Unsure where you’ve gone wrong when it comes to your MSP marketing efforts? Don’t worry; you’re not the only one. To help, we’ve put together a list of common mistakes that MSPs make when trying to promote their company, and what you can do to avoid falling prey to them.
When you look up information about a local company, what device are you using to do so? More than likely, you use your smartphone - something that many business decision makers will be doing when looking for assistance with their company’s IT.
There may not be as powerful, or as admirable, a title as “thought leader” in the business setting. If you have earned this distinction, it suggests quite a bit about the respect and influence you command. However, it is important to emphasize that this really is a reputation that must be earned, despite the fact that the path to being seen as a thought leader isn’t always an obvious one.
Imagine this: you’re talking with a business owner and potential client that could be quite lucrative for your MSP. This business owner is unfamiliar with the types of solutions that he needs to keep his business technology operational and protected from any potential threats.
Calls-to-action (CTAs) are an important part of marketing. The right call-to-action will drive your target audience to act, while the wrong one will lead to your message being ignored.
When you’re struggling to attract business, promoting your MSP may seem not as important as keeping the lights on. However, if you don’t market your MSP, you won’t be able to attract the audience needed to generate the leads you need to keep your business running. Fortunately, there are some methods and tools you can use to promote your MSP without breaking the bank.
Your IT company may have been able to skate by for years with just an office space and a very basic company website. You had a steady flow of customers coming in. Maybe there were a few slow months here and there, but nothing you couldn’t weather by waiting it out until things picked up again.
When you’re trying to attract new patrons to your business, you may need to get a little aggressive with your marketing tactics. Of course, we aren’t saying that your message should be “USE OUR SERVICES OR ELSE.” We mean that, in order to make enough of an impression, you need to be both consistent and persistent.
Think about it: how many advertisements that you see actually capture your attention? How many leave a lasting impression that enables you to recall them days, weeks, or even months later?
You want your marketing to be persuasive in getting your target audience to do what you want them to do - turning to you for all of their IT needs. Unfortunately words aren’t always enough. Sometimes, you’ll need to use some numbers (specifically, statistics) to get your message across - the Statistics Appeal advertising strategy.
One of the first reactions that many businesses have to reduced operations is to reduce their own costs. While there isn’t anything wrong with this strategy, per se, it is important that you don’t set your business back further by limiting its marketing. Let’s explore why this is.
Your MSP’s marketing strategy and implementation is an important factor to its success. This means that it is just as important to find the right agency to assist you with your marketing - especially if marketing isn’t necessarily in your wheelhouse.
“Marketing… how hard could it be, right?”
This is the position that many business owners take when they decide that it is time to market their services. They figure if they just have a website, a few social media accounts, and keep their doors unlocked during business hours, they’ll be set. Unfortunately for these business owners, they don’t have someone to show them the right way of marketing - having a plan.
There are a few prerequisites to being a good managed service provider. Of course, you have to provide your clients service, and your delivery needs to be proactive. One of the most important considerations, however, is to have clients to provide services to. This means you are going to have to generate the leads to nurture into these clients. Let’s discuss how to do that.
Communication is at the heart of marketing. If you want to successfully sell your services, you need to be able to effectively communicate their value to your audience.
Since you’re currently reading one of our marketing blogs, it’s more than likely that you’re interested in marketing your company. To do that effectively - that’s a whole other story! Many of our clients have come to us after attempting to market their MSP, but failing. No judgments here - marketing can be quite difficult if you don’t have the experience in doing so.
If you want your next marketing campaign to be successful, there is a lot to consider. You have to put in the time and effort to create amazing marketing materials that are informative and visually appealing. Paired with that, you need a great offer and calls-to-action that entice the recipient of your materials to do what you want them to do.
Businesses of all sizes and all industries recognize at least in part that they need to promote themselves if they want to find new customers and grow their company. However, even if they recognize this, it doesn’t mean it is actually happening.
As an MSP marketing agency, we have gotten to know managed service providers from around the world. Through the many relationships that we have built over the years, we have noticed some common hardships that these businesses experience on a regular basis in relation to their marketing - some of which we even experienced ourselves in the early years of running our own IT company!
