At a Glance
To make good on the unique capabilities of digital marketing, including personalized messaging, dynamic creative, and testing and optimization, companies need to rethink their marketing teams, processes, systems, and tools. Using a step-by-step approach to digital marketing transformation, Said Differently has helped UScellular, the fourth-largest full-service wireless carrier in the United States, reimagine its digital advertising and email marketing programs to reduce costs, increase speed to market, improve customer engagement, and uncover data-driven insights that can benefit the entire business.
Insights:
→A digital-first approach to building teams and processes enables organizations to better leverage personalization and continuous testing to improve customer engagement.
→ By removing the layers and overhead often found in traditional agency team structures, companies can streamline costs and increase speed to market.
→ Localized messaging at scale is possible with the right processes, systems, and templates.
→ Creating a culture of data, in which data and insights are freely shared across marketing teams as well as other areas of the organization, improves campaign performance, strengthens customer relationships, and enhances customer understanding.
A lean, aligned team drives efficiency and speed
UScellular is a leading wireless carrier with strong local ties. The fast-growing telecom company is committed to helping customers improve their relationship with technology and connect to what matters most. To build the brand, decrease churn, drive upgrades, and increase customer acquisition, UScellular sought to roll out a more data-driven approach to digital marketing. With this in mind, the company brought on Said Differently as its new digital agency of record (digital AOR) in Q4 2021.
In early 2022, UScellular CMO Eric Jagher underlined two additional goals: increasing content production and enabling digital teams to move faster. Said Differently rolled out a plan for creating more content at scale and reducing a 12-week campaign process to seven. We also implemented the teams, processes, and tools needed to test and optimize creative at scale and deliver personalized messages across display and email.
“We knew transforming UScellular’s fundamental approach to digital marketing would have to happen over time. We created a tiered approach to modernizing the organization that began with team design,” explains Dave Foster, principal, Said Differently.
“Once the right team was in place, we built a system for digital templates, revamped processes and tools, and rolled out an approach for scaling content and creating more personalized, trigger-based messages. Throughout the process, we emphasized data-sharing and communication to help Jagher build a data-first culture.”
By introducing a nimble team structure with a strong project management core, removing layers, reducing overhead, and aligning creative resources more closely with performance marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) tasks, Said Differently reduced costs for UScellular by 30% year one.
The team included a production design studio that could deliver assets for display, paid, social, native, email, SMS/MMS, and digital retail. To guide the studio, Said Differently brought on two creative leads, each with deep experience in performance and CRM strategy and execution. We also enlisted Dynamic Content Optimization (DCO) experts tasked with continually improving processes and performance and a small Analytics team to identify optimization opportunities and share data insights.
When needed, Said Differently engages additional, specialized roles, from comms planners and content strategists, to motion graphic artists, but only as needed to support the account. This approach keeps costs down, streamlines processes, and ensures high-caliber work.
Innovation at a glance:
