The Campaign Management system market in telecom is on the rise. Every industry is looking to succeed in almost saturated markets and omni-channel marketing operations have been the solution for now. This simply means global telecom companies are interacting with their customers on different communication channels simultaneously to understand them better and provide them with integrated and customized services.
Telecom operators are faced with the need to maximize value and reduce commercial costs. Traditional physical and digital channels need to be updated, and new digital channels need to be created to attract more clients and gain market share. Integrating all these channels and the information captured from each of them will be crucial for CSPs—hence the need for multi-channel campaign management tools in telecom.
Telecom operators have the advantage of access to CDRs of their customers which gives a wealth of information about their behavior. On the downside, an increase in the choice of channels to the customer also means more sophistication in execution is required to choose the most appropriate channel to each customer.
Gartner analysts have estimated marketers spent more than $6 billion in 2015 on campaign management system and applications. They see that growing 24 percent annually through 2018. The Multichannel Campaign Management space in telecom, they reported, is a “red ocean” where web content management, data management platforms, marketing resource management, digital commerce and advanced marketing analytics vendors vie to provide engagement across more than one channel. (Source: cmswire.com)
Understanding Multichannel Campaign Management (MCCM) strategy
A multichannel strategy maximizes efficiency throughout all points of contact with the consumer. CSPs can create a more flexible, balanced, and integrated channel mix by evolving traditional channels, introducing new channels, and bringing greater control over all their channels[1]. However, these specific channels need to be geared to specific client segments, using criteria such as value creation, purchase behavior, and costs. This strategy maximizes returns and allows operators to adjust their commercial strategies as well as respond to customers’ needs faster.
Multichannel campaign management (MCCM) in telecom is thus an orchestrated initiative in company communications and marketing offers to customers across a variety of channels. A multichannel strategy allows customers to interact with operators in new ways and gain unrivalled experiences across channels.
The relation – CSP and MCCM
MCCM vendors offer a digital marketing hub that provides marketers with unified access to previously disconnected areas of audience profile data along with connections to content and common analytic functions. They group audiences based on multiple attributes along many dimensions, including grouping personas, life cycles and lifestyles. These solutions focus on real time capabilities, such as multichannel event triggering, in-line predictive analytics and real time decisioning[2]. MCCM vendors have begun to tie their applications more closely to e-commerce engines and this is valuable in the context of digital commerce.
For CSPs, SMS and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) have been the popular MCCM channels over the last 10 years with email being an alternative for postpaid customers as the follow-up channel. The web and apps are also efficient channels for follow-up, but they require a concerted approach between marketing and the digital channel stakeholders. It is recorded that CSPs in prepay dominant markets have found a quicker return on investment with MCCM marketing ; although the post-pay environment is picking up as well.
There are some nascent MCCM areas, such as messaging around customer experience, and their success requires a single view of the customer, coordinated digital channels and more complex campaign management system in telecom.
CSPs have trailed other verticals (such as retail) in their uptake of newer campaign capabilities despite the presence of many vendors offering all or some elements of MCCM capabilities. Therefore, CSPs require a sophisticated approach to campaign management in telecom that should be based on processing the large volumes of data generated to trigger precise marketing action.
According to Gartner, the timely and appropriate interaction delivered through trigger based marketing also leads to increased success rates for campaigns and a higher Marketing return on Investment (MROI).
*Disclaimer :
Any references to vendor designation, rating or placement MUST prominently display the following disclaimer within your promotional materials: Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Include attribution of the full research document (see Section 6.1 of the Policy for details). Gartner Competitive Landscape: CSP Multichannel Campaign Management, Worldwide, 2017, Charlotte Patrick, 26 May 2017
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