How to Make Your MSP Marketing More Effective

What do you do when you are presented with marketing?

Do you skip YouTube ads? Do you throw away any envelope that looks like it’s an XM Radio offer? Do you delete marketing emails? 

You are living, breathing proof that most people don’t want to be marketed to.

This might sound strange coming from an MSP Marketing Agency, but it’s the cold, hard truth. Fortunately, MSPs have a really great opportunity to skirt around this fact.

It Sucks to Be Marketed To

There are only rare occasions where marketing efforts actually delight the general public. In the entertainment industry, usually fans of a certain topic get pretty excited when they learn about tour dates, new shows and movies, video game announcements, new music, and other types of consumable media or products. A decent percentage of the American public admits to watching the "big game" for the ads, so there’s that too.

For the rest of us on a normal day, marketing is a distraction. It’s an interruption of our day-to-day lives where we are just trying to run our businesses, relax on the couch, or look up a YouTube video on where to find a serial number on our particular model of refrigerator.

Let’s look at MSPs, for example. Even in a perfect world, our ideal prospect doesn’t wake up in the morning hoping to sign up for a managed services contract. IT is not something on the top of the average business owner’s mind, in the same way that your water heater, despite using it daily, is probably not on your mind.

The Right Marketing Puts You Top-of-Mind

I’d be willing to wager that reading the above paragraph was the first time you’ve thought about your water heater in several months. Now your water heater is top of mind.

The first task that an MSP’s marketing needs to do is get your prospects to think about you in the first place. 

At the same time, you don’t want to be the junk mail they throw away, or the ad they frustratingly mash “skip” on.

So how do we do this?

Produce Marketing Materials That are Actually Valuable

We’ve talked about this at length several times. Here are two examples:

When It Comes to Cybersecurity, MSPs Need to be Educators

You Should Take the Lead in Cybersecurity Education

Educating your prospects for free might seem counterintuitive, but they aren’t as aware of technology trends, best practices, and cybersecurity as you are. Stuff that seems very commonplace to you and me might very well be a mystery to others. 

On top of that, most business owners can easily understand that they need their staff trained on certain best practices and cybersecurity, too. Offering resources every so often will go a long way in establishing a great relationship with a prospect.

Stand Out With Your Differentiators and Reviews

One major focus that MSPs should have when it comes to their sales and marketing is establishing great reviews and building case studies. A business owner might not understand everything you bring to the table, but if you work with other players in their industry and can account for their success, it makes you a much better option.

Covering the factors that make you different from your competitors can be a big help too, provided that you actually have differentiators. Simply saying you have the most experience or provide excellent services isn’t enough. Good differentiators should make your offering seem like a no-brainer. For instance, our MSP is able to add value to our services by including web design and marketing services. This makes clients rely on this a lot more and makes our offer that much more appealing (which by the way, you can lean on us to handle your clients’ web design and marketing needs). Other MSPs use adjacent services like VoIP, physical security, access control, and compliance to add additional value to their IT services.

Show Off Community Involvement

There are likely plenty of opportunities for your business to get involved with local community events. This covers everything from sponsoring Little League tournaments to getting involved with your local chamber. If you work with non-profit organizations already, ask them if there is anything your MSP can do to get involved. We put a lot of time, money, and effort into giving back to our community, and it gives us the opportunity to get in front of more prospects. On top of that, you can use your marketing to humbly brag about what you are up to, and maybe even encourage others to join in. 

Offer Friendly Check-ins!

Take off the sales hat for a moment and just network. Check in with clients and prospects regularly, just to see how their business is going. Don’t come at them with promotions, new services, or proposals—instead, ask them if they are experiencing any issues that you can assist them with. Offer to take clients and prospects out to lunch, meet up at networking events, or simply build friendly professional relationships with those in your community.

Marketing Doesn’t Have to Be Annoying

MSPs can take a wide variety of approaches to help stand out and grow. If you’ve felt like your marketing in the past hasn’t worked, it’s likely because you were too focused on closing the sale and pitching your services as opposed to building relationships and establishing rapport.

For help with your MSP marketing, give us a call at 888-546-4384 or reach out to schedule a discussion.