Launching an MVNO in the US is not rocket science. Yes, there are many decision points along the launch path that will determine the ultimate success of your business. No, not all contracts, vendors, and platforms are built the same. However, most MVNO founders will stumble their way through the launch process and make it to their launch day. The problem is, once they get there, they haven’t given near enough thought to what happens next. My hope for newly launching MVNOs is that they can start to see launch day as the start line, not the finish line that it might feel like.
Before I provide a simple five step framework for building your go-to-market strategy, there are two foundational things that must be in place beforehand. First, your product must solve an actual problem for a specific person. As an MVNO, launching a wireless plan does not inherently solve a problem. Anyone in the US who can afford it already has a phone with a data plan. There must be a differentiated, real problem that you solve for a defined consumer profile if you want to be successful. Second, before building your go-to-market plan, you should also have a good understanding of your business model, including your margin, subscriber forecast, and the maximum customer acquisition cost that will be acceptable. If you don’t have a good understanding of your numbers, you will have no way to determine the ultimate success of your go-to-market strategy. Once you’re confident you’re solving a problem for someone and you’ve built a great business model, use these five very simple steps to create your go-to-market strategy.
STEP 1 – “WHAT” will you take to market?
First, you’ll need to clearly define your product, including the mobile functionality that will be included and any non-telco features that your customers will be able to access. Then, you’ll need to define your offer: What price point makes sense for each plan, and will you offer discounts or bundles to make it more attractive? You’ll need to ensure you have messaging about your offer that explicitly addresses the customer’s problem. This will be different depending on your niche, but it requires that you understand what matters to your target customer and the type of offer that would be interesting to them.
STEP 2 – “HOW” will you take it to market?
Next, it’s time to think about your delivery. Identify the channels that make most sense for your product and target audience. These channels may include retail, door-to-door, events, affiliate, dealer, paid search, organic or paid social, influencer, email, or PR. As a best practice, pick 2-3 of these to master at the start to keep your launch manageable. Within each of these channels, you’ll need to define the customer onboarding experience. How will the consumer access and activate your service? Map out their journey and carefully consider those points when wireless subscribers face the most friction in their onboarding, such as when they need to make device decisions, number porting, and setting up family plans.
STEP 3 – “Where” will you take it to market?
As an MVNO, you could launch nationwide on Day 1. In my opinion, that’s both a blessing and a curse. At the end of the day, building a go-to-market strategy is guesswork. Hopefully you are armed with some solid market research on your target audience, but it’s still an experiment. Instead of taking a gamble on your strategy nationwide, pick a pilot market that makes sense for your brand. This allows you to try and test without breaking the bank in your first 6 months. As a bonus, choosing a smaller market gives customers a chance to interact with your brand in multiple channels, which means more impressions and takes your marketing dollars farther.
STEP 4 – “WHO” will take your product to market?
Now that you have your channels defined, think about who you need to stand up your sales operations. This will vary greatly depending on the channels you have chosen. For in-person models such as retail, door-to-door, and events, you’ll need to consider aspects such as recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, commissions, incentives, and performance tracking. For digital models such as paid search, organic or paid social, influencer, and email, you’ll need to consider whether you will hire in-house for campaign management or whether you will contract with an agency. Depending on your budget and forecast both can be good options.
STEP 5 – DEPLOY & ANALYZE
Last but not least, it’s time to roll out your plan and analyze its performance. How will you define success and what metrics will you focus on? Having participated in a decent number of launches, my advice is to assume that you will need to deploy, analyze, iterate, and repeat a few times before you reach your desired customer acquisition cost. Be financially prepared that you may need to try your pilot a few different times before expanding to other markets.
This go-to-market framework is simple but crucial to the success of your MVNO. As you make plans for your business, it is never too soon to begin developing your strategy to acquire customers. The wireless market in the US is crowded and competitive, and no matter how strong your back-end systems, your business will not be successful unless you can build a robust subscriber base.
Guest Blogs are written by carefully selected Experts. If you also want to create a Guest blog then Contact us.