When We Embraced Data-Driven Marketing at Home Telecom, Our Upgrades Increased 314 Percent and ARPU Rose 67 Percent

As a family-owned business serving South Carolina for 120 years, we know that broadband service providers must do one thing to survive and thrive: lead transformational change. In fact, I’d say the secret to our success has been evolution through innovation. We’ve been a Calix customer since 2009. One of the highlights of our partnership has been developing South Carolina’s first gigabit community. Together we brought high-speed, managed Wi-Fi to homes and businesses—and provided community Wi-Fi everywhere else. This has made an incredible difference in the lives of our residents and business owners.

Recently we’ve built on that success by putting a major focus on becoming world-class marketers. Our deployment of Calix Marketing Cloud in 2017 marked a turning point in our marketing capabilities. Today, we’re reaping the rewards of a sophisticated, data-driven engine that delivers amazing results. In the past five years, we’ve doubled our internet subscriber base—creating additional cross-sell opportunities. With Marketing Cloud powering our go-to-market for these services, we’re in a strong position to go head-to-head with the big players in our market like AT&T, Comcast, and Charter, while enhancing the lives of our 36,000 subscribers.

Marketing Cloud Wowed Our CEO—and Helped Reduce Marketing Acquisition Costs 75 Percent

We started with Marketing Cloud by running a 60-day campaign to drive upgrades to our 1 Gbps service, specifically targeting the work-from-home demographic. We used the same offering, marketing mix, and execution from a previous campaign so we could easily compare the results. The performance improvement with Marketing Cloud was phenomenal. Compared to the previous campaign, upgrades were up 314 percent and we cut the marketing cost per upgrade from $80 to $17.

Our CEO previously hadn’t seen the need for Marketing Cloud—but these results converted him. Today, he’s a huge believer in the power of Marketing Cloud. Leveraging this offering was the start of a radical transformation in how we approach marketing. Before, we would cast our net wide. Now, we have real-time insights informing every campaign plan and execution. And what’s even more incredible? This level of success we first experienced has been replicated in every single campaign we’ve since run on Marketing Cloud.

Looking ahead at the rest of 2022 and beyond, we’re expanding our use of Marketing Cloud—using data analytics to further develop and refine our propositions. We’re focused on subscriber acquisition strategies, taking advantage of the lookalike audience capabilities enabled through integration with Facebook to identify usage patterns that map to our current most valuable subscribers. The market enablement materials available from Calix give us the added benefit of upskilling our teams to deliver cutting-edge campaigns.

Targeted Marketing of Revenue EDGE Suites Increased ARPU by 67 Percent

In Q3 last year, we were thrilled to launch our MyWiFi Xtreme offering—a premium managed Wi-Fi service based on the end-to-end Calix Revenue EDGE. The package includes GigaSpire® BLAST systems, our branded version of the CommandIQ® mobile app, ProtectIQ™ for network security, and ExperienceIQ™ for enhanced parental controls and bandwidth management. We knew how much our high-value subscribers would appreciate this sophisticated functionality and would be willing to pay extra for it.

Using Marketing Cloud, we identified a subset of our existing managed Wi-Fi subscribers most likely to upgrade to the premium service and focused our marketing efforts here. We offered MyWiFi Xtreme for an additional $4 per month (total $9.95) and achieved a 67 percent increase in average revenue per user (ARPU). Since its launch, a healthy 65 percent of new residential internet installs have selected MyWiFi Xtreme. This is an excellent example of how Calix is helping us run targeted marketing campaigns—enabling us to further monetize our network.

Deep Insights Into Subscriber Behaviors Have Transformed Our Marketing Efforts

Smart marketing tools like Marketing Cloud help cut through the noise and deliver impact. We have immediate and actionable data to work from, pinpointing an individual subscriber who may be having an unsatisfactory experience or is receiving a poor Wi-Fi connection. We’ve harnessed lifestyle data to build tailored packages that best suit our subscribers’ daily lives—introducing “Remote Warrior,” “Gotta Win Gamer,” and “Solid Streamer” personas with great success. All this amazing intelligence sharpens our marketing, drives up ARPU, and builds momentum.

Working with Marketing Cloud has been transformational for Home Telecom. Our marketing team has used its powerful insights to supercharge our marketing and get results that have thrilled our team and our CEO. We’ve made significant investments to future-proof our network and have a roadmap of great services that will enhance our subscribers’ lives. With a finely tuned marketing engine to power our growth, we’re excited for the future.

Learn more about Calix Marketing Cloud—schedule a demo today.