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It's time for carriers to do some serious rethinking of their marketing campaign strategies. Traditional market segmentation and campaign management no longer produce the desired results. Pressure to increase revenues and the competitive chaos in the marketplace demand a highly sophisticated approach to ensure that the right customers hear your message.

Analysts and investors want to see how a company is growing its top line, not just how it manages costs. Revenue growth has the greatest direct correlation to stock price. Incumbents have to be able to demonstrate agility in increasing revenue; new entrants have to prove an ability to capture revenue. The question for both is whether they are targeting the most profitable customers.

Because competitive offerings provide so much choice, we have a marketplace of communications consumers and businesses with diverse demands and buying considerations. Price is still important, but so are factors ranging from simple voice demands to number portability, integrated voice mail and product bundles.

It's not only customer demands that have fragmented-the ways to reach them have also splintered and proliferated. Prime-time TV viewership and print media readership are declining, even as the use of narrowcast channels like the Internet and cable rise.

How can carriers manage their top lines effectively? They should take a new approach to marketing that entails segmenting their customer bases into carefully defined groups, then analyze the profitability and desirability of each group.

There are four key aspects to more effective tactics, all of which should be considered before rolling out a campaign.

* Hone segment definitions. Look at what the customer wants rather than how the customer might fit the company's existing product lines and plans. Dig deeper than general assumptions. Both wireless prospects and computer users might have affinities for technology, but that may not mean that a computer user would be a profitable wireless customer.

* Market across lines of business. Failing to identify customers according to their needs means lost opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. When launching campaigns, consider what other campaigns and rollouts the company is pursuing. Avoid conflicting offers and messages

Recently, a local exchange carrier simultaneously launched two major campaigns, one for a certain wireless plan and one for a wireline offer. The two had similar names and identical audiences. The effect was confusion. A better approach might have been a combined campaign or a rollout process staged with successive messages that emphasize cross-selling and upselling opportunities.

* Get scientific. Take advantage of market scoring, testing and sampling tools to assess which customers most likely will accept an offer. Scoring algorithms and predictive acceptance models can yield highly accurate forecasts regarding consumer behavior. The results can highlight needed adjustments to a campaign, such as price and promotion options and features that could increase yield.

If a campaign is predicted to be profitable, the next step is sampling. Typically, in a sampling phase the focus group grows to 25% of the target audience. The sales channels selected for the full campaign are used to contact customers.

* Exploit all data. By looking at the negative responses to customer contacts, you may learn about significant opportunities to meet customer needs and create a competitive advantage. Maybe the drawback for some of the targeted audience is a particular feature that, if improved, could appeal to other potential buyers.

It's also vital to accumulate and analyze data rapidly. Continual accumulation and analysis can unlock unexpected opportunities and relationships. For instance, if you discover that your target customers are similar to those of a compatible vendor, such as a computer hardware manufacturer, you may be able to co-brand offerings.

Successful carriers will be those who learn what customers want, then develop the products and product mixes that will attract them, retain them and increase their usage. The abundance of offers and the variety of communications options have made categorization far more complex, but more sophisticated tools allow companies to understand and predict consumer behavior. With better-informed marketing strategies, companies can build effective campaigns that spur top-line growth.