5 Marketing Tactics That Drive MSP Success

By Richard Delahaye, Senior Director of Marketing, Intronis MSP Solutions by Barracuda

Marketing is a critical part of effectively growing any business. How and what you communicate about your business to customers and prospects can make the difference between success and failure. Yet, for many MSPs and IT service providers, marketing often falls to the bottom of the to-do list. For some, this is due to lack of experience or skill in marketing. Others simply don’t have the time or resources to focus on marketing their business.

Recently, we surveyed more than 150 IT service providers about their marketing habits to find out what they are doing to achieve their business goals. We found most marketing-savvy MSPs and IT service providers are using a combination of five different tactics to drive success:

1. Social media. More than half of the service providers we surveyed are currently using social media to build brand awareness, drive thought leadership, and share valuable information about their business and their partners. While it can be time-consuming, the key is consistency. A best practice is to share one to two updates daily on Facebook or LinkedIn and more frequently on Twitter. Alternate between company-specific information, customer updates, and industry trends/news to ensure variety.
2. Email marketing. E-mail is an easy and effective way to keep in touch with partners and prospects. Many MSPs and IT service providers communicate important updates about the company and IT news that affects their business through a monthly newsletter. Another best practice is to offer subscriptions to your company blog. Each time a new post is added, your subscribers will receive an update automatically. This saves time and ensures that your information is showing up in the inbox of customers and prospects on a regular basis.
3. Public relations. Press releases are a great way to communicate company milestones including awards, new vendor or partner relationships, personnel changes and promotions, charitable activities, and more. Press releases can be posted to your website and sent to relevant industry trade publications and your local media outlets to build visibility. Some MSPs and IT solution providers will take it a step further by inviting local media to events they host, and setting up interviews with industry trade press around significant company milestones.
4. Web video. YouTube has made it possible to bring marketing videos to the masses, and many of the most successful companies today are using video to visually communicate to customers and prospects. It can be as simple as recording a session with your smart phone, or with a little budget hiring a professional to do the job. Customer testimonials, events, and tutorials all make for great videos.
5. Events. Lunch-and-learns, sponsoring a booth at a local chamber of commerce or business association event, or attending tradeshows are all great ways to connect with customers and prospects. At many of these types of events, there are also ways to build even more visibility for your company by sponsoring a Wi-Fi lounge, coffee bar, roundtable discussion, panel, or other small event during event.

One final note, many vendor partners offer marketing tools for their MSP Partners, including re-brandable collateral, email campaigns, success stories, and much more. These tools help save time and enable MSPs and IT service providers to stretch their often-limited marketing resources. Additionally, some vendors will also provide MDF funds to help you pay for joint marketing programs. So don’t forget to ask vendors about what’s available to help you drive the success of your marketing and sales efforts.

All of these approaches, whether used together or separately can help you improve the way you market your business. But, you shouldn’t feel that you have to tackle all of these tactics right away. A best practice is to look at them on an individual basis to determine which approach will work best for your business and your customers, and then go from there.

Richard Delahaye is Senior Director of Marketing for Intronis MSP Solutions by Barracuda, where he manages the company's global marketing strategy. Richard has 15 years of experience in high tech B2B marketing with a track record of spearheading innovative campaigns.