In a time where people are constantly searching for businesses that can quickly solve their problems, it has never been more critical for managed service providers (MSPs) to keep themselves at the front of the pack.
Your company’s success hinges on the number of customers you can draw in. Knowing how to attract new business can place your company in a position to grow and, potentially, dominate your area of the market. There are many ways that your enterprise can utilise MSP marketing strategies to generate leads.
Below are a handful of lead generation approaches that can garner exceptional results. But first, it is essential to understand precisely what lead generation is.
What is lead generation?
Lead generation refers to the process of acquiring new business from people (leads) who are actively searching for a particular product or service. Leads can interact with you in two ways: in person (typically in the form of industry events, such as conferences) and digitally (through social media or email marketing).
Regardless of how they approach you, a lead’s intent to enlist your services should be the driving force behind your company’s lead generation process. Leads will want to know how your MSP can support their IT infrastructure and whether or not your second-to-none expertise is worth their hard-earned cash.
In a sector like information technology, making your MSP business stand out from the competition can be a challenge. However, it can be done with a carefully-crafted strategy that will result in you cementing long-lasting partnerships with new clients and increasing your business’s revenue.
How can your MSP generate leads?
Lead generation is an ongoing process that requires constant attention, time, and energy. However, the results that it can bring to your business are worth it and should never be overlooked – no matter if your MSP is small to medium-sized (SMB) or an enterprise.
In fact, since lead generation specifically targets customers that are already interested in your company, this makes them highly qualified leads that can provide you with consistent business moving forward. In other words, if your MSP can nail its lead generation strategy from the beginning, you may have an easier time converting leads into profitable customers.
This can be done in several ways:
1. Develop a comprehensive digital marketing strategy
You worked hard to build your business and your efforts should not go unnoticed. An effective marketing strategy is a detailed plan that outlines the methods and tools your business will leverage to advertise itself.
A foolproof marketing strategy will typically address the following:
- The nature of your business and the services or products that you provide.
- Your space in your chosen market and how your services or products fit into it.
- Your target audience (customers).
- Your competitors.
- The tools and strategies you will implement to advertise your brand.
A dynamic marketing strategy is measurable, forward-thinking, and usually supports a business’s marketing plan – the specific actions an enterprise will take to market itself. Without a strategy to anchor your efforts, your company’s marketing campaign may suffer from a lack of direction, overlooked perspectives, or may not truly reflect your business and values.
A marketing strategy can help you identify the characteristics that can be used to separate you from your peers. Those qualities are what your leads will find appealing and can help you secure their business.
2. Leverage search engine optimisation (SEO)
SEO is the process of improving the ranking of your website in search engine results. When you rank well in Google, Bing, or any other search engine, you appear at the top of the search engine’s results page (SERP) and are more likely to be selected by users.
In other words, SEO is an intricate process that combines curated text and design with statistics to boost your website’s relevancy in the eyes of search engines.
SEO typically consists of the following:
- Backlinks from reputable websites.
- Content enriched with keywords designed to educate your audience on a particular topic.
- Keyword-supported landing pages.
- Visuals such as multimedia and images.
- Meta tags and meta descriptions.
- Analytics programs for performance monitoring.
- Technical SEO (the backend maintenance of a website).
SEO is often a part of digital marketing companies’ advertising strategies. 61% of B2B marketers say SEO and its resulting traffic generate more leads than other advertising practices. Your business’s website may become buried under other sites by not following SEO practices. This can mean less attention for your enterprise and more customers missing out on your skills.
By applying SEO to every piece of content you produce, and every design decision you make for your website, your business can reach the people who need you the most.
3. Produce high-quality content
Generating leads also involves content marketing. This consists of creating, publishing, and distributing keyword-enhanced content through various channels (your website, social media, etc.) to audiences.
When done correctly, content marketing can make you and your business appear more authoritative and valuable to your niche and prospective customers. The idea behind this tactic is simple: by providing people with informative and entertaining content, you can demonstrate how you are relevant to your audience, and why people should place their trust in you.
Content marketing can exist in the form of:
- Blog posts and articles
- Newsletters (print and digital)
- Videos
- And more
The content you create cannot focus on random topics your marketing team thought of in the spur of the moment. Instead, it needs to be carefully researched to match the market’s current needs, or it can be evergreen content – content that remains relevant over extended periods of time.
Your content can serve as the foundation for your website’s ranking in search engines; it shows leads that you are reputable and can solve their problems.
4. Lead nurturing
If content marketing is a brochure, then content created in thought leadership is a report. It can serve as the basis of a business’s lead nurturing tactic – a procedure that involves the business analysing and providing solutions to leads’ specific concerns.
Similar to content marketing, the purpose of lead nurturing and thought leadership is to entice a customer’s interest in your brand, educate them on your industry or your past accomplishments, and show them that your enterprise’s services are worth every penny.
Content based on thought leadership can appear as:
- Case studies
- Opinion pieces (supported by evidence)
- Training courses
- And more
According to studies, businesses who undertake lead nurturing are rewarded with 50% more sales-ready leads. While it might seem like bragging, capitalising off thought leadership and lead nurturing content can help grow your business and acquire those few additional leads you have been waiting for.
5. Build and optimise your website
With the internet and social media, people can find and interact with your business 24/7/365. An attractive and user-friendly website can help you find new customers, generate leads, and build your brand.
While a website’s framework also plays into its SEO, a few components need to be helpful, energising, and easy to spot.
These elements encourage visitors to dig deeper into your site, familiarise themselves with your company, and leave behind information that you can use to convert them into business-driving customers.
A few of the aforementioned components could include:
- A chat window
- A call to action
- A landing page with a form asking for basic information
Your website will sell your business to a potential client before they talk to your sales team. By developing an interactive site that caters to your leads’ technological interests and concerns, you may pique their curiosity and encourage them to enquire about your services.
6. LinkedIn marketing
A free-to-use networking platform that can double as a digital marketing service and lead generation service, LinkedIn can help connect your MSP to leads and their networks. It allows you to:
- Search for potential prospects.
- Send out and respond to messages.
- Comment on posts.
- Create a personalised profile where you can serve as your enterprise's brand ambassador.
- Create a company profile to give people insight into your business and its culture.
- Engage with others in your industry and related areas.
Marketing your MSP on LinkedIn means that your business can reach 14.6% of the world’s population – a career-driven cohort interested in finding new tools and people who can support their employers or their own companies.
At the same time, LinkedIn also supports paid ads targeted specifically to people interested in the products and services being sold. By leveraging LinkedIn and actively participating on the site as a representative of your business, you can place your services directly in front of high-profile leads.
7. Online ads and remarketing
Outside of social media, paid ads also exist in search engines. These advertisements are developed based on keywords for which their creator wants to target.
For example, if your MSP wants to target ‘managed IT services [your local area]’, you can pay search engines to display your company’s name, URL, and a short description of your services for that keyword. The next time someone searches for it, your business will be displayed in their search results.
Meanwhile, remarketing is a term used to describe the process of displaying ads to an internet user who previously visited your website but may not have become an official customer. Remarketing is often used to remind potential customers of who you are and what you can offer them, but without being pushy, like a cold call.
By enriching your marketing strategy with online advertising and remarketing methods, your MSP can remain at the forefront of people’s searches and catch their attention before your competitors can.
Generate leads for your MSP
The knowledge and experience you and your employees have are the assets that other businesses need to survive. The lead generation experts at LeftLeads have helped MSPs like yours find and convert successful leads, and they are ready to help your enterprise grow its customer base.
Scott
Remarketing is super important. It’s someone that has maybe put some products in their cart but forgot to ever click the “buy” button. So they are almost there, most just need a gentle push in the right direction. These are the potential clients that don’t need that much convincing because they’re already on the edge.