The market for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) is on a rapid growth, and because of that, the competition is high. Numerous factors contribute to the success of your MSP, and inconsistent performance in this fast-paced competitive arena will hand you a massive disadvantage. Through marketing automation, MSP marketing has been transformed. MSPs have turned to videos and advanced automation to help them thrive.
Lessons from Alcatraz
Take for example the audio tours at Alcatraz, an island in San Francisco bay which was once a prison and home to Native American activists. Today, it’s a National Historic Landmark that’s open for tourists to visit. Instead of the normal tour guides assisting groups everywhere, Alcatraz has audio recordings of its tours, which consist of messages from former prisoners or those who knew them. This kind of technique saves them a lot of time and effort every day, and it makes the tours more personal and enjoyable. MSPs can take a note or two from these audio tours at Alcatraz. MSPs are boosting their marketing activities through website updating, blogging, use of social media such as Twitter and Facebook, and investing in PPC email campaigns; but there’s a danger in creating content and posting it into the digital space where a large portion of this quality content might never be read.
This is why audio or video automation is important in reaching out to customers.
A few reasons why automating your MSP marketing message could transform your sales pipeline include:
- Time-saving – An integrated marketing tool allows you to be in control of your SEO, social media, and email from a single dashboard.
Automating saves the time used signing in and out of Twitter or Facebook or, consulting with an SEO specialist. Email campaigns can also be automated. - Targeted email campaigns – One of the essential tools for B2B marketing is the use of email. Emails, which comprise of educational assets such as white papers, can turn cold prospects into hot leads.
Control of your sales funnel – Most marketing automation systems contain native integrations, which ensure that you have full control of your sales funnel, with the marketing tool handling the top of the funnel.
Saves money – Marketing automation is essential in the reduction of costs. It ensures that you’re in the driving seat, hence, you can monitor your SEO any time you want.
Video Marketing
- Video marketing has been one of the most outstanding trends in the last few years. Understanding how crucial video marketing is in making great profits and improving your return on investment is important. Unlike other forms of IT marketing, using videos is effective in evoking the following feelings in the end user:
- Confidence – When your audience identifies with the person in the video, they get a sense of confidence in the product that’s being advertised.
Curiosity – It’s essential to end the video with a teaser, as it keeps the audience in suspense mode; hence, they’re eager to find out what happens in the next video.
Importance of Video Marketing
- Pleasure – A fascinating video separates you from your competitors and other people in the business. It’s understood that a mere mention of the word “video” on an email boosts the click rate by 13%.
- Wide niche – The attention span of the majority of online users is short. Videos are able to serve this particular niche. Most people don’t have the time to read articles and are better served by watching online videos via their tablets or mobile phones.
In the year 2013 for example, the average time spent watching videos on tablets tripled, while the time spent watching videos on smartphones doubled.
Why Businesses Should Invest in Video Content
One of the major reasons why MSPs should invest in videos is because it improves end user engagement by 33%. This is mostly through videos on Facebook pages.
Embedded videos also increase traffic on websites by up to 50%. This ensures that more people are visiting your site, which massively boosts your marketing success. According to a recent study, customers watch an average of 13.2 million video ads a day. It’s also estimated that in the near future, video marketing will drive over 90% of consumer traffic on the Internet.
Conclusion
The explosion of visual content can’t be ignored in the MSP marketing world. Video is now the medium of choice for MSP marketers to stay relevant, and in order to achieve their desired business results, they must adapt to video marketing.
