Hitting sales targets every month is a difficult thing for any company to achieve, especially a managed services provider (MSP). An MSP is a company that offers a variety of technology services to businesses that need additional IT support. Services may include things like IT support, IT consulting, cloud migration, data backup and recovery services, cybersecurity, security awareness training, network engineering, managed internet, and more.
If you’re trying to grow your IT company, there are MSP lead generation tactics that can help. Here are some tactics that can help you grow your MSP now.
Inbound Marketing Tactics to Grow Your MSP
Inbound marketing efforts are lead generation tactics that bring customers to you instead of you going out and initiating the first conversation with them. Since a lot of companies are already looking for additional IT support, inbound tactics are essential if you want to grow your MSP. These efforts help you push your message out there and bring leads directly to you.
The following are a few inbound lead generation tactics that can help you grow your MSP.
Build a Website That Drives Conversions
One of the smartest things you can do as an MSP is build a conversion-focused website. If you know how to optimize web pages for search engines, you can drive more traffic to your website and generate website leads. A ton of digital strategy goes into building a website that generates leads, but here are few tips to help you get started:
- Plan your page structure and menu structure/navigation
- Perform keyword research for all pages
- Write content that helps users find you for every service page
- Design and develop an SEO-optimized website
- Incorporate plenty of call-to-actions (CTAs)
Website development is definitely the first step in generating more inbound leads, because all other efforts (social media, paid ads, etc.) will aim to drive potential customers to your website. From there, they can contact you and hopefully become a customer.
Develop a Content Marketing Strategy
Once you have a fully optimized website that drives organic traffic, you need to create a killer content marketing strategy. The best way to stay at the top of search engine results pages and continue driving traffic is by continuously pushing out new content. Make sure your service pages rank high for commonly searched terms and refresh them frequently as you see fit. Also, publish several keyword-rich, thought-provoking blogs every week. By continuing to publish content that helps your target customers solve their problems, you’ll drive more traffic and convert more of those visitors into leads.
Implement a Social Media Marketing Strategy
An IT company doesn’t need to have the most aesthetically pleasing Instagram, but that doesn’t mean social media marketing isn’t important. There are various ways that MSPs should be utilizing different social media platforms:
- Communicate with potential customers. Social media is great for lead generation because it gives businesses a place to have an open discussion with potential customers. If you’re posting frequently on social media and interacting with followers, it may make one of them more inclined to want to work with you. For MSPs specifically, it also gives people a place to ask questions or get help with technical problems.
- Establish your credibility with reviews. Encourage your current, happy customers to leave reviews on your social media accounts to boost credibility. Most consumers consider referrals from friends and strangers when making purchase decisions.
- Utilize paid ads. With the targeting capabilities on paid ads, you not only have the capability to target your ideal customer, but also to re-target people who are already researching services like the ones you offer. Catch people who are already considering buying outsourced IT services using paid ads.
Of course, social media can also drive a user right back to your website where they can contact you, learn more about a service, and eventually contact you.
Outbound Marketing Tactics to Grow Your MSP
When it comes to growing your MSP, outbound marketing tactics are a critical part of the equation as well. If you don’t have sales representatives out there talking to people in your market, you won’t be top-of-mind. However, it’s best that your business focuses on what you do best: delivering technology services. That’s why it’s so advantageous for your business to have a B2B appointment setting partner. They can schedule sales appointments, you close the deals.
Strategic Prospecting
The first step in a B2B appointment setting program is to define your target audience and build a list. This is defined as strategic prospecting—a process used to identify qualified leads and to then cleanse those leads as a part of an ongoing sales process. Defining your target audience not only helps you start an outbound lead generation program, but it helps you be a more successful salesperson. If you know the kinds of customers you want to work with, you can get more granular with your messaging and close more deals.
Cold Calling and Emailing
Once you’ve defined what your ideal customer looks like and built a list, it’s time to start contacting those people. This involves creating impactful messaging then proceeding to cold call and email prospects. Recording all conversations in a CRM will help you to stay organized and to qualify and nurture all leads in your pipeline.
Sales Collateral
If you’ve perfected B2B appointment setting, give your sales efforts a boost with marketing collateral. Materials like brochures, sell sheets, case studies, and infographics will only help you further prove your point to prospects. Seeing your services on a 1-sheeter or reading a success story can help a potential customer make a buying decision. Sales collateral can even include things like video collateral; a potential customer who can watch a video instead of read or listen to a pitch about your products/services? Sold.
There are several IT lead generation strategies that can help you grow your business. Whether you’re still small or your well-established, B2B lead generation helps your business stay ahead of competitors and continuously grow month after month. Not sure which lead generation strategy is best for your business? Let’s talk → schedule an appointment.
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