3 Types of Social Proof that MSPs Need on Their Website

You can sing praises about your company’s dedication to providing superior IT support in your marketing all you want. The fact of the matter is, this isn’t always enough to convince every prospect that it’s worth entering into a business relationship with you. How do they know you aren’t stretching the truth?

Social proof can help convince the skeptics that your company is the “real deal” because it looks at your company from the voice and perspective of an outside source familiar with your company. You want to be collecting as much as you can, and put it all on your central marketing hub: your website.

The following information looks into the types of social proof that are most beneficial for managed service providers to include on their website, and also gives you some additional ideas of ways that you can increase your company’s credibility in the eyes of prospects visiting your website.

1. Testimonials

Testimonials are relatively short snippets of what your clients have to say about you. They give you a chance to feature the positive feedback that you receive from both normal business-to-client interactions and official “asks” for feedback on services rendered.

Your website NEEDS to have a Testimonials page so that all of the testimonials that you receive can be featured in one place. This page should have a form embedded so that your clients can submit their own testimonials to you. You can definitely feature testimonials in other places on your website as well.

If you’re struggling to fill the page, run a Testimonial Campaign to push for this positive feedback.

Take it a Step Further with Video!

Video Testimonials can help take your social proof to the next level because your website visitors can actually SEE your client speaking praise about your company. Videos in general are an especially powerful type of marketing that can improve the overall quality of your website.

If you have the means to do so, record clients willing to submit a testimonial to you in this manner and put those videos on your website. As a bonus, you can also make these videos a part of your social media marketing.

2. Case Studies

Case Studies are your customer success stories that allow you to tell a story about how you solved a client’s problem. These are arguably even more powerful types of social proof for managed service providers because they provide real-world examples of how your services are beneficial. When they are industry-specific, they are a great piece of marketing collateral for a campaign targeting that particular industry. You DEFINITELY need a few of these on your website if you want higher conversion rates.

Make sure that you have a place on your website for all of your case studies that is easy to find. You can also include them in other places too. For example, if you have any industry-specific service pages, include an applicable case study on that page.

A note of caution: We’ve come across some businesses who will lock their case studies behind a form. This is okay to do for a lot of your deliverables because it helps you collect information about potential leads, but it’s not something we recommend you do for your case studies. Requiring someone to fill out a form to read the one they are interested in will only detersome people from reading it in the first place.

3. Awards

Awards won by your company are another great type of social proof. If you’re just starting out as an IT company, you might not have any awards to show off - and that’s okay. It won’t hurt you if you don’t have any, but it can certainly help!

When you do win an award, make sure to write a news article about it and mention it in your marketing. If there’s an official ‘badge’ for the award that you won like some organizations will create, make sure to picture it on your website (your homepage and About Us page are a great start, but you can also consider creating an ‘Awards’ page if you’ve won multiple awards).

Other Ways to Increase Your Credibility

While social proof is certainly a powerful thing in the eyes of your prospects, there is more that you can do within the confounds of your MSP’s website to impress website visitors - clients and prospects alike:

Data and Statistics

Throwing some statistics throughout your website that are related to your service offerings shows that you did your research, and are knowledgeable about the pain points that your services solve. Even better, you can incorporate data from your PSA into your website similar to the way that we do for our Businessline MSP Website Template.

Certifications and Vendor Partnerships

It’s likely that your technicians have a few different certifications under their belt. Show them off on your website! Even showcasing your vendor partnerships can work in your favor: if you’re using quality vendors that have good brand recognition to provide IT services to community businesses, their positive reputation can carry over to you.

Memberships

Are you a member of any industry groups? What about your local Chamber of Commerce? Any other local groups? If it is a well-known and reputable group, showing off your membership on your website will work in your favor. It will especially help you if you are a member of any local groups, because this shows off your community involvement.

Company Blog

Having a company blog and posting IT-related articles on a regular basis shows that you’re dedicated to educating the local area about IT best practices.

Your About Us Page

If you’re using your About Us Page (or Menu) optimally, then it should present your company in a positive light by showcasing your company’s history, values, and culture. Over half of B2B decision makers will seek out this sort of information when researching your company, so make it easy for them to find it by putting it all in one place!

Deliverables

Having deliverables on your website allows a user to download a file to their computer or mobile device, then return to it at a later time and date. In addition to your case studies, things like checklists, how-to guides, brochures, and whitepapers are nice additions to your website.

Note that you could have ALL of the above on your website, and still not be seeing the results that you expect. If your website design is poor, people may bounce before they get the chance to actually explore your website and head to a competitor’s website instead. If you are not seeing improvements make changes, you may find moving content above the fold will capture conversion.

Prep Your Website for Lead Conversion Success

Need help packing your website with social proof? Let us know! We can help you run a Testimonial Campaign so that you can start collecting positive feedback to put on your website, or write case studies for you through our Case Study Creation Service.

If you need to get back to Step 1 first and fix up your website, we can assist with that too! Check out our available templates.

For more information on any of this, feel free to reach out to us with your questions or schedule a demo to see things for yourself.