• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 5, 2020

Here’s one piece of advice for email marketers who are concerned about the health of their telecom provider. 

Don’t worry.

There’s high interest online in the B2B telecom market, some of it likely driven by email campaigns, judging by B2B Trend Report Telecom, a new study by Merkle/DWA. 

There was an 84% increase month-over-month in unique companies surging on telecom topics. 

China Mobile achieved a 79% increase in interest in online content between February and April. Sprint was next, with 65%, and T-Mobile was tied for third with 56%. 

But Vodafone saw only a 47% hike. That may because a large media effort in March was followed by a “subsequent drop in promotion,” the study says.

A successful message from Mint Mobile says, “Free Unlimited Data Extended Now through 6-14-20.”

It continues: “Add as many free unlimited high-speed add-ons as you need from now through June 14, 2020.”

Need we say it -- telecoms are massive senders of email, using the medium for everything from upgrade promotions to billing and other transactional functions. And their capabilities and health directly impact brands using email.  

5G is surging as a topic for businesses, generating a 102% increase in interest overall. The firms most associated with it are Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. And COVID-19 is tied to 10% of all mentions.

However, not all the content being consumed was produced by the companies themselves. And some of the conversation is negative.

Sprint and AT&T were the leaders when it came to search, each generating a 10% increase overall during the period of the study. CenturyLink and Verizon were tied for third, each with 8% overall. EE Business had 6%, and CenturyLink Business and AT&T each pulled 5%.

The losers were T Mobile for Business, which saw a 23% slide, Vodafone with a 12% drop and Sprint Business, which had a 10% decrease. 

(Merkle doesn’t say this, but we wonder whether some people may have launched searches to see whether their telecoms were working or if their data had been leaked). 

In another sign of possible recovery, telecom solutions have seen an 11% increase in Intent. The solutions include:

• 5G — 63% 
• IOT — 49%
• Network — 2%
• Business mobile — 2%
• Security — 2%

Despite the above findings, there was a 3% falloff in intent for messaging, 7% for asset management and 10% for unified comms. And 38% of the 5G stories are negative.

“Customers are engaging in consumer driven conversation online, which is skewed negatively in April, which is a complete flip from March,” the study observes. 

For what it’s worth, however, Vodafone has overtaken Verizon and AT&T in 5G conversations related to a brand.

The study concludes: "Businesses are feeling optimistic and beginning to re-engage with digital transformation efforts."