Let’s talk about content marketing. I know, you don’t have time to create content! You’re running your MSP (managed service provider) business – you have to sort out the invoices, meet with prospects, field client calls and resolve problems.
How could you possibly fit in content marketing as well? But hear me out – if you don’t make time for it, you won’t have a business that needs all of those other tasks completed.
How Content Marketing Attracts Prospects
I’ve attended IT industry events, so I know that some MSPs don’t see the point in marketing. Some of the common objections we’ve heard from MSPs who are neglecting their marketing include:
- We are happy enough relying on referrals
- Marketing is time consuming, and we don’t have the resources to do it properly
- I’ve spent a lot of money with marketing agencies and not seen a big enough return on investment
- Our clients are loyal
- Clients rarely change supplier once they’re on-boarded, so we don’t get people leaving their IT partner and coming to us
All of those comments are reasonable, but what happens when those clients retire or exit the business? How are you going to replace them and continue to be successful and profitable?
Content marketing lets people know that you exist, you understand their pain points and you’re the best person to help them solve their problems.
Being the best-known MSP in your town isn’t enough anymore. Customers are used to looking online for suppliers, and locality doesn’t matter as much as it once did. You need to find a way to differentiate yourself and stand out from the competition.
If you’ve read anything about content marketing, especially here on Tubblog, you’ll have come across the “know, like and trust” theory. Prospects who consume your content regularly will get to know you and feel that you’re trustworthy. Then they pick you as their supplier.
However, before they get to that stage, they have to see you online often enough that they remember you when they’re ready to buy from someone. In marketing, we call those ‘touchpoints’, and the consensus is you need at least eight of these before you get a sale.
Not only that, but they have to be across different platforms, so as well as social media, that could be your newsletter, a podcast appearance, your blog or a Google Ad.
Today’s MSP Clients Have Different Needs
If you’ve been working with the same handful of clients for a number of years, you’re probably confident that your MSP delivers exactly the services they need. And depending on what they do, that may well be true.
But in a post-pandemic world, customer needs are changing. That’s true in most sectors, but especially the case in IT and tech. Any MSP who took a panicked call from a senior manager suddenly needing a secure network so staff could work from home in 2020 will understand!
And while things have settled down and people have returned to workplaces, not everyone wants to be office-based. So hybrid working provisions are a priority for many newer businesses. How can you find those prospects and win their custom? With content marketing efforts that show them you can help!
The threat of cybersecurity is growing, and smaller companies are starting to see that they’re at risk too. They know they need help to protect their data, but they don’t know what solution they’re looking for.
Regular, helpful content, in any medium, helps them identify themselves in the descriptions of your ideal customers. And if you explain what you do – simply and clearly – and how you help them, that builds that know, like and trust factor.
Content Marketing Consistency Leads to Sales
Hopefully I’ve convinced you of the need of content marketing! You might not see results immediately, or even know that your content is being consumed, but it will pay off.
As Richard says himself, “I blogged consistently for years and had no idea if I had readers. I just wanted to share my knowledge, and it was a great way to collect it all in one place.
“And over time, when prospects approached me, they’d mention a blog or two that they’d found helpful. Because I’d shown I understood their challenges and could help, they came to me for help, rather than contacting a competitor.”
If you enjoy blogging, commit to publishing one post per month to get you started. If you prefer video, try to share weekly or fortnightly on YouTube or Instagram Reels. Top tip – people love behind the scenes footage, and it’s an easy piece of content to create!
Consistency Trumps Quantity
What I mean by this is simple: you don’t have to be posting multiple times a day on every social media channel, and you don’t have to publish a blog every week. But what you do have to do is be consistent with your output, regardless of how much you do.
Set an expectation for your clients and prospects that at the start of the month you share a helpful blog post, send out a fortnightly newsletter that gives updates on what you’ve been up to, and post three times a week on LinkedIn. And then show up each and every month.
Content marketing doesn’t have to be a chore or a time suck to be effective. It just has to be consistent so that when a prospect is ready to buy, you’re ‘top of mind’ – the first person they think of to solve their IT problems.
Unfortunately, we don’t know someone is in the market for what we sell until they get in touch to book a discovery call or a have a free trial, so we have to keep putting ourselves in front of them as much as possible (touchpoints) until they’re ready to buy.
Get Started Today and Build Content Marketing Consistency
It’s fine to start small while you find your feet with content marketing. Over time, you’ll get more comfortable with the creation process, and it’ll get quicker. At that point, you can look at increasing your output.
Perhaps you move from monthly to fortnightly blogs, or post one extra day per week on LinkedIn. You’ll gradually build up your touchpoints for prospects and the time between them first finding you and getting in touch will shrink.
So how do you feel now? Can you see how small, regular actions will add up to a big result? We’re all human and want to feel seen and understood with the people we partner with.
And because IT and cybersecurity is a mystery to many SMBs, they need someone they trust to guide them through it.
Let us know how you approach content marketing and if we’ve inspired you to be more consistent!
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