MSPs Stop Being Scared Shitless
In the current highly digitized business environment, many companies are increasingly turning to MSPs as their strategic outsourcing partners to manage and deliver vital services. Currently, the MSP marketplace is increasingly getting competitive, with recent statistics revealing that there are over 40,000 MSPs in the USA. To keep up with the rising competition, MSPs like you need to develop a great digital marketing strategy. Unfortunately, while every MSP wants new business, most are scared of trying unchartered territories with their advertising and marketing efforts. Ideally, today's customer needs and expectations keep changing, and using the same old marketing strategies is not an effective way to win new business.
This blog focuses on the common MSP marketing mistakes and ways to make your advertising more enticing to today's consumers.
4 MSP Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
Many service providers struggle with their marketing. Some of the common MSP marketing mistakes to avoid include:
Talking Features and Not Benefits
Most people out there don't understand MSPs and what they do. Unfortunately, many MSPs don't make their marketing messaging simple enough for the average person to understand. Studies reveal that the average person receives over 4,000 commercial messages each day and getting the attention of your target audience is increasingly becoming a tall order. Since MSPs are experts in the field of technology and boast deep and technical knowledge, they wrongly assume their customers also know the ins and outs of the industry and their services. Using technical terms and jargon may make sense to you but could mean nothing to your customers. Ideally, a customer who doesn't have enough information to make a truly rational decision will likely say no to your offers. It is important, therefore, to communicate simply and clearly what you do in as few words as possible. Instead of focusing on sophisticated specs and features, help your audience understand the benefits and advantages of your services.
Lack of Competitive Edge in Marketing Strategies
Another common mistake that MSPs make with their marketing and advertising is blindly copying the same marketing strategies that their competitors are doing. Ideally, most MSPs fear trying out innovative marketing ideas because they want to be technically correct and don't want to go against the norm. Copying what everyone else is doing makes it more challenging to differentiate your brand from the rest and to capture and keep your audience's attention. Besides, just because your competitor's marketing strategy is working for them doesn't automatically mean it will also work for you. Conducting proper competitive analysis can help you determine the components of your competitor's marketing strategy to innovate. Rather than copying their tactics indiscriminately, strive to make your ads as memorable and unique as possible for better customer engagement.
Restricting Ads to a Few Platforms
Most MSPs leverage a few marketing platforms and hope to bring in enough traffic, leads, and clients. Modern consumers are connected and tech-savvy researchers who like to compare brands before making their purchase decisions. Focusing all your marketing and advertising efforts on usual internet advertising platforms such as Email, Google ads, and LinkedIn ads may not be adequate enough to win more markets and stay ahead of your competition. Notably, when you look at super successful companies, you realize that their ads are found everywhere. Targeting your potential clients on multiple advertising simply means you will reach a much wider audience effectively.
Mishandling Leads
Generating leads may be the easy part, but nurturing them can be a different ball game altogether. Once a prospect expresses their interest in your services, you need to move them effectively through the sales funnels. You can turn your leads into loyal customers by doing the following:
- Creating buyer personas: Having a buyer persona can help you create custom marketing strategies and messages for a specific customer.
- Do follow-ups: Most marketers are afraid to do follow-ups. Be diligent in your follow-ups by sending an email or calling the prospects over and over again.
- Don't be too aggressive: It is crucial to balance diligent follow-ups and likeability. Appearing too aggressive will turn your prospects away.
Best In Class Marketing Strategies for MSPs
The following are some of the proven strategies that MSPs can use to improve their marketing and advertising efforts:
Be Bold
In marketing, risks always lead to greater rewards. The most successful companies out there are not afraid to experiment with new marketing techniques. Being bold could mean taking a stance on controversial issues within your industry or being the first to implement solutions that your competitors are fretting from. Ideally, strive to provide ads with content and information that can't be found anywhere else. You should also offer a unique point of view and strong opinions about crucial topics. A strong-willed opinion with lots of supporting information always attracts higher viewership and engagement rates while establishing you as a thought leader in your industry.
Incorporate Video Marketing
According to a Forbes report, a massive 90% of consumers reveal product video helps them make buying decisions. Videos are critical to your content marketing strategy because they help you tell great and persuasive stories in less time. Memorable, measurable, and engaging videos can help explain complex technical terms and make things clearer for your audience. Apart from video's unique ability to convert leads, the medium is also a source of valuable data. Ideally, you can track and measure audience engagement for videos more meaningfully than you would with other advertising options.
Make It Fun
Information Technology advertising should be fun and not a chore. A good ad is written and designed to connect with the target audience emotionally. As an MSP, you want your brand to be associated with a good feeling, and excellent and creative ads have a strong foundation in relatable experiences and shared humor. Effective ads use creativity to make your brand immediately identifiable and memorable. Easy, fun, interesting, and memorable adverts reach more potential customers and inform them effectively about your products and services.
Diversify Your Marketing
Diversifying your marketing strategy can be a great way to increase your brand visibility and encourage more consumers to trust your company. Instead of restricting your ads to a single platform, venture out into other territories, including radio ads, talk shows, music programs, TV commercials, print magazines.
If you are focusing on online marketing, it is not sufficient to only advertise on a few platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Although several consumers visit these platforms daily, many of them may not trust the content found in them. Consider leveraging other social media platforms, including YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, Pinterest, Linkedin, Instagram, Google My Business, and more.
Ulistic LP Can Help
In the current digital era, MSPs help businesses and organizations optimize efficiencies, productivity, scalability, and manage and improve their security and data. Unfortunately, many service providers struggle to reach their target market and win more clients because of poor marketing and advertising strategies. By adopting innovative marketing strategies and understanding major pitfalls, MSPs can turn around your marketing fortunes. If you need help to get started with a winning marketing strategy, don't hesitate to contact Ulistic LP.
| 
