If Personalization Is So Important, Why Are Telecom Ads So Generic?
The percentage of Americans with a landline at home has dropped from 92% to 42% in the last 15 years.
The number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices is expected to reach 42 billion by 2025.
All of these devices and services will be tethered to, and driven by, our individual preferences and requests. Mobile phones, streaming lists, and voice assistants are some of the more personalized segments of American life. There’s no reason the outreach from the companies providing these services wouldn’t be similarly individualized. And yet, one of the greatest challenges within telecommunications is generic messaging.
It’s also one of the greatest opportunities. Here are a few more:
Accurate Online Business Listings Are Critical
Benchmark research for the local marketing maturity framework showed online business listings to be the most foundational for local marketing success. This is how potential customers find your local business partners. Most partners who focus on business listings do so primarily on Google and, to a lesser extent, Yelp and other search sites.
Local businesses often overlook online business listings. This is particularly true in the telecom industry.
Just 18% of dealers have a high level of confidence that their business listings are up-to-date, accurate and complete.
A focus on business listings should include all of the information relevant to prospects, including location, hours, information specific to the dealers and managing their online reputation and reviews.
More Emphasis on Modern Marketing
The greater emphasis on traditional marketing tactics is reflected in usage statistics for telecom versus other industries. Dealers are bigger users of newspaper, flyers, and radio, and to a lesser extent, TV and events. With the exception of TV, these tactics are not perceived as any more successful for dealers than for other local businesses.
Dealers have substantially lower utilization of all digital tactics, including social media, email, SEO, paid search, and website. Yet these tactics are all rated as more effective than traditional marketing tactics.
Continuing a more historical approach, favoring traditional marketing tactics over social media and other digital channels means dealers are missing important opportunities.
