An exciting and fast paced digital marketing revolution is unfurling right now across the entire North American telecommunications industry. As American and Canadian telecommunications brands, incumbents and new entrants alike, compete vigorously to connect North Americans to high speed fiber and broadband. In this high stakes game, both in urban and, increasingly, in rural areas, the winners will be those who are the most agile and effective with their marketing and best able to reach, convince, convert and retain new customers.
There probably hasn’t been such a game changing moment in the telecommunications industry since the introduction of 3G mobile services some two decades ago, as the industry switches to fiber and, increasingly, fiber to the home (FTTH). With the commercial opportunity driven by ever increasing consumer demands for faster and more reliable broadband to accommodate increased working from home (WFH), OTT streaming services like Netflix and Disney+, and gamers needs for not just high symmetric speed but low latency, telecommunications service providers have to up their marketing game or risk being left behind.
And it’s not a surprise that, given the huge Capex required to lay fiber networks and improve rural broadband, even with government subsidies to ensure rural areas are not left behind, that telecommunications brands have turned to one of the most effective tried and tested customer acquisition strategies: referral marketing. The tactic that not only helped the global behemoths we all esteem and admire like Uber, Tesla, Slack and Airbnb grow exponentially, but one that’s been consistently and successfully deployed across the entire telecommunications industry from mobile to broadband, and across B2C and B2B.
And the value of referred-in customers has been underlined by new research from Rachel Gershon of UC San Diego and Zhenling Jiang of the University of Pennsylvania, which analyzed the anonymized data of 41.2 million customers of a large US mobile brand over a ten year period, finding that referred-in customers were 32% more valuable based on their increased spending alone, and when that if we don’t take into account that those referred-in customers are themselves more likely to refer new customers, we risk undervaluing them by one third. Added to that Buyapowa’s own research found that eight out of ten respondents said that they expected to be able to refer their favorite brands and 95% had referred at least one person to a brand in the past year.
But these programs are not mere tactics rather instead a transformation of customers into allies, wielding their personal networks of friends, family and followers as powerful tools to attract new subscribers for fiber and broadband services at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing channels.
Let’s illustrate just how dynamic this trend is with some examples, with referral programs being the heroes in each narrative:
Referral heroes in the United States
Cox Communications currently offers a US$25 prepaid Mastercard for each qualifying service that a referred-in friend signs up for, up to US$125 per referral with a maximum of US$600 in any year.
Comcast’s Xfinity’s referral program ended on the 10th November 2023, with a new program planned for 2024, but as you can see on the link, referrers could earn up to US$175 for a qualifying referral and up to US$500 in any calendar year. The rewards were paid out with a prepaid Visa card and could be earned for referrals to Xfinity TV with X1, Xfinity Internet, Xfinity Voice or Xfinity Home.
AT&T fiber only allows existing customers who have an existing AT&T Fiber (300M or higher plan) OR AT&T Wireless Postpaid account in good standing to refer, but offers bill credits for successful referrals once the referred-in friend has activated/installed the service. Unlike Cox and Xfinity, they don’t apply any limit to the number of referrals a customer can make in a year.
Google’s GFiber also operates a referral program where both the referrer and referred-in friend get a free month of service for each successful referral once the friend signs up. The free month is applied as a bill credit.
Frontier Communications at the time of writing offers a very generous promotional reward until the end of November 2023 with rewards for the referrer starting at a US$250 Virtual Mastercard for each successful referral up to the first three referrals, and paying out US$325 for each referral from the sixth referred-in friend onwards. The referred-in friend also receives a US$50 Virtual Mastercard. While there appears to be no limit on the number of referrals, earnings of more than US$599 will be reported to the IRS.
Verizon Fios offers bill credits of up to US$15 a month for a year for the referrer and the friend, applied after the referred-in friend has signed up and remains in good standing for 30 days. Each customer can refer up to ten times and can save up to US$1,800 a year.
Windstream offers a US$100 Kinetic Reward Prepaid Mastercard for every successful referral with no limit to the number of friends a customer can refer. While there’s no mention of a reward for the friend, there’s a nice video explanation on the site.
Astound Broadband offers a US$75 bill credit for each friend referred up to a limit of US$1,200 a year for any Astound Broadband.
Ziply Fiber allows customers who enter their Ziply Fiber account number to refer friends and family offering US$50 for each successful referral.
TDS Telecom offers up to US$75 in bill credits for each friend referred-in, with US$25 being applied for each service the friend signs up for. The program is limited to TDS customers in TDS serving areas and the maximum that can be earned in one year is US$450 in any year.
Optimum from Altice USA offers a US$50 bill credit for each residential customer referred and a US$200 bill credit for each business customer referred. The referral program is quite simple and requests the referrer to enter the details of the friend in a form.
Referral heroes in Canada
Not to be outdone, north of the border, Canada’s leading telecommunications players are also leveraging the raw power of referral marketing to drive customer acquisition.
Telus lets referrers earn bill credits of C$50 up to C$300 a year for every successful TELUS Internet, TV, SmartHome Security, Home Phone, Smart Hub, or Mobility referral.
Bell Canada’s referral program provides C$50 bill credits for the referrer and the friend, being C$5 each month for 10 ten months for each successful referral to Bell up to a maximum of C$300 in any 10 month period.
Videotron’s Fizz runs a referral program that offers C$25 in bill credits for both the referrer and the friend for each referral.
In Summary
Each of these companies, with their referral programs, are not just scripting a growth story; they are building an epic community of brand fans and fostering loyalty, where every subscriber is not just a number but a central character in the ongoing narrative of digital connectivity. If your enterprise is scripting its own chapter in this grand saga and you believe your referral program deserves acclaim, we welcome your voice in this chorus of innovation. Reach out, and let’s share your part of this digital narrative with the world.