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Jupiter Media Metrix reports this week that smaller U.S. wireless carriers are engaging customers on the Web more effectively than their larger counterparts, and are more likely to reduce customer acquisition and service costs as a result. New Jupiter wireless research reveals that Sprint PCS and Nextel convert almost three times as many Web site visitors to secure pages for transactions on their wireless services sites than the top two U.S. wireless carriers, Verizon Wireless and Cingular. According to Media Metrix ratings data, Sprint PCS and Nextel convert 66 percent and 62 percent of their visitors to secure pages, compared to just 23 percent for Verizon Wireless and 12 percent for Cingular.
"Engaging customers online has become increasingly important for wireless carriers as they seek to lower the costs of customer acquisition and retention," said Dylan Brooks, analyst, Jupiter Media Metrix. "Carriers should be growing the audience of their online channel at this early juncture in migrating customers away from costly mall and main street stores and onto the Web, yet site traffic is not growing any faster than customer counts. Wireless carriers must hone their on and offline marketing strategies in order to increase customer usage of their Web sites."
Key findings and metrics from the latest Jupiter wireless applications report, "Wireless Metrics: Reducing Customer Acquisition and Service Costs by Focusing on the Online Channel," include:
- Media Metrix ratings data show that AT&T, the third largest U.S. wireless carrier, also falls behind Sprint and Nextel by converting only 38 percent of its visitors to secure pages. Voicestream, the smallest nationwide U.S. wireless carrier (Sprint and Nextel are the fourth and fifth largest) converts 53 percent of its visitors.
- Data from AdRelevance, Jupiter Media Metrix' online ad tracking service, show that online advertising is not always effective in driving customer engagement on the Web for wireless carriers. While AT&T Wireless Services purchased almost 500 million ad impressions from February 2001 to April 2001, Sprint PCS receives more traffic and has been more effective in engaging visitors on its site with far less advertising -- just over 100 million ad impressions during that time. Both have had considerable success in driving traffic to their sites, averaging approximately 1.5 million or more unique visitors per month during that time period, while Cingular has experienced a decline in unique visitors (from 1.4 million in February 2001 to 760,000 in March 2001) despite purchasing over 100 million ad impressions.
As the companies struggle to find marketing plans that can attract distinct groups, while still maintaining the image of a global brand, their web advertising efforts clearly need to become more focused.
Josh Newman is editor of Unstrung and is remaining consistent with his strategy.
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