Contextual Engagement: An Opportunity for Telcos

Customers can lose interest in an app in a matter of seconds. Companies could face serious repercussions if their app does not provide the right offer at the right time. To counteract this challenge, most Internet players personalize and contextualize offers to drive engagement.

Contextual marketing is crucial for telecom operators. Understanding customer behavior at a granular level can reap huge benefits. Telecom operators often focus on selling their core services to customers. However, users are increasingly interacting with major over-the-top (OTT) players – like Meta, Netflix and Spotify – through telecom operators infrastructure. This change in interaction indicates that telecom companies must use a similar marketing strategy to that of major OTT players to maintain consumer interest.

Big Data Enables Contextual Marketing

To stay competitive with OTT players, telecom operators must offer products that incorporate the best digital customer experience. Big data enables operators to effectively promote these specific products and offers by placing the right offer at the right time to the right set of customers. A contextual platform provides the means to gather customer data so that the offers are placed on digital channels. Digital technologies, fueled by analytics, have enabled telecom operators to execute this one-to-one personalization.

An example of how Big Data can be leveraged for contextual marketing is the omni-channel approach. A customer browsing for mobile devices online could automatically be offered a mobile device with a unique tariff plan that suits their needs via a telecom app.

Start With a Personalized Approach

The relevance of a particular message is critical. Often consumers are bombarded with messages which are off target and poorly timed; personalization helps solve this issue. Big Data provides a holistic view of the customer. This understanding of a customer is created through the gathering of contextual data, as well as inter-linking social network profiles used by the customer.

Additionally, AI and other intelligent technologies can provide a full customer profile that can help achieve optimal content personalization. Done right, personalization enhances customers’ lives and increases loyalty by delivering messages that anticipate customer needs. These customer benefits translate into company benefits as well. Personalization can reduce acquisition costs by as much as 50 percent, can lift revenues by 5 to 15 percent, and can increase the efficiency of marketing spending by 10 to 30 percent.

Where are Users?

Smartphones are the most widely used digital channel by customers. Hence, user data is even more valuable. It provides higher margins, and an endless stream of data which can personalize offers to subscribers. Yet, telecom companies are still unclear on  how they can leverage this opportunity to build digital channels their customers love.

Telecom operators have exclusive access to valuable user data. They can use this exclusive data to their advantage, making them able to compete with the most popular OTT players. One example of a Big Data-led activity is for operators to follow the usage of a music app at an individual level and to offer a relevant add-on or reward to that individual. Big Data can help operators understand how to segment and target these customers.

Create an Awesome UX and Remove Friction

Due to the vast amount of time users spend on smartphones, creating an awesome user experience is critical. The most successful digital experiences emerge by reducing friction in the user journey. Companies like Amazon, Pinterest and Spotify have accelerated user engagement by creating a friction-free user experience. Mastering the art of reducing friction – through a combination of design and engineering – creates a significant competitive advantage, especially when driving early user adoption and growth.

LotusFlare Contextual Engagement Platform

After recognizing both the challenges and opportunities faced by telecom operators, LotusFlare built the Contextual Engagement Platform (CEP). CEP leverages Big Data to provide highly contextual offers in a seamless manner. CEP can, for example, be used to push an attractive one-hour mobile data offer to users on slow Wi-Fi connections. In other words, CEP tracks user actions, different statuses and preferences on their mobile devices. This helps to build a unique, personalized cross-sell marketing campaign.

Conclusion

The telecommunications industry stands on the brink of a transformative opportunity through the adoption of contextual engagement strategies. As customers increasingly engage with over-the-top (OTT) services, telecom operators must pivot towards personalized, data-driven marketing approaches to maintain and boost consumer interest. Leveraging Big Data and advanced analytics enables operators to deliver precisely targeted offers at optimal times, significantly enhancing user experience and loyalty. By understanding customer behavior on a granular level and implementing seamless, friction-free digital interactions, telecom companies can not only compete with OTT giants but also drive substantial business growth.

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