Practical Marketing for MSP. Part 4 – Referrals and Local SEO

In the previous article of the series, we discussed an approach to selecting marketing tactics based on the resources available.

Advanced marketing tactics will likely be ineffective without sufficient resources for implementation and maintenance, as well as dedicated time to collaborate with teams on securing contracts. However, there are tactics that can provide a stable flow of incoming prospects with minimal time investment.

Based on feedback from participants in my marketing workshops, they report getting 1-3 customers per quarter by using these simple tactics.

Referral marketing

A basic tactic for getting referrals is to ask your existing customers, partners, vendors, friends, and family for referrals to customers who need IT services. The best practice here is to make the referral process as easy as possible.

Start by crafting a concise email and a 1-2 page document that clearly outlines your services for potential customers. Ideally, include a quote or a few from the existing customers praising the positive experience of working with you. Ensure the email is easy to forward and that its formatting is intact after multiple forwards. Simple paint text with neat text formatting works well. Here are some ideas for a referral email content.

The document should be easy to read and include the most essential information, suggesting that the reader call, email, or visit your website as an action item. Here are some ideas for the content in an editable Word document, and some ideas for design in an HTML template.

You can create emails and documents tailored to the profiles of your customers and the services you provide. For instance, those you helped with Microsoft 365 onboarding may recommend you to their friends who are struggling with the same issues. Those who got a complete infrastructure refresh from you may recommend you for that. Being more specific helps - you get higher quality recommendations and, usually, faster conversions of prospects to customers.

You can send the email templates to your customers, provide them with the file or printouts, or ask them to display printouts at their business locations. Local stores can be an effective way to distribute your marketing materials.

Simply asking your customers goes a long way... Just don't forget to say "thank you" and send a small gift with a handwritten "thank you" card—simple tokens of appreciation that help drive your business work really well with SMB owners.

Referral program

A more advanced tactic is creating a referral program, offering incentives to customers, partners and employees for referring customers. If asking your customers to promote you for free does not work, a referral program can be a logical next step.

The referral program defines incentives for referrals for clients, partners or employees, and the program design depends on your clients' lifetime value and cost of acquisition.

Clients can be rewarded with gift cards or special client appreciation events, such as dinners, sports events, shows, and trips. However, it is becoming more popular to provide direct account credits. The value of the credit is easy to determine if you estimate your customer acquisition cost at $9,000; then, giving $5,000 credit for a referral that led to a successful annual contract sign-up looks like a bargain.

Similarly, it may work for referral partners - various SMB associations and groups, business owner clubs, and insurance agents. However, with partner referral, it is more common to have a commission on the first year's revenue from the clients. Typical commissions are in the 15-30% range, with the potential for additional commission as the volume of successful referrals grows. Thus, commissions may be offered on a sliding scale - the higher the number of referrals, the higher the commission for the next successful deal.

Finally, don't forget about your employees. They have family, friends, former colleagues and contacts in various social settings. Offering generous bonuses for signed contracts based on employee referrals can help to build the initial client base while the business is small. 

Local SEO

The most underutilized marketing tactic for MSPs is leveraging Google search and Google Maps to promote your business to those already searching for IT services in your location. Restaurants and shops are using this tactic aggressively, and this tactic works for MSPs, yet very few really utilize it.

Here is an example. A doctor starting his own practice in Sydney is looking for IT support. When he types "it support for doctors," he will see a recommendation of a local business offering IT services for Medical IT.

The reason this happens is that Medical IT has a business profile set up with Google. And this is something you should do immediately if you haven't already.

Make sure you provide all the necessary information and add photo and video content. This will increase your chances of getting clicks and attracting "free" incoming leads for your services.

Local SEO best practices

When designing and optimizing your business profile for local SEO, consider the landmarks and specific businesses in the area and how your profile aligns with local searches. Consider how your differentiation and strategy may play out here, like focusing on medical professionals in the example we used.

Consider the types of searches your target audience is making while looking for your services. If you are based in a specific area, use local landmarks. For instance, a law firm in Barangaroo in Sydney may be looking for "it support near me", or "it services for law firms in Barangaroo". Being more specific with descriptions in your business profile may help with targeting, or may limit the people seeing your ads, looking for the right balance and optimizing your content.

And, lastly, don't forget to collect reviews—the content of the reviews and ratings matters. Higher ratings and more reviews increase your business's visibility and improve the chances of being contacted.

If you have multiple physical locations, consider experimenting with targeted advertising. Some businesses rent small offices or co-working spaces to increase their visibility in targeted locations.

Conclusions

The marketing tactics we discussed in this article are simple, require minimal time to prepare and execute, yet provide real value to MSP businesses. Effectiveness of the tactics depends on the location and competition in the area, quality of services, and how active your customers, partners and employees are in referrals. Yet, as of today, there is no reason not to invest a little time in implementing those tactics.