When you’re an MSP handling many clients’ IT, you might lack the people or time to invest in digital marketing and lead generation.
A marketing agency can help you with every element of your marketing and lead generation strategies, from initial conception and brainstorming to ongoing execution and analysis.
But what are the best ways to generate more inbound IT leads for your business? Which strategies are most likely to be successful in promoting the visibility and reputation of your brand?
Create an Easy-to-Navigate IT Website
If designed and executed professionally, your website should be capable of generating leads all on its own. When people visit your website, they’ll learn about managed IT services, get to know your brand, and determine whether your company’s offerings are a good fit for their business.
If you can do this, your website can serve as a central hub of your online marketing operations. You can drive visitors from a multitude of different channels, including social media, email, and search engines, directly to your website so they can convert.
The key is to create an IT website that is helpful, informative, and easy to use. Skilled design, copywriting, and technical optimization can all help you do this, but it’s also important to make sure your website is easy to navigate.
These pages are some of your most important:
- Home. Your homepage is going to be one of your most popular pages, and the one many users will see first. Accordingly, it should have general information on every subject relevant to your MSP business and opportunities for users to find and explore other pages relevant to them. Just go over the basics here, and delve into more details on individual internal pages.
- Solutions. You offer managed IT services, but what services, exactly, do you offer? Here, you can describe all of your IT services in detail, such as cybersecurity, remote monitoring, help desk services, etc.
- About Us. On this page, you’ll talk about the purpose of your business, your mission, and ways you serve your clients.
- Why Us. Your customers have a wide range of choices when it comes to managed service providers, especially since many of these services can be provided remotely. Why should a customer choose your MSP? What makes you unique?
- Blog. As you’ll see, your blog page will be highly valuable for attracting new people to your website, building your authority, and even optimizing for search engines. It’s the foundation of your content marketing efforts.
- Contact. How should people reach out to you if they’re looking for a quote on managed IT services? Make sure you have a prominent contact page so your visitors can reach you conveniently.
Managed IT service providers should also include a page for frequently asked questions (FAQs), providing more clarity to decision makers considering services like yours.
Write Relevant, IT-Related Content That Buyers Are Interested In
One of the best strategies in managed IT services marketing is content marketing. Content marketing is the production and distribution of content meant to establish your authority, increase brand visibility, and ultimately attract more inbound leads.
Unlike outbound marketing strategies, which rely on outreach to total strangers, content marketing relies on an inbound approach; the goal is to naturally attract people who are already interested in topics related to managed IT services.
For example, you might write pieces of content about how to recover from a data breach or how to make your IT infrastructure more scalable. People searching for this type of content might be in need of managed IT services, so if they find your content, and they come to trust your expertise, they’ll be much more likely to convert and become paying clients.
Content marketing is valuable for MSPs for many reasons, including:
- Search optimization. Content is critical for any search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Content helps to boost your domain authority, it allows you to attract more links, and it gives you a chance to optimize for specific keywords that your users might search for. If done properly, content can help your web pages rank higher for relevant searches, eventually helping you generate tons of new organic traffic.
- General marketing usefulness. Content is valuable for other marketing strategies as well. You can use it to attract more followers to your social media page, you can distribute it in email marketing newsletters, and you can even incorporate it into some of your advertising.
- Opportunities for thought leadership. What product do you consider yourself an expert in? Are you cybersecurity experts? Write about some of the biggest risks at play right now and how your team has handled them. This is your chance to prove that you’re a leader in the managed IT service industry. Showcase your expertise and prove that working with your company is in a prospect’s best interest.
- Conversion value. Within each blog post you create, you’ll have multiple opportunities to provide calls to action (CTAs) and convert your readers into prospects. As long as you refine your strategy to optimize for conversions, this can provide you with a powerful new stream of leads.
- Reduced expenses. As an added bonus, content development is inexpensive. It doesn’t take much time or money to keep up with your competitors, especially if you’re already an expert in IT topics.
If you want your content marketing strategy to be effective, you need to choose the right topics. These topics should be relevant to your target audience while simultaneously helping you achieve your other goals.
These are some ways that you can generate better topics for your content strategy:
- Discover valuable SEO keywords. Your leads won’t have much value unless they’re properly qualified. You can do some of this work up front by writing content that’s specifically targeted to audience segments that are valuable for your Managed Services Company. You can brainstorm SEO keywords on your own, listing words and phrases your target customers might search, but it’s even more helpful to use third-party keyword research tools that can give you more details on search volume and competition.
- Ask existing clients. If you already have clients utilizing your managed IT services, ask them what types of IT content they’d like to see. What topics are most fascinating to them? What unanswered questions do they have related to your business?
- Study your competitors. There are hundreds of MSPs out there, and many of them are already practicing content marketing. Browse through some of the posts they’ve published recently to generate some new ideas—just make sure your approach is unique enough to stand out.
- See what your partners are posting. While studying your competitors is ideal for exploring how you can outrank them, seeing what your partners are posting is also a good idea to generate new topic ideas. For example, if you’re partnered with Microsoft, checking out their blog can help you stimulate new topics. Additionally, it gives you linking opportunities to their website which further builds your MSPs authority.
- Collect data from readers directly. Use surveys and read comments to get an idea of how people feel about the content you’ve created. Take this feedback and use it to choose even better topics in the future.
Use Social Media to Engage With Customers and Prospects
Digital marketing for MSPs can also benefit from social media. When your social media followings hit critical mass, you’ll generate a steady stream of traffic from them, and you can use your platform to advertise new deals or win over new prospects.
The key here is establishing that loyal following. Start by claiming your profiles and making regular posts that are informative, entertaining, or both. Then, work on engaging with people in your target audience as frequently as you can; getting involved in discussions, participating in groups, and reaching out to people are all excellent approaches to try.
Localize Your Digital Marketing Approach to Generate Better Leads
While you may be able to provide remote IT services nationally, or even globally, it’s often better to focus your marketing campaign on a local area. That’s because localized marketing typically comes with less competition and gives you more opportunities to connect with your target audience directly.
Start by filling out your Google Business Profile. This is a free service offered by Google, giving you an opportunity to provide local users with information on your business. It’s good for your local SEO campaign, and it provides more details to people conducting searches relevant to MSPs. Then, focus on producing local advertisements, participating in local events, developing local content, and optimizing for local keywords.
Ask Your Clients to Leave a Review of Your Managed IT Services
Finally, ask your clients to leave reviews of your managed IT services. Reviews serve several goals simultaneously, increasing the visibility and reputation of your brand while assisting you in your local optimization campaign. Most people don’t go out of their way to leave reviews, even if they’re very satisfied with your services, so make the ask.
Key Takeaways
MSP marketing solutions come in many forms, from developing thoughtful, innovative content to having conversations with people on social media. No matter what, you need to have a comprehensive strategy in place to coordinate all these different channels and approaches. The more you invest in your digital marketing assets, and the more you rely on objective data to make your decisions, the better results you’ll see.
Are you eager to find ways to generate more leads for your managed IT services company? Or are you just interested in a partner who can help you plan and execute the marketing strategies necessary to try once your competitors?
We might be exactly the partner you’re looking for. Contact us for a free consultation today!
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