Practical Marketing for MSP. Part 3 – Tactics

Now that we have a strategy for our MSP in place and a good grasp of marketing metrics, it is time to review marketing tactics and proceed with planning.

Before kicking off the planning, we should take a critical look at the resources we have available and investments we can afford to direct towards sales and marketing. It seems logical that generating a large number of leads would be pointless if there is no capacity to follow up on them and close the deals. Yet, many MSPs start by investing a significant amount of money to generate incoming leads, only to end up disappointed, as they fail to see the conversions and business growth they had hoped for.

Selecting marketing tactics

Here is a simple table that could be used as a tool to choose marketing tactics based on the resources available for sales and marketing. On the left side, in the criteria column, every next row assumes that it is added on top of what is covered in the previous rows.

Now, let’s discuss this table in detail.

If the MSP only delivers basic managed services and does not provide a differentiated marketing strategy, marketing investments most likely won’t have positive returns, and the best tactics are those that come “for free”. Asking existing customers and partners to refer potential clients, and ensuring the MSP is discoverable in search, and has a solid description of the services on the website.

The moment there is a differentiated marketing strategy – focusing on a specific vertical, unique expertise, and services an MSP can offer - it is a good time to add content marketing and create content that is useful for prospects and clients. This approach should focus on sharing educational materials and expertise. It comes at a low cost and brings reasonable-quality leads. The approach is to showcase differentiation and expertise, and collect leads from potential clients interested in the offering and expertise.

When dedicated sales resources are available, even if only part-time, activities can expand to include cold calling local businesses, finding local businesses on LinkedIn, initiating conversations with them, and attending local events. The approach is to use direct outreach to deliver the story of the MSPs to potential prospects, researching them, and trying to sign them up as customers.

Only when dedicated marketing resources are available, even if they are part-time, will it make sense to have scalable campaigns and invest money in marketing.

Employing digital marketing and account-based marketing makes sense when there is a sufficient budget to make an impact and marketing is a priority for the company, as these tactics require a significant investment of time and resources.

Marketing tactics used by most MSPs

Based on our experience working with thousands of MSPs, most MSPs primarily use referrals as their primary tactic. Some visit networking events or host their own events, and follow up with emails. That makes sense, as marketing is not really a priority for MSPs. Most claim that they want to grow their business, yet in reality, they acquire only 4-8 new customers a year, to replace the churn of their existing customers.

There is a common misconception that marketing does not make sense without using multiple tactics. In reality, having a solid strategy and executing a few key tactics well may be enough to reach business goals.

In future articles of the series, we will discuss tactics and best practices. Here, we only list the top five:

1. Referrals – various ways of getting existing customers to bring new business, and leveraging the network of connections to get direct referrals. Hint: It works best if there is a simple story that is easy to tell and share, highlighting the key differentiator.
2. Events – going to industry events, participating in local business meetups, organizing lecture and webinars on IT.
3. Email – sending relevant technical news, tips and tricks for business owners, and building image of an expert in the field among the contacts that an MSP was able to collect.
4. Social media – posting relevant news and comments, joining relevant discussions and providing useful advice for the people in need. Hint: focusing on local businesses and joining the right group is the key to success.
5. Content – producing various useful materials and recommendations, posting articles and videos with tips and tricks. Distributing value for free, in exchange of building awareness of the MSP services.

However, regardless of the tactics employed, three key success factors for marketing should be considered when planning and executing activities: consistency, commitment, and persistence.

Consistency

Having a well-defined and well-documented story is a must. At any given moment, potential clients should receive the same consistent message. If you target doctors and offer IT services specific to doctors, stick to the story of being an expert in the field. If you jump around and discuss your expertise in cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, or AI-based coffee machines, it may be a good story for a conversation; yet, a focused and repeatable message will stick better and, in the long run, will yield better results.

Commitment

Most marketing activities fail because MSPs start them and stop them before they see results. Running a small ad campaign, visiting a few events – it is, most likely, not enough to see the impact. Marketing is effective only when it is planned for long-term execution. Thus, a marketing plan is a commitment to execute it.

Persistence

We live in a world overloaded with information. It is amusing to say that, but your offer of IT services competes with everything else in the head of the SMB business owner – casual games, new cars, and solar panels. New information and marketing messages are coming from everywhere. Therefore, it is essential to consistently deliver the same message to the same person multiple times until they react to it.

Based on personal experience running digital marketing campaigns, 10 years ago, people would react to ads and visit a landing page after eight impressions, and now they require over 16. Attention span has been reduced dramatically in recent years. You only have 15 seconds to grab the attention of a YouTube video viewer. And it's only getting worse.

Conclusions

Effective marketing requires a consistent, repeatable message and continuous execution. Carefully estimate the resources available for marketing, and design a marketing plan that takes into account your ability to execute it in the long run. Based on experience, marketing can take a long time to yield results, and those who are willing to play the long game are winning business from those who don’t.