SES Satellites

Discover how SES were able to dynamically engage with a very specialised target market and drive lead generation.

How a global leader in content connectivity adopted Conversational Marketing to enrich lead generation while gathering market insights and gaining a competitive advantage.

The client

£1 million+

circa revenue in closed deals

98%

Chat satisfaction score

The SES Success Story

SES prides itself on being a leader in global content connectivity. With over 30 years of operating in the space sector and over 70 satellites in two different orbits, their reach is unlike any other.

They know a thing or two about connectivity, broadcasting to over 1 billion tv viewers worldwide, or serving 7 out of the top 10 global telecom companies. They have a wealth of experience managing and delivering high-performance video and data solutions virtually anywhere in the world.

They turned to The Chat Shop to support them to reach their target audience who have very specific connectivity requirements.



The challenge

To dynamically engage with a very specialised target market and drive lead generation

Paul Freeman, Vice President of Marketing - is very conscious that SES has a very specialised target market. And they were looking for an edge to communicate with those people.


What we offer is not easy to understand. In a business with a specialised target market, you might not use the language in your web content that is a good fit for your audience. The challenges of bounce rates and people’s attention to web pages are so short. We were looking for an edge to improve the duration of web visits to ses.com - increase the engagement and drive more leads, and that is about helping people understand how we can serve them.


Ensuring the messaging on your website resonates well with your visitors is crucial for any business. It is even more relevant when the content is of a technical nature. 


They also needed to stand out from their competitors, - they needed to be proactive in their approach to reach specific markets and explain SES’s business solutions - and Conversational Marketing was the answer.

Our solution

Conversational Marketing - a proactive approach for lead generation

To ensure Conversational Marketing was right for SES, Paul asked the team at The Chat Shop to work together during a consultancy phase to understand the type of service they required before launching a full request for proposal. The consultancy phase not only allowed The Chat Shop to understand the brief fully. It also demonstrated an understanding of being able to be objective when it came to working with a potential client. After an extensive RFP, including nine other providers - The Chat Shop was the selected partner.

Implementing The Service

"The initial benefit of the service comes as you optimise chat over the first 6 months..." Paul Freeman - VP of Marketing at SES

With the introduction of any new technology, there can be internal nervousness - specifically around the implementation. To challenge this, The Chat Shop went to lengths in the preparation of the information gathering stage, to help understand more the environment that the brand operated in.
SES opted for a dedicated chat team - the aim was to deliver an almost expert-level chat function while still using open and engaging language with the audience.

The real value that chat delivers comes when you review and optimise the service - chat transcripts can reveal the types of questions web visitors have. With chat agents dealing with interactions in real-time, uncovering reactions that internally you may not be aware of, this allowed SES to adapt their messaging to match the needs of their target market.

The onboarding process was structured and organised. The account management team brought a wealth of energy and passion, ensuring the implementation was done precisely to the expected high standard. SES also welcomed feedback and looked for the team to challenge them to ensure they were getting the best out of the system.


The solution went on to generate quality leads for the business - but it also gave them an edge in responding to potential clients immediately. This reactive approach challenged the industry norm, where web visitors would complete a form and wait to hear back from the supplier, giving them a competitive advantage in this space.



The Chat shop also challenged us to find the right formula. You can be the expert in your own business but not an expert in how a chat works. Let them challenge you - on how to optimise and get the performance out of a chat. If you take advantage of that knowledge and skill - and you trust them - you will get great results!

Paul Freeman
Vice President Marketing - SES

The results

Lead generation backed by human conversation - delivering qualified leads at scale


Once live, internal reactions were positive from the very beginning. With vigorous testing of the solution across all levels of the business and getting individual feedback from the start allowed for any alterations to be made to the service in real-time.

Over the years, Conversational Marketing has delivered a volume of leads for SES.
Due to the nature of the business, this is not a linear line, due to the variation in contract values - with three deals generating over £1 million in revenue.
Chat has been the vehicle in connecting and building relationships with people who SES may not be aware of. Jitisha Kamdar - Lead Management Specialist highlights this when referencing which markets they are seeing demand.

Chat has allowed us to understand what the real customer requirement is, we see a lot of traffic from developing nations and our approach when using chat is to simplify some technical concepts or processes to help uncover their needs.”

Helping your audience uncover their needs, understand technical concepts or processes will build trust with them from the beginning. The Chat Shop was able to take this a step further, by introducing its translation tool - this enabled them to further optimise the chat function and engage with prospects within their native language.


A true partnership


Receiving enriching insights from both the chat agents and account management team has been beneficial for SES - this true partnership has allowed for an openness to suggestions and optimisation that has led to some of the chat agents to be included in their internal process.

Working with Greg has been really amazing, living up to expectations in what we need from The Chat Shop. The team managed by Greg has been performing exceptionally well, in terms of responsiveness and proactiveness and how to improve the strategy..” Jitisha Kamdar - Lead Management Specialist - SES

Enabling conversations

In any sector where high-value sales are involved, people appreciate the opportunity to speak with a human. And conversation is very clearly human in the way the chat agents answer. SES were aware of how powerful adapting conversation into your marketing mix can be to drive results.

Looking ahead, the company has invested in a new satellite system - O3b mPOWER - which will be operational 2022. This will be a huge focus for the business and The Chat shop will be a fundamental part of how they develop and communicate this on the website - we look forward to seeing what results we can achieve together!


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