How Telcos Can Win In The Digital Revolution

by Buana Sari Digital Marketer

Telcos are facing tough times as digitization revolutionizes the industry landscape. They have been facing moderate to massive digital disruption over the last few years. The telecom operators experienced a slow decline in revenue growth with EBITDA margins and cash-flow margins down.

Traditionally, main revenue streams for telecom operators have been SMS, voice and mobile data which came far third. But while some telcos have been quick to respond to developments like mobile phone penetration, internet explosion, etc. they seem to have been napping in the face of other challenges like the Over The Top (OTT) players eating away their revenue share.

For global telcos, core voice and messaging businesses continue to shrink due to regulatory pressures, OTT upsurge, and mushrooming of social media channels. The increasing impact of OTT players on telecoms' voice and messaging revenue is a widely accepted phenomenon. Their influence on mobile data traffic and telecom data revenue is also acknowledged as a critical concern worth considering.

Many global telcos initially viewed digitization as a threat to their existence. However, big players have been quick to realize that is not a threat but an opportunity to rebuild their market positions; reimagine and transform their customer processes, add agility with cost savings; create innovative offerings for customers; and much more.

Mobile technologies like moLotus have further disrupted the digital landscape by transforming the way telcos digitally advertise, manage processes, engage, and sell their customers and maximize ARPU and customer lifetime value. The best thing about telcos employing mobile technology for digitizing marketing activities is that telco marketers can effectively target & track the right customers for their offerings and its performances.

Not surprisingly, major telecom business leaders consider digitization to be one of their top priorities, but not all telcos are close to capturing its true potential. According to research, digitization could enable telcos to enhance their profits by as much as thirty-five percent, yet the average enhancement achieved is just nine percent (Source : McKinsey). So, how can this digitization gap be bridged?

Here are ways for telcos to come out on top of the digital revolution:

1. Converting Big Customer Data into Big Returns

All telecom operators today possess huge subscriber databases - perhaps the deepest and richest insights into customers’ behaviors. The huge gold mine of customer data includes customer buying preferences, location, Internet usage, behavioral patterns, mobile app usage, OTT consumption, travel patterns, roaming usage, and much more. Having tremendous monetization potential, the customer data and the derived insights can be used in different ways, leading to revenue maximization. This may sound quite obvious, but it is not that simple.

Telcos should invest in appropriate digital marketing tools which enable them to monetize the data. The data monetization models offered by these tools are assisting telcos in implementing data to gain insights in order to improve sales and customer experience, boost marketing strategies, optimize campaign performances and much more. However, there is still a lot which telecom businesses can do with the opportunities provided by the vast data pool and the digital marketing tools.

Big telcos are using digitization tools like moLotus having advanced data monetization capabilities. Using moLotus they can easily curate, manage, and analyze big data. Telcos can not only run data-driven and performance-oriented campaigns but also compile the campaign data, generating crisp and comprehensive reports which further enable them to decide upon and strategize. The outcome is quick high-margin revenues!

2. Focus on Mobile advertising

The present and future of digital advertising is mobile. Telcos should take a leaf from this. They have had the challenge of communicating with a huge subscriber base one on one. Mobile advertising comes as a solution to this customer communication challenge.

Smartphone penetration has shifted the focus of telcos to mobile advertising platforms. Recently more and more telcos are reaching out to their customers directly using mobile advertising platforms like moLotus, TubeMogul, InMobi, etc.

moLotus mobile video customer interaction platform having robust capabilities of delivering hyper-personalized, customized and targeted multimedia ads is the preferred by most telcos. moLotus technology delivers ads directly to the mobile inbox of the customer without the requirement of any mobile application or involvement of any data plan. Unlike its counterparts, the moLotus ads have a longer shelf life as they remain in the customer's inbox until he/she manually deletes them.

moLotus uses real-time data of telco customers for successfully executing automated, personalized, customized, scalable, rich media ad campaigns along the entire customer journey. Telcos can create innovative campaigns with quick response and high conversion rates utilizing the unmatched potential of moLotus tech.

3. Digital Customer Service and Engagement

If 2022 Customer Experience (CX) trends are to be considered, speed and convenience are topping the telco consumer agenda. Telcos should engage this speed-driven and convenience-driven consumer base with best services digitally.

Major telecom players have already moved from traditional customer support and service to digital customer service popularly known as e-care. It is a key to telco business upliftment. Majority of telco customers prefer digitally rendered services, with seventy-six percent of them satisfied with digital-only journeys, compared with fifty-seven percent for traditional channels. (Source: McKinsey Report).

Telcos have been using live chat and co-browsing to support customers during the purchase process and post-purchase support. Live chat platforms like ZenDesk, LiveChat, Facebook Messenger Chatbots, WhatsApp and acquire.io have been used by telcos for the web-browsing customers.

Scenario is fast changing with telcos focusing more on innovation and using innovative technologies like moLotus platform for serving their customers. moLotus offers unique capabilities like mobile business support and video customer support for enhancing customer service. Customer feedback capability of moLotus offers real-time customer ratings and feedback for multiple service issues to the telecom operators allowing them to analyze and improve upon.

4. Expanding into Emerging Markets

Like everything else, telecom operators need to design their winning strategies differently depending on the country or region they are operating.

For instance, the customer preferences, languages, interests, etc. in Africa are quite different from Latin America. Mobile usage is different in different parts of the world. Also, markets are evolving vividly in different parts. Compared to a market like Australia, which has a lesser number of telecom operators to choose from, there is considerably more competition across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Entering these evolving markets has not been a simple task until the advent of digital marketing technologies like moLotus. Customized and globally scalable moLotus marketing campaigns are the best way to reach out to vivid global consumers.

moLotus uses telco customer data at micro-levels – from basic demographics to behaviors, languages, attitudes, interests and perceptions. It is fast replacing other digital platforms like Facebook, YouTube, whatsapp etc. moLotus has the ability to deliver a brand's message with customer name or unique customer id to the massive subscriber database within just a few seconds without spamming their mobile inbox.

5. Transforming Customer Processes

Digitization in the telecom industry is not just focused on acquiring new subscribers, but it concentrates on enriching customer experience by transforming customer processes. Telecoms are putting the spotlight on customer success via digital transformation.

Telcos are using digital technologies including moLotus, Marketo, Hubspot, etc. to automate and digitally transform their customer processes to meet their marketing goals. New-age marketing automation tools like moLotus have made the telco customer processes much smoother, faster, economical, profitable and convenient. It is being applied to seamlessly automate processes like service reminders, new customer onboarding and many more while reducing costs and enhancing business revenue.

Telcos are building a long-term association with the millennials and Generation Z customers digitally by engaging via moLotus mobile transformation capabilities like Digital rewards, Real-time customer ratings, Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs), How-to, Mobile Reminders, Instant Feedback and more.

6. Cost Minimization

Telcos often used to spend huge sums without realizing what they were paying for. Telecom cost management has been notoriously difficult as it could be time-consuming to track costs. Digitization has introduced several cost minimization opportunities to telcos via automation of “low touch” processes.

Experts say that the easiest way to reduce telecom costs is by embracing breakthrough technology like moLotus. Using the technology major telecom operators have reduced costs by reducing headcounts in call center processes. For them, migrating to a mobile based and automated customer interaction via moLotus can reduce operating expenses by 25 to 30 percent.

Telcos further unleash the cost-cutting potential of moLotus by doing away with printing & stationery costs, training costs, compliance costs and more. moLotus mobile advertising offers high return on ad spend, providing a relief to telcos from the burgeoning advertising costs.

7. Superior Performance Analysis

Telcos should concentrate on digitally boosting their performance levels for business goals such as leads, conversions, etc. They can easily measure those metrics through digital marketing tools. Modern tools like moLotus, Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics, Yandex Metrica, etc. are making it easier for them to track advertising campaign performance. They can monitor and adjust their campaigns seamlessly and accurately.

moLotus performs best in tweaking marketing campaigns in real-time and fine-tuning them with evolving consumer behavior. It empowers telco marketers with robust real-time campaign tracking and data analytics capabilities. Having access to real-time analytics, telecoms are capable of enhancing performance and earning better ROI. Operators are using moLotus data analytics to reduce customer churn, make better marketing-spend decisions, improve conversions and collections.

8. Drive Sales

Customer research shows that telecom customers prefer more online sales. Telcos investing more on digital sales resulting in an increase in revenues by 30 percent and reduction in commercial costs.

Using digital advertising platforms like moLotus Ads, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, etc., telecom brands can educate and inform their customers highlighting the best offers, product comparisons, and availability checks influencing sales.

Telco customers engage better with moLotus campaigns during the entire customer journey. Customers increasingly review and research about telecom products in their mobile phones before buying. Illustrative moLotus product videos up to 40 seconds attract more potential telco customers. Telcos can avail a variety of other moLotus rich media formats including dynamic greetings, brochures, slideshows and showcases.

Superior customer journey calls for excellence in every customer interaction. moLotus offers easy customer interaction options like SMS, Phone Call, Web Link Click, USSD and more, enticing customers to interact more with telecom brands ultimately leading to trust building, conversions and sales.

Conclusion

Telecom giants are already reaping the benefits of digitization. Digital marketing platforms are enhancing customer acquisition, experience, engagement, retention, and advocacy for telcos across the globe. Technologies like moLotus have entered into win-win partnerships with telecom brands offering them knowledge, innovation, agility, real mobile advertising and breakthrough transformation opening the door to high margin revenues for them.