Building Your MSP’s Marketing Team – Monthly Roundup

You spend your days providing stellar services and support to your clients. That doesn’t leave much time for bringing in those critical new clients. The solution, naturally, is to develop a marketing team, but how? Do you look internally? Externally? Rub a lamp and hope a marketing genie pops out (if only)?

We know the importance of building a marketing team> Our Presh Academy video series is designed to walk you through the right questions to ask to build a team that makes sense for you, whether it’s working with an agency, working with internal staff or a little of both.

Here are some of the best tips from our first two videos and how they fit into today’s marketing landscape:

Intro to Presh Academy

In our first video, Presh CEO Chris McGovern discusses one of the questions he’s asked the most: Should organizations build an internal marketing team or hire an agency? Cost tends to be the driving factor in these decisions, but organizations should also consider what a marketing team does on a day-to-day basis.

Regardless of which direction you choose, the goal is to make marketing a profit center rather than a cost center. With an external team, you have experts in social media and develop marketing campaigns. With an internal team, you have higher costs, but you also have a dedicated team who knows your company inside and out.

Marketing gets more complex all the time. For example, when it comes to Google search rankings, mobile usability used to be a big deal. Then it shifted to HTTPS websites and rich content, and now mobile page speed seems to be a big deal. SEO is more than just finding keywords; it’s about finding relevant keywords.

Does this mean you need to turn to an external team? Maybe. You could also use an external team to develop your internal team, bringing together the best of both worlds (marketing expertise and industry expertise). You can learn more by watching the first video in our series here.

Social Media Marketing

Our second video is an introduction to social media marketing for B2B companies. Here’s a quick overview of the four best social media outlets for MSPs:

• Instagram—Instagram is highly visual, with some room for copy. You need compelling images, microblogs and appropriate hashtags to make the most of this platform.
• LinkedIn—This is an excellent resource for leads. As it’s a professional platform, industry news, best practices and other helpful business content does well here.
• Facebook—Facebook posts need visual appeal, but there’s more room for written content. This is a great spot for highlighting your team and personalizing your company.
• Twitter—With a 280-character limit, you need to make your point fast on Twitter. Short posts and updates do well, and don’t forget hashtags!

B2B companies haven’t always made the most of social media. They may not perceive themselves as something cool or exciting. Focus on the benefits your MSP offers, such as less downtime, higher security and peace of mind, and personalize your brand by showing your employees, who they are and what they do. Offer content with real value, and don’t forget to respond to comments! The great thing about social media is how it connects people, so keep checking on your posts and respond to comments and questions (and engage on their posts as well).

Stay Tuned

This is just the beginning of our series on building a marketing team. You can find our videos here, and follow us on social media to make sure you get all the updates. Let us know if you have questions! We’re here to help.