msp

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marketing

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Your MSP marketing should meet your customers where they are at

Nate Freedman

Illustration: Ram Prasath

On why marketing is all about speaking the language of customers.

As the owner of an MSP marketing company, a lot of my days are spent working directly with clients on all of their MSP sales and marketing strategy needs. It's part of what I enjoy the most because it really gives me a chance to spend time with someone on a one-on-one basis to learn more about who they are, what they want, and why that matters so much to them. Just like at SuperOps.ai, where their goal is for you to build customer relationships and to focus on delivering exceptional service.

Once, one of my clients came to me with a question that I immediately thought was worth answering here, as well. In so many words, he said, "Why can't I get certain SMB business owners to take IT seriously?"

It's a good question because IT is a powerful asset when utilized properly. It's a way to make sure that the technological foundation of a business is aligned with the long-term goals of the organization, each one feeding into and empowering the other, driving that business forward down the line to success.

Yet some people still see it as an afterthought - "I have to use a computer for work when I didn't have to in the past, and I'm not happy about it."

This problem has a lot more to do with just the fact that certain people will always hang onto that "old school" mentality. As is true with most things, the crux of this issue can be traced back to one simple place:

Your marketing.

It's not about your technology. It's about your customers

Many MSPs make the same mistake over and over again: they assume that their prospects will value all of the great technical features of their services because that is what the MSPs themselves care about. In truth, you're thinking like a business owner, not a client. The values of your prospects are actually in a totally different place.

• They want to make their business more profitable.

They want to preserve ever-decreasing margins.

They want to find new ways for their employees to work smarter, not harder.

They don't want to have to worry about cyber attacks any longer. 

They want to improve the quality of the services they're able to provide their own clients.

Notice that the fancy new managed services package you're offering is absolutely nowhere on that list.

By this point, you've probably said to yourself, "but wait - I can address all of those goals. I can do those things. That's what my speech about technical specifications was all about in the first place."

Sure, what you offer checks all of these boxes. You know it and I know it. But the problem is you're not communicating that message as effectively as you think you are.

It all comes back to the message

In order to get your prospects to value the technical features of your service, you need to properly contextualize how those features will get them what they want. 

This is called "meeting your prospects where they are at”.

If you don't approach your marketing collateral from this angle, you're almost finished before you've even started. You can't use marketing to artificially create a connection with your customers by droning on about technical specifications, because they aren't going to know what you're talking about. You need to start with your customer, identify the value they're concerned about, and work back to the service that scratches that particular itch. 

This requires you to make an effort to get to know all of your prospects on an individual basis. Once you understand what their goal is right now, you can then use your sales and marketing team to identify:

a) the solution that helps them accomplish it, and 
b) the approach you need to crystalize in their mind. 

If you begin every piece of marketing collateral from this point of view, you'll be able to communicate the message you want in the way that they need - all without them ever losing sight of the true value that they're going to receive at any point along the journey.

Rest assured, the importance of this is something that literally cannot be overstated. 

Your MSP marketing: the most important bridge you will ever build

In the end, the net benefit of all of these efforts will become resoundingly clear. The key thing to takeaway from all of this is that meeting your customer where they're at is about more than just selling IT services. It's about putting your entire organization in the position it needs to be in to truly understand everything about your customers on a molecular level.

Only then are you where you need to be to serve them in the way that they deserve.

If your customer is stranded on a deserted island, don't ignore that. Don't wait for them to come to you. Build a bridge, get over there, and start a conversation.

By speaking their language - addressing their pains, acknowledging their point of view, understanding their goals and why they matter - you've done more than just create a more effective marketing campaign. You've planted the seeds for the type of mutually beneficial relationship that will certainly pay dividends, both immediately and for years to come.