RSCC organized an online round table on topical issues of promoting satellite Broadband services in Russia

The experts discussed the features of promoting Broadband services in various regions of Russia, including remote areas, as well as the search for the most effective communication channels with potential and existing customers.

Mikhail Glinka, RSCC Director of Department for Sales of Operator and Corporate Solutions; Andrey Romulov, Director General of Strizh LLC; Daniil Nirman, Head of Satellite Internet Direction, National Satellite Company (Tricolor); Svetlana Sirotkina, Director General of Ka-Internet JSC and Denis Stafeev, Director General of Gilat Satellite Networks (Eurasia) LLC participated in the round table. Olesya Lachugina, Marketing Director of BIA Technologies, author of a professional blog on B2B / B2C marketing, was a special guest of the webinar and made a presentation on the topic “Promoting high-tech products using classic sales channels and brand digital communications”. Olesya Lachugina presented the results of a study of the success factors of the satellite operators’ marketing strategy. She also noted that social networks are not the only method of promotion for a satellite communication service provider, and their effectiveness is questionable, and the most important thing is to keep a balance between classic sales channels and online methods.

In his speech Andrey Romulov emphasized  that the Strizh operator successfully combines TV advertising (classic channel) with targeted advertising in the main search browsers. The reason is that today the operator's main target audience is subscribers who already have Internet, but they have a weak signal and 2G coverage. Andrey also emphasized other targeted user groups - subscribers with broadband demand as a backup channel, using satellite channels for additional services (CCTV, etc.), as well as “seasonal” subscribers who connect to satellite Internet for a certain period.

Svetlana Sirotkina noted that digital sales channels are appropriate for the specifics of broadband promotion in remote regions, while Ka-Internet combines this method with a developed partner network and relies on collective access. If in 2017-2018 collective access was an unpopular solution for the segment of users with a low level of paying capacity, then in 2019-2020 the company records a multiple growth of interest from users and partners for this service.

Daniil Nirman, on the other hand, said in his speech that Tricolor is investing in the classic method of promotion - TV advertising. Now the company broadcasts commercials on more than 50 channels. Talking about segmentation by geographic distribution of users, Daniel noted three large groups of subscribers: summer residents from large cities, residents of southern regions living in the private sector and having incomes above the national average, and residents of the Far North. Logistics is also very important when selling satellite internet kits, Daniil said.

In his remark Denis Stafeev, as a representative of the equipment vendor, said  that Gilat does not cooperate with the end consumer directly, but operates exclusively in the B2B segment, where personal communication is still valuable.

The participants in the discussion thanked the RSCC for the event and noted the practical benefits of the series of online round tables “Business-Dialog. Satellite Internet." Satellite Internet.”