I’ve been marketing an MSP for a long time. I’ve tried a lot of ideas over the years! Some paid off big and others… not so much.
In this list, I’ll include some of the successful MSP Marketing ideas we’ve executed and others that I would like to do in the future. Hopefully, it gets your creative juices flowing to begin executing these or coming up with new ideas!
A quick note, the most important thing about your MSP Marketing is to stay consistent. If you’re building a solid marketing foundation, you will get consistent leads for your business. Stop by our Free Marketing Guides to download the Ultimate MSP Marketing Guide. This is everything we’ve done to grow to a $4 million+ MSP over the last 6 years.
Rent out a local movie theater for a big release.
If you do it on a weekday, you’re more likely to have people show up and the pricing will be lower. For instance, we have a competitor locally that always rents it out for new nerdy movies like Star Wars, Star Trek, and others. Thought it was a brilliant idea that I plan on doing soon!
Conduct webinar training for your clients and ask them to invite a colleague.
You can conduct a webinar training on OneDrive, SharePoint, Excel, QuickBooks, etc. Whatever is directly relevant to your target market and high value! You don’t even have to worry about running the webinar. You can easily hire an expert on Upwork to do the training for you in the $200-$500 range.
Host a BIG event!
Point all your MSP Marketing tactics towards inviting the community to an EPIC event. For instance, we hold an annual smash-a-thon where the community brings out their old computer equipment, smashes it, and recycles it. This event ended up raising lots of money for The Boys and Girls Clubs of Polk County! This one has PR written all over it and local news sources were all over it.
Give away a TESLA.
Yeah, this one sounds crazy, but Hunter at Comtech added $10k MRR by giving away a TESLA! If they were referred to a new customer, the referrer received tickets into the drawing equal to the number of computers at the new client. What a great way to incentive BIG referrals! They were only entered if the new client came on board, virtually guaranteeing the Tesla could be paid off based on a 3-year contract.
Invest in a food truck.
Buy or rent an ice cream truck to stop by clients and prospects. This one is always a hit. I once saw an MSP buy an ice cream truck. Again, sounds crazy but it works great! The clients and prospects always post on their social media ordering for the truck and being grateful for the visit. Great for adding leads and growing on social media.
Film funny videos with your team.
This one has made a MASSIVE impact on our business. Not only does it engage our current clients and team members, but prospects love it and share it on their social media. This does not have to be super professional. For instance, here is an office space parody video we did that received thousands of views and helped us add a decent-sized client that thought it was hilarious. Successful MSP Marketing requires effort and creativity, and clients take notice when both are applied.
Develop A custom calendar.
Another one of the most impactful ideas we’ve ever had. We photoshopped our techs into some of their favorite movies. We recreated scenes and it was a hit! Our techs loved it and almost every client has the calendar hanging in their office for all their clients and colleagues to see 😊 well worth the effort!
Client Spotlight videos.
These are super high value. Your client will always agree if you let them know you want to highlight their business! Make it a short video with some clips of their office and a short interview with the decision maker. For example, while on-site you can ask “What has been like working with X company?” They are going to provide a glowing review. Now you have a client spotlight video AND a testimonial video which is GOLD in your marketing and sales process.
Get Reviews
Get 100 reviews on Google, Upcity, and Clutch. Simple but not easy! If you have more 5-star reviews than your competitors, you will receive more inbound traffic than them in most cases. Again, simple. But not easy. We can equate over $500,000 in recurring annual revenue to our top spot on the Google map pack! If you want to learn more about getting reviews for your MSP, check out our free Reviews Guide on our Free Marketing Guides page.
Run YouTube Ads that are Hyper Local
YouTube ads are a great way to stay in front of your target market with video content. Tech tips, Client testimonial videos, case study videos, funny video, and motion graphic videos are all great content to show to a target audience in your local market, as well as inexpensive with a targeted budget.
Send a Unique Direct Mail Piece and Follow Up with Phone Calls
One of our partners sent out a cool direct mail piece with a physical gift card that credit $3,000 towards a new client contract. It was different and stood out, which is exactly what you want! Following up with a phone call improves the conversion rate and warms up otherwise cold leads.
Utilize a Client Service Maximizer
Okay, there are lots of names for this. The gist is, lay out every service you sell on the top column and all of your clients on the left-hand side. Indicate which service each client has. The goal is to hit list to add MRR from your existing client base.
Build Out Case Studies
Case studies show prospective clients that you have completed projects similar to what they’re looking for! It’s a simple exercise to show the situation the client was in before you took over, what was done, and their situation now.
Conduct More Technology Business Reviews
Another tool with lots of names. Most MSPs put these reviews off, but they are vitally important. Not only do they strengthen the relationship with your client, but they are massive opportunities to add MRR. Our clients consistently say that they never leave one of these meetings without adding additional MRR, and the clients are happy to pay because there are excellent opportunities to show all of the value you provide.
Engage in Remarketing
This seems complicated, but it’s really not. Most platforms allow you to add a tracking code on your website. When a visitor stops by, you can serve them ads after they leave. When you do this one multiple platforms with different high-quality content, it significantly improves conversion. It takes a long time to get a prospect to move to Managed Services, so staying in front of them is vital.
Create Tech Tip Videos
These should be informative and nontechnical. Your prospect does not care about how a firewall is set up (unless you are targeting Co-Managed). Providing real value to their day-to-day work and consistently posting on your personal LinkedIn will help grow your audience and eventually lead to…leads!
Effective Social Media Practices
This could be an entire guide on its own, but consistently posting high quality content to your personal social media will help build your audience. Company profiles are basically dead …it’s the honest truth. Social media giants do not want to give you free organic reach. They want you to pay. However, they DO want thought leaders on their platform so they will freely give your personal account free traffic if you’re providing value and building your audience.
MDF
Make sure you get a list of every single one of the current vendors you pay. Request MDF (Market Development Funds) from each one! They will happily help you pay for a marketing campaign if you can show a plan and potential results.
Organize Lunch and Learn Events with Prominent Guest Speakers
To make your Lunch and Learn events successful, it’s essential to provide attendees with a compelling reason to show up. Merely giving a vague presentation covering cybersecurity won’t be enough to fill the seats. Instead, invite notable local figures or presenters to speak at the events, as this will make the event more appealing to attendees. Sometimes it’s as simple as just asking; one of our partners had a top FBI official speak at one of our past events.
Search Job Boards for IT Openings
This one may not have the highest success rate but we added a good sized Co-Managed client this way. Search for IT jobs in your general area that were posted by companies in the 50-500 employee range. Attempt to find the IT Director or executive hiring and give them a call or add them on LinkedIn. Some will just write you off, but others have not fully considered a co-managed relationship. Hit them with the Co-Managed campaign (link to campaign page) and you’ll be better suited to win the business than other MSPs!
I could go on all day, but this should be a great place to start! We’ll do a follow-up blog soon with even more ideas to get you MSP Marketing moving in the right direction.
Remember, these are ideas, but your foundation is the most important component of your MSP marketing. Sometimes ideas tend to be “one-off” things, which is not conducive to a good long-term strategy. However, if you’re executing on the fundamentals and then adding these on top on them, you’ll be in an excellent spot!
Check out our free MSP Marketing guides to hit the ground running!
