MSP Marketing Has No Finish Line

IT services are a tough racket. It’s easy to alternate between lots of work and opportunities, and drought. A lot of businesses approach this issue by going all in on their marketing efforts during low points and stopping completely when prospects start converting into clients.

This approach is flawed in many ways. First of all, it’s a lot of work crammed into a little bit of time, and second, it feels like you don’t get the return you should for the money you invest. The secret to properly promoting your managed services isn’t throwing money at the problem, it’s consciously going about it with strategy and forethought.

The Problem with Most MSP Marketing is a Perceived Finish Line

While individual marketing efforts and campaigns may have start and end dates, your marketing itself, as a whole, can and should not. Much like most other things in life and business, consistency matters most… and this consistency cannot stop, ever. If you can accomplish this, you’re already one step ahead of any competition that isn’t sharing information about their services just as consistently.

Why is Consistency So Important?

Look at it this way: how often do you see something—especially a service—and immediately pull out your checkbook to purchase it? Almost never, right?

Many industries are built on some level of trust, and managed IT services are no exception. You need to establish a rapport with a prospect and develop a relationship if you want to have a chance of closing a deal with them. Communicating with them consistently is key for a few reasons:

Consistency Helps You Build Trust
Consider this: if your office mail is delivered promptly at 11:15 every day, wouldn’t you begin to anticipate it arriving at 11:15 tomorrow, and the next day, and so on? Of course you would. In the same vein, regularly sharing resources and making your presence known through blogs, social media, and other channels helps show prospects that you deliver high-quality, consistently reliable information. As a result, a critical sense of trust can be fostered. Failing to do so, predictably, will have the opposite effect.

Consistency Helps You Attract Compounding Attention
In addition to impressing a prospect, consistently sharing valuable information through your website in the form of blogs, service pages, newsletters, and downloadable deliverables (while also using social media to spread attention on various platforms) also helps you impress the search engines. One blog post won’t make many waves, but two posts each week over a year will.

Consistency Helps You Establish a Baseline for Success
As you work to market your business, the more you actively do, the more you’ll have to compare and contrast to determine what works and what doesn’t. You can also run A/B tests to determine why certain efforts didn’t work and what the optimal approach is so you can make better decisions with data backing you up.

3 Steps to Planning a Consistent Marketing Strategy

Step 1: Identify Your Ideal Customer (No, “Everyone” Doesn’t Count) 

Trying to please everyone will ultimately lead you to fall short of everyone’s expectations. Think about the kind of things your competitors offer. Chances are, their services will look a lot like yours… so what can you do to stand out?

Simple: find something specific to focus on.

Take some time to identify your ideal target audience, the industry that they operate in, the size of business you can most effectively serve, and what services you specialize in. What industries are well-represented in your service area? Which verticals have compliance needs that you can fulfil? Are you willing to step in and augment an internal IT department through co-managed services, or are you prepared to completely take responsibility for your clients’ IT infrastructure?

While you’re at it, take some time to identify the pain points your candidates typically suffer through. Knowing these data points can help make your messaging more effective by addressing the emotions that a problem brings as well as the problem itself. A security breach isn’t just bad for the business; it’s stressful on the people who work there. You need to communicate that you aren’t just selling cybersecurity tools and platforms; you’re selling the sense of security and peace of mind that these protections bring.

Step 2: Pick Your Platforms 

Let’s face it: as valuable as it is to be on as many platforms as possible, it’s only worthwhile if all of those platforms get enough of your attention and effort. To that end, you need to pick a few to establish good habits on before you expand into others. It is also important to consider who your audience is and where they are likely to spend their time online.

We recommend that most MSPs start with the following three:

1. Your Business’ Website - Much like all roads once led to Rome, all of your marketing efforts need to lead somewhere. For a managed service provider, that “somewhere” should be your website. Your website is your most effective marketing and sales tool simply because it is always available, whether a prospect visits it over breakfast, on the commute home, or in the middle of the night as their IT issues keep them awake. As such an important representative of your business, you need to ensure it represents you professionally and guides visitors to reach out to you to schedule an appointment. Review your calls-to-action (CTAs) to ensure they are clear and inviting.
2. Your Content - From your service pages and blogs on your website to your search engine optimization efforts, the content you share will help you accomplish two goals. First, it will illustrate your expertise to your clients, helping reinforce the trust you are trying to build. Second, it answers the questions a prospect will search for on Google, drawing them to your website to learn more.
3. Amplifier Messaging - So, you’ve populated your website with a veritable library of content showcasing your expertise and knowledgability into all things business technology… the next step is getting people there to see it. You have options here, like social media posts, email marketing (once you’ve secured permission to email a contact, that is), good old-fashioned direct mail, or even sponsoring/hosting public-facing events. Figure out what resonates with your particular audience and focus on that.

Step 3: Start a Routine 

Once you’ve established what you want to do, it’s time to set a schedule and start doing it. Creating a content marketing calendar can set you on a path to consistency, and it really doesn’t have to be complicated.

For example, let’s say you wanted to highlight your MSP’s backup and disaster recovery services for National Preparedness Month. Your plan might look something like this:

• Week 1: Publish a blog post discussing BDR’s importance, tying into National Preparedness Month. Prepare topical social media posts directing back to this blog.
• Week 2: Compose emails to remind contacts of the month and prompt them to check their own BDR preparedness. Taking points from the blog, have each focus on a different aspect of BDR or the pain points it resolves.
• Week 3: Share a quick video sharing some tips, also from your initial blog, on how businesses can better ensure their own business continuity.
• Week 4: Wrap up the month with a final blog reiterating the points made throughout the month, share it in your e-newsletter, and direct to it from social media.

With this kind of plan, you can stretch simple ideas into entire campaigns, making them much more achievable overall.

Need Help Executing This? You Aren’t Alone

None of this should be news to you, because we haven’t yet covered the point where things tend to fall apart: the execution phase. Things get busy, tasks get pushed, and suddenly, you’re back to the sporadic marketing you started with.

That’s where we step in.

You Don’t Necessarily Have to Do It Yourself

Take it from one MSP to another: we understand entirely. We’ve dealt with the same challenges—it’s just that we also have the advantage of being both marketing experts and IT professionals. We’re happy to share this expertise with you.

Instead of managing your social media or creating SEO-optimized content, partnering with us lets you leverage our industry knowledge and achieve the consistency you’re looking for.

Automate Your Marketing Management

We’ve created websites that are user-friendly to the nth degree, going so far as to automate many of the marketing minutiae. For example, let’s say someone fills out a form on your website. This simple trigger then kicks off a series of critical actions:

• A contact is added to your ConnectWise/Autotask CRM.
• A sales ticket is generated.
• The new contact is added to a specialty email campaign tailored to the form submitted.
• The sales team is assigned to follow up, and the task is added to their schedule.

Just like that, you’ve accomplished some substantial marketing efforts, all with a bit of proactive planning and strategic automation.

Embrace the Benefits a Strategic Plan Brings You and Your MSP Marketing

The new year isn’t that far away —why not make an early resolution and put together a system for your marketing to follow? We can help!

Our specialty is providing marketing services that have been stress-tested and proven to work, ensuring our fellow MSPs can deliver their high-caliber services to as many of the right businesses as possible.

Interested to see what that looks like? Let’s schedule a time to discuss your marketing!