSpires are the pathway to offering all kinds of cool apps and services consumers want—and a great way to generate more revenue for you.
How to price your Wi-Fi 6 offering.
Of course, a new launch means new pricing models—and pricing can seem like an intimidating process. We’re here to help you keep it simple.
| What is your primary goal? | ||
| Improved subscriber/member experience | Generate incremental ARPU | |
| The scenario | You likely want a revenue neutral offer if your goal is subscriber/member experience. Consider this example:
| If your goal is to generate incremental ARPU start with the calculation on the left to get your “revenue neutral” price. |
| Pricing and Packaging | So, if you need to recover $6.13 you can do this a couple different ways:
| If your goal is to generate $2.00 in incremental ARPU–then price the service $2.00 above your revenue neutral price point. In this example that would be $8.13 (with whatever services you included in the licensing fee). You can either offer this as a separate option or build it into your broadband plans. |
| Variables | For a more accurate number, you can adjust your hardware cost, services included licensing fees, and depreciation numbers to your actual data for a more accurate number. | In addition to the items on the left you can also adjust your ARPU target. |
Let us help! Contact your success manager to talk about your competition and have them walk you through a personalized growth model to look at various scenarios based on your actual data and projected penetration rates.
Your Recommended Action Plan
Anyone who’s launched a new product or kicked off a major acquisition campaign will tell you budget and time are the biggest hurdles. It can take months to fully develop and launch a new product—and even longer to nurture and cultivate demand.
As marketers, it’s easy to be wowed by the giant brands that continually execute seamless campaigns. However, you can produce at that same level—even without million-dollar budgets or fancy agencies.
Create incredible campaign videos at little to no cost.
Calix Market Activation content and tools turn you and your brand into the giant—at little to no cost. That includes creating amazing videos. As a Calix customer, you have access to a full library of explainer, promotional, and web-animation videos on-demand. Service providers that choose to custom brand their CommandIQ™ app get more than 25 “getting started” and “how-to” videos from our new Market Activation Video Editor (MAVE) tool. This allows you to put your brand (not some faceless consumer brand) front and center.
How GVTC leverages great videos to build trust, engagement, and credibility.
GVTC is a great example of using video to create an authentic connection with your subscribers. (Check out the link in Your Recommended Action Plan, below.) Their use of situational framing quickly captures attention and positions GVTC as the trusted brand to guide the subscriber’s experience. These videos work because they’re playful and lighthearted—while also addressing pain points subscribers can relate to.
As a Revenue EDGE and Ultimate Wi-Fi provider, you are not a small player. These solutions enable you to elevate your brand over any consumer giant. Create the kind of campaigns that look like you had a billion-dollar budget—and keep ownership of the subscriber experience (including all the valuable data Michael cited in his article).
We are here to help you win today and into the future. Check out our ever-growing library of content, campaigns, and new tools. We’re excited to see what you come up with.
Your Recommended Action Plan
Marketers are always looking for fun and creative ways to drive adoption of the CommandIQ™ app (or their personalized version) and EDGE Suites.
Nick Ogden and his team at Strata Networks (Strata) recently drove a 60 percent uplift in app downloads and a 59 percent increase in EDGE Suites sales through a contest. (To learn more, watch our “Driving App Adoption and Engagement With Contests” webinar replay; click the link in Your Recommended Action Plan, below.)
How Strata created and promoted the contest.
To make the contest work, the Strata team:
Notified subscribers through email and social media that a contest would be run through the Strata Hub (personalized in the CommandIQ app).
Built a landing page to educate subscribers about the contest.
Drove subscribers to the page (Strata included a direct link on the landing page to download the app).
Pushed out (over a four-week period) a weekly mobile notification through Calix Marketing Cloud that subscribers would click on to participate in the contest (watch our “Mobile Notification Overview” webinar replay; click the link in Your Recommended Action Plan, below).
Encouraged entry into the contest through a simple web form asking for name and phone number (Strata also had subscribers opt into receiving text messaging marketing going forward—an additional marketing bonus).
Held a drawing each week using Facebook Live to select winners. Prizes for winners included a backyard movie theater, Roomba vacuum, $250 Amazon gift card, and a stay at a local resort. Total cost of all items was around $1,300.
Staying active on social media helped drive engagement.
During the contest period, the Strata team was very active on social media. Strata posted updates about winners, reminded subscribers to download the app, and asked for feedback on the experience. For an extra prize, the team even asked subscribers to provide their favorite feature of the app. This resulted in free advocacy marketing Strata will use in future campaigns.
Again, the team was able to drive a 60 percent increase in app downloads and drive the take rate of the EDGE Suites by 59 percent. The contest not only resulted in incremental revenue, but also opened an entirely new marketing channel for everyone who now has the Strata Hub app downloaded on their mobile device.
Want to duplicate Strata’s success? Use the resources in our Electronic Content Builder to help you personalize and drive a contest of your own.
Your Recommended Action Plan
Let’s face it, your subscribers are distracted by so much these days. But imagine you could rise above the noise and capture their attention with solutions and services that elevate the way they experience your brand.
That’s where we can help. In this webinar, listen as we discuss:
Research shows video ads drive more engagement than images. Check out the tips for delivering engaging videos and improving your ROI.
Your brand is what people uniquely associate with your name and service. Here are a few ways to successfully set yourself apart.
Yes, mobile push notifications are a newer marketing channel—but they’re worth exploring. Learn how notifications can be great way to advertise and engage with your subscribers.
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