For most growing MSPs, the number one challenge is to find new customers. If you’ve been struggling to gain traction from your potential pool of leads, keep reading to learn our proven MSP marketing strategy. It will navigate your clients effortlessly through your sales funnel.

What is MSP Industry?

MSPs are third-party managed service providers that specialize in remotely managing their customer organization’s IT infrastructure and end-user systems. When businesses begin hiring MSP services, they focus on what is more profitable for their business instead of getting caught up in the day-to-day IT management hassles. So while MSPs take care of monitoring their customer organization’s security, manage their IT infrastructure, and ensure reduced downtimes, businesses can focus on improving their products and services. A study by Markets and Markets stated that the global MSP industry will be worth $354.8 billion by 2026.

MSPs trace their evolution back to the introduction of ASPs (application service providers) in the 90s. By offering remote application hosting, ASPs paved way for cloud computing thus becoming the lead for companies that would then use remote support as a service offered to look after the IT infrastructure of their customer organizations.  

The term cloud service provider is sometimes used synonymously with MSPs provided the latter deliver their services over the internet using service-level agreement (SLA).

MSPs can either specialize in a specific IT segment such as web hosting, data storage and managed security-as-a-service, remote firewall administration, etc., or tailor their services according to an industry niche. For example, there are MSPs that specialize in offering managed services to customer organizations from the manufacturing, finance, and healthcare industries, etc. 

Why even use MSP Marketing ?

MSP marketing refers to a marketing strategy that should help gain traction for your IT management services. MSPs do this by targeting prospective customers and making it easier for them to seek their services for improved efficiency.

Keep in mind that the MSP marketing plan can never be a “quick” fix to your lead-generating problem. MSP marketing services invest weeks, even months in first building a comprehensive business awareness process and then educating their potential leads and customers. Around 55% of businesses are spending more time with their MSPs today. Leading your customer organizations from the start through the end of the sales funnel is an intensive process.

MSPs can either perform it in-house or hire specialized MSP marketing agencies to handle everything which we will discuss here.

Below you will find some of the most robust techniques used by MSP marketing agencies to achieve notable growth. The catch is to stay committed. These techniques are proven but take time and you must trust the process. It will be a rookie mistake to expect quick rewards with minimal mental or physical investment. 

Below is the checklist for designing a fool-proof MSP marketing strategy.

1.  Design a Killer MSP Website for Visibility and Traction  

The first component of your MSP marketing process should be an original website. It should be appealing to your customers and search engine crawlers. Remember, in order to be approached, you must first be seen. SEO is responsible for driving around 1000+% more traffic to your website than any organic social media.

Search engines prefer tailored websites with highly targeted and SEO-packed content. Your website must be fine-tuned to meet every SEO criterion from content structure to CTAs.

Here are a few things you can do in order to curate a killer, lead-generating website.

1.      Generate highly optimized, and relevant content that taps into your client’s pain points.

2.      Your site must be responsive as well as compatible with different devices.

3.      Include videos and pictures of your team in action. This adds an element of trust for your clients and establishes you as a figure of authority in your industry.

4.      Add clear CTAs that easily navigate your clients and guide them through your sales funnel.

5.      Incorporate partnered logos and testimonials from other experts as well as current and past clients to boost trust and reputation.

6.      Reject cheap, shared hosting in favor of dedicated hosts with independent server infrastructure.

7.      Laser-focus on your ideal clients by incorporating their queries into your content using an FAQ page.

8.      Onboard experts to streamline the on-page SEO of your website and clean up the code. SEO optimization is a long-term marketing fix that will generate the greatest results.

If you are an MSP searching for a robust marketing solution, then let’s have a conversation today.

2. Email Marketing Is Your Best Friend

Email marketing is one of the go-to tenets of a solid MSP marketing plan. This marketing process allows companies to get one-on-one with their probable customers. According to a recent study, 80% of marketers rate email marketing as being the biggest game changer when it comes to lead generation and client retention. Moreover, for every dollar spent on email marketing, businesses can accrue around $38 in profit.

 Your email marketing campaign will include MSP marketing messages, consultation offers, sales solicitations, business requests, updates, etc.

Today’s customer seeks personalized attention. By narrowing in on the needs of your customer organizations and targeting them with highly personalized emails, you can also draw on this growing trend.

Be careful not to bombard your leads with promotional messages and MSP advertisements. Build a relationship first by addressing their pain points and then slowly, but surely, guide them towards a solution your company is offering that they cannot put down.

Like other elements in your MSP marketing strategies, email marketing is also a time-intensive process but one that rewards those generously who stay committed.

3. Content Marketing

Content marketing is another long-term lead-generating solution for growing MSPs. Google loves to reward good content but it is in tandem with consistency. Content loaded with visuals, infographics, and informative blog posts will only catch the eye of search engines as long as it comes out regularly.

 Do not make the mistake of creating amazing content and then disappearing for months simply hoping that the search engines might one day catch up. All good things take time and although it can be mentally and financially taxing to generate top-notch content on a regular basis, companies that have stuck with the formula have seen a massive return on investments in the long run.

Blogging And Content Audit

At a minimum, you must post good content in the form of blogs, how-to articles, and listicles at least four times a month. Keep your finger on the pain points of your local clients by tailoring your content to meet their specific needs. 409 million people view more than 20 billion pages each month and a big chunk of these are blog pages.

Perform a regular content audit to keep an eye on pages that generate the greatest traffic versus those that do not. Look for metrics that result in discrepancies of this kind and then upgrade your content accordingly. Successful content marketing requires regular audits of your blogs and other information on the site. You must track the impression, backlinks, and bounce rates that your website is generating in order to separate good content from what is not working. Adding podcasts and video-based content is both appealing to the eye and increases on-site retention.

A final note to bear in mind is to write for the customers first and then optimize for the search engines. Do not be swayed by the itch to rank higher and end up devaluing your blogs with optimized content that fails to strike a chord with your customers. You must hit the right balance between relevance and optimization to get the best results.

4. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is part of an MSP’s inbound marketing strategy. It has become one of the best current digital marketing tools for any business. Facebook has over two million users alone. LinkedIn, with over 500 million users, is another dominant social media tool. You must learn to leverage these as powerful online networking sites to generate leads and traffic for your own website.

You can use a number of social media platforms to reach your specific B2B customer base. The choice for one will depend upon the kind of marketing strategy you rely upon. Instagram and YouTube are great platforms for video marketing. However, most managed IT services primarily communicate via text and should prefer sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

5. Search Engine Marketing

This is where search engine optimization comes in. SEO professionals are currently one of the most sought-after experts for most digital business owners. This is because they hold the key to that dear old spot on Google’s first page for which businesses all over the world continue to vie. According to a study, 93% of all online interactions come from Google alone and 70% of clicked links on Google are organic. This means that users favor ranked websites over paid ads.

You can either hire an in-house search engine marketing staff or outsource it to a third-party MSP marketing agency. While there are some risks in opting for external MSP marketing this way, the costs are usually less than hiring your own full-time staff. To minimize risks, however, you must ensure that your third-party marketing agency has a solid understanding of the technical aspects of your services and is able to bring it across to your audience the way you hope to do.

By mastering the basics of search engine marketing and SEO, you can quickly dominate the local search results, Google maps, and other engines to gain visibility. The greater your visibility, the greater will be your chance to secure managed services contracts from prospective customers.  

A successful search engine marketing plan will require you to get listed in the top 200-300 business directories, use simple lines of code that can easily guide Google, and identify your local competitors.

In order to succeed, your website must

·        follow the correct internal site structure favored by Google

·        incorporate highly optimized meta titles and meta tags

·         possess a lead-driving landing page with high-conversion rates

·        Secure local authoritative backlinks

·        Engages customers with a proper follow-up content strategy

·        Feature the key terms IT buyers are feeding in the search bars; according to an eye-opening study, only 0.16% of keywords are responsible for 60.70% of all searches.

6. Collaborating with other MSPs

Not only can you learn a lot from your competitors by analyzing the factors driving their success, but you can also draw on their success directly by collaborating with them. Successful MSPs understand that by synergizing their operations with other MSPs, all parties stand to benefit.  Most MSPs have similar ambitions with possibly complementing solutions. When done right, such collaborations can be immensely profitable.

Business partnerships of this sort are on a decline but it should not be this way. Since 1980, partnerships have resulted in a profit increase of 157% but partnership failure rates also increased to 47% in the last decade.

One of the main reasons for this increase is the lack of definitive roles during such partnerships. Stable partnerships are the result of a mutual understanding of responsibilities between the two parties. MSPs must take into consideration their specific niche within IT management and allocate responsibilities accordingly. As long as you ensure smooth communication and focus on results for your customers instead of profits, you should achieve massive success.

7. Using Networking Events to Your MSP Advantage

Hosting and attending industry-specific networking events is a great way to bring awareness about your managed services among potential customers. Speaking at such an event is a great way to catch the attention of a customer organization in need of a managed service provider. With all eyes on you, not only do you establish yourself as a credible and trustworthy authority, but also kick-start an organic connection with your potential customer.

Retention Planning

It is a rule of thumb in marketing that retaining old clients is less costly than acquiring new ones. Once you’ve earned yourself a client, do not hesitate in moving mountains to retain them. There are two things you can do to retain clients. The first, a no-brainer, is that you offer impeccable customer services. Second, offer exclusive and personalized discounts for recurring customers.  

Periodic IT Review

Making your clients spend more can be a double-edged sword for your business. You probably think that increasing the bills for your clients will chase them away. You’re not wrong since they will, provided, they are bills that your clients are paying for essential services. In other words, you’re making your clients pay extra for services that they need, not services that they want.

Now you can avoid making that mistake by creating a formal review system and carrying it out with each of your clients every six months. You can carry out an interview session face-to-face with your client or fill out an online document with open-ended and closed questions. This will help you identify the wants, and with the right offer presented at the right time, many will be willing to buy more.

Recurring Revenue For Financial Security

Most businesses fail when they run out of cash. Wouldn’t it be incredibly settling to know that you have a set amount of recurring revenue to cover your fixed costs, such as utility, rent, staff, etc.?  You can do this by getting your clients to sign a recurring support contract. You may offer discounted rates, preferential response times, unlimited support, discounts on software licenses, etc. Also, make the whole process less intimidating by leaving the doors open for an easy opt-out with maybe a month’s notice.

A Final Word

At the end of the day, mutual trust and top-notch services are the only way to ensure that your marketing strategies work in the long term. As mentioned earlier, most, if not all, of the strategies listed here require time and commitment. So if you are patient and willing to put in a few good hours, the reward will be yours.

If you are an MSP searching for a robust marketing solution, then let’s have a conversation today.