We haven’t exactly been shy about how important social media is for the modern business—including a managed service provider—to be using as a part of its marketing strategy. On top of that, we’ve been vocal about how important images are to include in your social media for nearly a decade…but you can still do better.
It’s no secret at this point that social media is a useful tool for business marketing, effectively without exception. However, determining which of the available platforms is best for you to use to promote your offering as a managed service provider may be a little more challenging.
Let’s examine the benefits of utilizing social media as an MSP, before examining how each platform can be most effectively used.
Your business’ Facebook Page is about as important of a marketing tool for your business as your website is. For some of your prospects, your Facebook page is their introduction to you and your business. With that being the case, you, no doubt, want to make not only a good impression on your clients and prospects, but you’ll also want a URL that is easy to market and share.
One of the things that is great about social media is that it is free for your business to use. However, as a company in the B2B space, you’re greatly limiting the success of your company if you don’t consider utilizing some of the paid aspects of these platforms. One way to get started is to consider promoting, or ‘boosting’, the posts you are already doing.
When it comes to a company’s social media pages, every follower and “like” is valuable. Essentially, your social media followers are the ones who will most frequently see your marketing content. Therefore, when formulating your social media marketing strategy, you need to keep in mind their expectations, or else risk losing them.
It’s not uncommon for professionals in the MSP industry to treat the formal marketing of their business as an afterthought. However, during the current crisis, where social distancing reduces the opportunity for face-to-face contact, and many business owners are focused more on keeping the cashflow going rather than improving and upgrading their IT, having leads fall into your lap may be difficult. It doesn’t have to be. Now is the time to develop your online persona and drive lead generating conversations.
MSP Marketing mistake: There are many Managed Service Providers out there that have decided, “we’re not going to bother with social media at all.” We understand where they’re coming from: managing multiple social media channels on top of handling all the day to day business processes can be overwhelming for a small business. Instead of even attempting to, some companies of smaller size won’t even bother setting up accounts for their company across the major platforms.
It’s been almost 15 years since Facebook opened itself up for the public, and not long after that, it gave businesses the opportunity to use the platform to communicate with customers, clients, and prospects. If you aren’t using social media as a part of your online presence, you are extremely late to the game.
As business currently stands, each and every company (including those who provide managed services to others) need to be actively engaged in marketing efforts. Without these efforts, prospects are simply unlikely to progress to be the clients a business needs. There are tools, however, that an MSP may use to lead a prospect through what is known as the marketing funnel, or the progression of initiatives that help nudge a prospect to become a lead, and from there a client.
Social media is not only one of the main drivers of traffic to your site, but it is also a primary tool for the marketing of your business. Social media is particularly valuable to smaller businesses, as it can level the playing field in regards to the ability to communicate with an audience. Unsure of how to find the time to set up, customize and develop an effective social media plan for your business? Now’s the time for The Ultimate Social Media Rig.
Marketing your MSP may seem like a huge endeavor, or that you need to be a marketing mastermind to actually effectively market your business, but that is not true. If done right, marketing can be done without any stress or hassle. Where do you start? With a plan of course!
We often discuss your company’s image in terms of presenting itself and yourself in the best possible light, talking up your strengths and the benefits of your services. However, what if someone else is actively doing the opposite? While the term “fake news” has been thrown around a lot in recent years, the damage that can be done to even a small business is not to be underestimated.
We’ve spoken at length about the importance of social media as a business marketing tool. We even include it in our other marketing services. Our blog service, for instance, includes the setup of a third-party tool that will automatically post your blogs to your business’ social media pages.
Recently, we have been sharing insights on some best practices regarding social media. This time, we’re going to discuss the primary function of social media: engagement.
Social media, Facebook especially, is an amazing marketing tool to gain the attention of your target audience. It can be used by businesses of all sizes to effectively communicate and expose your business to not only your clients and prospects but also to a much larger general population.
Instead of relying on your ‘gut’ to determine which MSP services to market, take a page from what your competitors are doing. Stop guessing which technology is in demand; by studying your competitors you might be able to gain insight into what you are lacking, or how you need to stand out.
Social media allows MSPs to reach millions of potential customers all over the world. However, most people don't want to be 'marketed' to. Moreover, they have various methods to tune out your message and your business from their Facebook feed. Take a moment to learn how to use social media to create leads without giving the impression you're 'marketing.'
Marketing automation allows businesses to maximize the use of the time they set aside for marketing their business. Careful planning and online software programs will replace a portion of your MSP’s marketing effort, allowing you to use the time that would have been used for marketing elsewhere. With marketing automation, an MSP can continue marketing to their website’s visitors and prospects long after the initial contact.
“How long will it take for an SEO strategy to start showing results?” This is a question that will get you many different answers depending on who you ask. The optimization of your business’ website happens on so many levels and has so many different variables, and coupled with the fact that your competitors aren’t just resting on their heels and have likely also optimized their website, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can take as long as six months to show results.
