On the internet, “Content is King”. And, as so much of social and commercial communication has migrated to the internet, if you want to be successful with your managed services marketing, you’ll have to invest at least some time, if not money and energy, in creating quality content. There are some powerful principles you can apply to help you build a portfolio of quality content.
Creating Quality Content Requires Investment
There are no shortcuts to quality content. You don’t want to be an also-ran, pumping out rewritten copy that differs not a jot from your competitors. You also don’t want to be seen as a purveyor of click-bait. A genuine interest in helping your customers and your wider audience benefit from your knowledge will pay dividends. But it will take time, energy, and money, so don’t expect to do it on the cheap.
Know Your Audience
At the same time, as you’re making your investment in quality content to underpin your managed services marketing, you don’t want to be squandering resources. A successful business requires a return on investment (ROI). One of the best ways to ensure you get a good ROI on your content creation is to ensure you know your audience. Don’t just pump out content in the hope that it will hook some new business. Talk to your sales people, your support staff, and your engineers to find out what is working for your customers. Ask your clients what they need in terms of solutions and knowledge. And then deliver that in your content.
Leverage Social Media
Get a read on what kind of content is popular by tracking your social media activities. Remember that video platforms like Vimeo and YouTube constitute social media these days, in addition to Twitter and Instagram videos, so keep an eye on how those channels are performing for you.
Go Offline
No, we don’t mean disappear (as great as that might sound sometimes). We mean consider the value of providing quality content in offline channels. Yes, as powerful and important as the internet has become, a lot of influential people prefer the hands-on, customer-facing potential of industry fairs, conferences, and other such events. By providing keynote talks, training seminars, live product demos, and interactive opportunities, your marketing campaign can be supercharged.
We hope you can see a thread running through the principles outlined above. To be effective, your managed services marketing really has to be about getting in touch: in touch with your values as a business, in touch with the market, and in touch with the real people who can be transformed into sales. By applying the same focus on quality content across online and offline strategies, your MSP can enjoy a more prominent position in the market that will boost the bottom line.
