Telecommunications Marketing Strategies to Reach More Customers

We’ve written several blogs over the past year or so to explain why referral marketing is ideal for telecommunication brands, and to show how prevalent referral programs are with global telecom brands, and even how we became the leading provider of reward and referral marketing to the telecoms industry. But here we wanted to look more holistically at the full range of marketing strategies open to consumer telecoms marketers. 

Overall the telecommunications industry faces many challenges with the high costs of CAPEX to fund the roll out of fiber broadband, with the old PSTN networks due to be turned off imminently, and the continued roll out of 5G and also 6G putting pressure on balance sheets. Understandably the pressure of these huge costs has seen a number of high  profile mergers announced recently in Canada, the United Kingdom and Spain as well as the divestment of Vodafone Spain and Vodafone Italy.

Notwithstanding the above, overall ad spend in the telecommunications industry was predicted to grow 8.3% in 20205 by Dentsu driven by 5G expansion, high-speed internet demand, and digital content consumption across the industry, with the average wireless carrier estimated to spend between 15-20% of revenues on customer acquisition and retention, all of which increases the pressure on marketers to find new and profitable customers with high ARPUs and high CLVs to cover these costs. However, in common with many other industries, telecommunications brands are seeing increased customer churn with loyalty reportedly 22% down after the Covid pandemic according to techsee.

The telecoms industry faces a sluggish outlook amid rising costs and competition, muted subscriber growth, and lingering macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures. Despite their being volume growth in the sector, average revenue per unit (ARPU) is expected to decline on average 2% annually until 2028, across mobile, fixed broadband, and voice services.
PwC Global Telecoms Outlook 2025

Wireless market saturation and pricing pressures

The GSMA Mobile Economy North America Report 2025 highlighted that fully 332 million North Americans (United States, Canada and Caribbean) or 83% of population had a mobile phone in 2025 with the total addressable market approaching saturation point and this was only growing 1.4% a year. Growth was expected to principally be driven by young consumers and tourists, although Canadian operators have reported growth from high levels of immigration to Canada. Outside of exceptions, like high immigration countries, there appears to be limited natural growth opportunities in most western markets, with Uswitch reporting that there were 88m mobile subscriptions in the United Kingdom in Q4 2024, more than the 69.3m population, due to many people having more than one mobile phone.  

With many markets saturated, operators have often looked to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) to drive growth by tapping into niche opportunities like youth markets, immigrants and customers of banks or grocery stores, where the MVNO partner has a closer connection to or better understanding of the niche market. However, the entry of new competitors tends to exacerbate pricing pressures, and many operators have looked to create their own wholly owned sub-brands like VOXI, SMARTY, 48, Koodo, Visible and others, to capture these opportunities for themselves.

With natural growth opportunities limited, wireless telecommunications brands often also have limited power to raise prices due to strong competition and the fact that customers seemingly expect ever faster connectivity and ever more value for the same price. If anything, prices are spiralling downward, particularly for SIM Only offers where prices can be as low as £0.99 for the first three months in the United Kingdom and 3 euros a month with Digi Mobil in Spain. 

The need to offer ever lower prices saw innovation from giffgaff in the United Kingdom back as long ago as 2009, where they targeted a tech-savvy audience with low priced pay-as-you-go (PAYG) contracts. They did this by stripping out costs,  providing customer service via a community and self service model, and keeping marketing costs to a minimum with referral marketing. The success of this model has inspired many other brands to adopt elements of the model.  However, this model is not for every network operator and there is inevitably a limit to how low SIM Only contracts can go, so price competition has its limits. 

Breaking out of the price reduction spiral

An inspiring story of how a mobile network operator can look to break out of the spiral of margin destroying price competition was the example of T-Mobile in the United States which decided to become an Uncarrier, breaking out of ‘utility thinking’ and rewriting the rules of wireless communications. They did this be focussing on removing anything that detracts from the customer experience, like monthly data limits, overage and roaming charges, fixed term contracts and bringing in an obsessive focus on customer service that transformed the business from an ‘also-ran’ to a leader reportedly worth more than AT&T and Verizon combined and with it’s share price vastly outperforming both. As a testimony to the success of this initiative, T-Mobile recently celebrated 10 years of its Uncarrier moves.  This is a  strategy that inspired Macquarie Telecom in Australia with its ‘so un telco’ strategy to excessively focus on cost experience. As a result Macquarie Telecom now has an NPS of +81.

Fiber is the growth opportunity

With consumer IOT and the Metaverse failing to deliver on the hype, the one clear growth area for  network operators is fiber, or more particularly ‘full fiber’ or FTTH in urban areas, and more general broadband for rural and hard to reach areas, an initiative that is often attracting government financial support such as in the United States with its BEAD program. 

This is clearly an area where acquisition marketers have an important role to play in getting enough good high value customers to sign up to cover the high cost of the network build and operation. Because of the logistics and costs of fiber roll outs, operators are often targeting a city by city approach, opening the doors for many new start-up fiber operators or altnets to focus on particular urban areas, where they often have a temporary monopoly or quasi-monopoly on full fiber. Here the challenge is to often convince enough local subscribers to sign up before the larger operators can get to focus on that area. Of course, the dynamics of these markets require a very different type of marketing to the more mature wireless markets, which is often why the larger network operators have created specific business units or separate brands for fiber or rural broadband.

And the market is changing

And finally, a telecoms marketer needs to be aware of the impact of new technologies and social trends, such as working from home, the need for more security against cybercrime and increasing demand for streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime etc. 

One of the largest potential disruptors for this is the roll-out of e-sim, particularly given the entrance or neo-banks into the market like Revolut, N26 and Nubank as well as Uber in addition to dedicated e-sim providers like airalo and Holafly. Faced with these new challenges, BT CEO (then CEO of Telia), Allison Kirkby, stated at the MWCA in Las Vegas 2023, that operators will increasingly have to clarify why they exist, and if they can and should provide value add to the end customer other than just  providing connectivity.

So what are the options for a telecoms marketer?

Brand Building

To stand out in a crowded market and remain at the forefront of a potential subscriber’s mind when they think what provider they should choose, a network operator can look to define and create a brand that connects with their target audiences. As mentioned by Allison Kirby, to survive, a telecommunications brand needs to communicate why it exists. That can be a combination of the value add that the operator provides, in terms of additional services (OTT, security etc.) and by communicating trust and shared values.

Above the Line

Some examples of recent TV commercials include:

• Verizon – advertising a three year guaranteed US$25 a month deal
• T-Mobile US New year. New neighbor.- advertising easy set up and speed
• Sky broadband ‘From Loft to Lair’ – emphasizing connectivity for the whole home or your money back
• BT TV & Broadband ‘The Interruption’ – advertising the fact that Netflix was included in the package
• Virgin Media O2– why stumble when you can soar – super fast reliable WiFI through every room

Although these are but just a small sample of the some of the tv commercials recently employed by operators, it’s interesting to note that, particularly compared with energy utilities, these commercials don’t highlight shared values like the environment or social change, but instead focus on cost, speed, ease of set up and additional services. This is despite research showing that 18% of 5G handset users identify green issues as a key decision point for choosing a telecoms brand. Perhaps there’s an opportunity there?

In addition, you can see that many of telecom marketing focuses on speed and pricing whereas, according Sebastian Krems of Latus Consulting, in the German market surveys show the number one purchase criterion is reliability – across installation, stability and meeting promised data rates, above price or speed.

You might ask yourself why none have positioned themselves as the greenest and most reliable?

However, due to the production and media costs, only the largest operators can hope to maintain commercials on national television over long periods of time, with a 30 second prime time ad in the United States reportedly costing up to US$100k. And for those focused on local areas, such as for fiber rollouts, national advertising would be wasteful. Although there may be opportunities to advertise on local television. 

Sponsorship

A key strategy for telecoms marketers to maintain visibility has often been to sponsor sports teams or competitions, and cultural, artistic or musical events. Notable examples include:

• Verizon’s sponsorship of the NFL, including turning 30 stadiums into fanfests during the Superbowl
• T-Mobile’s sponsorship as the Wireless Partner of Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball and Little League Baseball and Softball 
• While AT&T has stepped down as the Official 5G Innovation Partner of NBA and WNBA it recently renewed its partnership with the NCAA and corporate athletics.
• Vodafone Ireland sponsoring the Ireland rugby team and more recently the Ireland Women’s rugby team
• EE sponsoring the England men’s and women’s national football teams, including disabled and grassroots football and the Excel esports team 
• BT’s sponsorship of the Scotland men’s rugby team
• Orange as a premium sponsor of the Paris 2024 Olympics

Many of these are high visibility events, where even a logo on a shirt sleeve can reach many eyeballs, and while the brand may look to associate with values of the sport or event, there are risks, for example when Three withdrew its shirt sponsorship of Chelsea Football Club after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine due to the then owner’s association with President Putin. The main barrier for this tactic is the huge cost of these investments, which means only the very largest operators can hope to sponsor national or international events or sports. 

However, for operators focused on specific geographical areas, such as for a fiber rollout in a specific city or high speed broadband for a rural area, lower cost local event and sports sponsorships might make sense. 

Be found when prospective customers look for an operator

Of course, as well as looking to ATL and sponsorship strategies to remain in the consumer’s mind when they think of which operator to choose, the brands can of course hope to be found by potential subscribers looking for a new carrier in search engines by investing in SEO and paid search and social, affiliates and price comparison engines. Although with the advent of LLMs and click-less search, telecoms marketers would be advised to look into AEO and how they can ensure that their brands surface in searches in ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Perplexity etc. 

A content strategy can hope to capture searches from potential customers searching for a new wireless carrier by creating keyword rich content that answers a searcher’s questions. Obviously established brands, with an aged domain with a high Page Rank and relevant backlinks, will stand a better chance of surfacing in Google than a new entrant. And the scale of the challenge can be measured through the number of search results returned for each of the main search terms: for example a quick search for ‘which wireless carrier has the best prices’ returns 657m results, while ‘which wireless carrier has the best coverage’ returns 68m. That’s a lot of competition!

A brand focused on specific geographical areas, such a fiber brand, may be able to get relevant search traffic by focusing on niche search terms relevant to that area like ‘who is the best fiber provider in Acron, Ohio?’. 

Of course, if you can’t attract enough natural search traffic on your own, you can hope to target the same potential customers through paid search or paid social. The disadvantage here is that you ‘pay to play’ and competition means that the costs per click or action are often high, and you are required to pay for each and every click. 

Similarly, you can look to work with affiliates and price comparison sites that have relevant traffic. In some countries, the highly effective SEO (with lots of content and reviews), paid search and ATL campaigns of price comparison sites like MoneySupermarket, Uswitch, GoCompare, Selectra, Bon Forfait, Lemon, Comparatelecom and others means that they dominate search results and can generate a lot of traffic.  Although telecom marketers should keep an eye on the developments in AI, such as Google AI Mode, and its effect on telecom marketing and on the role of price comparison sites given that it will be able to recommend brands to a user and reportedly suggest cheaper alternatives. 

The advantage for price comparison sites and affiliates is that operators with competitive pricing and good reviews can attract new customers at a fixed, albeit typically expensive, cost per lead. The disadvantage is that they encourage price sensitivity and switching, so expensively acquired subscribers may be tempted to leave for a better deal next year before the investment is fully amortized and, like paid search, the operator has to pay for every click or lead. And finally, the other point to take on board is that when paying affiliates and price comparison sites, the operator is funding the marketing budget of a competitor for clicks and eyeballs to the detriment of its own efforts. 

Local Marketing

As mentioned above, many operators are focusing on fiber or broadband roll out in very localized areas, which means that blanket national advertising and marketing campaigns may be very wasteful. But instead many of the tactics outlined above can be adapted to focus on local communities such as sponsoring local events and sports, creating content optimized for local SEO and bidding on long tail local search terms. 

Of course, traditional local marketing techniques such as door drops, local sales campaigns (for example a kiosk in a shopping mall) and call centers may also be very effective, if the economics work out. And referral marketing can be particularly effective for local marketing efforts as current subscribers are actually likely to know other potential customers, as they live near them or meet frequently, such as at the school gate when collecting children from school etc.

Providing Additional Services and Bundling

A classic strategy by integrated telecommunications brands has been bundling to try and reduce the risk of churn by offering fiber broadband, fixed line and television as a triple play offering,  or quadruple play with mobile included as a quadruple play, or even adding in financial services as a quintuple play. The theory being that the more services in the  bundle, the more profitable the customer will be and the less likely  they will be to churn. One of the features of recent years has been the attempt by telecommunications brands to offer more than just communication, by bundling in other services such as OTT (Netflix, Amazon Prime), free access to sports like Reliance Jio’s cricket access, Movistar with La Liga, Sky Sports, BT Sports football (since merged with Discovery Plus) and T-Mobile’s baseball content. Other examples include offering Internet security software such as firewalls and antivirus software, or videoconferencing apps that allow telecoms marketers to try and create a noticeable difference in their offering from that of competitors. 

Of course, those of us old enough to remember the unsuccessful WAP Portals, will note that this is not the first attempt from telecommunications brands to provide value add that extends beyond the basic communications services. The main comment is that the cost of these ventures, particularly for sports content, means that only the largest players can hope to offer many of these services. And, as seen with Orange Bank recently, network operators don’t often have a great track record of developing other services outside of mainstream telecommunications. 

Improve Customer Service and Shout About It

One of the challenges of being a telecommunications marketer is that, outside of initiatives like local fiber and broadband, it’s often very difficult for consumers to tell one carrier from another. That’s because they often get the same phone, the same coverage (particularly with an MVNO competing against its host NO), the same text and data limits etc. from every provider. That’s why competing on customer service is the best way to avoid focussing solely on margin destroying price discounting as the T-Mobile Uncarrier example above illustrates. The efficacy of the Uncarrier approach can be seen in how T-Mobile continues to outstrip its rivals in customer growth. 

And while providing an excellent service will help keep existing customers and should generate some natural word of mouth, once your customer service really is good, then manifesting that in ratings and reviews, customer testimonials, case studies, awards and turning that into a customer acquisition channel with referrals can propel you above the competition. That’s because testimony from real past and present customers is much more powerful and believable than any advertising copy. This can be part of a Customer Led Growth strategy and can also help win back lost customers. And, interestingly, Buyapowa’s own Referral Codebreakers research found that customers were most willing to refer a friend after a positive experience with customer support.

A smart telecommunications marketer will understand how to use all these elements across touchpoints with customers and potential customers. 

Hear from Buyapowa’s Brand Director, Robin Bresnark, as to the communications channels customers want to hear from you about your referral program.

Referrals are made for Telecommunications

As we’ve highlighted in previous articles, given the prevalence of powerful referral marketing programs across global telecommunications network providers, referral is made for telecommunications. That’s because marketing costs in telecommunications are among the highest across the board, due to the high potential lifetime value of subscribers and intense competition among providers bidding up costs. Whereas referral marketing can deliver new customers at a fraction of the cost of other channels. Also given that customers often struggle to tell the difference between one carrier and another, a convincing referral from a trusted source can make all the difference.

And referral marketing can not only bring cheaper subscribers, but also better ones who stay longer, spend more and more likely to refer-in new customers. That’s because good customers tend to know people like them who can also become good customers and with the right incentives and rewards can refer them.

We set out the business case for referral marketing here, but we’d be happy to talk more about this with you. 

“As you can see [across all verticals] email rules the roost [for the most impactful communication channel]. But that really changes when you start drilling down a little deeper. Bills really aren’t a thing in streaming. So it’s no surprise it’s at the bottom for streaming. But bills are up near the top for insurance and telecoms and banking….Look at the difference between website navigation for travel, where it’s right up there in second place, and website navigation for telecoms, where existing customers have got way less reason to keep coming back to your [telecom] website. But texts text totally makes sense for telecom. So there it is up at the top”
Robin Bresnark, Brand Director – Buyapowa

Keep Existing Customers and Upsell

Apparently one fifth of US customers said that they’d be willing to switch their carrier in 2022 according to YouGov, with the highest motivator being to find a cheaper deal. Given that it reputedly can be anything between five and twenty-five times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one, and, in 2017, Telus reportedly claimed that it cost them fifty times less to retain an existing customer versus an eye watering CAD521 to acquire a new one, that should set the alarm bells ringing. 

A key part of keeping existing customers is providing an exceptional customer experience, so churn should reduce as perceived customer experience improves. But proactive loyalty and retention campaigns can also positively impact how long customers remain loyal. This can include providing rewards that recognise loyalty on milestones such as subscription anniversaries, after upgrades or simply on a subscriber’s birthday. Notable examples include T-Mobile’s Tuesdays and Virgin Media O2’s Priority. 

Next Steps

Hopefully, you’ll have seen that we’ve learned a lot working with several dozen of the world’s leading telecommunications brands over the past decade, as well hundreds of other enterprise brands. But we’re still learning and we’d love to share your experiences and challenges with customer acquisition and retention and show you how we could help. Please feel free to reach out.