Extensive Marketing Strategy of SiriusXM – The Only Satellite radio provider in the U.S.

Updated on: Sep 25, 2022
Marketing Strategy Of Siriusxm - Featured Image

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My name is Aditya Shastri and I have written this case study with the help of my students from IIDE's online digital marketing courses in India.

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In our previous article, we learnt in detail about the marketing strategy of a really fascinating brand, Spotify. In this article, we will elaborate on the marketing strategy of SiriusXM – The only satellite radio provider in the U.S.

The objective is to help you understand why and how SiriusXM managed to remain popular in the U.S despite the free music streaming services’ rapid increase in the U.S. SiriusXM has close to 25 million paying subscribers and it has also been ranked 5th in product quality score. Reason for its popularity, various marketing strategies and the amount of entertainment content it has provided.

So, as you can see, the world is fully online now, and marketing is the rib of every industry. If you are interested to know more about marketing then do check out our Free Masterclass on Digital Marketing by the CEO and founder of IIDE, Karan Shah.

We will learn the entire marketing strategy of SiriusXM by the end of this blog. Before diving deep into it, let’s begin with the company’s story, target audience and digital presence. 

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About SiriusXM – Company Overview

SiriusXM is actually a merger of two different companies called Sirius and XM. Sirius Satellite Radio was founded by Martine Rothblatt on May 17 1990. XM on the other hand was founded in 1988 and it was earlier named  The American Mobile Satellite Corporation. In 1992 the American Mobile Satellite Corporation created a new division known as America Mobile Radio Corp. On May 16 1997, The American Mobile Satellite Corporation officially changed its name to XM Satellite Radio. 

On February 19, 2007, Sirius announced a merger deal with competitor XM Satellite Radio. If the pending merger received government approval, which was required because of antitrust considerations, it would combine the two services into a single satellite radio network in the United States and would be named Sirius/XM Radio.

On March 24, 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice approved the merger of Sirius and XM. Conditions of the merger included allowing any third-party company to make satellite radio devices; producing new radios that can receive both XM and Sirius channels within one year; allowing consumers to choose which channels they would like to have and paying $19.7 million in fines for past rule violations. 

Quick Stats on SiriusXM
CEO Jennifer C. Witz
CMO Denise Karkos
Area Served The United States & Canada
Industry Broadcasting Company
Market Share/ Revenue 8.7 billion USD
Vision To be a diverse, vibrant, and valued service in audio entertainment that is vital to listeners.
Tagline Love to Listen

 

Marketing Strategy of SiriusXM

SiriusXM believes that the right technology and a mature analytics approach are critical for data-driven marketing success. This is why SiriusXM’s marketing strategy was moving towards a real-time model that supports timely and accurate customer messages. 

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

The key to SiriusXM’s success was offering a range of content such as featuring every genre of music, talk show, podcast and even an audiobook channel. In 2019,SiriusXM bought Pandora for 3.5billion dollars.Pandora is a music streaming app that allows you to create stations. If you don’t like a song or genre, they would remove songs like that and provide you with songs similar to your genre or taste. With SiriusXM acquiring Pandora, the loyal subscribers of SiriusXM now have a broader range of music and podcasts to listen to whenever they are driving.

Since SiriusXM is a satellite radio provider, its target audience is busy working adults. There are times when working adults couldn’t watch their football match or watch the latest updates on a news channel, that’s when they could hear it on SiriusXM on the way to work. They could receive updates, hear podcasts and even hear their favourite genre of music. When it comes to music, SiriusXM does not limit itself. It has a music genre for all ages making it more likeable and user-friendly. 

SiriusXM has always aimed to be seen as a company that provides you with your choice of entertainment such as music, podcast, news and comedy. It aimed to be different, vibrant and user-friendly. It has certainly succeeded in it with the amount of hard work that goes behind the scenes just so that the user could enjoy SiriusXM without any glitch or issue and have fun vibing with SiriusXM, its best friend when driving alone. 

Marketing Campaigns organised by SiriusXM

Marketing Strategy of SiriusXM - Campaign 1     

In 2021, SiriusXM launched a campaign called “The Home of SiriusXM” created with translation, the independent creative agency, This campaign debuted on Tv, digital, and social media and in audio news too. This campaign was a successful one because it featured artists, creators and stars from all around the world who work in the industry of entertainment, sports and music. SiriusXM has also partnered with TikTok and its campaign. 

Marketing Strategy of SiriusXM - Campaign 2

In Feb 2022, SiriusXM announced that it will be announcing its extensive programming plans for the week of Super Bowl LVI when the biggest game of the NFL season and all the excitement surrounding it comes to the city of Los Angeles.  SiriusXM listeners will get multiple broadcasts of the game, a dedicated Super Bowl LVI pop-up channel, plus a mix of sports and entertainment programming that only SiriusXM can deliver. This marketing campaign was certainly a hit. 

Marketing Strategy of SiriusXM - Campaign 3

In Dec 2021,  SiriusXM and Pandora teamed up with Audible, the leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, to create Chapter and Verse, a new programming series that will blend conversations with some of the world’s top authors and the music and artists that inspire them.


Social Media Marketing

SiriusXM can also be found on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.They are most followed on Facebook with 2 million followers.  Their content posted is always promotion, festivals and other wishes.

SEO Strategies

Marketing Strategy of SiriusXM - SEO

SEO Strategies are useful when it comes to finding out how good your website is going. SiriusXM has pretty good rankings when it comes to SEO strategies. As we can see that SiriusXM has 435,857 keywords which shows that this website is really good when it comes to searches related to its keywords. Apart from that, the monthly organic traffic it has is 2 million per month which shows that the company has a good response from online consumers.


Influencer Marketing

SiriusXM has been quite famous when it comes to collaboration with celebrities. Their national campaign ad held last year featured many celebrities living in SiriusXM’s house. Imagine all talented celebrities under one roof. Isn’t that exciting?  Famous celebrities like Kevin Hart, LL COOL J, Dave Grohl, Bebe Rehxa, Normani and many more. The campaign was definitely a hit and the best part about it was that listeners could bring SiriusXM with them anywhere on mobile phones, smart tv, and other connected devices using the SXM app.

E-commerce Strategies 

SiriusXM has not only great design on its website but it’s also user-friendly. Moreover, the plans they have are detailed and clear. They have also added every single event that occurred through the company. Their blogs too consist of good content writing. 

Mobile Apps

Marketing Strategy of SiriusXM - Mobile App

SiriusXM has a mobile app called the SXM app. Subscribers of SiriusXM can stream music at this mobile app too. It is a user-friendly app and has unlimited access for its users. This app allows you to connect SiriusXM to your smart Tv, wireless speakers and smart devices. There are 425+ channels and ads-free music from all decades and genres. 

Content Marketing Strategies

SiriusXM is active in terms of updating its blogs. Every single collaboration, every new stream, and every event update are always updated on their blog. Besides that, their social media handles have the same updates. Recently SiriusXM has updated its second quarter finance information.

This ends with an elaborative marketing strategy of SiriusXM. Let us conclude our learning below from the marketing strategy of SiriusXM.

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Conclusion

With increasing competition companies are yet not learning how to fight their battle by winning over their customers with better marketing efforts. In a modern world where digital marketing has great importance, being well aware and having hands-on knowledge in the field is a must for all marketing enthusiasts.

Digital marketing is crucial since it links a company with its clients when they are online and is effective across all sectors. It links businesses with ideal consumers through SEO and PPC on Google, social media marketing, and email marketing. If you would like to learn more and develop skills, check out IIDE’s 4-Month Digital Marketing Course to learn more.

Alternatively, you can enrol in one of our free online masterclasses led by IIDE’s CEO, Karan Shah, to gain insight into the field of digital marketing. 

We hope this blog on the marketing strategy of SiriusXM has given you a good insight into the company’s marketing strategies.

If you like such in-depth analysis of companies just like the marketing strategy of SiriusXM check out our IIDE Knowledge portal for more fascinating case studies.

Thank you for taking the time to read the marketing strategy of SiriusXM, and do share your thoughts on this case study marketing strategy of SiriusXM in the comments section below.

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Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

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