“We matched their price. We’re faster on paper. We still lost forty households to a dish this spring.”
That’s what I heard from a general manager at a conference last month, and I’ve heard it echoed in multiple conversations since. In almost every case, the providers have responded to pressure from satellite internet with the same moves: they up their speeds, lower their prices, and emphasize clean installs.
And people still end up installing a new dish on their house.
Give the dish its due
Let’s start with the uncomfy bit: the customer who bought that dish made a reasonable choice.
Starlink didn’t trick anyone into a sale.They just sold something the customer wanted by solving several real problems for their subscribers: no fiber timelines, no cables, no digging, an order process that is completely streamlined, internet service that can travel with you, standby modes for when you aren’t using it and just need to keep your house running. There’s a lot to love about the product if we’re being honest.
That’s worth respecting. It also sets a clear bar that internet service providers need to overcome.
And I want to be clear. That bar doesn’t just involve better advertising.
The problem that general manager was facing wasn’t really a marketing problem. You can’t simply advertise your way out of it. Because it’s a message, product, and experience problem. Facing it requires you to reconsider what you are putting in your ads and adjusting the experience you actually have on offer in order to succeed.
But there are weak points
Pain points already have emerged for Starlink customers.
For people who chose Starlink: the world’s least favorite game, “oops, we raised your rates,” has come again. And it’s happened more than once over the past few years. Speeds get slower at night in areas where enough neighbors have signed up. If you live in a space with significant weather, you may find your internet less useful at the times you need it most. When something needs fixing, there’s no truck, no local number, no one who knows how to navigate your road.
A portion of Starlink’s customers didn’t sign up for a subscription. They wanted to solve their internet problem once and for all. What they are actually being offered is something closer to a rental on internet service from a landlord that floats around somewhere in orbit.
A meaningful difference
A satellite beam is a fixed amount of bandwidth, split between however many people are using it in your area. The more people sign up, the thinner that bandwidth is split. In contrast, most Fiber-based internet providers use new sign-ups to expand their network and capacity. The more people who sign up, the more capacity is available.
In other words, Starlink service gets slower as more people in a neighborhood use it. Fiber tends to get better. Not only because of the technology it’s built on but because of the commitment that rural internet providers have to their area.
That’s a promise you can run on. You don’t have to explain it like a physics lecture, and it’s not covered in a “local” stamp. You need to find ways to demonstrate your local difference instead.
Shift the message to better territory
Don’t lead with speed. Folks have already tried that. And the cold reality is for people who choose Starlink, speed isn’t the driver of their decisions. Besides, leading with numbers tends to just remind people to compare numbers. Which leads me to the second point. Don’t use your ads to fight on price. Your competition can afford to drop prices to get in the door. That’s not a fight worth starting. Carve out ground in a new territory. Save the numbers for when they matter.
Here’s a few directions worth testing based on work we’ve done with real clients facing competition.
- We don’t raise your rates. Focus on reliability not just in service but also in your business practice. Offer a clear, no tricks service that a person can plan (and depend) on.
- Your neighbors shouldn’t cost you speed. Good for markets where congestion is a more obvious pain point.
- Built in the ground for the long haul. Lean on permanence and the ability to outlast storms or other forms of inconvenience. Works well with local imagery.
- We can’t cancel your town. Form a strong identity with the area you serve itself. Foster loyalty by positioning your brand as the way you support the community itself. A satellite can’t do it.
Finding the right angle, the exact tone, and phrasing for this kind of work matters. Every market’s different. Pick the one that fits yours, and build from there.
Build an experience they can’t match
A line in an ad is cheap. The most effective ads are the ones that communicate practices that your competition cannot compete on. The reason an idea like “nobody raises your rate from orbit” can work is that satellite services can’t say the same thing back. They’ve raised their rates more than once since 2022. But you can only say it yourself, if you put your organization behind it.
Here are some practices that have proven effective for others:
- Put your locked rate in writing. Make an actual promise that your price won’t move. This may be more effective in some scenarios than doubling speeds.
- Consider promoting dish and wireless. For the customer with a hunting cabin that just needs enough to stream tv at night, they don’t need a fiber line. Offering a convenient, easy-to setup, service makes sense for them. Not everyone needs to be on fiber. The fact that people are choosing a satellite service shows it.
- Explore new services and features that solve real customer issues. Is the internet for a vacation home? Maybe you can offer an easy “away mode” where customers can reduce their internet to a trickle while out for a fraction of their price. Do people have small town pride? Rally a group of local businesses and provide a “community pass” that gives them discounted deals.
- Make the CX your ad. Personalize everything. A named tech who can be called. A direct line on invoices. The world’s most convenient sign-up process. Timely, specific status updates when there are outages. The experience you offer is your best ad.
Does your brand need help repositioning itself for today’s competition? We can help your team answer the call, make your outage texts sound like proof of care instead of an apology, and help you take on your next big challenge.
