What promotions?

An alternative to direct advertising and publicity is to get involved in one or more schemes to promote your ISP service.
Such promotions often involve direct maketing methods taking advertising that you produce directly to potential customers. This advertising can range from the simply printed on plain paper advertising to supplying disks and CDs through to other promotional material varying in real value and utility.

Promotion concepts/ideas

The first thing to do when considering using direct advertising or promotional idea is to define exactly what you want to achieve, what message you want to get across and to what audience you want to deliver this message to.
What you want to achieve should be fairly obvious, in general it is to attract customers to your Internet Service although if you have other ideas or goals then be clear about them and how you can implement promotions to help achieve them.
Advertising your service
Put together a list of the features or your ISP that you want to advertise.
At its most simple this advertising usually consists of some printed material which has a who-we-are, what-we-provide and how-to-contact-us message in its contents.
In addition to this basic information further details of your ISP operation could be included, pricing information may be something to include although with current competition and changing of prices it could be detrimental to your business in the future if some of your old pricing info is still referred to by potential customers. Perhaps some general internet advertising/education info to raise general awareness of what an internet connection to you would mean. Other ideas such as price comparisons or emphasis on areas of your ISP which you consider superior (more personal service, more flexible charging schemes, payments methods etc.) all add up to make a simple advertising message more interesting (and worth a second look) when compared to a straight ad.
Give-Aways These can range from the cheap and simple to the good quality and expensive and will very much depend on the target audience that you are aiming your promotional efforts towards. Special offers Competitions Rewards

Promotional material/media

The most basic material is some sort of printed flier although variations on this to fold-overs or even small newsletters can make the presentation more interesting and less likely to be immediately discarded. An example of a simple printed flier in the form of a coffee cup coaster is one distributed by PlaNet (Auckland NZ) in 1996/97



The value or printed material to the potential new customer mat be enhanced if it contains other printed information that could be useful. Examples include simple calendars, local event schedules, computer show schedules, lists of useful contacts, an insertion page for a directory, a cover for the telephone directory etc.
More sophisticated advertising material usually means additional media apert from printed paper material. Examples here could include a floppy disk or CD containing useful files and programs perhaps even copies of public domain software and programs that will enable the new user to contact your ISP and complete the registration process.

Promotion methods

Direct marketing can include activities such as:
direct mail-outs to users - posting advertising material, special offers for new users, general background info about your ISP, and service application forms
insertions in Magazines and newspapers - advertising material with contact info is the most common insertions sometimes with some printed matter that could be useful to the potential customer - a simple calendar, sticky labels with contact details, telephone directory pages, telphone directory cover etc.
, can include CDs and floppy disks usually withmailbox drops (junk mail!) and other direct maketing methods that may be available. , taking part in one or more of the many computings shows and conferences, sponsorship schemes, advertising in newsgroups, junk email (although this is spamming and will probably do more damage to your business), special pricing schemes and promotions, giveaways/prizes/draws for prizes or services, etc...
The major factor with promotions is the cost. The more spent in this area then the greater the returns, the more professional the promotion, the more targetted it is, then again the more chance of better returns for your business.