The two core aims of telco marketing strategies are to reduce the cost and increase the performance of customer retention, acquisition, and loyalty activities. The drivers are clear: at 22%, the churn rate in telco is higher than in many other industries including IT (19%) and professional services (16%). It’s thought that the churn rate could even increase to as much as 67% annually for prepaid services. Telecom marketing approaches are therefore laser focused on delivering compelling customer experiences that drive “stickiness” for existing customers while winning over new subscribers.
The role of first-party data in telco marketing
One of the key marketing assets available to telecoms companies is their first-party customer intelligence. Leveraged securely, compliantly, and with full customer consent and buy-in, this intelligence contains the insights telcos need to revolutionise their customer marketing strategies through relevant and personalised content delivered to the right people at the right time.
Until now, like most companies, telcos have relied on third-party tracking cookies and mobile advertising IDs to recognise customers across the open web. This has enabled them to build profiles of their audiences that they can use for personalised advertising. However, these tracking IDs are being withdrawn or devalued in the light of privacy regulations and increasing consumer demand for privacy-first solutions. Telcos need an alternative, and fast. The secret to success in using first-party customer intelligence in telecom marketing strategies is to be able to access and activate the data in real-time and in a privacy-first environment that telcos and their customers can have complete confidence in. Fortunately, recent innovations in the adtech market around digital verification mean that the path to privacy-centric, personalised customer engagement at scale is now open for telco marketers.
Leveraging telco-verified IDs in telco marketing
Novatiq’s Fusion platform is blazing a trail in this regard, enabling telcos to use their first-party customer intelligence to truly know their audiences and reach them in real-time and with privacy guaranteed. The platform centres on the Zenith ID, a pseudonymised ID that allows telcos to verify users that visit their website and apps across devices and sessions.
Doing so enables telco marketers to build 360-degree profiles of their customers and send them relevant content in real-time using Novatiq’s Hyper ID – an activation ID for programmatic delivery at scale. Significantly, as no personally identifiable information (PII) is transmitted at any stage of this process, it is completely compliant with GDPR and other global privacy laws, and in keeping with consumer demand for privacy-first experiences.
The benefits for telcos
When it comes to telecom marketing strategies, this approach to leveraging first-party data delivers a range of significant benefits including:
- Identification of existing customers. Eliminate wasted customer acquisition ad spend by recognising existing subscribers.
- Improved customer retention. Identify customers likely to churn by leveraging contract length data and web log intelligence.
- Optimised customer journeys across all owned sites. Map and unify unique audiences for analysis.
- Improved acquisition activity. Recognise and reach high propensity switchers that are not already a customer.
With digital verification platforms like Novatiq’s Fusion platform, the benefits are felt right across brand and affiliate marketing. By leveraging the technology, telcos and the marketing agencies that support them can power their campaigns with first-party data insights that drive exceptional customer experiences and can have a rapid and significant impact on campaign cost and performance.