3 key marketing strategies every IT MSPs should adopt to grow in 2023

Many IT managed service providers (MSPs) struggle to use marketing to grow. And it's not surprising.

This is because when you search for “marketing strategy ideas” on Google, ideas such as “posting on social media,” “posting LinkedIn ads,” and “creating content for SEO” often come to mind. But the challenge here is that none of them are marketing strategies. These are marketing tactics, so-called “random marketing acts.”

This approach fails to attract prospects and turn them into sales, and may become unsustainable in the long run. Without a solid marketing plan, you risk wasting time and money on strategies that might not work.

One of the biggest challenges for IT MSPs is attracting prospects and turning them into sales. Referrals are a common way to generate leads, but relying on referrals as the only form of lead generation may not be sustainable in the long run. Sales cycles are often lengthy, especially for companies that sell complex solutions to larger companies. New businesses are closed over months or years rather than days or weeks. As a result, IT MSP leaders often can't see marketing results (or lack of results) until they've invested a large amount of money.

That's why it's important to take time to build a strategy before making major investments in marketing. You can't afford to spend more than 6 to 12 months unsure whether your marketing investment will pay off. (And that's why every time I work with a new IT MSP client, I start by creating a marketing plan.)

But what strategies work best for IT MSPs? And what does each strategy relate to? Here are the three strategies every IT MSPs need to grow, but before we get to that, let's start by explaining the differences between strategy and tactics.

What's the difference between marketing strategies and marketing tactics?

Many marketers and leaders confuse marketing strategies with marketing strategies, but they are two different things, and understanding the differences is critical to success.

A marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan of how marketing will achieve specific business goals.

Marketing strategies, on the other hand, are specific actions that are carried out to carry out a strategy.

For a marketing strategy to be effective, it must flow downward from overarching business goals. For example, if your goal is to increase cybersecurity service sales by 10%, your marketing strategy might be to “raise awareness of cybersecurity services through inbound and outbound marketing.”

Strategies that support this strategy include publishing white papers, creating blog content, improving SEO, running ads, and sending marketing emails to mailing lists.

By aligning your marketing strategy with your overall business goals, you can ensure that all marketing activities are moving towards specific goals. This approach can help you achieve better implementation results and avoid wasting resources on inefficient strategies that don't contribute to overall business success.

IT MSP marketing strategy 1: Stay ahead of customers with outbound marketing.

Outbound marketing is a traditional marketing method where companies push messages to potential customers. This includes things like trade shows, cold calling, mailing list purchases, direct mail, and most types of advertising. Also, like many IT MSPs, this is probably where you'll start marketing.

Outbound marketing is effective, but IT leaders and business leaders alike — in other words, top buyers — are adept at avoiding many of these things. Caller ID numbers, spam filters, and ad blockers are all made for this very reason.

There's even more downside to outbound marketing. Outbound marketing can be expensive because customer acquisition costs tend to be expensive compared to other forms of marketing. Plus, it requires a large budget and repetition. If you pause your outbound marketing efforts, such as spending on trade shows or ads, your prospects may not see your marketing messages.

All IT MSPs should incorporate outbound marketing into the strategies they use to acquire new customers and establish new businesses. But it should only be one strategic weapon for your IT MSP business.

IT MSP Marketing Strategy 2: Attract, convert, close, and delight prospects with inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing is a powerful way for IT MSPs to attract, convert, close, and delight prospects. It's all about delivering value and building trust every step of the buyer's journey. That means delivering the right content, website experience, and communication channels at the right time, when prospects want and need them.

The difference between inbound and outbound: Outbound marketing focuses on getting in the way to get someone's attention, while inbound focuses on getting their attention.

The advantages of inbound marketing are clear. Customer acquisition costs tend to be lower than outbound, and can gain momentum over time as you do more. But probably the most important reason to invest in inbound marketing is that modern buyers are doing 67% of their research and decisions independently online.

If you don't have a great web presence and don't have the right content to help you research buyers, buyers will rely on your competitors instead. And in today's highly competitive IT MSP market, valuable business opportunities can be lost.

To get started with inbound marketing, start by identifying the top two to three buyer personas. Who are the key decision makers and influencers in the target market, and what are their challenges, challenges, and goals? Once you have a clear understanding of your buyer's persona, you can create a content map outlining the types of content you need to create and where they fit into the buyer journey.

Perform a gap analysis to determine which parts of the funnel are lacking in content at the top, middle, or bottom of the funnel. For example, is there enough educational content to attract visitors to your website and increase brand awareness? Is there enough mid-funnel content to help prospects evaluate your solutions and make decisions? Also, is there enough bottom-funnel content to help close deals and turn prospects into customers?

Once you've identified content gaps, address buyer challenges and focus on creating high-quality, relevant content that provides value. This may include blog posts, e-books, white papers, webinars, etc. Also, don't forget to optimize your content for search engines so prospects can find you when they're looking for solutions to their challenges.

Align your inbound marketing strategy with how MSPs enter the market. For example, if your focus is on serving the local market, local SEO and related content will be essential.

Meanwhile, if you're serving the domestic market for one or more specific industries, you'll instead want to create content specifically related to the IT challenges and challenges of an ideal customer for that industry-specific experience. My advice to MSPs serving vertical markets is to consider the proprietary software tools used by industry customers. There may be gaps in the content out there. By doing so, you can quickly get top rankings and share useful content to buyers with software challenges.

IT MSP marketing strategy 3: Use account-based marketing to drive sales with key target customers and close more deals.

Inbound and outbound marketing is like throwing a big net into the ocean. Even if you can catch all kinds of fish, you may not catch the specific fish you're looking for. Account-based marketing (ABM), on the other hand, is like spear phishing targeting specific types of accounts. It's a targeted and personalized strategy aimed at driving sales and closing more deals with key target customers.

The challenge for IT MSPs is identifying these key target accounts. Depending on how you enter the market, you can choose whether to target specific regions or sell to specific vertical segments regardless of region. To create ABM's target customer list, specific characteristics of an ideal customer profile (ICP) must be identified based on sales history and market research. If you're targeting a region, you'll need to look for companies that match your local ICP. If you sell to an industry segment in a specific country, you need to identify companies within that industry that meet your ICP.

Once you've identified your target customer, the next step is to personalize marketing activities for that customer. This includes tailoring messages, content, and outreach to address issues and issues specific to each target account. Personalization is critical to ABM. It stands apart from traditional marketing methods and helps differentiate itself from competitors.

ABM is not a one-size-fits-all strategy and requires significant time and resources to execute effectively. However, it can be a very effective approach for IT MSPs looking to drive sales and close more deals with key target customers. By identifying and targeting the right accounts with personalized marketing activities, you can build stronger relationships with prospects and ultimately increase your business's revenue.