Deploying Digital Advertising for Broadband Providers, With Julie Boles

East Mississippi Connect has been using digital advertising to surgically target communities and potential subscribers as its fiber optic service rolled out across its service territory. Julie Boles shares what’s worked and what lessons she’s learned along the way.

Special: Live at StoryConnect 2025

Episode Transcript

Intro: A production of Pioneer Utility Resources. (00:06):
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StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers.

Andy Johns: How can digital advertising help broadband companies reach the right people at the right time? (00:17):
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That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of The StoryConnect Podcast.
My name is Andy Johns, your host with Pioneer, and I'm joined on this episode by Julie Boles,
who is the chief marketing officer at East Mississippi Electric Power Association and East Mississippi Connect.
Julie, thanks so much for joining us.

Julie Boles: It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me, Andy. (00:37):
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Andy Johns: Now, I know that Megan was supposed to be doing this when we switched things out. And I know that's probably like thinking (00:39):
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you're getting a chocolate chip cookie, and you wind up with an oatmeal raisin. But here we go. We are
also joined on this episode by about 100 fantastic utility and broadband marketing and communications folks live at
StoryConnect 2025. (applause) We appreciate you being here.

(01:01):
We appreciate them being here. It's been a great couple of days here in Saint Augustine.

This episode of StoryConnect (01:06):
The Podcast is sponsored by our co-op friends at Meridian Cooperative, who use powerful
innovations to empower utilities.

Thank you, Meridian for supporting StoryConnect (01:13):
The Podcast.
One round of applause for Meridian, please. (applause) All right,
so let's dive in to East Mississippi Connect.
So y'all have been in the fiber business about five years right.

Julie Boles: That's correct. We launched in 2020. (01:28):
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Andy Johns: Okay. So how have you, I know you guys have grown big time in that time. (01:30):
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You've got a pretty, pretty sizable service territory.
How are you guys marking some of the milestones as you're hitting those years,
as you're hitting some of those round numbers with folks, a number of subscribers, what are you doing to kind of chart
progress?

Julie Boles: Initially we started with when we hit our first 1,000th subscriber, (01:47):
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we did a big show. We had our public service commissioners in town.
We did a live stream on our social media platforms of a drawing for a free smart TV.
Some of our local legislators went with us to deliver the TV to the winning subscriber.

(02:08):
I t was just a wonderful experience.
He actually had recently, the winner, had recently moved to our service area from Houston,
Texas and bragged about how our service was faster than what he could get in Houston,
and so.

Andy Johns: That's not bad. (02:21):
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Julie Boles: It was incredible. So we decided at that point, for every 1,000th subscriber, (02:22):
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we would give away another smart TV.
It was great for the first 2 to 3.
And then we found that subscribers were a bit skeptical to answer a call that you have won a free TV.

Andy Johns: Okay. (02:39):
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Julie Boles: Imagine the fear of scams in today's world, right? (02:40):
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Andy Johns: Right. (02:42):
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Julie Boles: So we pivoted at that point and decided we would wait until we got to our 10,000th subscriber, (02:43):
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and then on our social media pages, we did a ten-day giveaway.
And so at that point, subscribers had to put some skin in the game because to enter the drawing,
they had to make a comment on that daily post, every day for ten days.

(03:03):
And so two birds with one stone.
We gave away ten gifts, tech gifts that they could use with their Wi-Fi.
A nd we also gained access to potential testimonials through the comments that people were making throughout the
contest.

Andy Johns: Smart. Very smart. W e'll get into the digital advertising in just a moment. (03:19):
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I do want to talk about a little bit, just the internal piece of it.
And we're going to have a couple of great sessions dealing with internal communications later today. But I know when the brand
came out, when everybody's on board, all the staff is excited about it.
What have you seen, and what have you done to kind of keep that excitement going after five years,

(03:41):
to keep folks excited about this project that you all are doing?

Julie Boles: Well, initially when we were getting ready to launch the service, (03:44):
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there was not a whole lot of excitement from our employees.
It was more concern, fear. Naturally, they wanted to know, how is this going to affect my role,
and what is this going to look like for our employees of the electric co-op?
Because we don't have separate employees.
All of our fiber employees are East Mississippi Electric Power Association employees.

(04:09):
So naturally, there was a lot of concern, a lot of question.
And so we went with an employee first approach.
Nothing was announced publicly, no areas that we were moving into until we had informed employees
because they were going to be getting questions. They needed to have the information and feel equipped to inform our members.

(04:30):
So we really started with that. And then it was a five year build out project that we completed in less than
four years, about three and a half years.
And so we did a big employee event.
We had all of our employees come in for an all employee meeting where we celebrated that milestone.
We did a pancake breakfast, cookout for lunch, and then we gave away lawn chairs,

(04:54):
logo lawn chairs to all of our employees, so that when they're out in the community,
they're at the ball fields, different events that they would have that logo chair.
I mean, I think it was expert storyteller Megan that we were, she and I were,
talking about this one day in the chairs, and she said, "Oh, so the build out is complete.
You can finally sit down in your chair and relax." It's like, that is a great story to tell,

(05:16):
so.

Andy Johns: There you go. I know that you guys are not completely relaxing. (05:17):
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There's still a lot more work to be done. And a big piece of that success,
I would say, I think it's fair to say that digital advertising has been a big piece of that success,
getting the words out there. Where did you start with digital advertising,
and then how have the tactics or the efforts changed over the time in terms of your efforts for digital advertising?

Julie Boles: Yes, we started looking at digital advertising as one of the key strategies when we launched, (05:39):
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because we knew as a five year project there would be members that would be hearing about it,
and they would not have access to our service for potentially 4 to 5 years down the road.
So setting up that expectation from the beginning was key.

(06:01):
We did not want to oversaturate the media, the traditional media,
with the messages of this high speed internet service coming and set those expectations for those people that would be several
years before they would be able to get the service. So through the digital advertising campaign strategies,
we were able to target specific areas with messages, whether service was available in that area,

(06:25):
how long it would be coming in that area.
And then those that were 3 to 5 years out, we did not start targeting them until several years into the
campaign, when they actually would be able to access our service.

Andy Johns: You guys are going all the way down to the address level, or kind of zip codes or polygons or? (06:37):
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Julie Boles: Yes, we worked along with our fiber services team, and we were actually able to pinpoint by address. (06:42):
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And so we knew, also we do have investor-owned utilities areas within our footprint,
and we have not gone off of our service area at this point.
So we cannot provide our service to anyone that's not within our service area.

(07:03):
And so if we use traditional media, we would also be hitting those people that would potentially
never be able to get our service.
And so we were able to target down to the specific address of our electric members.

Andy Johns: Fantastic. One of the great things about digital advertising is how well you can track it, (07:16):
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how much information is there. What kind of things are you looking at when it comes to kind of tracking what's working and
what isn't? And are there any specific metrics or pieces of it that you're really looking at to say,
this is a great success? This is as the panel would say earlier today,
this is mid, or this is Ohio?

Julie Boles: Well, really it comes down to telling our story. (07:39):
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The messages that have really resonated with our members is telling the story of why we're doing what we're doing.
Why we're providing the service in the first place.
When we started in 2020, the electric co-op had already been in the community for over 85 years,

(07:59):
so we were not starting from scratch.
We built upon the trust, the connection that had already been made with our members,
and turns that message to how it can benefit our members.
Why are we building this service out?
We launched in 2020, in response to Covid.
So some of the work from home, telehealth opportunities, distance education,

(08:24):
all of those opportunities, we told those stories because the story of having the lowest cost will never beat the national
brands that can offer $10 a month for the first ten months, and then they jack the prices up.
That will never be us. So we really built on we're the people you trust,
the local people that you already trust, that you already have relationships with and no gimmicks.

Andy Johns: Perfect. And that's exactly where I was headed next. W hat kind of messages do you think – because I know, like a lot of folks in (08:48):
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the room, you have a bunch of different channels that you that you can communicate with folks. Are there certain messages that
you feel like work particularly well on digital advertising as opposed to some of the other ways that you communicate with
folks? Any in particular stand out?

Julie Boles: We do use still use some traditional for some of our generations and our demographics, (09:07):
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but online, we do a lot of education, a lot of telehealth, work from home,
and those sorts of messages really work well online.
And our gamers, we have a big gaming population, so those messages work really well too on the digital

(09:28):
advertising.

Andy Johns: Fantastic. Last question for you. (09:29):
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If you have somebody out there who's either in our live audience here who's listening,
who's thinking about, you know, "I've heard about digital advertising. I need to get started. I
ought to see what's available." What advice would you have for them when they're getting started? Where should they start,
and what advice do you have?

Julie Boles: I would say, as with any marketing strategies really, you need to know your audience, (09:46):
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know your demographic, know your audience, know what messages resonate with them.
A nd then track the data. See what's working.
See what's not working. If you need to start small and get a feel for the effectiveness of digital strategies
and then build from there. B ut really digital marketing, when you can target down to the specific address,

(10:13):
you're getting the most bang for your buck as far as your marketing dollars.

Andy Johns: Fantastic. Julie, thanks so much for joining us. (10:18):
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Julie Boles: Thank you Andy. (10:20):
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Andy Johns: Thank you so much to the audience. I am Andy Johns with Pioneer. (10:21):
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She is Julie Boles. And until we talk again, keep telling your story.

Outro: StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a communications cooperative that is built to share your story. (10:35):
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