An MSP company can’t exist in a vacuum. At the very least, you need one excellent customer. But even if you get the best customer in the world, you need to back up operations by securing other customers who match your primary one. This is because you could lose that primary customer owing to factors neither you nor the customer control. Accordingly, it makes sense to design a specific marketing campaign to reach out, convert leads, and keep them.
Designing an Effective Plan
There are always different ways to market, but not all strategies are created equal. Following we’ll briefly examine three best practices with which you can calibrate marketing toward greatest success:
- Co-opt influencers into marketing programs
- Develop a real community around your operation
- Facilitate advocacy among clientele to “organically” market your business
Co-Opt Influencers into Marketing Programs
MSP company outreach should court “influencers.” Influencers are individuals who have a large social media following. Some MSPs have influencers who are among the younger generation, some find influencers that are more mature. Who your most effective influencers are will, in large part, depend on your specific demographic. Look at existing customers and seek influencers who match their profile. Incentivize those influencers to produce videos about your company regularly or write content about you— whatever fits.
Develop a Real Community Around Your Operation
The customers, influencers, and vendors with whom your MSP interacts on a regular basis are a very real community. Whether or not you seek this, such a reality will develop eventually. You might as well lean into it and nurture that community using whatever methods best match the services or products your MSP makes available.
Facilitate Advocacy Among Clients to “Organically” Market Your Business
When you’ve got clients who appreciate the tech delivery your MSP provides, transforming them into advocates is a relatively straightforward process. Essentially, you decide which sort of incentive approach works best— or if, indeed, that’s the way to go. When you’re an MSP, you’re very truly partnering with many of your clients for a long-term relationship. When you do good, they do good. There is a natural incentive toward advocacy already.
It turns out that people trust the word of someone who isn’t directly related to a given suite of products and services, rather than that specific provider. If there are online reviews, reviewers who post them are more trusted than the company’s estimation of itself. In fact, people trust online reviews as much as friends, studies have shown.
When someone else praises you, that’s compelling. So, find potential advocates and encourage that advocacy in whatever way makes the most sense. Consultation with tech marketing groups can help you determine and implement the best tactics here.
More Effective Marketing Toward Customers
When an MSP company facilitates advocacy, develops a true community around its provisions, and co-opts influencers into outreach, acquiring and converting customers becomes something more sustainable. Consider existing tactics in this regard and where they might stand some improvement.
