How to Maximize Your MSP’s Email Marketing Strategy

Ever since the first marketing email was sent out over the ARPANET in 1978, the tool has been a cornerstone of many businesses’ marketing strategies, in just about every industry. Managed services are no exception to this rule.

Let’s take a look at some of the strategies and tactics that you should be incorporating into your MSP marketing emails.

You Should Be Segmenting Your Audience

Let’s face it—when you’re trying to market your services as an MSP, it isn’t as though you’re only talking about one thing. Likewise, you very well may not be talking to the same people in your prospect organizations. You may be talking to different industries entirely, depending on whom you’d prefer to serve.

As such, it is critical that you take the time to create specific and dedicated emails to address the various talking points that you want to focus on for different buyer’s journeys. Creating specific lists for different campaigns allows you to avoid overwhelming your entire list of contacts with messages that are only relevant to some of them, more specifically addressing them and making use of more direct calls-to-action to match their specific needs.

You Should Automate Your Campaigns

Today, there are means to set up your email campaigns and effectively allow some parts of your email marketing to run itself. By creating campaigns that are activated based on certain triggers—say, someone fills out a form on your website requesting a deliverable that lists out a checklist for evacuating the office during an emergency—you can proactively ensure that you keep your contact engaged with you through repeated touches. The other benefit to this is that it works at all times, so if an insomniac is looking up business technology services at three in the morning, they don’t have to wait until the start of the workday to get the information they’ve requested.

You Should Do More than Just Pitch Your Services

It’s important to remember that email is effectively a direct line to a prospects’ personal message board—do you really think they want to see it filled with ads or sales pitches? Probably not, so while these kinds of emails certainly have their place in your strategy, you also need to incorporate some other messages.

Take the opportunity to share some of your expertise as an MSP through your emails to your contacts, handing out some useful tips. This helps to reinforce your reputation as a thought leader and industry authority, helping build trust and a positive impression of your team. You can also just keep them up-to-date regarding the goings-on at your company, helping to personalize your organization in their eyes.

You Should Put the Focus on Your Recipients’ Needs

On a related note, it is also important to remember to avoid talking too much about yourself and what you have to offer. While your business’ accomplishments and capabilities may help sway a prospect toward trying you out sooner, or calling you before they call a competitor, your email contacts don’t really care all that much about you, or what you do. What they really care about is the problem they’re struggling with or the hurdle that is keeping them from progressing, and what you’ll do to fix that.

Most people don’t buy groceries because the food has been fortified with essential vitamins and minerals, they buy groceries because they need to eat. Managed services work in much the same way.

You Should Test and Refine Your Emails

Finally, don’t assume that once your email campaigns are written that you’re done. There’s always a means to improve your email marketing efforts as an MSP. A/B testing—or the process of simultaneously running multiple options to establish which is the most effective—can help you optimize your campaigns. Test when is the best time to send your emails, which message works the most effectively, and how other variables impact your message’s efficacy.