4 ways to market your MSP during the holidays

These tips will help you end the year with a bang and set you up for a prosperous 2021.

Create a campaign

When approaching your Holiday marketing, try not to think of it as a single piece. Instead, create a multi-channel marketing campaign that includes print, email marketing, content marketing, and social media. It pays to plan early, so you have time to execute a cadence and maximize conversions.

Holiday cards

Cards can be a great place to start. They give you a great opportunity to wish your clients well and can be customized with a handwritten note that is meaningful to your key contact. Send these to clients and prospects alike.

In this digital age we live in, a card stands out. In marketing and sales, we call this a pattern interrupt. When you can disrupt the typical flow of communication in a good way, it makes people take notice. So, work on making those cards personal to increase the impact and get them out early. They can pay dividends. Here are some additional tips and a great example worth checking out.

Email marketing

The holidays are a great time of year to do email marketing to your clients. Email marketing has always been a cost-effective medium to reach a larger audience. The key to successful email marketing is to provide value to your prospects and not send them another piece of SPAM.

Helpful tips for providing value include segmenting your list and customizing your content to your audience. Give something of value. This could be important information about IT security threats or perhaps updates on data security regulations for their industry. Prospects want to know that you not only know IT support but that you know the needs of their specific industry.

During the holidays, keep your emails light. Do not be afraid to have fun with tone. This time of year, clients and prospects are more open to a little humor, so have fun with it!  Here is a great example that could easily be customized for your MSP along with some email success tips worth checking out.

Content marketing

One of the keys to success in content marketing is to have an active blog. This gives you the opportunity to position your managed services firm as thought leaders in the industry. It also allows you to showcase your expertise in a meaningful way by creating content that is valuable to your clients.

A blog is something that you should really be doing year-round as part of your digital marketing efforts. It helps with Search Engine Optimization and can contribute to higher search rankings on Google. It also gives you a platform where you can go a little deeper into topics that are important to your clients.

During the holiday season, you can pivot your articles to holiday-related topics that may be of interest to your clients and prospects. There are interesting trends in technology that emerge during the holiday season. Your readers may appreciate an article that discusses some of the cybersecurity threats that emerge around the holidays and tips on how they can stay safe online.

Whatever content you choose to write, it should evoke emotion on the part of the reader. Interactive content, such as polls and infographics, can boost engagement and promote sharing. Consider incorporating these elements in your content marketing as well.

Related reading: Content marketing guide for MSPs

Social media

The holidays are a perfect time to connect with prospects over social media. This can be a great way to increase brand awareness and have folks associate your company with something good. One thing that many MSPs have had success with is partnering with a local charity. You can donate time to serve as a company and invite your clients to join you in doing good. Use social media to raise awareness of your efforts and invite others to join you.

Another idea that has yielded some great results for MSPs is using social media to do a contest or promotion of some kind for the holidays. An example would be doing a food drive to benefit a local food bank and inviting all clients and prospects to participate. You then give away a prize to the organization that donates the most or offer discounted or free services.

Here's a link to some more discussion and examples if you want to dig into social media a little more, and incorporate some of these ideas.

Social media can be a great way to connect with the community around you and engage clients and prospects in new ways. It can also be a great way to promote your brand.

Related reading: Social media for MSP branding

Conclusion

There is a lot that can be done to continue to grow your MSP and earn new business during the holidays. We hope that as you follow these suggestions, you will find success as you end the year and set yourself up for success in 2021.