Ambush Strategies for Deploying New POPs

You're in expansion mode, planning to roll out POPs in areas where you've had no previous presence. Here's a POP-deployment marketing guide that will help you ambush your competitors and give you the greatest leverage in your new markets.

by Christopher M. Knight ISP-Planet Managing Editor [July 26, 1999]

Let's start with a question: When is a good time to begin planning the marketing campaign for your new POP deployment?

Well, the wrong time to be planning your marketing strategy is the week before—or worse, the week or month after—you launch. Some ISPs believe it's better to get into a market, get your server bugs worked out, and then introduce yourself, so you don't stumble. My philosophy, however, is that it's much more profitable to charge forward first and figure out the back end second. So, in my view, the right answer is months—probably at least a quarter—before you actually enter the market.

In warfare, "ambush"—hiding, waiting to attack an unsuspecting enemy—has a slightly dishonorable connotation. But in business (as in war) the element of surprise is a powerful advantage If you can keep your plans secret up until the day you introduce your new POP to the public, you can win as much as a 30 day cushion before your new local competitors can react and mount a counteroffensive to your marketing blitz.

And a marketing blitz is what you'll need to jump-start a market where customers may not have heard of your ISP before. A 'blitz' is when you pour it on hard and strong for a brief period of time, and then wrap back around for future blitzes or maintenance marketing.

Your goal is to impact target prospects 29 times during your blitz. This is a lot, but the guerilla marketing books tell us that, typically, a prospect must hear, see, feel, think about you—or be impacted in some way—at least 29 times before taking action and signing up with your ISP. Obviously this isn't an end-all rule: The point is you need a lot more marketing push than you think. If you can close your sales before 29 impressions, more power to your strategy and persuasiveness.

Here is a creative idea list for your marketing department. Try as many of these as you can:

• Join the local chamber of commerce in the communities you'll be entering.
• Get a list of the local media—newspapers, radio, tv, etc.—and make sure they are notified of your arrival via a press release.
• Give something away to charity through a contest, or build a web site for two or three local nonprofit organizations that don't have one yet, then talk this up in your press release.
• Send a promo postcard to every business in the new POP area just before launch, either offering the business a free trial (if you focus on the Business market) or offering their employees a discount program (if you focus on the Consumer market).
• Enter a float in the local parade and distribute free signup disks and candy. (Don't laugh, as I've seen this unconventional strategy clean house in small communities.)
• Contact local computer and PC service shops and offer them comp accounts for the first six months to introduce yourself, and engage them to see if they are happy with their current ISP relationship or if they are interested in earning $$$ for referrals.

go to page 2: (Ideas checklist, continued)