Marketing is Easy — 5 Essential Best Practices MSPs Can Learn From EasyIT
Key Points From The Article:
- Like in every other industry, MSPs need to go hard on marketing to drum up sales and make enough money to keep them going.
- However, setting up and executing the right marketing strategies is intimidating to many IT companies.
- Marketing, while complex, shouldn't be difficult.
- EasyIT has continued success for years with its marketing approach, and one of its marketing professionals shares some of its best practices that other MSPs can leverage.
MSPs must invest in marketing to build a successful business like any other. Every managed IT service provider needs to figure out how to make money without abandoning their value to stay in business.
However, many MSPs struggle with setting up and running effective marketing strategies. Yes, many have built websites, executed brand awareness, have all the marketing materials, and even got a few people complimenting their work. The only problem is — they don't make more sales.
EasyIT's marketing approach has continued success for years, and one of its marketing professionals shares the best practices that your MSP can leverage.
Who is EasyIT?
Easy IT is a managed IT service provider in Columbus, Ohio. The company has been in business for over two decades, providing a wide range of IT services to small and medium-sized businesses in Central Ohio and other states in the US.
The company's services include:
- Managed IT services
- VoIP solutions
- Cloud computing
- Data backup and recovery
- Disaster recovery planning
EasyIT has become a marketing machine in recent years, thanks partly to its partnership with Ulistic, a leading MSP marketing service provider.
EasyIT Best Practices that Other MSPs Can Leverage
In partnership with Ulistic, EasyIT has developed a comprehensive marketing plan that includes:
- Content marketing
- Social media marketing
- Lead Generation
- Account-based marketing
The marketing effort has transformed EasyIT in terms of revenue and customer growth. The organization is quickly becoming the go-to MSP for small and medium-sized businesses in Columbus.
Here are some of the best practices the MSP leverage that your MSP can adopt as well:
1. Make Use of the Live Chat Feature
The live chat feature on your website is critical because it allows your MSP to get prospective clients' contact information. Whenever anyone uses the Live Chat feature on your website, you can email them, saying you'll reach back in 24 hours.
However, as Megan O'Hara — a sales professional from EasyIT, says, don't wait until the 24-hour period elapses to reach out. Instead, reach out as soon as you can. After all, your MSP wants more customers. Many people appreciate the fast responses. A timely response through the live chat creates rapport with prospects, increasing the probability of a conversion.
2. Leverage SharpSpring to Automate Outreach With Prospects
After identifying a lead via live chat, Easy IT utilizes Sharpspring to automate marketing campaigns. The tool saves their organization several hours.
For instance, when a prospect enters the EasyIT website and downloads the pricing guide, their marketing team will judge that they are interested in working with them. While the prospect hasn't asked EasyIT to contact them, they automatically use the SharpSpring tool to add them to their marketing campaign.
Using the SharpSpring tool, they get more information about the potential lead by monitoring how the person interacts with their site. They then grab the lead and personalize it thereon.
3. Track Every Lead Journey
In a perfect world, all visitors to your website would be ready to sign a contract to work with you. However, the reality is that most people visiting your website are not ready to buy yet. Your MSP has the formidable task of nurturing the leads you get and walking them through every step until they're ready to buy.
Most MSPs misinterpret a lead for someone ready to sign the contract. People looking at your website may not find what they're looking for at first or may get distracted from your website and won't proceed to work with you.
You need to follow up and ask them if they want to learn more about your MSP because you saw them visiting your website. Such a follow-up has worked differently for EasyIT.
Your MSP can track every lead journey in different ways, such as:
- Use the Visual Visitor tool to see all the people that visited your website
- Leveraging SharpSpring to get known contact information about a company visiting your site
- Using third-party products such as Zapier to import businesses' contact information
4. Execute SEO
The EasyIT marketing team didn't understand the back end of SEO, but they wanted it to work. The company partnered with an MSP marketing service provider — to push their IT company ranking on the search engine.
SEO plays a huge role in exposing your MSP to prospects you can't reach in any other way.
5. Use Social Proof
Prospects want to know that you're capable of handling their task or if you've worked with other businesses like them. In the same way, employers require references for new hires. You need social proof to show your level of competence. Your MSP should not be afraid to identify who you work with because it serves as proof of excellence.
Why Would a Business Work With EasyIT Over Other IT Companies?
According to Megan O'Hara, she can't precisely pinpoint why businesses prefer working with their MSP. However, she believes that the changing nature of cybersecurity and how EasyIT completely shoulders all their clients' troubles by staying alert 24/7 to keep security makes them stand out.
She says her company has an internal security team that stays up and watches things overnight, so their clients don't need to have that person on their payroll.
Megan insists that EasyIT delivers on its promises. The MSP is transparent, communicates well, and knows what they do.
How MSPs Can Get Referral Videos
A unique marketing tip for MSPs is using referral videos for promotion. Referral videos allow your MSP to discuss your organization and your relationship with other clients.
The videos can work as a case study and testimonial, which is better than sending out random testimonial tools that every MSP is leveraging.
Why Choose Ulistic Over Other MSP Marketing Firms
EasyIT chose to work with Ulistic to free up their time and focus on the marketing tasks they're best at, leaving the rest to an MSP marketing professional. The company discovered that Ulistic has tools and automation processes that deliver incredible results. You, too, can work with us to market your MSP. Contact us today to discuss how you can adopt effective marketing strategies to scale up your business.
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