Nominum has launched a new suite of marketing and customer care apps that leverages DNS as an analytics tool to turn web browsers into customer engagement platforms.
The N2 Applications suite – which was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday – includes apps that focus on customer engagement, personalized internet experiences and promotion of upsell/cross-sell offers by examining DNS traffic.
Sanjay Kapoor, Nominum’s SVP Strategy and CMO, says that DNS is an underutilized analytics resource that CSPs can use for marketing and customer care.
“We can use DNS to stitch together a subscriber’s queries online. Say he goes to an OTT site like Netflix over a five-ten minute period – I can conclude from that that he’s interested in watching streaming movies, and operators can use that to upsell video on demand,” Kapoor told telecomasia.net. “Or if I’m a cable TV operator and I can see from online behavior that someone’s a science enthusiast, I could upsell him a science-channel package.”
A key feature of N2 Applications is that it allows CSPs to utilize DNS to engage with customers proactively via in-browser messaging. For instance, cellcos offering free public Wi-Fi as an offload strategy can use N2 Applications to boost ARPU with targeted offers and advertising via in-browser messages and videos to Wi-Fi customers. In-browser messages could also be used for things like promoting network maintenance schedules or send billing reminders.
In-browser messaging is also a cost-effective marketing tool for telcos, Kapoor says. “CSPs spend more than $150 billion annually in marketing and customer care. Traditional marketing channels like direct marketing, telemarketing, email and SMS are expensive, hard to measure, and not very interactive. In-browser messaging lets them reach and interact with customers, at minimal cost, in real-time. And that gives marketing teams comprehensive real-time metrics to enhance campaigns and deliver a more efficient marketing communications channel.”