Broadband is not catering for business needs

The need to combat consumer confusion over broadband services (MW September 9) should encourage broadband providers to also re-evaluate their business-to-business marketing activity. While consumers seem enamoured with price, broadband providers need to be much more intelligent in their chosen messages to business customers.

The business audience is extremely diverse, and different companies will have very different needs from broadband services. While a design agency may need a large bandwidth to allow them to download creative files, a large office may need multiple access for all of its employees.

But a “broad-brush approach” in marketing-to-business broadband means providers fail to personalise their marketing messages to customers’ needs.

To truly realise the potential of the business market, broadband suppliers need to specialise their marketing activity to combat each organisation’s specific needs. Companies can be targeted with direct mail alongside broader advertising, which has been personalised to convey the benefits of the broadband service that would most suit them.

And by utilising commercially available data sources, such as Royal Mail’s Business Changes File, broadband providers can identify business customers that have moved to new offices or that have just started up, and are therefore more likely to be looking to engage a broadband service.

Consumers continue to sign up to broadband in droves, but the “broadband revolution” for businesses will come through educating them as to the medium’s true potential, with personalised and targeted communication reflecting needs on an individual level.

Richard Roche,

Head of multi-channel retail and media markets

Royal Mail

London EC1

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