Turnkey Marketing Services for FTTH Success

A fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network launch propels your electric cooperative on a journey to benefit the communities and members you serve today and well into the future. Your success relies heavily on marketing and communications that ensure your excellent reputation for service and quality carries over into your new communications venture.

Conexon leverages decades of telecom experience and unmatched expertise in FTTH network deployments to offer a comprehensive suite of marketing solutions that fuel the success of electric cooperatives deploying fiber broadband. From branding and web development to best-practice oriented communications, break-through creative and expert advice, we provide you with the tools and resources to effectively market your FTTH network.

A fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network launch propels your electric cooperative on a journey to benefit the communities and members you serve today and well into the future. Your success relies heavily on marketing and communications that ensure your excellent reputation for service and quality carries over into your new communications venture. To date, Conexon's marketing reach is 500,000 co-op members strong.

Conexon Marketing Hub

The Conexon Marketing Hub is a proprietary software platform specifically designed and built for cooperatives, with an eye to providing all the resources needed to effectively market FTTH service. You’ll find campaigns designed to maximize take rates and help you experience success in this competitive landscape, along with the information, education and support your members need to ensure they get the most out of world-class fiber broadband service. All Hub materials, downloadable with branding customization, are organized in an easily-searchable manner for you to produce the materials you need when you need them. Among the materials:

  • Fiber-to-the-Home Launch Guide
  • Customer Education
  • Business and Residential Campaigns
  • Social Media Elements
  • Videos and Commercials
  • Best Practice and How-to Tools

Over the years I’ve worked with electric cooperatives, I’ve consistently seen a lack of affordable, effective resources to help them market fiber networks to their members.

Abby Carere

Conexon’s turnkey marketing services answer that with a rich portfolio of customizable creative campaigns for every stage of a build, and an expert support resource, all priced to fit well within co-op marketing budgets.”

Abby Carere
Vice President Marketing and Sales - Conexon

Logo and Branding

A co-op’s fiber entity should have its own logo and branding, while leveraging the powerful legacy and reputation of the core business. Conexon’s creative team specializes in logo design and branding that convey a co-op’s sense of reliability and community accountability, while reflecting the progressive nature of fiber broadband.

Website Design and Hosting

Ease of use, visibility and Search Engine Optimization are all considerations in building an online presence. Conexon designs and develops effective co-op fiber business websites based on a user-friendly content management system that allows a co-op to easily add information and pages as the business evolves.

Co-op Fiber Internet Preregistration Tool

Conexon’s complimentary specially-designed member preregistration tool allows a co-op to efficiently gauge interest in fiber-to-the-home services from members and engage with them about offerings. Based on actual meter data and planned construction schedule, the tool allows members to simply “preregister,” entering their account number and address to indicate their interest in service. Based on that input, they’ll receive instant notification of when and if service will be available in their area. Proactively gauging member interest and letting them know when service is coming helps a co-op better manage member expectations. The result? A better member experience, and higher acquisition and retention.

Marketing Support Resource

Staffing a new business with experienced marketing practitioners can be challenging in the early days. Conexon has a team of cooperative marketing support managers, each of whom serves as a turnkey marketing resource for our co-op clients. These co-op marketing support managers work in tandem with co-op leadership to develop and implement successful marketing initiatives.

  • Strategic Planning Aligned with Network Deployment
  • Campaign Execution/Measurement
  • Social Media
  • General Communications Services
  • Creative Best Practice Implementation

It spurred me reaching out to Conexon to see what resources were available.

We just couldn’t figure out the way to communicate to our members and communities to help them understand the value of the project and what we could do for them. When we get to a community that has never had internet before, we have to educate members first, and it has to be a face-to-face conversation. They have to be able to put their hands on it.

Casey Logan, PGEC President and CEO
Prince George Electric Cooperative

Most of the credit goes to Conexon.

“Randy and Jonathan bring so much experience to the table: Randy with the buildout and all that knowledge he has from his experience, and Jonathan, with his knowledge of the actual bidding process to secure funding to get the project off the ground. It really just made a huge difference for us.”

Dion Cooper, President & CEO
Southwest Arkansas Electric Cooperative

It goes back to the whole fabric of how…

Tim Smith

“cooperatives have got to where we are today. Friends helping friends, neighbor helping neighbor, joining together to be bigger than we can be individually. I think the consortium makes a lot of sense. Why go into battle by yourself when you can go in with others? That’s been the cooperative way for a lot of years, and it’s a great concept.”

Tim Smith, GM
East Central Oklahoma Electric Cooperative

We won every block we went after.

Ron Barnes

“I don’t think you can get a much better testimony than that. … One hundred percent success is one hundred percent success. It was enough for us to be able to make our project viable.”

Ron Barnes, President & CEO
Coast Electric Power Association

It’s been great to have Conexon…

…as a partner to help us throughout the process. The team is showing us how to use what we know in the electric business to help us get started in the broadband business.”

Matthew Ware, GM
Pearl River Valley Electric Power Association

We’re happy with what Conexon’s marketing team is doing for us

“We had a gap here that needed to be filled for us to move into this industry, and the Conexon team has definitely filled that role and put this project on track to be successful. Thanks for everything that you’ve done to get us this far!”

NT Spark Fiber

Miller Dendy, CPA
Natchez Trace Electric Power Association (NT Spark Fiber) Mississippi

For Cookson Hills’ board and employees, broadband is not a new concept.

Juli Orme

However, learning to build a broadband program from the ground up is a new concept. Conexon has proven to us that its marketing team has experience and expertise that our team can draw from. Instead of jumping in head first, we are utilizing this opportunity to learn from Conexon’s team, which will help us become more knowledgeable in this field. This collaboration will also allow us to become stronger to better assist our future customers when they need us the most.

Cookson Connect

Juli Orme
GM, Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative (Cookson Hills Connect) Oklahoma

We are excited to utilize the Conexon Marketing Hub to access communication materials that will promote our fiber project and the CoastConnect brand

Ron Barnes

Although we have a talented communications team, the Hub will help us save valuable time by accessing customizable fiber videos, bill inserts, graphics, social media campaigns and more with the click of a mouse. This allows us to focus on strategy and other elements of the project without spending hours to create these tactical marketing materials internally.

Coast Connect

Ron Barnes
CEO, Coast Electric Power Association (CoastConnect) Mississippi

From day 1, marketing a fiber network takes consistent and frequent communications with creative campaigns that appeal to your members.

David Gervan

“Conexon’s Marketing Hub really simplifies that for anyone getting into the business, offering all the materials a co-op needs to communicate and market. This is an invaluable tool I wish I’d had when we launched 10 years ago. Even today well into our deployment, the materials are extremely useful and relevant.”

United Fiber

David Girvan
COO, United Fiber (Missouri)

Over the years I’ve worked with electric cooperatives, I’ve consistently seen a lack of affordable, effective resources to help them market fiber networks to their members.

Abby Carere

Conexon’s turnkey marketing services answer that with a rich portfolio of customizable creative campaigns for every stage of a build, and an expert support resource, all priced to fit well within co-op marketing budgets.”

Abby Carere
Vice President Marketing and Sales - Conexon

Conexon’s Call Center has proven to be a very valuable extension of our team

Sean Vanslyke

“Conexon treats our subscribers like we expect in the cooperative world. We have high expectations. Our first attempt with another call center didn’t work so we switched to Conexon. Our partnership will help us grow and retain our existing subscribers.”

gosemo logo

Sean Vanslyke
CEO, GoSEMO Electric Cooperative and GoSEMO Fiber

“We knew when we started the FTTH project, we didn’t have the personnel or expertise needed to support our members”

A Simpson

“Finding a partner who would treat our members with the same level of service they’ve come to expect from the electric side was the top priority. It was no secret that Conexon had the technical expertise and history of building first-class FTTH projects, and the team there has proven itself able to treat our members as its own.”

WAVE Rural Connect

Al Simpson
CEO of Arkansas Valley Electric Cooperative and subsidiary WAVE Rural Connect

Offering voice is a tangled morass of deadlines and form preparation, let alone the direct costs of compliance.

Tim Johnson

The regulatory burden (of offering voice) should not be underestimated and it takes quite a bit of time and effort to comply with all of the filing requirements. Terie is a critical source of information and advice. We’re just glad we found you, Terie!”

Otsego Electric

Tim Johnson
CEO, Otsego Electric Cooperative

Conexon Connect’s regulatory experience, engineering expertise, and purchasing power made it the logical choice for our voice telecom service.

We desired a partner that not only could handle all of the technical details to get our service up and running quickly and easily, but would also be there with us for the long term.”

North East Mississippi

Randall Abel
Chief Operating Officer - Northeast Mississippi EPA

If done right voice will be a very profitable additional service.

Terie Hannay

In my 12 years of supporting voice services with cooperative partners, I have seen various missteps. The Conexon Connect VoIP service offering eliminates the potential for errors. With our full-service offering we not only provide the service but the training and ongoing support to ensure success.

Terie Hannay
Conexon - VP of Telecommunications Service and Veteran Telecom and Broadband Leader

Part of the expertise Conexon brings to our project is in providing voice service…

Chad Lowder

… a requirement for securing funds from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. Experience and expertise in voice was very important to us because the phone side of this business is a whole different world. We have every confidence that Conexon, as our phone provider of record, will ensure a quality service for members, and effectively manage the taxation and regulatory complexities of offering voice.

Tri-County Electric

Chad Lowder
Chief Executive Officer - Tri-County Electric Cooperative

Jonathan Chambers and the team knew how the auction works…

Tim Smith

which meant we didn’t have to worry about the mechanics of the auction or learn all of the aspects of it.

CAF II Award: $22M

Tim Smith
General Manager, East Central Oklahoma Electric Cooperative

Conexon was instrumental in developing and implementing a successful strategy…

Bob Hance

that helped us secure funding through the CAF II auction process. Not only does this support enable us to hit key financial targets, we can now reach new markets and customers while doing our part to help close the rural/urban digital divide that exists in our country.  We look forward to continuing our partnership with Conexon in the upcoming Rural Digital Opportunity Fund in 2020!

CAF II Award: $5.2M

Bob Hance
President & CEO, Midwest Energy & Communications

The $20 million we were awarded has made a huge difference in our buildout…

David Gervan

giving us the opportunity to build out our high-cost areas. We would have struggled to do so without it.

CAF II Award: $20M

David Girvan
COO, United Fiber

United Fiber won a significant amount in the CAF II auction.

Jim Bagley

This was made possible by hard work, strategy and choosing the right partners. We would not have been successful without the help of the Rural Electric Cooperative Consortium and Conexon. Working together provided United with the expertise to successfully navigate the auction and win over $20 million. This money will change lives in northwest Missouri!

CAF II Award: $20M

Jim Bagley
CEO/General Manager, United Electric Cooperative

Ultimately Conexon hit a home run in designing our bids.

Tim Johnson

Jon explained to us the advantages of being a rural co-op and pole owner. He was an expert in where the funding was and how it would be distributed. His experience was invaluable.

NY & CAF II Awards: $14M

Tim Johnson
CEO, Otsego Electric Cooperative

The ReConnect funding will move up our break-even point…

Jeff Newman

for Forked Deer and allow us to shave nearly a year off the original three-year deployment. Conexon has been an invaluable partner in funding support. The ReConnect grant creates a totally new financial picture for us and allows us to serve all our members faster than we had anticipated.

ReConnect Grant: $2.85M

Jeff Newman
CEO, Forked Deer Electric Cooperative Inc.

The CAF II funding had a significant cash flow impact.

It means less borrowing for the project, which is helpful for the cooperative from an equity perspective.

CAF II Award: $4.7M

Barret Ewing
Engineer and Operations Director, Wave Rural Connect (Arkansas Valley Electric Cooperative)

The CAF money changed our economic picture significantly.

Gary Wood

Having that revenue guaranteed for the first 10 years gives us the breathing room to work through growing pains. The biggest benefit is that it offsets the losses in first few years when otherwise we would be building significant debt to the co-op.

CAF II Award: $28.6M
ReConnect Award: $28M

Gary Wood
President & CEO, Central Virginia Electric Cooperative

I was ecstatic after the auction. Thanks to Conexon, we were extremely successful.

The CAF II funding has allowed us to expand our service to meet the needs of additional areas that otherwise would be underserved or unserved. And although we were always on target for a successful ROI, our timelines for that are shortened considerably with the CAF II funds.

CAF II Award: $22M

 

Aaron Bradshaw
CEO, Co-Mo Electric Cooperative

The availability of affordable, high-quality internet service has the power to changes lives and communities…

Mel Coleman

especially in rural areas that have been left behind by other providers. Thanks in part to Conexon’s expertise, we now have the funding and operational support to deliver broadband to our communities in a way that is financially viable and benefits our electric side as well.

CAF II Award: $22.6M

Mel Coleman
CEO, North Arkansas Electric Cooperative

Jonathan and Randy were instrumental in working with our team to get that funding for our project…

jason strong

and it changed our financials dramatically. The $22.6 million gives us some breathing room. It helps our broadband subsidiary become profitable so much quicker, moving up our break-even point and positive cash flow.

CAF II Award $22.6M

Jason Strong
Vice President, Engineering, North Arkansas Electric Cooperative

The regulatory support of Jonathan and the team in Washington has been invaluable.

Having someone help you understand what funds and areas are available and making sure you don’t leave available money on the table is a huge benefit.

CAF II Award: $23M

Steve Bandy
General Manager, OzarksGo

As a co-op, we’re committed to ensuring our members and communities have access

to all of the societal, education and economic benefits that world-class broadband delivers, backed by our cooperative commitment to make lives better. Conexon’s expertise and support have made a tremendous difference in our ability to do that. Randy and Jonathan have been valuable partners and instrumental to our success.

CAF II Award: $23M

Mitchell Johnson
President and CEO, Ozarks Electric Cooperative

Conexon was able to walk us through the application process and manage all the milestones

Without the help of Conexon and its experienced staff, PGEC Enterprises, LLC would not have had the opportunity to provide highspeed FTTH internet access to the members of our, currently non served, communities.  Conexon was able to walk us through the application process and manage all the milestones for our cooperative.  It took close to 20 years to full deploy electricity to our communities nearly 80 years ago.  However, with the 15.4M of CAF II funding we have received, we will be able to provide FTTH services to these same locations in only a few years.

Casey Logan
CEO, Prince George Electric

United Fiber won a significant amount in the CAF II auction

Jim Bagley, CEO

This was made possible by hard work, strategy and choosing the right partners. United would not have been successful without the help of the Rural Electric Consortium and Conexon. Working together provided United with the expertise to successfully navigate the action and win over $20 million. This money will change lives in northwest Missouri!” CAF II Award- $20.1 M

Jim Bagley
CEO, United Electric Cooperative

Electric co-ops are often dependent on third-party call centers

Randy Klindt

Electric co-ops are often dependent on third-party call centers that don’t understand the nature of their business, and often can’t go beyond answering a call. We have a staff of veteran engineers who have built fiber networks and call centers for over a decade and possess the specific expertise for efficient resolution, while maintaining the highest level of customer satisfaction.

Randy Klindt
Conexon Partner

We listened to our electric cooperative clients

Andy Burger

We listened to our electric cooperative clients and realized the need for a call center capable of handling calls quickly the first time. Traditional call centers are set up to support multiple technologies, which limits their expertise and ability to truly understand the specific nuances of fiber. We work only with electric cooperatives building fiber-to-the-home, which allows us to understand exactly what you need.

Andy Burger
Conexon-VP of Operations

We’re doing things at a very fast pace and Conexon has been our boots on the street

Tim Smith

We’re doing things at a very fast pace and Conexon has been our boots on the street, managing our network, construction and overseeing the many moving parts on a daily basis. They have been involved in preparing RFPs, coordinating our contractor and vendor selection and they’ve been out in the field with our contractors as we’re building out, verifying the completion and quality of work.

ecoLINK

Tim Smith
General Manager, East Central Oklahoma Electric Cooperative

Having that revenue guaranteed for the first 10 years gives us the breathing room to work through growing pains.

Gary Wood

“The biggest benefit is that it offsets the losses in first few years when otherwise, we would be building significant debt to the co-op.”
CAF II Award — $28.6M

Gary Wood President & CEO, Central Virginia Electric Cooperative

It started off very unwillingly…

I was very skeptical, at times outspokenly so, that broadband was not something electric cooperatives should be doing. Obviously, those thoughts and comments look foolish today as we deploy fiber-to-the-home ourselves. My opinion changed as I became more educated and several main assumptions about cooperative broadband projects proved inaccurate. It also began when Jonathan Chambers with Conexon presented to Oklahoma statewide in February 2017. Not only did he dispel some myths regarding the main challenges in getting into broadband, but it was also clear that Conexon could provide the expertise needed to make it happen. Fast forward a few years with our launch and Conexon has been with us at every step. Without Conexon, we would not have a fiber-to-the-home project

Patrick Grace
CEO, Oklahoma Electric Cooperative

Randy knows electric co-ops and he knows broadband inside and out.

Tim Davis

“Being able to pull from that experience is great. The way he laid out the plan made perfect sense, and with the research and thought behind it, it was a direction we felt we could go in.”

“We shared the feasibility plan with our Board,” says Tim Davis, “and the rest is history. I have a lot of respect for Jonathan Chambers. He’s an ethical guy and we put a lot of stock in what he said.”

Tim Davis
CEO, Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative

Within 30 minutes of meeting Randy…

Goodspeed

“Trust,” he said. “Within 30 minutes of meeting Randy, I knew Conexon was the right company. They brought experience and knowledge, but also respect, compassion, and understanding of exactly what we were facing. With Randy and the team, I knew I was sitting across the table from someone who had actually been where I was. I couldn’t have found a better partner.”

David Goodspeed
President, OEC Fiber

We’re a small co-op with limited resources.

Jack Davis

Our Conexon project manager takes a huge load off of us, doing everything from working with contractors and vendors, to doing ride-outs, pulling permits and a lot more. We always have someone there when we have questions and we can get answers right away. I don’t know how we could have done this without Conexon.

Pemiscot-Dunklin Fiber

Jack Davis
Chief Technology Officer, Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative

Conexon basically auto-designed our entire system in 3 days.

Goodspeed

This allows us to now very quickly deploy wherever we want because we’ve eliminated that step. The benefits of the auto-design – saving us time, energy and effort – makes us go so much faster now.”

OEC Fiber

David Goodspeed
President, OEC Fiber

If you’re getting questions about broadband from members or your board…

Tim Smith

“Get a study,” he advises other cooperative leaders. “Broadband isn’t for every company, but you can’t answer the question of ‘why or why not’ without that feasibility study.

Tim Smith
GM ECOEC

Conexon has been able to have a hand in everything…

Goodspeed

“Conexon has been able to have a hand in everything and that support allowed us to jump in and out of tasks and react very quickly,” said Goodspeed, “At every step, they were there saying, ‘this is what we think you should do.’ We had our lifeline in Conexon, with availability and accessibility, unlike anything I’ve seen in my 30-year career.”

David Goodspeed
President, OEC Fiber

We knew that Conexon was the company…

Tim Smith

We knew that Conexon was the company that could help us bring this to reality,” Smith says. “They have a proven track record with other cooperatives and a blueprint on how to do this in a way that works in terms of affordability, speed of deployment and sustainability.

Tim Smith
GM ECOEC

The type of system, the Distributed TAP, is about the only way we felt we could go in a rural area like ours

Jack Davis

… Quite honestly it was something I wasn’t even aware of, but once I got my head around it, it made a lot of sense. As far as being cost-effective, it’s worked really well, when you consider the price of TAPS versus running more fiber. It’s worked extremely well.

Pemiscot-Dunklin Fiber

Jack Davis
Chief Technology Officer, Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative

Clearly Conexon was the pick of the field

Gary Wood

… Wood says. “It has been and still is the leader in fiber design and FTTH networks amongst electric co-ops. We talked to a lot of other co-ops, and part of what separated Conexon was its involvement with all of the co-op projects we could find that had delivered high performance, successfully been built in a relatively compressed schedule, and stayed within a reasonable budget. Conexon is the only consultant I know that has met all of three of those consistently.

Gary Wood
President & CEO, Central Virginia Electric Cooperative

Conexon knows how the auction works…

Tim Smith

… which meant we didn’t have to learn all of the aspects. All the legal and advisory services were part of the process with Conexon. It was nice not having to worry about the mechanics of the auction, Jonathan and the team knew how it works, so there was no learning curve. Had we done it by ourselves, I’m not sure we could have gotten our paperwork ready and participated, given our late start.

Tim Smith
GM ECOEC

As a result of having a feasibility study…

Tim Smith

… both pre-auction and post-auction, it was made clear to us that the win will allow us to cash flow in year one. We will not be subsidizing from the electric side.

Tim Smith
GM ECOEC

Obviously Randy had the experience with several co-ops…

Gary Wood

… he worked directly for,” Wood says. “He understands the challenges of low-density areas, but also the opportunities when you own the infrastructure, poles and overhead plant. He understands the culture of a co-op, being member and service-focused, so he’s able to help with the challenges of bringing in a new communications business.

Gary Wood
President & CEO, Central Virginia Electric Cooperative

The help Conexon provided with the auction process…

Tim Smith

… was really the beginning of the value of our partnership. We had no experience, they brought the expertise to get us started. The results of the CAF II win will allow us to end year one and we will not be subsidizing the build-out from the electric side. That’s a unique story.

Tim Smith
GM ECOEC

The federal compliance and requirements …

Gary Wood

…for Internet and voice providers were completely new to us. We felt very comfortable that Conexon could help us set up the process and structures to make sure we were in compliance, and we were very successful in the auction in large part to Jonathan’s knowledge and insights.”

CAF II Award — $28.6M

Gary Wood
President & CEO, Central Virginia Electric Cooperative

All of our members will receive benefit…

Tim Smith

All of our members will receive benefit from the enhanced electric, regardless of whether they choose to subscribe to broadband services. That’s the most important aspect to us, and this way, we can also provide broadband services to those who want them in an affordable way, without those services being subsidized.

Tim Smith
GM ECOEC

The CAF money changed our economic picture significantly…

Gary Wood

… Wood says. “Having that revenue guaranteed for the first 10 years gives us the breathing room to work through growing pains. The biggest benefit is that it offsets the losses in the first few years when otherwise we would be building significant debt to the co-op.

Gary Wood
President & CEO, Central Virginia Electric Cooperative

Since we didn’t have (broadband) expertise we needed…

Tim Smith

Since we didn’t have (broadband) expertise we needed someone we were comfortable with that we didn’t have to teach the co-op business model to. Conexon is made up of co-op people, so they understand how we need to do things.

Tim Smith
GM ECOEC

We categorize this as another frontier…

Tim Smith

We categorize this as another frontier, closely aligned with electricity to rural America in the late 30s and early 40s,” he says. “No one would build out because the farm was too far away. Now, 80 years later, we’re bringing something to rural Americans – something they need –that they couldn’t get another way.

This drives us every day.

Tim Smith
GM ECOEC

For Cookson Hills’ board and employees, broadband is not a new concept.

Juli Orme

However, learning to build a broadband program from the ground up is a new concept. Conexon has proven to us that its marketing team has experience and expertise that our team can draw from. Instead of jumping in head first, we are utilizing this opportunity to learn from Conexon’s team, which will help us become more knowledgeable in this field. This collaboration will also allow us to become stronger to better assist our future customers when they need us the most.

Cookson Connect

Juli Orme
GM, Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative (Cookson Hills Connect) Oklahoma

We’re happy with what Conexon’s marketing team is doing for us

“We had a gap here that needed to be filled for us to move into this industry, and the Conexon team has definitely filled that role and put this project on track to be successful. Thanks for everything that you’ve done to get us this far!”

NT Spark Fiber

Miller Dendy, CPA
Natchez Trace Electric Power Association (NT Spark Fiber) Mississippi

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