Managed Service Providers (MSPs) help with making IT support available to businesses of all sizes and shapes. If you don’t have an efficient MSP marketing strategy in place, you’ll miss out on possibilities to generate monthly recurring revenue and expand your company.
Many MSPs believe that sales and marketing are the same, but both are entirely different. A promotional plan, strategy, or campaign created to improve the sale of managed IT services is referred to as MSP marketing. Marketing efforts assist you in reaching your target audience and persuading potential customers to contact you.
Due to the consultative nature of the sales process, a customer might take weeks, months, or even years to finally decide on a purchase. To shorten the sales cycle, you will need to engage and educate leads with a good MSP marketing plan.
MSP marketing tactics follow the same basic principles as other types of B2B marketing, but you should be aware of the particular hurdles that come with generating demand for a fully managed IT service as an MSP.
Difference Between MSP Sales And MSP Marketing
While the two are closely related, MSP marketing is much more than simply selling services. In fact, you shouldn’t be selling anything at all if you’re correctly promoting your managed services. This is because the goal of this strategy is to establish trust.
When you are promoting your managed services, by definition, you’re talking to folks who aren’t ready to get convinced yet. The audience of “qualified” people may or may not have heard of you, and they have no need to learn about the detailed and technical specifics of what your services can perform.
What customers need to know about, and what your strategy should focus on, is a description of what those services can achieve for them. Simply put, your strategy should focus on presenting the basic value that you deliver so that when your prospect is ready to hear the technical details, you can go on to the next step in the customer retention process – sales.
Why Do Businesses Need This Strategy?
Even in today’s increasingly digital environment, word-of-mouth continues to be a wonderful approach to generate new leads, and many MSPs prefer it. Real-life client referrals naturally assist fresh leads to believe your MSP IT services. However, word-of-mouth alone is rarely sufficient to expand your firm beyond a certain point.
If you want to actively build your business in a planned manner as an MSP service provider, you must market in some way. This is where a technology-based and functional strategy may help.
With so much competition in most geographical locations, it’s also a good idea to use social media and other internet platforms to improve your brand’s visibility. You don’t want to be left behind with most MSPs using LinkedIn and Facebook to market their business on a regular basis.
Important MSP Marketing Concepts To Note
The following options will come in handy:
Call To Action
A call to action, often known as a CTA, is a marketing communication designed to elicit an immediate response from a prospective customer.
“Find out now”, “learn more” and “download now” are all popular instances. For more information about CTA buttons and how to use them, you can check here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_to_action_(marketing)
MSP Inbound
This is a digital method used by MSPs to generate new leads by developing relevant and helpful content and distributing it across various digital platforms. Its concentration, on the other hand, is on developing content that connects with the audience and addresses their concerns.
MSP Outbound
Here, an MSP offers their services to anybody, regardless of whether or not they are a qualified lead. This category encompasses almost all traditional promotional strategies, such as cold phoning and television ads.
MSP Email
This is a strategy that entails sending marketing communications by email. These communications include sales solicitations, advertisements, and other business demands.
Leads
A lead is a person or a company who is likely to be interested in purchasing what you’re selling.
Lead Generation
The process of locating, developing, and converting a lead into a purchase is known as lead generation.
Landing Pages
A landing page is a webpage developed expressly for a marketing campaign, whether it is a short-term or long-term effort.
[See related article: A Guide To Building Visually Persuasive Landing Pages]
Strategies Available On MSP
The following are some strategies to use:
Social Media Marketing
Social media and social media marketing are crucial tools for promotion and branding. Establishing your organization as a trusted industry expert, raising market awareness for your services, and engaging with consumers and prospects are all made easier with social media.
Email Marketing
Another common approach for generating leads is email marketing. Email is a cost-effective and efficient way to stay in touch with IT leads and customers while also sharing product updates, corporate news, and educational content. If you need tips on how to implement this strategy, you can read this article.
Others include
- Pay-per-click
- Search engine optimization
- Online reviews
- Lead tracking
- Search engine optimization
[See related post: How To Get Instant Results For Your Business With Email Newsletters?]
Conclusion
Managed service providers assist organizations of all sizes and types in obtaining IT support. With professionals handling this strategy for your company, you will definitely achieve the desired result.
[Image credits – Main Image by StockSnap from Pixabay; Black Cat: Alamy/Kris Olin; Woman in blue dress Image by AllClear55 from Pixabay; other images, logos, graphics or videos are from their respective websites and/or social platforms]
Kris Olin, MSc (Econ.) * Editor in Chief at Social Media Revolver * Web Designer * SEO Specialist * Author of the Facebook Advertising Guide. Follow Kris on Twitter and LinkedIn. See his photos at Flickr.