Maximizing Your Network’s Potential with Marketing Principles

Doug Adams

Current Business Speeds (Avg./US)

Broadband and Business Location

The Relationship Between Utilization and Connection Type

Why isn’t Use HIGHER with Faster Technologies?

We stink at marketing benefits, we market a feature (speed)

One Size Fits All Marketing???

Target Market Demand Drivers Feature Benefit Result

Households Netflix, Gaming, Multiple household users, and Devices Speed Enhanced

lifestyle Uptake

Large Businesses

Collaboration, Security and Backups, Cloud Applications Speed Competitiveness

Collaboration Uptake

SMEs Email, websites, basic online tools, all accomplished with “basic” service

Speed How does fast Internet impact my bottom line?

Limited Uptake

How did YOU Sell Your Broadband? As a Utility or a Beneficial Technology?

Did you talk about benefits of using broadband? Are the benefits of broadband, or faster broadband already a way of life… habit? Is training needed in order to use faster/better broadband? Are there economic advantages and benefits to your community should utilization increase?

Experience Shows That Broadband is…

Not universally understood

Not universally accepted as a platform for innovation that requires maximum bandwidth

Not a “utility” in a marketer’s world – Benefits need to be understood to

drive adoption and utilization

The Smaller the Business, The Lower the Internet Utilization

6.31

7.09 7.28

7.67 7.96

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

9.00

1 - 4 5 - 9 10 - 19 20 - 49 50 or more

Number of Employees

Average DEi Score

15,151 businesses (2012-15)

Issues for Acquiring eSolutions Expertise

Critical barrier for progress

Challenging but

manageableTotal

Time and effort required to develop expertise

20.6% 49.1% 69.6%

Too much information - not enough time to research

21.7% 41.0% 62.6%

Higher priorities to focus on 22.7% 39.0% 61.7%

Lack of internal resource with necessary skills

19.1% 40.8% 59.9%

Affordability of local external support resources

22.3% 33.7% 56.1%

Lack of local external support resources

16.6% 33.0% 49.5%

What’s Holding Businesses Back?

52.3%

45.2%

35.2%

33.2%

31.7%

29.5%

R² = 0.9811

25.0% 30.0% 35.0% 40.0% 45.0% 50.0% 55.0%

9 up to 10

8 up to 9

7 up to 8

6 up to 7

5 up to 6

4 up to 5

DEi R

ange

Average Pct. Revenue from Internet Use

N = 1,426

Incr

easi

ng U

tiliz

atio

n

The Digital Economy index (DEI) measures how comprehensively a business or organization uses Internet applications.

Utilization Increases Revenues There is a Direct Correspondence to Internet Use and Percentage of Revenues Attributed to Utilization

Why Drive Utilization?

For an individual business or organization, increasing utilization by 10% means:

Increasing revenues by 24%

Decreasing costs by 7%

For a Region, it means:

Allowing businesses to be more competitive

Creating a demand for high-skilled workers

Adding fiscal revenues

Average multipliers identified by SNG from over 12,000 data records collected in 2009-10.

Lazy or Lousy Marketing? Features Versus Benefits

Features – Factual statements. – Features are a means of providing benefits

to customers; for instance, “I have a Gigabit” or “Speed… Faster is Better.”

Benefits – Value statements with an emphasis on

what the customer gets. – A benefit answers the question, “Why

should I care?”

Some Examples of Broadband’s “Better” Marketing Efforts

A DEi Scorecard is delivered to each business and organization

Individualized ‘broadband assessment’ that: ‒ benchmarks competitiveness against

peers (by size and industry sector) ‒ estimates ROI from increased utilization ‒ provides links to local advisors and

support

Data based on the individual’s current broadband utilization against industry average

Shared with local economic development agencies so they can raise awareness, increase adoption, and drive utilization

Personalized Incentives: DEi Scorecard

Chattanooga

Bad: Your Gig is Here. So what?

Good: Stories that explain the benefits for businesses.

Use Community Leaders

Show Real People, Real Benefits

Community Growth/Possibilities: Longmont

What SHOULD You Do?

Provide information and tools to drive use of internet applications

Help businesses understand the benefits of going online

Develop a business case for each business to take action

To drive business growth through broadband:

Market Benefits

23 23

Thank you

Let’s connect! Doug Adams CMO & Founding Partner 720.412.7876 doug@thethinkagency.com www.thethinkagency.com