Case Study 4: Maxis Wireless Broadband
My personal thought on Maxis Wireless Broadband possible online marketing strategy (Dated 13 Dec 2010)
When I spoke with Michael Yip, Head of Sales from Maxis Broadband Business Division, he gave me a clear impression that he’s looking for a change at current Maxis Wireless Broadband sales platform. It’s easy to understand his intention to slowly switch the 99% offline sales to online sales. This is a trend you can see from number of jobs posted from corporates for Online Marketing Manager, SEO Specialist, Social Media executive, etc.
Before I go into details, let’s review current online maketing strategies of Malaysian favorite Telco for wireless broadband.
| Maxis | Digi | Celcom | |
| SEM (Paid Listing) | NA | Yes | NA |
| Microsite | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Social Media | Yes | Yes | NA |
| Email Campaign | NA | NA | NA |
| Affiliate Marketing | NA | NA | NA |
| Online Purchase System | Yes | Yes | Yes |
From above table we can see that Celcom still not or never plan for their online marketing campaign. Celcom is the 3rd largest advertiser in Malaysia (according to Nielsen report) yet they have not cover the onine piece.
Meanwhile, Maxis and Digi is having close fight in the online marketing but they both missing another piece of puzzle. The fact is (as Michael said), customers still prefer to walkin and purchase even though they have learn everything, the plan, devices, through online. (99% of Maxis Wireless Broadband sales generated from offline)
In this case, I don’t blame Malaysian shopping nature. As long as you target the right customer, you will get the sales.
Instead, I put the blame to the shopping cart system and the thought of walkin could get them more value deal or free gift.
I also put the criticize the direction of online marketing. Is the purpose of the online marketing ENCOURAGE ONLINE PURCHASE or PROMOTE OFFLINE SALES?
SEM (Paid Listing)
Search engine paid listing is 1 of the most targeted advertising campaign. Those who search for related keyword has higher probability to make the purchase. Surprisingly, I do not see any Maxis paid listing for wireless broadband related keywords.
Microsite
All 3 doing well in creating new website for their products and seems like limited to their products only. Microsite usually serve as a community website and it works perfectly when you can bring in your competitors customer to join this community. This is your chance to interact with your competitors customer.
* MyPrize from YTL Yes did a tremendous job.
Social Media
Both Maxis and Digi is doing very well in Facebook and Twitter. Both having over 100k fans.
Email Campaign
I suppose Telco are fully utilize their SMS service on sharing news and promotion but email marketing shouldn’t be left out. (I always has a doubt how efficient is the SMS marketing)
Compare to SMS, email has a larger space for content and allow immediate call to action.
Online Purchase System
To encourage the online purchase, you need to have a clear instruction on how to purchase online that customer doesn’t need to spend 5 min to browse the entire website to get the online purchase option.
Another reason customer prefer walkin because they have more choices/free gift/deals compare to current online shopping cart. The lesser the products available in the shopping cart, the lesser persuasive the shopping cart.
Improving the online purchase flow and ensure the customer the best deal is only available through online. (Works together with coupon or other promotion)
Affiliate Marketing
Commission based affiliate marketing is a piece of gem that perform MOST COST EFFICIENT online marketing (similar to the Dell campaign I’m running now). You won’t be surprise if the online sales increase significantly by introducing this online business model.
We have to face the truth that Facebook has overtake Google as the most visited website in Malaysia and the main feature of Facebook is sharing. Turn the crowd to become your sales force.
By synergize the affiliate marketing, internet users, your company fans and your employees means Victory.
We all know the competition between Telco is always fierce but I’m surpise to learn this from Nielsen, Malaysia’s Advertising Market Bounces Back With A 22% Growth In The 1st Half Of 2010. Let’s scroll down and look at the Top Advertiser in H1 2010. Wow, Celcom, Digi, Maxis and TM are all in Top 10 list. Perhaps, with the correct online marketing strategies, online sales should make a bigger impact than it does currently.
* This is just my personal thought. If you are the company/website owner and wish me to remove the content, please let me know.