The major ISPs are making some complex and even questionable promises during their holiday marketing campaigns. As you prepare for the post-holiday signup push, take the opportunity to capitalize on the errors of the dinosaurs.

by Patricia Fusco ISP-Planet Managing Editor [December 21, 2001]

Your ISP's holiday marketing blitz should be in full swing by now. But for those ISPs that choose to wait until after the holidays are over to pick up dazed and confused consumers, it's a good idea to know what the "Big 3" ISPs are offering right now.

The "Big 3" ISPs in the U.S. are America Online, MSN, and United Online (the holding company for the Juno Online Services and NetZero brands of Internet access). Even though your ISP's seasonal sales campaign should be in full swing, you might want to consider revising your post-holiday advertising schemes based on what the top U.S. ISPs are offering. This way, you "sell off" from the "Big 3" national brands by focusing your sales team on your ISPs strengths—and rivals' weaknesses.

Terms and conditions
American Online, the perennial leader of dialup login sessions, is blitzing the marketplace with its AOL 7.0 startup kits offering 1000 hours of "free trial" Internet access. Of course, there are two caveats with free trials. Customers that don't read the fine print of this offer can incur painful repercussions, like this unnamed reader who tells us in her own words:

"I was promised 45 days free Internet service. The advertisement stated 'no credit card required,' which was false. Indeed, that was designed to deceive consumers. A checking account or a credit card was required. As soon as AOL got my checking account they levied $33.06 to my account, putting it in overdraft status. I questioned the service representative that set up the account about the misleading advertising, but she claimed that payment is required right now against future free services. They have defrauded me."

The enlightened readers of ISP-Planet understand how America Online's free trial offer works. In this example, the AOL user was not the victim of fraud—she simply failed to understand the terms of service (ToS).

To avoid being charged a monthly fee, new AOL users have to read the fine print and cancel their membership before the free trial period ends. Either 1000 hours of access time or 45 days—which ever comes first.

How can your ISP profit from AOL's marketing program? Many ISPs have set up similar deals for new subscribers offering different free trial terms. Just make sure that your ISP is as upfront with its ToS details as possible.

Prepare your sales team to speak in plain English and talk about your terms of service with new users when they gather payment information at the point of setup. The conversation should go something like this:

"I understand you've had a bad experience with that service provider (never say their name). Before we talk about which service plan is right for you, I'd like to invite you to try our dialup service for 30 days at no charge, and when we say that free, we mean it. We back up our free trial this up with our 'No Hidden Fees Guarantee,' and this is just a part of our terms of service."

Consider implementing a "No Hidden Fees Guarantee" as part of your ToS. You'll find that it's a simple way to make sure your customers understand what service is all about. It also makes for a great statement in your ISP's print or newspaper advertising. Setting simple expectations for new subscribers at your ISP business is a sure way to win their loyalty, instead of leaving a bad taste in their mouth and overdraft fee at their bank, like that other service provider.

Ensured services
Unhappy customers are always ready and willing to tell you every single thing that they hate about their current access provider, especially if they have been charged a fee during their free trial or incurred additional telephone expenses for dialing up their former service provider—you're about to get an earful.

Some new users incur incremental charges for local dialing or local long-distance connections to a phone number during their free trial, which is yet another way that novice users often become outraged consumers. Most national service providers, including the third largest ISP in the U.S., United Online, place this burden on consumers.

It's up to Juno Online and NetZero users to figure out if communications surcharges apply to their dial-up fees, even during their free trial period. Naturally, your ISP can utilize this weakness by making sure that your local dialup numbers are really local—for every single new user. You can even make this a part of your ISP's "No Hidden Fees Guarantee."

Take time during the initial setup to make sure that there are no communications surcharges applied to your new users' dialup connections. It's relatively easy to prepare a database detailing whether your ISPs local dialup numbers are really local. If you're dealing with a new exchange and the information isn't in your database, continue to gather information from the new user, but hang up the phone and check the exchange listing with the phone company first. Then call the customer back and "guarantee" that no toll charges apply.

It takes a bit of programming time to set up the local exchange database and more advanced programming could be involved when setting up the same type of function for your ISP's Web-based signups. But it's well worth the effort to provide real customers with real services. This also makes for a catchy phrase to leverage in another marketing campaign for your ISP: "Just Real Services, For Real People."

Too much, too soon
The second largest ISP is the U.S. is MSN. It appears that the connectivity side of Microsoft doesn't understand how to keep things simple for new users. MSN's "all-things-to-all-people" approach to ISP marketing is baffling. Right now MSN Internet access plans and pricing for dialup include all of the following:

Three months' free dial-up service: For a limited time, new subscribers can get unlimited MSN Internet Access free for the first 3 months and then pay $21.95 a month until January 1, 2003—guaranteed. This offer ends December 31, 2001 and is available to new MSN Internet Access members in the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This offer cannot be combined with any other Microsoft offers or rebates, such as this one:

Microsoft Picture It! Publishing Platinum Edition 2001 free with MSN dial-up service: In this offer, the first month of unlimited MSN Internet Access is free, then users pay $21.95 a month thereafter. This offer ends January 31, 2002. However, the deal is limited to only one free copy of Picture It! per household and delivery of the software takes 3 to 4 weeks. The MSN dialup Internet access is available only for Windows 95 and newer operating systems. A major credit card is required at signup. After the trial period, the then-current price for the MSN Standard Dial-up Unlimited Access Plan will be automatically charged to user's credit card until the account is cancelled or the customer has selected an alternative plan. Of course, this offer may not be combined with any other Microsoft offers or rebates, such as this one:

Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP free with MSN dial-up service: Here, new users get a companion application for Windows XP Home Edition. This deal is made to appeal to digital music users, fans of the Windows Media Player, or 3-D gamers. The same terms as the Picture It! offer as detailed above.

Earn United Mileage Plus miles with MSN dial-up service: That's right, new users can earn 1000 bonus miles when they sign up, plus 500 additional miles per month for up to two years. This offer ends February 28, 2002. Of course, new users have to be a member of United's Mileage Plus program, too. The deal comes with a customized version of the MSN Explorer Internet browser with one-click access to Expedia. Mileage payout follows MSN's receipt of each monthly payment for up to maximum of 23 months. This offer is subject to change without notice and new users are required to have a Ph.D in order to understand United's frequent flyers' "Savers" and "Awards" programs. All right … I made that last part up. I don't have a Ph.D and I can tell you that 25,000 miles gets MSN subscribers one United economy ticket for travel within the 48 contiguous states. This means that the United deal could get new MSN users 12,500 total bonus miles—that's less than half a flight earned in two years of subscribing to MSN Internet Access. At $526 and change for two years of dialup, I think I'd buy my tickets direct from the airlines.

But MSN does not stop with the dialup offers here. New users could opt for MSN's "Get Janet Jackson 24x7" or "Get closer to NSYNC" deals that include a month of free Internet Access and the Janet or NSYNC (a.k.a. 'N Sync) versions of MSN Explorer that include a personalized greeting from the stars.

Formerly known as WebTV, MSN TV is offering two months of free service upon signing up for the once popular television-linked service.

Of course, MSN has an hourly access program, too. But at this point, we're stuffed like the turkey from that other holiday. You get the point—don't confuse your potential new users with an overload of over hyped offerings that leave them wondering if they are paying for anything of real value.

It's the service
I have to give credit where it's due. I learned about ISP marketing from my sensei, Christopher M. Knight, otherwise known as Sparky. As the general manager of Knight's former ISP operation, I know how easy it is to get all caught up in the technology behind providing Internet services. I also know that these technologies have very little to do with what customers really want when it comes to dialup access to the Internet.

Customers want service.

Make it your marketing plan to provide current and potential new customers with real services and you'll out execute all of the "Big 3" ISPs every day of the week. When it comes to ISP marketing, sell the service, not the technology. This may not be as sexy a marketing plan as you hoped for, but I know from my experience that it works. Come to think of it, isn't an effective marketing plan that produces real, tangible, bottom-line results pretty sexy after all?

—End