The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch.
The following podcast is a discussion with Eddie Andrews, Principal & CMO, and Robert Gilbert, Principal & COO. The topics we focus on deal specifically with marketing for rural tier two and tier three providers.
Craig Corbin:
Welcome to the Broadband Bunch, a podcast about broadband and how it impacts all of us. Join us to learn about the state of the industry and the latest innovations and trends. Connect with the thought leaders, pioneers, and policymakers helping to shape your future through broadband. Join us on Facebook at the Broadband Bunch and see the latest episodes, news, and photos. The Broadband Bunch is always sponsored by ETI Software.
Craig Corbin:
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Broadband Bunch. Along with my colleague, Kaleigh Cox, vice president of business development and content operations for DxTEL. I’m Craig Corbin. Thanks so much for joining us. As broadband service providers all across the country look to navigate the waters of a constantly changing industry, having access to the sage advice and expertise of those who can assist in charting the right course is invaluable. Our guests today are using their combined decades of experience in telecom marketing and communications to provide rural cooperatives, utilities, and independent telecommunication companies with enterprise-level data intelligence, consulting, and fully managed marketing programs for fiber expansion, churn mitigation, and gigabit marketing. It is a pleasure to introduce the founders of DxTEL Eddie Andrews and Robert Gilbert. Eddie, Robert, welcome to the Broadband Bunch.
Eddie Andrews:
Great to be here, Craig. Thank you.
Robert Gilbert:
Thanks, Craig.
Craig Corbin:
A quick thank you to the DxTEL as one of our presenting sponsors of the Broadband Bunch, and what a great opportunity to be able to learn more about your organization. Kelly, also a huge thanks to you for being a very frequent co-host of the podcast. Before we get started with that, Kelly, how’s it been for you to have joined the Broadband Bunch?
Kaleigh Cox:
It is really exciting and a lot of fun. I’ve always wanted to learn about podcasting, and this has been a great way to do that, being around people with a lot of experience in it, you are certainly a great host to learn from. And then I have been in this industry for only a couple of years, which isn’t all that long. And so getting to interview different people in the industry is just a very fun way to learn and I’m happy to be here.
Craig Corbin:
As always, we like to cover as much as we can in roughly half an hour. We’ll launch right in with a normal starting point, and gentlemen without question, DxTEL making a tremendous positive impact in the industry, but I’m always curious about how organizations got their start, the genesis of DxTEL, and Eddie will pose that first to you, sir.
Eddie Andrews:
Robert and I had worked together many years ago down on Hilton Head Island for a company called Hargray. We parted ways some time ago and reunited, I was doing a consulting gig for a company called WCFIBRE in the upstate of South Carolina. And in the process of doing consulting work for this company, I brought in Robert, Robert had gone off and was doing his own thing from a data mining and data enrichment perspective. We brought Robert in to help us with some data analysis for an expansion project. As we were doing that work, the CEO of WCFIBRE, a gentleman named Jeff Wilson said, if you and Robert could ever figure out how to monetize what Robert is doing for us, that would be an interesting business model to take to the rural cooperative space, because I think you could really help other providers that are in the expansion mode. And from that, the business was born. It’s that simple.
Craig Corbin:
It’s always interesting Robert to how when something gets off and running, you begin seeing so many more opportunities than what you initially thought might be the case. What’s your perspective on that?
Robert Gilbert:
I think one huge advantage for Eddie and me when we got into this, is we had a plan, we had obviously a lot of experience with data analysis and digital marketing and consulting, but every time we talked to a new prospect, or new client, we were really hearing from the front lines exactly what the needs were in the industry. And that, I think we made a conscious decision early on with our company to stay very nimble, very athletic in terms of adapting and being able to fill those gaps where we were hearing there were needs. It very quickly took us from a consulting marketing services company really into more of a company that’s evolved into developing products and platforms and programs to help across the entire spectrum of helping these local or community-based fiber providers compete with the national providers in their market.
Kaleigh Cox:
Robert, I’d love to hear more about what you’ve seen in working with smaller and mid-sized providers. I know that in a lot of ways the deck is stacked against them when they’re against national brands with household names. What are some of those challenges you see those little guys in the industry face, and what are some ways that DxTEL you’ve helped them overcome that?
Robert Gilbert:
I think the first thing we recognized was really just the need for resources, for content, for creative materials, just on a basic level, be it content for blog articles and newsletters, educational content, to creative to use across digital marketing and direct mail. And so we saw that need where we had a few clients who worked with large agencies, but increasingly we saw smaller providers who didn’t have the in-house resources and didn’t really have the budgets to work with larger agencies. So from that need, we created Harper, which is our BROADBAND MARKETING LIBRARY. And from the early days when it was mostly just articles and campaigns to now where we have 15-second video spots that are customizable and explainer videos, I think that’s really the first area we recognized.
Robert Gilbert:
And then secondly, what we’ve seen increasingly is just from a digital marketing perspective the deck is so stacked against the local providers. If somebody goes online to search for a high-speed internet provider they’re going to get pointed in the direction of the national provider, or a satellite provider nine times out of 10, be it search ads, or affiliate sites, or just organic results. We’ve really taken it upon ourselves to help our clients and develop products and programs to help them compete in the digital space because it is so crucial these days to be able to reach people on all their devices.
Kaleigh Cox:
In working with you I have found it interesting and unique that in this industry the small companies aren’t competing against the other small companies. And so there can really be a much more cooperative spirit among rural broadband providers, and I’ve seen with the platforms and the services you have been dreaming up assume you making it possible for them to do that without having to take the initiative to necessarily reach out and network and find people like them and ask the right questions. One way I’ve seen that is with Harper, the first thing you mentioned, the BROADBAND MARKETING LIBRARY, and just a few examples that come to mind. There was PMT in Idaho, they asked us to do that school resource guide when everybody was trying to go back to school in the middle of the pandemic and had a lot of questions, and we created that for them and then put it in Harper for other ISPs to use with their local school districts. And I think that just won an NTCA marketing board, which is really exciting.
Kaleigh Cox:
And then also just ideas for campaigns. One of our, I can’t remember now who it was, but one of our providers said, we’re new in this market and everyone thinks our speed tiers are data caps. And so we did the no data caps campaign and made that available to other ISPs. Someone else came to us and said, our big-name competitors are raising prices and we haven’t done that in 10 years. And so we made a campaign around that and put that in Harper for everyone. So I think it’s really neat and unique that our industry gets to come together and tackle these problems as a group and really brainstorm whether it’s big ideas and solutions, or specific marketing messages, and then share the wealth. It’s been really neat to see.
Robert Gilbert:
It really has, and the industry as a whole, obviously all of you, anybody involved knows that the cooperative spirit that really permeates the whole industry. And another great example is we work with several electric cooperatives in Mississippi who are in early days of launching their fiber product. And they have been great to work with because they’re all friends, they all talk, and on a daily basis, I’ll get a text from a client that says, hey, I saw, so-and-so has this great new billboard. Can you do something like that for us? So it’s just this, again, just cooperative approach that is really encouraging and really helps everyone.
Craig Corbin:
I echo that so much. And Kaleigh, thanks for bringing that up because I have long felt that the small cooperatives are very uniquely positioned to most capably, most nimbly, help bridge the digital divide, connect those that are not connected, but to do so most effectively because of just what you talked about guys with regard to that mentality that is inherent with a cooperative, the servant’s mentality you are in meshed in the community. I’m curious from your perspectives what it’s like working with cooperatives that bring that approach to the industry versus the much larger providers that are not necessarily as invested in many cases to the areas, the communities that they serve? Eddie, let’s start with you.
Eddie Andrews:
When you look at the cooperative, whether it be a telephone cooperative, or an electric cooperative, the general manager, or CEO, and his, or her staff in that community that they serve, are held in such high regard within those communities. They oftentimes have leadership positions in the community outside the general responsibilities of the company. They sit on various boards, whether those be boards of education, or boards at the local bank, hospital, so on and so forth. So when you think about the role that these individuals have in their companies, and then in their communities, it really feeds this notion that Robert and Kayleigh were talking about with regards to the cooperative spirit. And so when we work with cooperatives and we build products or solutions for them, or we help them with a strategy, for me we’re doing more than that. We’re helping to make a difference in that community in partnership with the cooperative we’re working with. So it’s an incredibly rewarding and meaningful business approach that we take to help these companies.
Craig Corbin:
To me that’s the ultimate winning solution when you can, A, enjoy what you do and make a positive difference in the communities that are being served, that is a winning combination. And it’s interesting to get different perspectives on that particular conversation. Now, you’re listening to the Broadband Bunch. And we are so pleased to be joined by one of our presenting sponsors, DxTEL, the creators of the HARPER BROADBAND MARKETING LIBRARY. We’re visiting with Eddie Andrews, Robert Gilbert, and I have the luxury of having as cohost, the vice president of business development and content operations, Kelly Cox, as my sidekick. And Kelly, I’m going to put you on the spot now, you get to ask the questions when you are on here as the co-host, but I have to take advantage of the chance to ask a question of you today. And I’m always interested about what draws people to the industry and not having with Eddie and Robert decades of experience in these industries, I’m curious, how did you wind up with DxTEL? What was interesting to you?
Kaleigh Cox:
Well, before Robert met me, which happened through our local co-working community here in Columbia, South Carolina, I was freelancing as a copywriter, mostly with website copy for all sorts of different industries, and learned a lot of cool things, serve some meaningful industries, but when Robert brought me in I didn’t know anything about rural broadband. I’m from a rural community and my parents need better internet, so I got it pretty quickly, but that was my first introduction to it. And shortly after he hired me someone else in our co-working community hired me to write a broadband community champion training program for South Carolina to train community leaders in the basics of broadband, which really gave me an introductory education. I think what excites me and drew me to this, and it did not take long before I quit freelancing for other industries and focused solely on our industry. And it just feels like it’s an exciting time to be alive.
Kaleigh Cox:
This doesn’t happen often where there needs to be an infrastructure built from the ground up across the entire country and quickly. We’ve seen it with telephone, we’ve seen it with electricity, that’s where a lot of these cooperatives started, but to be alive in a time where we are solving a problem this big that changes lives, changes lifestyles, changes communities, I think we’ll see that the rise and fall of communities over the next 10, 20 years is going to really revolve around who has adequate internet to attract businesses, attract residents. And that’s exciting, meaningful work. So, that’s what drew me in and has kept me here.
Craig Corbin:
It’s interesting that you mentioned that because part of the equation for so many of these rural communities is just exactly that, it’s not a matter of connectivity as a luxury, it is viability for the future, their ability to exist in the long-term. And part of being able to serve adequately your communities is being able to make sure that there is adequate digital literacy in place when connectivity is provided. And I’m curious, Robert, from your perspective, what is being done from the standpoint of DxTEL to assist those you work with within that regard?
Robert Gilbert:
And that’s a great point about the viability of communities. I think that’s what it’s all about. That was really, I mentioned the genesis of the Harper library, it started with that content, the idea was we need to provide our partners with content that they can use to educate the community, or educate their subscribers and prospects, not only about, hey, fiber internet is great, or you need high-speed internet, but touching on smart devices that help keep seniors safe in the home, or, hey, these are great online resources over the summer for your child to keep learning while they’re out of school.
Robert Gilbert:
So, it’s just, there are so many tentacles that come off high-speed internet and so many ways that it touches lives today that when we started out I had a fair amount of trouble, that’s when I first started working with Kelly, is she was helping me write some of the articles. And it would take a couple of hours to come up with four or five topics for the next month. And now it’s, we have a backlog list of, there’s no shortage of ideas just because it’s so important and just so far-reaching into everyday lives.
Craig Corbin:
And I think to a point that was mentioned earlier in the conversation, the sense of being able to share among all the different members of the cooperatives nationwide, that’s something that is, I won’t say unique to the industry, but it is refreshing to see it. I’m curious, Kaleigh, from your perspective, how that impacts your work. Your thoughts.
Kaleigh Cox:
Well, for one thing, it makes my work a little bit easier because, like Robert said, we were dreaming things up on our own in the beginning, dreaming up the topics. And as the company has grown, and as we’ve connected with more and more providers, they’re bringing us the ideas, they’re bringing us the topics, and we’re solving problems together. And so that’s definitely affected my role and I’m always learning. There are still new problems popping up for us to solve, obviously since I started with DxTEL the pandemic hit, the need for broadband, was already on the rise, but it became a headline, it became something that was talked about on Capitol Hill, people were listening, people were paying attention.
Kaleigh Cox:
And that’s something interesting I’d also like to touch on is, in the last year, year and a half, there’s been all of this new funding, all of this new conversation, because of that we’re seeing so many expansions, new companies, especially electrics getting into the space. Eddie, I’m curious from your perspective, you’ve been in the industry longer than me, how has that affected what you have been bringing to clients in the last year or so?
Eddie Andrews:
The change in the industry and the amount of funding and the attention being paid to this is completely different and revolutionizing the industry in real-time. So when you and Robert and I talk about solutions for our clients, when we think about the things that they need the most, one of the things that are happening is it’s happening so quickly and there’s such a rush to get expansion in the works, meaning from an engineering and planning perspective, all the way through deployment to the end-user.
Eddie Andrews:
I think about our company and what we’re doing, and we’ve had to, we’ve always had a sense of urgency, but in the last 12 to 18 months, we’ve even had to increase our sense of urgency, and be more responsive and more energetic, I guess, for lack of a better word in terms of how we’re dealing with clients, because they’re really up against it. For many of them, they have competition, Robert touched on that earlier, but they also just have a real sense of urgency. They get fiber in the ground and get these expansions done because the world has changed so dramatically in the last 12 to 14 months.
Craig Corbin:
Eddie, that you mentioned that because not only is there a tremendous onus placed on anyone who is dealing with grants or loans to get the job started and completed, but we’re talking about a very complex undertaking. And I’m curious about, from your vantage point, what it’s like in dealing with many of those that you work with when they realize just how expensive it is to go into an undertaking of this type. Your thoughts there.
Eddie Andrews:
It’s both expansive and expensive, right? And so, one of the things that I focus on for DxTEL clients is looking at the project from start to finish. So I’m not an engineer, I don’t put on an engineer’s hat, I don’t fake being an engineer, but from an engineering perspective, I’ll look at the plan, I’ll be very familiar with the project and how it’s going to be built out. From there I help build a strategy for deployment, meaning from a marketing and strategic tactic perspective I help them plan out the stages of the approach to acquiring new customers in the market as they go from one quadrant in the community to another, and so on and so forth. So I think about things, to get a little bit technical, I’ll look at a project build and I’ll think about it from an OLT perspective and then the FDHs that are hanging off of those various OLTs. And I’ll build a marketing plan around the equipment being deployed and when, and where it’s going to be actually placed. So, it’s pretty hands-on, Craig, and it’s pretty detailed as far as my approach.
Craig Corbin:
Excellent.
Kaleigh Cox:
Robert, whenever he was talking it reminds me that not only are electrics new to broadband, but many of them are new to marketing when you’re the utility, the electric provider in a community, there’s a lot of community engagement for sure, but not too much traditional marketing use. So what has it been like talking to people at these electrics and introducing them to the world of marketing?
Robert Gilbert:
Yeah, absolutely. They’re entering a space where suddenly there’s competition, which I think at first it’s incredibly overwhelming for them, and I think a key role, in addition to supporting them and their efforts and giving them a playbook on how to launch a product, I think a big role that we play, and it’s not only with the electric cooperatives, but the telephone cooperatives also, is almost like a cheerleader and constantly reminding them that, hey, you have got one of the hottest products on the market. I think of it as, you have the traditional telephone cooperatives, or electric cooperatives, who have been in that community for decades and decades. Younger people think of, oh, my grandmothers had so-and-so telephone service from the cooperative forever, and they think of the phone book and things like that, but suddenly they have, it’s as if Blackberry suddenly announced the hottest product on the market that trumps an Apple product, right?
Robert Gilbert:
They have this thing that everybody wants that is far better than what the nation’s splashy brands can provide. So I think a big role for us is reminding them of that and constantly urging them to get out there and tell their story, get it in front of people and let them know how great fiber is, how much better it is to work with a local company, and how much better the experience in terms of customer service is going to be. So I think that’s one thing that we’re just constantly doing, and Kelly I know you can relate to that is just reminding them that you need to be out there, because honestly in our mind all of our clients should have close to a hundred percent share of the market. And we look at it and it’s like, well, you have a better product, you have better customer service, and you’re local. And so we really take that approach of it’s just a matter of making sure everyone hears that message. So, anyway, sorry I think I went off on a tangent there. Maybe didn’t answer your question totally.
Kaleigh Cox:
No, actually I’m really glad you went there because it is so easy to look at what we don’t have as if you’re a small company, a midsize company, it’s so easy to think, I don’t have the big budget. I don’t have the door-to-door salesperson. I don’t have household name recognition and my competitors do, but that puts them at trying to make up for a lesser product with all of those things much of the time. And so it is really nice and exciting to remember that the little guy has the better product here. And so if we can just put a plan in place for getting the message out there, the message sells itself, the product sells itself, and that should be encouraging to the provider, the marketer at a small provider who feels overwhelmed by the competitor, that at the end of the day if you can just get the truth out there consistently again and again and again on different platforms, really the sky’s the limit.
Craig Corbin:
Well, the beauty of what you just shared there, Kaleigh, is exactly what we have seen time and time again nationwide. And that is, to Robert’s earlier point, the fact that there is such a premium placed on customer service. True dedication to the market being served, that it is the ultimate win-win situation. And the key is that the customers are getting what they need and desperately need. And so happy to see what DxTEL is doing to assist so many in so many areas across the country.
Craig Corbin:
We have just had a chance to even scratch the surface of the portfolio that DxTEL brings to market. And gentlemen, I would certainly ask the opportunity to visit again with you in the very near future to look at what I know is a growing portfolio of services to your clients and customers everywhere, but before we wrap up the conversation we have what we refer to as the back to the future question, and it’s a chance for both of you to hop into the DeLorean, take yourself back X number of years, whisper something in your own ears that might change the trajectory of the timeline, or focus perhaps of the efforts underway there. And Eddie let’s start with you.
Eddie Andrews:
I’m a naturally reflective person, so this is a great question. And I think what, if I could go back in time to the beginning of the formation of DxTEL, the first thing I would do is hire a Kaleigh on day one. So that’s an easy adjustment, she came a little bit later, but day one, Kelly. Day 1.5, I think that Robert and I overestimated some of the functionalities that our clients possessed on prim, meaning I think that we thought there would be more basic marketing available via resources and that sort of thing. And after the fact, what we learned was that many small cooperatives, whether electric or telephone, they’re resource-constrained. And so they have to focus on the most important things. And so I think going back in time, I think that Robert and I would be more comprehensive from the get-go. We are very comprehensive now, but in the early dawn we focused on data type products, data enrichment products, and if we can do it all over again we would probably offer more traditional marketing and advertising types of services from day one.
Craig Corbin:
Interesting. Robert, same question for you.
Robert Gilbert:
Yeah. Oh, I second the part about Kaleigh.
Kaleigh Cox:
I did not pay them to say this.
Robert Gilbert:
I think for me it was the, what I’ve learned in the past year focused more on the digital space, and I think it’s because my background is in digital marketing, is just understanding the, again, how the deck is stacked. And I wish I, from the beginning, understood the challenges that a lot of our clients have when they try to market in the digital space. It’s when you’re marketing to 2000 homes it’s very hard to get scale, it’s not the same as a national brand marketing to millions of people. So having understood that earlier, I think it would have been easier to build a little bit more focused products and services to help them compete on a local digital marketing level.
Craig Corbin:
No doubt. No doubt. The flip side of looking back is to look forward. And I will pose the looking forward, pulling out the crystal ball question to all three of you, and we’ll go in reverse order. And Kelly, I’m going to put you on the spot and start with you. If you can look down the line, what do you see as the opportunities that DxTEL will have moving forward?
Kaleigh Cox:
Well, without giving too much away, Robert has, since I started working with him, always been spotting problems, creating solutions, spotting problems, creating solutions, across the industry, and that has even spilled over, he also has some experience in the real estate industry. So he was simultaneously spotting problems, thinking of solutions for both industries. Well, now we see those industries bumping up against each other, both there’s a lot of real estates, a lot of action in the real estate market right now, a lot of change in what people are prioritizing, and a lot of that relates to the internet being able to work remotely needing internet. And so I feel like we’re at this really exciting crest where all of these different ideas that I’ve heard Robert dream up, or even seen him put into place are starting to connect. And I just think we’re on the precipice of something big, and it’s really exciting.
Craig Corbin:
I like that. Robert to you.
Robert Gilbert:
Yeah. I think one big thing we’re looking at is competition is only going to get stiffer.
Craig Corbin:
No doubt.
Robert Gilbert:
I think it’s, which would have sounded ridiculous several years ago, but I think it is entirely possible that there are going to be areas of the country that have a local fiber provider and a national fiber provider. And they’re going to have a choice.
Craig Corbin:
The ultimate overbuild.
Robert Gilbert:
Exactly. Again, which would have sounded crazy just even two years ago. So just looking at that, I think where I view DxTEL going in the future is, beyond marketing products and services and platforms, is really starting to create applications that we can provide to our partners that will help them really enhance the value of their fiber service, not only to the end-user, but to the community, be it around telehealth or at-home learning, but just keep to help them continue to beat that drum of product and local. So I think that’s where I see our focus going in the future.
Craig Corbin:
Excellent. And Eddie, we’ll pass the crystal ball to you, sir.
Eddie Andrews:
I think that Kelly touched on spotting problems, finding solutions, and to tie it all together, I see in the future for DxTEL putting together, or putting in place, for example, artificial intelligence into some of our products that help our clients do exactly what Robert just described they’ll need to do, and exactly what Kelly said they need to do. So, as competition increases and the demand is greater and greater, our clients at the cooperative, or the rural independent, are going to need to market smarter, more efficiently, more intelligently. And so I see us taking technology, layering that into our products, and making their jobs easier so that they are more effective at competing.
Craig Corbin:
That is fantastic. This has been a wonderful visit. I can’t thank gentlemen you enough for being able to share the story. Kelly, it’s been great to have this opportunity to learn more about the organization you so capably represent, and our thanks to you certainly as a cohost on the Broadband Bunch. And we greatly value, again, gentlemen, the willingness of DxTEL to serve as a presenting sponsor of the podcast. Look forward again to being able to meet not too long down the line and learn what is next on tap at DxTEL.
Robert Gilbert:
Absolutely. Thanks so much for having us, Craig. It’s been great.
Eddie Andrews:
Yeah. Been a great day. Thank you, Craig, Kelly, very much.
Craig Corbin:
Indeed. Kelly, any final thoughts?
Kaleigh Cox:
This was fun. I think this has been, I don’t know, my third interview, or something like that, and it’s just been fun to be on the other side of the table a little bit. So thank you for the opportunity, both for wanting me to play a bigger role at the Broadband Bunch and for inviting us to tell our story, I really enjoyed it.
Craig Corbin:
Well, the conversations are always enjoyable when there is great content and that was certainly the case today. We want to thank all our presenting sponsors, UTOPIA Fiber, building a more connected nation, ETI Software Solutions, your zero-touch automation Experts, and of course, DxTEL, creators of the HARPER BROADBAND MARKETING LIBRARY. On behalf of everyone, I’m Craig Corbin. Thanks so much for letting us be a part of your day. We’ll see you next time right here on the Broadband Bunch. So long everyone.
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