A New Marketing Channel- Free ISPs

My, how far we’ve come. Just a few short years ago, the only way for the average Internet user to have unlimited access to the Internet was to pay a dial-up ISP (Internet Service Provider) about $20.00 U.S./month. Then competition opened up, and reduced pricing could be found (not to mention a whole new realm of speedier access like ISDN, DSL and cable). Then came the *free* ISPs, such as Net Zero, where the only price for free is the forfeiture of some of your privacy and, at least as the free ISPs hope, some of your attention span.

Faced with having to vie even more for that attention, a growing number of the largest Internet portals — Lycos, Alta Vista, and Excite, for example — are climbing aboard the free ISP train. They can afford to — by doing so, they can generate extra revenue through the additional banner advertisements they serve. Lycos’s service, as an example, installs a permanent bar at the very top of your computer screen which includes both advertisements and links to internal Lycos products such as free e-mail, instant messaging, and MP3 music players.

Another advantage free ISPs have is that they can control your home page. Now that’s power. Not only does this guarantee that users will be forced to see the site over and over again, but it again gives the provider the opportunity to serve up persuasive marketing messages. Case in point: K-Mart and Yahoo have teamed up to launch Blue Light.com which combines a K-Mart e-commerce start page with Yahoo’s e-mail, messaging service and customized portfolios. The cost of providing such services is far offset by the reduced customer acquisition and retention cost, and by the additional steady stream of traffic a program like this generates.

And let’s not forget the personal information so readily forfeited to receive these free ISP services. The demographic information aggregated by these ISPs is like gold to other online an off-line advertisers and marketers, not to mention themselves. Information such as your e-mail address, full name, address, gender, education, occupation, members of household under 17, income, own or rent, language, vehicle, how many pets, etc. is usually required by these ISPs, and can be re-sold or utilized internally to better target ads and special offers.

As an online marketer, the free ISP offers you another powerful and growing channel through which to reach your target audience. Consider it wisely, though, because just because you can get the reach doesn’t mean you can get their attention.

For some examples of free ISP services, check out:

Alta Vista
Excite
Juno
Xoom
1st Up (A Division of CMGI)
Free Internet

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