Implementing a Microsite Retail Strategy For a Telecommunications Giant Delivers Major Impact

When the world’s largest telecom brand needed to make a major change to their digital retail strategy, NEXT and partners helped implement a surprisingly micro solution. The NEXT team successfully built out a network of co-branded microsites with the telecom’s big-box retail partners to drive increased digital engagement and sales.

WHAT IS A MICROSITE?

A microsite is an individual web page—or a small cluster of pages—meant to function as a discrete entity within an existing website or as a complementary but separate online presence. In this case, the microsites allow the telecom company to market their internet and wireless packages to diverse customer audiences through major big-box retail partners. Each site is co-branded with the relevant partner and delivers targeted messaging and conversion opportunities. 

THE TASK

Faced with low digital sales from major retail partners, a global telecom brand needed a partner to build and maintain microsites and implement online buy flow. 

THE CHALLENGE

The digital sales strategy for internet and wireless includes partnerships with many of the largest big box retailers in the nation. Each partnership requires co-branded pages with information and marketing offers that change rapidly and need constant content updates. The big box retailers don’t have the staff available to keep up with the changes and maintain the sites. 

THE SOLUTION

NEXT got to work assembling a curated team with the right expertise, then built a robust microsite program that keeps every page properly branded and up to date with current offers. Leveraging our MarTech experts in tandem with content and operations specialists, we built a dynamic site that allows the telecom and all of their national retail partners to have a cohesive but customized digital presence. In addition, we built and manage a call center to handle the increased phone traffic and instituted seamless online ordering for all telecom services across all co-branded sites. Finally, we created media plans for joint telecom/retailer marketing campaigns, and we’re managing these campaigns on an ongoing basis. The program that began with national retailers has since extended into emerging markets, commercial operations, and Multi Dwelling Units (MDUs).

Based on the initial success of the microsite implementation, our role has expanded to include:

• Managing the relationship between the telecom company and the retail partners, setting the strategy, tactics, and direction for the digital presence. 
• Working with the digital presence of in-store telecom staff within the national retail locations.
• Building a training and contest app for telecom call centers to foster education and productive and fun competition.
• Driving the in-app experience for mobile phone customers who use the telecom’s pre-installed app. 

THE NEXT ADVANTAGE

In this situation, the global telecom needed a team that could bring a targeted focus and a specific skill set to the table. Instead of trying to find and train a collection of current or new employees, smart outsourcing was the most efficient and optimal move. NEXT was able to immediately assemble a team of experts with the experience, the expertise, and the bandwidth to execute a successful microsite program without disrupting the normal flow of business for the telecom or the national retailers. In addition to being the best in the business at their individual jobs, NEXT team members are also highly skilled at assimilating into existing teams and workflows as well as building connections between disparate groups and organizations. We were able to immediately implement a solution that worked for all parties without drawing any resources away from core business operations for either partner.

EXPANDING

Our microsite knowledge base is large and growing every day, and we continue to expand our successful strategies into new markets. NEXT is now working with additional large retailers—including the nation’s largest solar company and a major national entertainment company—to implement similar successful microsite programs. 

WHAT’S NEXT?

We look forward to leveraging the unique talents of our team to deliver flawless execution for retailers across the nation that could benefit from a microsite strategy. And microsites are just one area of expertise for our NEXT professionals—we’ve got the talent to tackle any challenge your business is facing. 

If your business could use some targeted help from a team of seasoned executives on a fractional basis, let’s talk! We’ll do a quick and painless video chat to assess your needs, hand select some great talent recommendations, and get you started on the path to world domination.

START. PROFIT. CONQUER. RINSE. REPEAT. Get going with NEXT!