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7 Online Marketing Tips for MSPs

Business Development

Just like having a great MSP Help Desk, having an effective online marketing strategy is crucial to your MSP Marketing plan.

The menu is full of choices ranging from social media, website lead capture tools, search optimization and other.  But what is right for your MSP will depend on who your target audience is and how they use the Internet to research services and products available.

 

Here are seven quick tips to help with marketing your MSP online:

  1. Have a plan – Online marketing, just like all other aspects of your marketing must be tied to your business plan and marketing execution strategy.  It is easy to fall victim to the “spray and pray” marketing approach, especially with all the social media services out there.  You must have a plan and a strategy to target your ideal prospects.
  2. Know your differentiator – What makes your MSP truly unique.  A great MSP Help Desk is one way, but how do you market this?  Are you saying the same thing as every other MSP?  If you are running a 24/7 Help Desk and Network Operations Centre, it is imperative that you make this known.  Many MSPs frown upon marketing 24/7 services, and this offering can make you truly unique.
  3. All roads lead home – Before you embark on any marketing activity, you must have a website that demonstrates your professionalism.  What your website says is a different reflection of your business.  Does your website talk about your unique offerings (such as your MSP Help Desk or what makes your MSP different than all the others.  Does your website invite visitors to engage with your company?
  4. Networking: Online marketing is about networking and demonstrating thought leadership.  Using social media services such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are great tools to meet and build strong strategic alliances and partnerships.  Make sure you are using these online services to build robust business networks with those who can help your business grow and prosper.
  5. Put yourself in the client’s shoes: How do people search for information online?  Any successful online marketing campaign starts with understanding your market and also having in-depth knowledge of how the market looks for or researches the services you offer.  You must understand keyword research, search engine optimization and how this knowledge can be translated to your blogs, social media activities and your website.
  6. Make it easy to share: Have something great to say and your readers love it.  Make it easy for them to share your tweets, status updates or blog posts.  There are many tools that allow information to be shared via social media services.  Make sure you figure out how to take advantage of them.
  7. Execute, Execute… Execute! One of the reasons MSPs struggle with marketing can be traced back to a failure to take that first step or to execute.  Nothing happens in your business when you fail to take a step forward.  You will make mistakes and nothing is perfect.  But you must execute.

There are many tips when it comes to marketing your MSP business.  It starts with a plan, solid foundation and excellence in providing service.  You can’t succeed if you don’t have all three aligned.  Just like delivering quality service can’t happen without a rock-solid MSP Help Desk backing you up, neither can you even begin to make your MSP business a success unless you take the steps today to put them into place.