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Guy Talmi is a Senior Marketing Director at Pontis, an Israel-based company that works with wireless and cable operators to help determine the most relevant marketing approaches based on a user’s profile, preferences and behavior. Talmi has compiled a list of the top 10 most common marketing mistakes he sees made by the operator. Here’s an edited version of his top ten:

1.  Operators fail to target the right products to the right customers: Product offerings from operators are too generic and are often driven by the latest technology, rather than designed to address the actual needs and expectations of real customers. Operators typically create a large portfolio of products but then fail to build an effective way to get them to the right customers at the right time. 

2.  Free trial offers fail because of poor follow-up: Product launch campaigns offering free usage attract lots of interest. However, operators often fail to follow up with customers that respond in a timely fashion. Failing to secure ongoing usage with these respondents is a missed revenue opportunity.

3.  Introductory offers for new customers alienate existing customers: Mass marketing attractive packages or free items to attract new subscribers alienates existing customers. Stating that current users are ineligible for the offer in small print does not solve the problem.

4.  Non-targeted offers look like spam: In the worst case scenario, marketing offers sent to customers by operators in a non-targeted way can be perceived by users as spam—not a term you want to be associated with your brand.

5.  Operators address churn too late: Open up communication earlier. Typically, communication only starts when the customers say they are leaving. At this late-stage, customer retention is costly.

6.  Marketing campaigns may fail if not tested before launch: Operators often launch mass promotions and campaigns without actually testing the creative approach, perceived value and response levels, thus frequently failing to meet expectations. Testing on a sample group and fine tuning the offer based on the results can dramatically improve the campaign.

7.  Operators use the wrong medium to market to users: Operators are still not using the right media to communicate and promote their services to customers.  They are often using expensive mass media such as TV ads, even though less expensive direct communications, including SMS, portal banner etc., would be much more effective.

8.  Value the customer: Response rates and customer take-up is very low when operators think “one offer fits all,” and when they aren’t using effective segmentation when planning and launching campaigns. 

9.  Operators miss marketing opportunities: Operators are not planning for, or in some cases even reacting to, high-profile external events, such as concerts, shows, sports, etc. There are numerous marketing activities and new service offerings that could be successfully delivered around these opportunities.

10.  Success breeds success – if you can recognize it: Operators fail to analyze past campaigns and offers to fully understand the customer responses and the actual revenue results produced. By analyzing the real ROI of campaign types and the effectiveness of tools and techniques used, better results can be achieved in the future. Too often the campaign analysis stops at a response rate and cost per response, rather than understanding real revenue versus cost.

Summary: Operators have been so long entrenched in a traditional consumer mass-marketing model that is no longer relevant to the customer and is both costly and ineffective....The key challenge for all marketers in this sector if they are to survive and thrive in this environment is to leverage their strengths and to target the right customer at the right time with exactly the right proposition.
In this sense, the industry needs to follow the example set by on-line service providers who have long maximized the potential of the ‘personal approach’ with interactive suggestions linked exactly to the users’ preferences and real time behavior (e.g. browsing or purchasing). “Amazon-like" recommendations based on buying patterns can be used by operators to promote a “cross sell” of related content items, or to use “up sell” techniques in order to encourage customers to purchase additional content, such as music bundles, all based on the lifestyle characteristics of a carefully segmented group of customers....Achieving these results means that operators must fine tune their processes and adopt a more targeted approach by aggressively marketing highly tailored offerings. This is the strategy that operators will need to embrace if they are to out-perform the competition and improve levels of customer retention and profitability.