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Sprint Relay
Business Challenge/Challenges Faced
Sprint Relay is a group within the overall Sprint corporate family. The Relay Group is a small part of the overall business with a very different audience (deaf and hard of hearing) than the overall Sprint brand. As a result, it requires totally different marketing, communications and sales approaches.
The deaf community is relatively small, so it is close knit and they know each other well. Sprint Relay needs to use the web site and their products to build a community and create connections with this audience. A key challenge with this approach is that Sprint Relay has to comply with Sprint overall brand guidelines when creating a new site, but tailor it to this specific audience's needs. They also have to coordinate launches and products with Corporate to ensure cross selling happens as is appropriate with this community.
Due to the size and complexity (scheduling, resources, etc.) of the overall Sprint organization Sprint Relay was having a hard time getting Sprint to change the main site to fit this specific audiences' needs. Sprint Relay had to come up with their own solution to be able to meet their group's business goals while staying within the corporate guidelines. They also needed to create a site that supports their other online and offline marketing activities and can be easy updated for new products and services.
Project Highlights
- Industry: Telecommunications
- Key Business Challenge: Create a separate, unique web site to build awareness within the deaf and hard of hearing communities for the Sprint Relay services that reflects and leverages the Sprint brand.
- Key Business Solution: New Web Site Architecture, Website Design and Development.
- Benefits: Now have an easy to use, customized web site designed for and dedicated to reaching the deaf and hard of hearing communities that fits within the overall Sprint corporate brand guidelines.
- Results: Increased revenue and web site traffic, enhanced relationship with the target audiences, and raised stature of Relay Services within Sprint corporate structure.
Company Overview
Sprint has 19 years of experience providing relay services to persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or have a speech disability that ensure their communication access with hearing persons on the phone. Sprint's experience in the field assures users of Sprint Relay that they will receive quality service no matter what type of Relay service they choose. Relay service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with no restrictions on the number of calls placed or call length. www.sprintrelay.com
Looking for more information?
"Elevated Third has done a tremendous job creating several websites for Sprint Relay. The Elevated Third staff have been willing to learn, step up, and go 'above and beyond' to understand Sprint Relay products and services for the deaf, hard of hearing and speech disability populations."
Kristine Shipley - Marketing Manager for Sprint Relay Group
Success Strategy
A dedicated, unique web site is a key aspect of Sprint Relay's marketing strategy to better communicate what they have to offer to the deaf and hard of hearing communities and to continue to build relationships with them. They made a decision to remove the Relay site/info from the main site as they provide Relay services and not cell phones. They need a place to showcase specific offerings in a way that is relevant and accessible to their target audience.
Kristine Shipley of Sprint Relay Group engaged Elevated Third in discussions about a new web site that would better fit the customers that would use their services. "Jeff Calderone, President of Elevated Third, knew the deaf community and culture, understands the strategy needed to approach this community," said Ms. Shipley. After careful consideration Sprint Relay chose Elevated Third for several reasons, "the firm's overall capabilities, the breadth and depth of their client portfolio, and their deaf community and web knowledge."
A key aspect of the approach E3 took was a focus on getting to know Sprint Relay and their business before the site was designed and built. They focused on important business goals and communications first, resulting in the site being driven by their target audiences' needs. It was an integrated process based on striking a balance between content, functionality and design. Collaboration was key to the relationship throughout design and development process. This collaboration is still vital to the Group's success as there are many other service vendors involved with Sprint Relay services.
Benefits/Results
The results attributed to the new site are numerous. The new site increases Sprint Relay's ability to communicate with this unique audience and contribute to its business goals while staying within and enhancing the overall Sprint corporate brand guidelines. The new site raised the stature of Sprint Relay within the Sprint corporate structure and externally as well. This has resulted in more recognition and support for the group from upper levels within Sprint, and the main Sprint site has even adopted some aspects of the Relay site.
The site directly contributes to bottom line results as well. Ms. Shipley states that combined revenue will increase 25-30% in 2009 as a result of the new site and its integration with and support of their other marketing efforts. Sprintrelay.com is a central hub for the services offered by Sprint's Relay Group. Since its launch, it has driven a significant amount of traffic to other Relay sites. Since the site launched in February 2008, it is responsible for:
- 16% of all visits to sprintrelaystore.com
- 19% of all visits to sprintvrs.com
- 7.8% of all visits to sprintcaptel.com
Web site traffic has also steadily increased. Comparing 2009 to 2008:
- Total visits up 20.36%
- Organic (all search engines) visits up 53.91%
- Paid visits (Google AdWords) increased 56.65%
Sprint Relay now has a web site that enables them to stay ahead of the needs of their market and execute fresh new marketing ideas quickly and effectively. "Elevated Third continues to help us stay on top of what is changing in marketing and what's new on the web, and incorporate these into our web sites and online marketing initiatives," says Ms. Shipley. They started with Sprintrelay.com –and such got good feedback they have moved on to creating three additional sites to address other unique audience needs.