ADSL and Leased Lines

[Techman]

Hello,

I have been playing with web technologies for years now and I would like to offer the following services: -

Leased Lines.
ADSL

There is nothing new about this products except that I would like to offer these services a lot cheaper than you can currently get them for example ADSL for £21 a month against £29.99 from BT and Leased lines 2MB in the 0207 area for 5-6 K a year. I have the equipment in place and bandwidth I would just need to do a deal with an ADSL and Leased line provider to be able to sell these products(which is very easy and I have the cash for this). The problem is that I am a very good with software and computer networks but I know nothing about sales and marketing. Where / how can I get customers from? I don’t have the vast marketing sums that other ISP have ?

[Gerry Ford]

HI David
Even though your budget for marketing may be limited there are still ways to get the message out there. One widely empoyed technique is to give the old fashioned 'word of mouth' a helping hand. This is called viral marketing and can be cheap and effective. Basically, you provide, say 20, people with your services FOC. Their job is to 'gush' about your service to another 20 people each - usually in a customer group that you have pre-determined (eg 25-35 year old professionals). An alternative to FOC services is just to pay people. If you've ever heard a very loud birhday or stag party in a club ranting on about how good vodka and red bull is, you've probably experienced viral marketing.

Another method you might consider is 'relationship marketing'. The fact that you may be able to offer a cheaper service than is currently available may well be of use to someone else - for example, let's say you hooked up with someone like PC world, they promote your service as a benefit for their customers, you access a large customer base. This happens all the time, think of a McDonald's Happy Meal and the free toy the kid gets promoting some new movie - everybody wins, marketing departments are always on the look out for good partnerships.
Best Regards
Rusty