10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Marketing Your MSP Business 4 Steps to Measurable Success
1
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Even if you have limited resources for marketing, you can still build a highly effective marketing program for your managed services business. The keys? Be clear about who your best customers are and fine-tune your message to resonate with prospects that fit that profile. It’s also critical to track your results: choose indicators to measure success and failure. That way you’ll know which tactics you’re using are paying off. This eBook walks you through four essential steps in building an economical, resultsfocused marketing program.
2
80
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Step 1: Know Your Customers — and Your Competition
customer competition
All customers are not created equal. Some generate more revenue — and profit — than others. These customers, and prospects who look like them, should be the priority for your marketing efforts. Here’s how to identify your best customers: Four ways to identify your best customers
Six key questions about your competitors
oo Good spend, increases every year
1. Are they growing?
oo Low cost of sales (e.g., no need to re-pitch annually)
2. How are they reaching their customers?
oo Multiple internal champions oo High-growth sector
3. What is their value proposition? 4. What verticals are they targeting? 5. If you’re winning against them, why? 6. If you’re losing against them, why?
3
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Step 2: Fine-Tune Your Message You are your message — so make it strong! Express your company’s unique strengths accurately and clearly. Focus on customer needs and pain points. Talk about how you solve their business problems, not about your technology or services. Tell them how you can help cut costs, gain efficiencies, reduce complexity, etc. Boil all of that down into a value proposition: a short statement in everyday language that says why people should do business with you. Don’t try to jam everything in — focus on no more than three examples of how you deliver value.
4
80
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Step 3: Use Proven Tactics Consistently generating quality leads and closing business requires hard work and focus. But it doesn’t have to require a big budget and dedicated resources. These simple effective marketing tactics can be the backbone of your marketing program: Database marketing – for focusing and refining your marketing Social media – for proving your expertise and building a community (don’t expect direct sales) Customer and prospect surveys – for collecting information that identifies leads Search engine optimization (SEO) – for directing more traffic to your website Webinars – for showcasing the successes of your customers
5
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Step 4: Measure Up Metrics are at the core of successful marketing. If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. So how do you decide what’s most important to measure? Leads are a good place to start. What is a lead for your company? How much are you willing to pay per lead? How many interactions do you need to close a sale? What conversion rates are you after? This dollar value of your leads is a great filter for investment decisions. If a platform or channel can’t deliver leads — and ultimately close business — at your price point, then walk away.
WANT MORE TACTICS AND TIPS? Get detailed information on effective marketing, including worksheets, from the SolarWinds N-able white paper 4 Steps to a Great (and measurable) MSP Marketing Program.
6
80
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Expert Help from SolarWinds N-able Need help building an MSP-specific go-to-market and marketing program? SolarWinds N-able can help with the most comprehensive support program of its kind in the managed services industry. Our business support services include: »» Personal sales and marketing training with self-guided web-based tutorials to help you acquire the skills needed to sell managed services and generate new sources of recurring revenue »» A digital binder that compiles numerous proven, pre-packaged, ready-to-use sales and marketing materials »» A knowledge management portal that offers 24/7 online access to a searchable, central repository of best practices, collateral and training courses
7
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
About SolarWinds N-able SolarWinds N-able is a leading global provider of complete IT management, automation and MSP business transformation solutions, including the award-winning N-able N-central RMM and service automation platform. N-able has a proven record of helping MSPs standardize and automate the setup and delivery of IT services to achieve true scalability. Thousands of MSPs use N-able solutions to deliver scalable, flexible, profitable managed services to over 100,000 SMBs worldwide. With offices in North America, the Netherlands and Australia, N-able is 100% channel-friendly and maintains strategic partnerships with Microsoft®, Intel®, IBM®, CA®, and Cisco® among others. © 2015 N-able Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. This document contains information intended for the exclusive use of N-able Technologies’ personnel, customers and potential customers. The information herein is restricted in use and is strictly confidential and subject to change without notice. No part of this document may be altered, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of N-able Technologies. Copyright protection includes, but is not limited to, program code, program documentation and material generated from the software product displayed on the screen, such as graphics, icons, screen displays, screen layouts, and buttons. N-able Technologies, Inc.’s trademarks, service marks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of N-able Technologies, Inc. and its affiliates. All other trademarks or works mentioned herein are used for identification purposes only and may be or are intellectual property of their respective companies. N-able Technologies and SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC are not affiliated with any of the respective companies.
8
80
