The ultimate guide to CDPs for telecommunications
Learn everything there is to know about CDPs in telecommunications, including global trends, key insights, use cases, how leading telecom companies are leveraging personalization, and a framework for evaluating CDP vendors.
Why are telecom companies adopting CDPs?
The telecommunication industry is incredibly competitive and complex. With 80% of revenue coming from just 20% of customers,1 customer loyalty is everything. Data is your only advantage to stand out in a sea of virtually endless options.
Industry leaders in telecom differentiate themselves with personalization
Verizon leverages over 1,500 data points per customer to personalize offers the moment someone enters a store
T-Mobile is partnering with OpenAI to create an AI Decisioning platform to deliver faster and more personalized customer experience
Comcast is using AI to unlock more targeted and granular audience opportunities for advertisers
telecom use cases
Acquisition campaigns
Drive new customer sign-ups by using demographic and usage intent data to target individuals and lookalike audiences searching for affordable mobile or internet plans, increasing subscriber growth.
Suppression campaigns
Reduce wasted ad spend by suppressing current customers from acquisition campaigns using CRM data, reallocating budget toward competitive switching campaigns to improve ROAS.
Retargeting campaigns
Re-engage users who explored plans but didn’t convert by serving dynamic ads featuring their viewed plans and limited-time discounts, recovering lost leads and driving incremental subscriptions.
Cross-sell campaigns
Increase ARPU by promoting complementary services such as streaming bundles, hotspot devices, or smart home integrations, driving premium service adoption.
Conversion APIs
Share online and offline conversion data with ad platforms, enabling algorithms to better identify and target users with a higher likelihood of converting to improve campaign performance.
Media networks
Monetize customer insights by offering anonymized audience segments to entertainment and app providers for targeted advertising, generating incremental revenue.
Upsell & cross-sell campaigns
Recommend premium services such as unlimited data plans, high-speed internet, or streaming bundles to increase ARPU and customer retention.
Reactivation campaigns
Re-engage inactive customers by offering device trade-ins, bill credits, or special discounts on returning plans.
Family plan engagement
Encourage families to consolidate lines with bundled discounts, shared data plans, or free add-ons for additional lines.
Device protection plan promotions
Advertise device insurance, extended warranties, or phone replacement programs to boost recurring service revenue.
Win-back campaigns
Offer waived activation fees, limited-time discounts, or bonus perks to encourage former customers to switch back.
Anniversary campaigns
Celebrate long-term customer loyalty with free bonus data, discounted upgrades, or bill credits.
Dynamic home page content
Display tailored plans, add-ons, or discounts based on browsing and usage behavior to increase engagement and conversion rates.
Proactive data usage alerts
Notify users about approaching data caps and recommend upgrades or data add-ons to improve satisfaction and drive incremental revenue.
Next best action
Encourage actions like enrolling in autopay, saving billing information, or exploring loyalty rewards to boost engagement and retention.
Interactive plan comparisons
Provide side-by-side comparison tools to help customers evaluate plan options and benefits, accelerating decision-making and upgrades.
Device trade-in evaluations
Offer real-time trade-in assessments for existing devices during site visits to drive engagement and increase device upgrade revenue.
Gamified loyalty milestones
Reward customers with points, badges, or tiers for activities like referrals, renewals, or on-time payments to deepen engagement and retention.
Localized 5G service notifications
Notify users when 5G or faster internet services become available in their region to increase premium service adoption.
Real-time billing transparency
Display detailed breakdowns of monthly bills, extra charges, or savings opportunities with plan changes to improve trust and reduce billing-related churn.
Upgrade & retention offers
Dynamically present tailored retention incentives, plan upgrades, or exclusive discounts based on user tenure, data usage, and browsing behavior to increase customer lifetime value and reduce churn.
What telecom companies should consider when evaluating a CDP
90%5 of marketers say their traditional CDP does not do what they need, so why do they keep buying them?
| Category | Traditional CDP | Composable CDP |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Operates as a separate entity, removed from your company’s data | Integrates directly within your company’s data infrastructure |
| Security & data storage | Data is stored and maintained in the CDP’s data infrastructure | Data is stored and maintained in your existing data infrastructure |
| Data access | Supports user and event data | Supports both online and offline data |
| Data modeling | Uses predefined models that may not fully capture usage trends or regional service preferences | Supports tailored models to handle customer usage data, billing records, and service preferences |
| Audience management | Supports broad segmentation but struggles with identifying heavy data users or multi-line account behaviors | Enables granular segmentation using data like device usage patterns, family plans, and regional preferences |
| Customer journey customization | Provides standard templates for campaigns like contract renewals or upgrade offers | Powers fully adaptable journeys for events like service plan upgrades, device trade-ins, and churn prevention |
| Identity resolution | Relies on out-of-the-box algorithms that may not unify profiles across billing systems mobile apps and call logs | Supports custom algorithms to unify profiles across devices apps and regional service providers |
| Pricing | Bundled pricing: dependent on monthly tracked users (MTUs) & feature add-ons | Unbundled: individually priced features with no MTU billing |
| Average implementation time | 6-12 months | 1-4 months |
- ArchitectureIntegrates directly within your company’s data infrastructure
- Security & data storageData is stored and maintained in your existing data infrastructure
- Data accessSupports both online and offline data
- Data modelingSupports tailored models to handle customer usage data, billing records, and service preferences
- Audience managementEnables granular segmentation using data like device usage patterns, family plans, and regional preferences
- Customer journey customizationPowers fully adaptable journeys for events like service plan upgrades, device trade-ins, and churn prevention
- Identity resolutionSupports custom algorithms to unify profiles across devices apps and regional service providers
- PricingUnbundled: individually priced features with no MTU billing
- Average implementation time1-4 months
- ArchitectureOperates as a separate entity, removed from your company’s data
- Security & data storageData is stored and maintained in the CDP’s data infrastructure
- Data accessSupports user and event data
- Data modelingUses predefined models that may not fully capture usage trends or regional service preferences
- Audience managementSupports broad segmentation but struggles with identifying heavy data users or multi-line account behaviors
- Customer journey customizationProvides standard templates for campaigns like contract renewals or upgrade offers
- Identity resolutionRelies on out-of-the-box algorithms that may not unify profiles across billing systems mobile apps and call logs
- PricingBundled pricing: dependent on monthly tracked users (MTUs) & feature add-ons
- Average implementation time6-12 months
Why Hightouch for telecom?
Your CDP vendor should mold to your data — not the other way around. Hightouch is purpose-built to handle the complexity of telecommunications.
Leverage any data point in your warehouse – not just users, accounts, and events.
Build and activate audiences directly from your warehouse.
Integrate with your existing data infrastructure on your warehouse.
Leverage any data point in your warehouse – not just users, accounts, and events.
A complete CDP for telecommunications
Members
Overlap
High-intent plan switchers
2,988 members
1,974 members
Abandoned plan upgrade process 2,988
Mobile plan price checkers 1,974
Member overlap 378 or 12.65%
Customer Data Platform resources
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