Channel Transitions: How Can You Market Your MSP?
Marketing your managed services provider (MSP) can be challenging. Not only do you have to determine which efforts will produce the best results and develop the skills necessary to carry those efforts out successfully — but you also have to find the time to do it.
At Business Solutions’ Channel Transitions VAR/MSP Executive Conference on June 4 at the DoubleTree Newark Airport, a panel of MSPs discussed how they approach marketing their IT businesses.
Panelist Marshall Wright, CEO of DeckerWright, says in addition to lead generation programs and updating the company’s website, one vehicle his company has used is canvassing — “going around and knocking on doors.” Wright says over the past year, this has resulted in a list of about 750 “suspects” that the company has reviewed to identify accounts they would like to pursue, which Wright describes as those “big enough to have big company problems, but not big enough to go out and hire somebody.”
“I think really, though, there isn’t really one secret sauce for marketing,” Wright says. “You have to try a lot of stuff, you’ve got to stay in front of your clients and have suspects all the time.”
Panelist Dale Walls, president of Corsica Technologies, says his company hired a dedicated representative to focus on marketing. This provides the company with someone to manage marketing campaigns and tasks such as website SEO (search engine optimization) and to assist with content development to help build the company’s status as a trusted advisor. Walls adds that having a marketing representative also ensures everyone is informed. Current customers receive information on the new offerings presented to prospects, and internal staff receives this information as well.
Panelist Tom Clancy, co-founder of Valiant Technology, says his company uses a marketer to help keep their Twitter and Facebook accounts and blog more active than they would otherwise be. Clancy sends articles that he finds interesting along with notes on why it’s important that they can tweet or post. The marketer could also create the “bones” of a blog article that Clancy can write, and then assist with editing and polishing the article. With increased activity on social media, the company now received organic “likes” from people with no prior connection to the company. “That in itself is huge,” Clancy says.
“It doesn’t make the phone ring, but once I establish a relationship with someone, really start to connect, when they’re doing their investigation on me to see what we’re all about, they see that our Facebook page has 500 likes, that our Twitter feed has one thousand followers and our blog has entries that are newer than two years ago,” Clancy explains. “[The marketing firm hasn’t] necessarily won me any new business but they have made it a hell of a lot easier for me to win business.”
Clancy adds, “People are hungry for content.” He says Valiant Technology also is exploring the value of producing podcasts. “Right now podcasting is a very hot topic. It’s been around a long time and all of a sudden it’s really caught fire. People are no longer consuming linear media — they’re consuming on-demand media.”
Business Solutions held Channel Transitions at the DoubleTree Newark Airport on June 4, 2015. Platinum sponsors were MAXfocus from LogicNow and Mercury Payment Systems, a Vantiv Company, and industry association partners were The ASCII Group, CompTIA, and the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA).