But how can telco marketers continue to prevail amidst all the disruption? Will the content that resonated 12 months ago still have the same impact on telco technology buyers today and in the coming months? What about marketing channels—how have these changed in influence as a result of the pandemic given the vast majority of telco tech decision makers have been confined to their homes? And which marketing channels do these decision makers value most when identifying and selecting vendors for RFPs?
COVID-19 has thrown up a lot of questions for telco marketers and offered very few answers in return. So, we wanted to try and provide some much-needed assistance and insight to assist in the creation of new vendor marketing strategies.
Back in 2018, we conducted a survey to help vendors better understand telco technology buying habits. This included detailed analysis of the marketing channels most likely to influence technology vendor longlisting and shortlisting vendors during the RFP process. At the time, we found that trade media, industry analysts, peer relationships, and industry trade shows ranked high in influence during the shortlisting of vendors for telco RFPs.
Now, three years on we have repeated the process, but gone further to discover whether buying habits have changed, and, if the same marketing channels that were impactful three years ago remain so today. And if not, have new marketing techniques risen in prominence?
From our survey of 100 technology buying decision makers within global telcos we were able to find out:
- The top five marketing channels tech buyers within telcos find most impactful in improving their awareness of vendors
- The top five marketing channels that have been most decisive in actually leading to vendor RFP selection by telcos
- The most influential forms of content in helping educate telcos on vendor technology
The report, ‘Navigating telco turbulence: lessons for vendor marketing’, will be available to download from next week. Register your details in the form on the right to receive your copy.
We hosted a webinar to discuss the findings from the report in more detail in company of our Head of Mobile & Telecoms, Paul Nolan, and our guest speaker and client, Martin Morgan, VP Marketing, at telecoms vendor, Openet. Watch the webinar here.
