How to Find the Best Way to Market Your MSP Business

Marketing has never been a core competency for many MSP leaders, who tend to have technology or business backgrounds. But, increasingly, MSPs recognize the value of marketing-how it can help enhance their brand, deliver leads and even close sales-and are looking to invest in marketing resources to grow. But wanting to do it and being successful at it are two different things.

In most cases, there are two marketing paths to explore: Develop your marketing skills in house or outsource them to an agency or other marketing specialist. Either one can work, but which one is best for your business can vary by your business model, budget, market and goals, according to a panel of channel leaders during an In-House vs. Outsourced Marketing: A Debate for MSPssession at ChannelCon 2024 moderated by James Steel, channel chief at Salesbuildr.

In the end, the decision to invest in internal vs. external marketing expertise should come only after considering a multitude of factors, variables and goals for your business, panelists said.

"You have to understand what your goals and objectives are. What is the value proposition that you bring?" said Bob Coppedge, owner of Simplex-IT, a Stow, Ohio-based MSP. "How can you market something if you don't know what it's going to be-not from your perspective, but from a customer's perspective too."

Barb Paluszkiewicz, CEO of CDN Technologies in Oakville, Ont., agreed and noted several questions that MSPs should ask themselves to best determine a marketing strategy, including what are you trying to accomplish and what do you want your marketing to achieve? "Think about customer satisfaction, growth, operational success, territory expansion and your budget," Paluszkiewicz said.

Paluszkiewicz shared a chart she created to help determine the pros and cons of both in-house and outsourced marketing. An MSP's individual pros/cons may differ, so creating your own chart may help you decide your next step.

"When I made my chart, I noted that my pros for outsourcing were aligned with the cons for keeping it in-house. For example, the person delivering marketing should really get the vibe of your business. There's deep company knowledge to share and it's their job to expose that vibe to many people," she said.

In-House? Outsourced? Maybe Both

Annie Hills, strategic marketing director at GreatAmerica Financial Services, noted that a best practice is to spend between 2% and 5% of revenue on marketing. Once you have that number, you can determine whether it makes sense to hire internal marketing staff or find an external agency or individual.

"Just know that you can't hire a person or team and expect them to help with everything. You will still need some external support," she said. "For example, one person is not going to be an SEO expert, web developer, content writer and graphic designer. Different agencies also specialize in those and some specialize in industries like MSPs. It goes back to what are your goals."

The good news? Some external resources are available through your third-party partners, including vendors, distributors and associations like CompTIA, Greg Jones, vice president of business development, EMEA, at Kaseya/Datto.

"It is OK to have a hybrid approach. You might have internal resources but they might not have specific skills, like video production," Jones said. "Your content, not everything needs to be original. There are some incredible resources that you can white label, take ideas from and get your branding across. Vendors or CompTIA have funded a lot of that. That can take your cost down," Jones said.

MSPs should take what vendors are giving, add their voice to emphasize the MSP's expertise and relationships, Coppedge said. "We are the content experts, so you want that messaging to be loud and clear. Way too many people take vendor content and just throw it out there as is."

Jones also mentioned that many vendors, distributors and other partners offer market development fund (MDF) programs that can assist MSPs with marketing, web design, events, advertising and more. One strong point he mentioned was all MSPs should be asking for MDF and help/support to drive business growth as vendors have deep pockets and expertise.

"You'd be surprised how many vendors don't use up all their MDF simply because MSPs don't ask for it," added Coppedge.

Related Content: Unlock Hidden Revenue: Getting Started with Marketing Development Funds

Insights to Help Make Your Decision

The key to a successful outsourced marketing program is to have trust in your partner, but also have the ability to measure and verify the metrics. If you know you should be getting a certain number of qualified leads a month, and that drops precipitously, why? There's usually a reason and it's important to know what happened-and how to fix it, said Paluszkiewicz.

"We were doing outsourced SEO and the company typed in the wrong telephone number for us. On the front end, it was my number, but on the back end it forwarded to another MSP! They said, 'we'll look into it.' Look into it? This needs to be addressed before I hang up the phone," she said. "My account didn't get the love it needed. Thankfully we were monitoring, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to correct it as quickly as we could."

Working with an agency should be a partnership, added Hills. "They're not really a vendor, they're a true partner. You should be able to throw everything over to them and they should be able to continually take work. Together you can strategize, determine goals and how to get there," she said.

Added Coppedge, "You can make arguments for or against either in-house or outsourced, but you can't abdicate your responsibilities in the process. You can't say I hired a person or I outsourced and they're the only person involved; I'm leaving it to them. This is your organization, your message, your authenticity. At end of day, you have to be part of it."

Outsourcing marketing activity-to start-can be a great way to learn from people who are experts in the field, added Paluszkiewicz. It's an opportunity to learn how marketing works, then you can determine if an in-house marketing resource or model could help as well.

"Most MSPs don't market, they get business through referrals. An agency will have a CRM, people, processes to keep moving. That's what you're paying them for. I highly recommend that everyone outsource. Referrals are great, but if you want to scale, increase profitability-have the boat, the second house, the Louis Vuitton, the Chanel-you need to grow," she said.

External resources can also be a good second set of eyes on current marketing techniques, to make sure they're not too generic or too narrow, according to Coppedge.

"Most MSP marketing is based on two messages: We're fantastic. We do this, this, this. It's we, we, we, we. The second is if you don't use our services, you suck. If your website contains those messages, that's tough," he said. "Your message should be different from someone else, carry your personality and cater to the target profile that you want to develop. If not, the odds are against you."

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