How Do I Market My MSP Business? 21 Awesome MSP Marketing Ideas to Drive Lead Gen in 2023
Looking for best practices to market your MSP business? With large national players swamping the market with Google Ads, upstart new firms popping up every day out of someone’s garage, it’s really tough to market your MSP business in 2023. Add to that the myriad of marketing tools available today and it can feel paralyzing.
But relax, as an MSP Marketing Firm we’ve got this. Review the 21 ideas in this guide and chip away at these tactics strategically over the next year.
Begin reading below.
MSP Marketing Strategy Table of Contents
At BigOrange, we are storytellers.
So stick with us as we weave in an analogy here: Just like sunlight and water to a plant, a solid marketing plan is essential for growth. To be most effective, the plan has to be comprehensive and filled with the best ingredients--from SEO to content, social media to paid boosting. All of these things work together to drive the seeds of leads into full bloom.
If you want to see a bountiful harvest, these 21 MSP marketing ideas should be in your MSP marketing plan. But remember, even with the perfect conditions in place, growth still takes time. Patience and persistence are required. These strategies will pay off with greater visibility, better recognition and increased leads. You can put together a successful marketing plan in just five steps.
A good IT marketing plan is comprehensive and multi-faceted. If it becomes too much for you to juggle on a daily basis, call us at BigOrange Marketing. We want to see you grow and would be delighted to help you in any way we can.
Here’s to your growth in 2023!
Know who you’re talking to with personas.
Let’s say you’re making a promotional video--it’s great quality and features happy customers extolling the benefits of your products and services...in English. But what if you discover that most of your customers actually speak Japanese? It may be a far-fetched analogy, but there are likely essential things about your customers and clients that you don’t know or realize. If that’s true, how can you hope to “speak their language” in your marketing efforts?
It may seem obvious, but the best way to get to know your clients or customers better is by talking to them. Asking a half dozen of your clients our top 10 MSP customer discovery questions can provide great insights into the average “persona” of your buyers. Ask questions like why they chose your company, what problems your company actually helps them solve and how they found out about you. This information will help you identify new customers and better explain how hiring your company can help them succeed. Sketch out rough groupings of who these people are as personas.
Keep in mind that as an MSP you may do particularly well in an industry segment such as legal firms, accounting or professional services firms of a certain size. If you have experience in a particular vertical, play it up like these example MSP companies: Internos Group, providing Miami IT support for law firms, and Aeko Technologies, a Fort Worth IT services provider for the oil industry.
MSP Marketing Resource:
For many MSP businesses, a business owner of a small to mid-sized firm is an excellent example of a target persona. Learn how to create a B2B buyer persona for your MSP. For further inspiration, here is an example persona of a Business Owner Barry. You can download this persona and write up your marketing targets. Two to three personas is plenty to get started.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Any time you write a post for your blog or create an advertisement, ask if or how it would appeal to one of your company’s personas or address one of the problems they face.
Look great online with a quality website.
Not only do you have to look good, but you’ve also got to be good too. Site quality and performance is important. While Google changes its algorithms for ranking often, in 2023, we know that your site’s user experience has to be top-notch. Read our article on the top 9 reasons to build a new website.
Take a hard look at your site:
- Is it easy to navigate or too convoluted?
- Is your message clear for your target persona from step 1?
- Do visitors find what they need and not immediately “bounce” off your site?
- Does it load quickly?
- Is the structure up to snuff, with no broken links or redirects?
- Is every image optimized and labeled correctly?
At this point, the internet is filled with savvy users. You need good content that’s well-written with your keyword strategy in mind to help rise to the top. In 2023, your content must clearly answer the questions your audience is asking to be relevant.
MSP Marketing Resource:
A great website contains great ingredients just like making a pizza. Get the recipe: Ready, Set, Pizza: Ingredients for a Supreme Website (Infographic). What will a new website for your MSP cost? Here is our guide on what you should expect to pay for a new website in 2023.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Have you looked at your site on your phone lately? If it doesn’t look good there, it’s time for a website overhaul.
Tell your authentic story and combat bounce with a quality experience.
Does your website tell a compelling story about your company and how it’s different from the rest? Being authentic will engage visitors and keep them interested in what your MSP has to offer.
One way to see if your website is succeeding? Bounce rate. This metric shows the percentage of visitors who land on your website and immediately “bounce” away. As in golf, you want to keep this score low. Bounce rates for each page of your website are shown in the analytics section of your website’s administrative dashboard. Under 35 percent is best. Google will hold a high bounce rate against you in search results because it can signal that visitors aren’t finding what they’re looking for on your site.
In general, your MSP marketing plan should want to bring visitors who stay on your site and perhaps visit a page or two beyond the home page. One way to do this is to offer something enticing, like a blog post of important tips or a page with discounts or package pricing.
MSP Marketing Resource:
How do you know if your MSP website creates a quality experience? Test it! Test your user experience with our list of 23 user experience questions to ask, from Google. Aim to Story Brand your website by making your customer the hero. Learn how with our article "7 Awesome MSP StoryBrand Examples to Inspire Your New Website".
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Beat the bounce with high quality photos on your site. Grainy or not-relevant photos can signal to visitors that they’re wasting their time and should look elsewhere.
Lead the conversation with content.
You can’t talk to every one of your current or potential clients on the phone every day or even every week, but you can blog regularly to share your thoughts, weigh in on industry news or offer valuable advice as part of your IT services marketing plan.
Blog posts don’t have to be long, but they should appear on your site at a regular cadence, like at least two to four times a month.
Here’s why:
- Sales teams want to offer people relevant content and answer their questions. Google wants to offer people relevant content. Your consistent blogging on topics in your company’s lane packs a double punch.
- Blogging beefs up your online presence, creating new paths for visitors to find your company or organization.
- Sites with content that’s recent (as well as relevant) rank better. A “set it and forget it” attitude toward your website won’t serve you well in marketing your MSP.
- Your competitors are blogging, and you can’t afford for them to be the only voice customers hear.
You don’t have to write all the posts yourself. To get over the “fear of the blank page” quickly, work with one or two key people on your staff every year or six months to come up with 10 or 12 blog topics, then decide which month you will post them and who will write them. Read our article "How to Brainstorm an Awesome Content Marketing Strategy in 4 Easy Steps". It’s in your best interest to have posts that contain keywords that are relevant to your business. In other words, if you offer IT services, make sure you’re not consistently blogging about pie recipes.
Looking for blog topics? Try these:
- Short recap posts about conferences you attend
- New product launch details
- List of trends in your industry
- Employee spotlights
- Photos and description of annual corporate events
- Brief write-up of a corporate charity sponsorship
Photo: Merit Technologies' Business IT Blog
MSP Marketing Resource:
Start by creating a content calendar the easy way and choosing topics. Find out what top performing content has worked for other MSPs in the Top Performing Marketing Content for IT Services.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Beat the bounce with high quality photos on your site. Grainy or not-relevant photos can signal to visitors that they’re wasting their time and should look elsewhere.
Crunched for time? Take this MSP marketing resource with you and put all 21 things to work for you.
Lure them in with a Sales Funnel / Lead Magnet.
Offer people something of value when they visit your site in exchange for their contact information. This “lead magnet” could be an infographic, a checklist, an ebook or a video--something branded with your company name that helps them solve a problem, reframe an issue or move the needle in their work.
A lead magnet is a win-win-win. Customers learn something new; you gather a new lead; and the customers’ visit to more than one page on your site adds to its validity with Google.
What could you share in a lead magnet?
- 15 simple ways to avoid cyber crime at work*
- A checklist of documents clients should bring to a financial planning meeting*
- An ebook on making IT work during an office move*
- A round-up of favorite custom home floor plans*
*By the way, these are all topics BigOrange Marketing has covered in lead magnets for our clients. If you’d like to read any of them, contact us at BigOrange Marketing.
A lead magnet lives on your site but can be promoted through social media and by your salespeople. When people offer their contact information, be sure to collect it in some structured way. A web form could lead straight into your company’s customer relationship management (CRM) system. The form could go to a staff member’s email address. Whichever way it comes to you, this information represents valuable leads that should be collected and nurtured.
MSP Marketing Resource:
Your top customers are CEOs, CFOs and heads of operations and also internal IT directors. They are all busy people looking for resources to share with their teams. To market your managed services, try cheat sheets, like the phishing prevention cheat sheet we created for Aeko Technologies in Fort Worth, Texas. Remember to always share what you know. Then as time permits, move on to a large guide such as Intrust IT’s guide to cyber security for everyone.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
People love to take quizzes. (Go figure.) If you can create an interactive quiz as a lead magnet, give it a go. Make it fun or strictly informative, but keep it relative to your business. Please, no “Find Out What Ice Cream Flavor You Are” quizzes.
Own your Google My Business listing.
Take a second and search for your company name in the Google browser. Just type in the name and hit go. At the top of your phone screen or along the right side of your browser window, what comes up is Google’s information on your business:
- Your street address and phone number
- Your business hours
- Your web address
- Photos
- Reviews
- Directions to your location
Because it’s so prominently displayed, you want this information to be accurate and up to date. Where to start? By claiming your business on Google My Business.
- Open Google Maps
- Type in your street address
- If your business’s name appears you’ve claimed it.
- If your business’s name doesn’t appear, click the link that says “Add this business” and follow the prompts.
- You can find further instructions on how to add or claim your business profile on Google.
“Owning” your listing allows you to take advantage of some powerful benefits, so jump on this task when planning your Managed IT Services Marketing. There are several methods of verifying your business listing, which are outlined in the article "How To Verify Your Business on Google".
MSP Marketing Resource:
You probably have a robust customer satisfaction process and a person who monitors it. This person is an ideal person to send out requests for Google Reviews the minute they get a kind note from a customer. Provide this person a Google review request script and put them in charge of sending 3-5 requests per week. Then, reward that person and the person who gets mentioned in a post. It is a great thing to celebrate.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Make sure the address on your Google listing matches your address everywhere else you share it exactly. Is it the same on your web address, Facebook page, LinkedIn business page? Correct inconsistencies, using the Google address as your guide.
Bring on the photos.
When you look at the Google listing for your business, you’ll see some photos or possibly just one photo of your business from the street. As the owner of your business listing, you can upload as many photos as you’d like. Go ahead and post photos of your staff, your products, the inside of your office, happy clients, charity events and so on. Keep in mind that the public can post photos of your business here, too.
Photo: Aeko Technologies, a Fort Worth MSP (we all love a good office dog)
MSP Marketing Resource:
Learn how a photo shoot can be a valuable tool in marketing your IT services. Read our article "Why a Photo Shoot Is One of the Best Marketing Ideas for IT Companies". People love to work with people they know. In 2023, this is simple and affordable.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
When you post a photo on social media, just take a few extra minutes and post the same photo to your Google business page.
Keep it current with Google posts.
Many business owners don’t realize they can post weekly updates to their Google listing. While these posts are ideal for announcing current specials or offers, you can also use them to promote anything or your latest blog post. Each Google post stays live for one week and includes a clickable button so you can direct people to any location online.
Google will send you a weekly report on the number of people who have seen each photo and number of clicks on the link. You may not see jaw-dropping results here, but these posts and clicks help with your company’s Google ranking.
MSP Marketing Resource:
You know that great content you created in an earlier step, post smaller versions of this each week into Google My Business. Be sure to use all your top keywords like IT Support, Cyber Security, Disaster Recovery, IT Support for Financial Services, etc.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
If you have special hours on holidays, use a Google My Business post to keep your customers in the loop.
Leverage rave reviews with testimonials.
Word of mouth has powerful influence. Today, online reviews act as word of mouth on a larger scale--and help with search results. Reviews also act as social proof: a phenomenon that shows people often prefer to do what others have already done.
Ask for reviews using either or both of these two strategies:
- For Google or Facebook reviews, the first thing to know: It’s against policy to reward people for reviews. Don’t offer someone something in exchange for a review on Google. Instead, outline the steps for leaving a Google or Facebook review in writing, then use it to email or pass along to customers in a printed format. While the steps aren’t difficult, technology can be a challenge for some people. In that case go for:
- Testimonials for your website. If a client or customer offers you a compliment, ask if they would mind leaving a review or if they would be willing to appear in a very short video testimonial. And, with website testimonials you can feel free to incentivize reviews by offering something of value in return for customers’ responses. Use these client kudos in a prominent spot on your site or in your written collateral materials in your managed IT services marketing.
MSP Marketing Resource:
Google will alert you via email when you receive a new review. Go to your Google My Business account and respond to the review. No matter if the review is good or bad, a response from your business is critical. Always be courteous.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Social proof matters for people looking for a new MSP partner. Plus, good reviews and many of them signal credibility to Google for your ranking. Looking for more ways to make Google love you? Watch our 20 minute-webinar "7 Top SEO Tips You Need to Know".
Save yourself time with a CRM.
How well do you know your customers? When was the last time you contacted them? Has someone else in your company talked to some of them recently? Have they signed that contract you sent over? Life is confusing enough without having to track your customers and their interactions with your staff through a haphazard collection of emails, phone calls and reminders on sticky notes. A customer relationship management (CRM) system streamlines all your clients’ data and your communications with them.
And remember all those leads heading your way through the lead magnets you created in step 3? A CRM is the place to input information on leads and track how they are moving along your sales funnel. You’ve worked hard for those leads, so make sure you can capture them effectively.
CRMs can range in price from free to hundreds of dollars a month. Ask vendors for demos and have key people on your staff weigh the pros and cons. Consider how easy or difficult the software is to set up and use. Talk about what you need from the system: Many offer a wide range of benefits (like automated drip emails) for you to consider before you buy.
Photo: Merit Technologies' IT Buyer's Guide form that sends leads to HubSpot's CRM
MSP Marketing Resource:
If you are in growth mode, we highly recommend you invest in HubSpot. The platform integrates well with ConnectWise, which you are probably using as well. As part of your MSP HubSpot marketing, allow your sales and marketing teams time each month to grab more HubSpot certifications including the HubSpot Sales Software Certification, which helps sales and marketing teams work together well with sales enablement.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
You want contact forms from your website to flow easily into your CRM system. Talk to your web developer about the options before choosing a CRM for your business.
Do more with marketing automation.
We’re all disappointed that we still can’t commute in flying cars, but marketing automation might be the next best thing. Why? Because it helps you give every lead that comes to you the attention it deserves.
In step 10 we talked about CRM systems. Many CRMs are capable of sending out email drip campaigns, thank-you messages, birthday greetings and automatic replies to contact requests. Use them to let potential customers know they are valuable and you will be in touch with them soon. Automation’s ability to respond immediately to requests helps your company or organization seem trustworthy.
Your CRM system may also be able to assign the contact to a particular staff member and remind him or her to follow up. Automating these kinds of messages takes them off your plate so you can focus on other aspects of customer service.
Automated SMS (text messaging) is also available for you to use with customers or leads. Open rates for texts are incredibly high and can almost guarantee your message will be received--a real boon to IT services marketing.
MSP Marketing Resource:
Your business development person can’t be everywhere and it is hard to keep track of who to call and who to nurture. It is also important for MSPs to target industries: “Picking a lane” can give you an edge over competitors in marketing MSP services. For instance, consider an industry like financial services where companies face robust compliance challenges. If you have success in this area, targeting financial services clients could be a good way for you to stand out. Do you work well with law firms? CPAs? Professional services firms? Think about your best customers and build lists locally of them. Then enroll them in a workflow to target them by email, print ads, phone calls and more. Marketing automation also helps nurture interested contacts down the funnel into leads. The HubSpot course on Sales Enablement explains this tactic fully.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Coordinate with your sales team so they know who is getting automated emails from the system and when. You don’t want potential customers to be overwhelmed with emails and messages from the automated system and sales people at the same time.
MSP Marketing Resource:
Social media on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and possibly Twitter are good places to start. Don’t worry about the rest. Also, Facebook and Instagram are places to share your company culture. And while you may think as a business to business service that Facebook is not important, keep in mind that it is still signaling to Google your quality and ranking. While it’s challenging to do both, strive to get good Facebook reviews in addition to Google reviews.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
On social media, viewers can message your company directly. Be sure to assign someone who will monitor these sites for messages. You should try to respond to them as quickly as possible.
Need a break? Take this MSP marketing resource with you and put all 21 things to work for you.
Focus on quality links.
If you’re looking for another way to impress Google search engines, focus on links to your site (aka "backlinks"). As you might imagine, if Google sees other sites pointing to yours, it makes you seem like a good source of credible information. There are a number of other reasons why citation building matters. You can find out what sites are sending visitors your way by using Google Search Console.
To begin, follow the instructions for setting up an account on Google Search Console. As part of the set-up, you will need to verify the ownership of your site. You can do this by embedding code provided by the Search Console onto your site. (Lost at this point? Ask your web developer for help.) Once the console is set up, you’ll be able to see all kinds of analytics about keywords, number of pages on your site that Google has “crawled” and stats on site traffic, including where visitors are coming from (those links we mentioned a minute ago).
How do you get links you might ask? Start thinking creatively. Do you belong to associations or chambers of commerce that list members? Do you have a live link in your listings there? Could you work with partner vendors or charities you support to place links on each others’ sites? Anytime someone from your company speaks at an event, exhibits at a conference or comments on an industry article it can create a valuable link to your company’s site. You can also create backlinks by using HARO (Help a Reporter Out).
MSP Marketing Resource:
Can you do a guest post for your local chamber on cyber security or disaster recovery? This will provide quality links. Also be sure to designate a person to fill out your member listing on every group you belong to and be sure to use a service like BrightLocal to make sure your local listings are all up to date with a citation burst to support your local SEO.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Set up a Google Alert for your company’s name. (Instructions for Google Alert setup are here.) With an alert in place, you’ll get an email whenever the name is mentioned online. It’s a good way to find out how you’re showing up out there in cyber space.
Know your competitors and your SEO keywords.
Here’s a way to put yourself in potential customers’ shoes: First, log on to an anonymous search engine that hasn’t been tracking your search history. (Try going to DuckDuckGo.) Now search for a term your customers would use to find you, like “IT services” or “financial advisor” or “new home construction.” Who comes up in search results first? That means their site content is optimized for search or search engine optimized (SEO). Go to that company’s website and take a look around. How does it compare to yours?
- Does the site have more or fewer pages than yours?
- How do photos and the design compare to yours?
- Is the navigation easier?
- Are there customer reviews throughout?
- Is the company using a lot of copy or a little?
- Do you see a blog or videos on the website?
- Has the company been online longer and do they have more employees?
Try the SEO exercise again on another search term or two. If your company is ranking in the top five or six that’s great! If your rankings aren’t where you would like, it’s time to make changes like the ones this guide has been recommending.
MSP Marketing Resource:
Learn more about SEO and steps to making a MSP website that converts with an article on the steps we take to help firms get ranked for their top keywords with IT services/MSP SEO strategy made simple in their area.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Do you really know what terms people are using to search for your company online? Moz offers a SEO keyword tool online, or you can ask a marketing professional for help tracking the SEO keywords.
Work your website user experience.
If you’re not ready for a complete overhaul, you might get a slight bump in traffic with a few adjustments to your site. Here are a few to try:
- Provide a clear call to action on every page. Do visitors know what you would like them to do next when they visit your site?
- If you have a call to action button that’s being overlooked, try changing its color or the wording.
- Remove oversized photos or too-large videos that may be slowing your site’s load time. (Remember a slow-loading site can hurt your Google search ranking.)
Another strategy is to add a new landing page to your site. These pages are “stand alones” that provide information on a single topic or offer. The goal of the page is to have visitors take some kind of action such as purchasing a product, making an appointment with you or providing you with their contact information.
You can push traffic to a landing page in a number of ways: on social media, through an online or print ad, or an emailed newsletter. Keep links to other parts of your site off the landing page to minimize distractions from the sales funnel. A landing page that converts visitors to leads can be sales gold. It can also help you determine the best way to spend ad dollars. If a social media ad brought great traffic to the landing page, it could be worth repeating.
The third website move you should make is adding a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate to your site. People know they’re on a site with SSL certification when the site’s address in the browser window begins with https (instead of http). It may seem like a small thing, but it signals to visitors (and Google) that your site is secure. In fact, Google can ding your site if it doesn’t have the certification. Talk to your web developer about adding this protection to your site as soon as possible.
MSP Marketing Resource:
Here’s what should be included in a landing page for MSP firms today. It should include many of your keywords to improve quality score and be long form.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Give your website a human face by including (or updating) your team members’ photos. And skip the stock photography when possible and use real authentic photos of your team.
Pay to play with Google Ads or Paid Social Ads.
Paid advertising like Google Ads (formerly AdWords), LinkedIn boosting or Facebook ads, can be like fertilizer in helping to boost your growth. While you’re in the long game of growing your business, paid ads can give you a quick hit of immediate results.
Of course, there are watch-outs: While you can get good results for as little as $50 a day, you must track these “pay-per-click” ads to make sure you’re spending your money in the best way possible.
Let’s look at Google Ads for example: Unlike print or broadcast advertising, you only pay when someone sees or clicks on your ad. And, if you use the platform correctly, you can target your ad only to people looking for the type of product or service you offer. Clicking your ad takes the visitors to your website where you can introduce them to all your company’s selling points.
While running Google Ads won’t affect your organic rankings on Google, you can use the information gleaned from well-performing ads to polish your site and other marketing efforts. For instance, if you find that an ad with a headline containing a certain keyword brings in more visitors than other ads, you can use that keyword in your website content, blog, or social media posts.
Like other paid online ad campaigns, Google Ads need close monitoring and frequent tweaking to provide the best results. If you don’t have the time to oversee these campaigns, you can hire experts (like the team at BigOrange Marketing) to do it for you. Another alternative is to use Google Ads Smart Campaigns (formerly known as AdWords Express). This simplified version of Google Ads was designed to give small, local businesses a quick entry into pay-per-click advertising without investing too much time in set-up, audience identification, and targeting. You can find more information about the program and get Google Ads help here.
MSP Marketing Resource:
BigOrange Marketing is a certified Google Partner, so we know a thing or two about optimizing Google Ads. The five key components of our paid Google campaigns include posting, modernizing, strategizing, targeting and creating good content. Regular reporting and refreshing creative materials can help your team make the necessary tweaks for successful ad campaigns.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
For MSP Google Ad spend recommendations today (in 2023), we recommend spending a minimum of at least $2,000 per month and staying the course to see results. Also concentrate on longer tail keywords such as IT support “company,” IT support “services.” And hint, hint: Look at the services categories that Google My Business provides back to you to understand how people search for what you are selling. See the screen grab below from the top ranked Seattle IT Support team at SWAT Systems for an idea of categories like Tech Support, Data Management, Network Assessments, IT Services and Cyber Security.
Stalking? No, retargeting!
We’re sure you’ve noticed that once you shop for something online, you start seeing ads for that wherever you go on the web for weeks afterward. You’re being retargeted. The practice can work for you because it keeps your brand in front of buyers and builds your brand recognition. When people are ready to pull the trigger and make a purchase, they feel more comfortable buying from you.
When you can’t reach a possible customer directly with your MSP marketing efforts, a retargeted ad can be your next best bet. You can use Google Adwords or Facebook for retargeting. To take advantage of these benefits, you’ll need to add a special code to your website. Ask your web developer or our team if you need help with this setup.
If you run a Google campaign, your retargeted ads can show up on a wide variety of websites or platforms like YouTube. Facebook ads, of course, only appear when visitors go to Facebook.
With Google AdWords retargeting, you can specifically choose websites where your ad will run and whether you will be charged by the ad view (impression), click or website conversion.
Facebook can show your retargeting ads in a range of places on their site. You can choose your ideal customers’ demographics so only those most likely to be interested in your services see your ads.
The campaign you create specifies what will trigger a retargeting ad. For instance, if someone visits one of your services pages, he or she would begin to see your retargeted ads after leaving your site. When the visitor sees your ad copy highlighting that specific service, he or she will be reminded of your company’s capabilities.
Once that prospect becomes a lead, you can take them off the retargeting list, and move them to your automated marketing or your sales people for further nurturing.
MSP Marketing Resource:
As soon as your traffic and spend allows, take advantage of retargeting visitors to you MSP home page, services and industry pages to follow them around with a simple ad that clearly addresses a challenge they face. Keep it simple and colorful. Let them know in plain language that you empathize with their challenges and can help. And do we need to say it again? Be sure to avoid jargon.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Watch that you don’t serve up the exact same ad to someone more than three times. You want people to be intrigued, not annoyed, by your brand. Get more helpful tips with our article on how to run a retargeting campaign.
Set the goal in Google Analytics.
Most likely, Google Analytics is running as a plug-in on your website. You may even look at it on occasion for more information about how many people are visiting your site, what search terms they’re using and what other sites are sending them to yours. Another helpful tool in Google Analytics is Goals.
With Goals, you can define what actions you would like people who visit your site to take. Do you want them to sign up for your monthly e-newsletter? Schedule a call with your salesperson? You can find instructions for setting up goals and other Google Analytics help. You can use a template or create your own IT services marketing goals. You can even assign a dollar value to goals (by comparing ad costs vs leads, for instance). Go to the Conversions tab in Google Analytics to see the data compiled. Of course, if all this back-end work on your site steals time from your “real job” you can ask your web developer or us for help.
MSP Marketing Resource:
There are four types of goals in Google Analytics: destination, duration, pages/screens per session and event. Be sure to name your goals descriptively for easy use of conversion reports.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
It’s a good idea to create a goal in terms of conversions. Conversion rate is the most important key performance indicator (KPI) for your site, because it helps you know if you are on track with your business.
Make news.
You might think your MSP’s work is not particularly newsworthy, but members of the media often need expert help to decipher IT related topics. Help a Reporter Out (HARO), is a three-times daily newsletter that seeks to connect reporters with subject matter experts. You can skim these newsletters to see if there are questions you could answer in your area of expertise. If the reporter uses you as a source, your name and company name will be published, creating valuable backlinks or online mentions and bolstering your leadership in the MSP space.
To start using the service, register for Help A Reporter Out. It could make sense for you to outsource the monitoring of these requests to a junior person on your team or an affordable hourly virtual assistant, so that the daily emails don’t become overwhelming.
Photo: Business Insider cyber security experts roundup
MSP Marketing Resource:
When picking a pitch to respond to, consider the article source and its relevance to your industry. Then write in a manner that makes sense for the readers of the article. If you don't have the time to put your thoughts on paper or aren't sure the best way to word your ideas, a professional copywriter can help with HARO.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Read our article about how cyber security expert Dave Hatter of Intrust IT has been quoted in publications such as Business Insider and Money Magazine using HARO (Help a Reporter Out), a free link building strategy.
Spread the word with webinars.
While it may seem daunting at first, hosting a webinar doesn’t have to be complicated or overly time-consuming. Use a platform like Crowdcast, a webinar platform, or Microsoft Teams to host the webinar. Keep it short to retain audience interest, but leave time at the end for questions. You can incentivize attendees to stay engaged by pulling names for a giveaway at the tail end of your presentation.
Practice your webinar with a colleague and, if possible, have someone else on hand to keep track of any incoming questions from attendees. Publicize your seminar on LinkedIn and through your MSP’s email newsletter to clients and potential customers. Be sure to record your webinar, so that you can start to build a library of resources. Your salespeople can send links to the webinars to prospects, which reinforces your MSP’s role as thought leaders and quality service providers.
Photo: Aeko Technologies Ransomware Webinar Series
MSP Marketing Resource:
We recommend a subscription to Crowdcast, a webinar platform, to host your MSP marketing webinars for prospects. Be sure to share the registration link when you share rather than the link to the talk. For about $29/month, you will have an easy-to-use platform to record your talks and automatically remind attendees of the event.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Not sure what topic to address in a webinar? Think about the types of questions your salespeople or customer service people answer most often. Addressing those questions will provide your audience with value. You can check out an example of a webinar that provides value with our webinar "7 Awesome MSP Story Based Website Examples to Inspire You".
Partner up with local publications.
You know those info-packed emails from your local business publication you like to read? Well, your potential clients are reading them, too. Why not research ways to include your company in those publications’ updates? Ask about being a featured advertiser or even a possible contributor.
MSP Marketing Resource:
Remember that people opening the emails are looking for educational information, not a sales pitch. Can you provide a link to something downloadable like a password safety checklist or instructions for responding to a ransomware attack or breach? Consider also purchasing a single-subject email newsletter from your most popular local publication like those in the Business Journal family. One of our MSP clients saw great success with an email that provided a ransomware resource by partnering up with the local INC magazine in Fort Worth.
BigOrange Juicy Tip:
Tie the information you provide into a current event to give it a “news hook” if possible. For example, email recipients might be eager to hear about what a cyber insurance policy should include if there’s been a recent high-profile cyber attack in your area.
Participate in the conversations on social media.
You knew we were going to bring up social media at some point, right? We hear you groaning. Whether you live and die by Instagram stories or wouldn’t touch Facebook with a 10-foot pole, social media is important for your managed services marketing. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be all-consuming.
Having a presence on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, and traffic from these platforms to your website boosts the online activity around your company’s name. And popularity plays a role in your Google ranking.
What to share and when? Try for a regular cadence of posts. If you blog every other week, write about each of your posts on social media twice. That action alone gives you four social media posts per month--a good start. You can repeat the same post on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and triple your exposure. For Instagram or Pinterest, photo-based posts are best.
Video is powerful, too, and increases the likelihood that your content will show up in followers’ feeds on social media. While the idea of it may make you cringe, it’s really not hard to take and post a very short video clip every week. You can create a YouTube channel for your company and post videos there, or broadcast them through Instagram stories or Facebook live, or just in regular social media posts. A good rule of thumb is to keep videos very short and professional.
Take the day-to-day stress of social media posting away by using a posting service or app like HootSuite or Buffer. (The CRM you’re using may also have social media posting capabilities.) Taking a few hours to load up weeks’ worth of posts in advance will save you time and eliminate that nagging feeling about social media.
Photo: MSP marketing meeting and photoshoot in the conference room at Internos Group, a Miami IT Services Provider