Sure, you don't have the cash to spend on heavy marketing campaigns, but you can copy some of the big companies' strategies and apply them to your ISP. Besides thousands and thousands of customers, what does AOL have that you don't?

by Brock Henderson [March 22, 2002]

First of all, AOL has a start page that its customers actually use.

How many of your customers choose your start page to be their start page? Probably only a small fraction. Why? Because you aren't offering them the types of things they want, or at least not in a way they want it.

As a service provider you exist to provide Internet access and related products/services, but if your start page isn't keeping your customers … if it isn't continually drawing them to you … you aren't doing your job. Go to a gas station and you can get gas, but you can also buy oil, anti-freeze, soda, snacks, candy, aspirin, maps, gloves, donuts, cigarettes, lighters, beer, ice, toys, and a lot more. Except for the gas, oil, and anti-freeze none of the products are directly related to your car, yet they are items that sell because they in some way or another enhance the life experience of the customer. Note that I did not say they enhance the driving experience of the customer, but rather the life experience of the customer.

Many ISPs seem to take a purist's perspective and say, "If it isn't Internet or webhosting, then we don't do it". I do not suggest you attempt to be all things to all people, but there is a middle ground that many of you are completely missing: useful content, and tons of it.

Take a look at the Web page of any of your local television stations. I'll bet that at least one of them has more content and items of customer interest than you have on your website. Does your site have one click to the local weather, news, or stocks? Do you have chat rooms? (Not just one or two rooms that are dedicated to computer and internet topics, but several rooms that cater to all interests.) Can your customers find out about real estate, movies, books, shopping, local events, health, dining, dating, business, pet care, gardening, school activities, churches, and sports on your start page?

BellSouth's start page is clearly BellSouth, but is has a lot of content. Here's just part of the start page for BellSouth customers:

Channels

Click on some of the links listed and you stay with a BellSouth page, but click on to Shopping, for example, and you are immediately transferred to a mySimon site. Although the mySimon pages are not transparent (just compare the BellSouth version to the mySimon home page), I seriously doubt that any of the BellSouth customers care or even notice. What's important is that your customers are getting the information, resources, and services they want. If you're not providing a lot of content, you are missing a lot valuable opportunities.

First, if you are providing your customers content, then they are sitting on your servers and you aren't getting billed for nearly as much download traffic. Wouldn't it be nice to reduce your expenses, even if it's just a little?

Second, if they aren't coming to you as a start page how can you inform them of new products or services? If you decide to go into business with a company that sells a product, how can you sell your customers anything if they don't see you? Just like a brick and mortar store, you should want your customers to think of you first, and not be off visiting some other store.

Thirdly—and this is a core value-add of having content, in my opinion—how can you make money from referral and affiliate programs? Some of you are completely repulsed by the idea of an ISP providing referral and affiliate programs. You feel that this programs sully your relationship with the customer.

I understand that you don't want to cheapen your professional image, but there are affiliate and referral relationships out there that will help your customer while they generate a little extra income for you. Let's face it, many of you are already participating in the referral business when you pay your customers for referring business to you, so what's wrong with being on the receiving end of the cash exchange? Nothing.

I'm not talking about programs that promise wealth on the Internet or sell electronic snake oil. I'm talking about professional, solid, established, and recognized businesses that are interested in doing business with your customers; firms that your customers may already be doing business with, just not through you: business such as H&R Block, Chase Bank, K*B Toys, Amazon.com, McAfee, Dell Computers, Sharper Image, Nordstrom, and magazines such as Business Week and TimeLife, just to name a few.

By providing your customers with the resources they want, you are enhancing their enjoyment of the Internet, and giving them ample reason to keep using you as their start page. Content on a website—including an ISP's website—is an absolute necessity. There's a banner being run by internet.com that says: "internet.com, it's all about content".

When you provide lots of content to your customers you are reducing AOL's only real advantage over you … their immense content. Fight back by providing lots of quality content for your customers and become a 100-pound gorilla. Be strong.

—End