Marketing best practices for managed service providers

Smart managed service providers (MSPs) don’t need to be mind-readers to know what worries their customers. They just need to listen to them and stay aware of telecom industry concerns and market developments. 

As the telecom industry is in a constant state of flux, so are the needs of customers. 

Anticipating the end users’ wants and needs is necessary in order to acquire new customers as well as retain current ones. And MSPs should always stay abreast of the latest technology advancements. 

In these volatile times, where the hybrid workforce is becoming the new normal, organizations of all sizes are increasingly turning to unified communications (UC) services to support employees working remotely as well as improve company efficiency and profitability.

“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

Zig Ziglar

With our award-winning SNAPsolution platform, NetSapiens makes it easy for MSPs to bundle and sell the UC services and feature sets that our clients demand. However, we’re also aware that increasing revenue is about more than just plugging in a UC service and expecting it to sell itself. 

Managed service providers also need a solid internal marketing plan and reliable support from the UC provider. MSPs need to specifically:

• Identify target audiences
• Understand pain points
• Do persona targeting

Identifying your target audience

The first step in a successful marketing campaign is to identify your target audience. What’s the best way to do that? It starts with collecting data. You should conduct surveys or interview your existing customers. This will provide you with an accurate foundation for creating precise customer buyer personas. 

Buyer personas (also known as customer personas) are generated to be representative of the  characteristics and qualities of your target audience. These might include specifics like typical job titles, age, gender, location, industries, years within the industry, education level, ambitions, and, perhaps most importantly, pain points.

Understanding your target audience’s pain points

It’s vital to a successful marketing campaign to understand your buyer persona’s pain points. You must know how to help the individuals and companies you are currently serving as well as those to whom you are trying to market your services. This will help you decide what messages and marketing strategies to employ with them. 

As an MSP, you likely already know the main reasons why many businesses are seeking UC and unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solutions. From enhanced employee productivity and flexibility to cost control and improved customer service, the benefits of UC and UCaaS are compelling. Knowing the general benefits of UCaaS solutions, however, is not enough to sell services successfully. 

The audience of potential customers is just too large to broadcast the same message and get results. At NetSapiens, we know no two customers are exactly alike — each business we serve has unique needs and challenges to resolve. The same is true with prospective customers.

Persona Targeting

Persona identification is a useful technique for understanding the needs of your potential customers and how you can best formulate a response to them.

Ask yourself this question: As an MSP, what type of organization does my business excel at supporting quickly and efficiently? If you have been operating for a significant length of time, you might already know this. Answering this question will illuminate the type of individual you are likely to encounter at an organization you are hoping to establish a contract with. 

At bigger organizations, MSPs are likely to interact with executives like CIOs (chief information officers) or CTOs (chief technology officers). These individuals are often well-versed in the competitive MSP landscape. They will care about your reputation and your ability to handle disasters at any time of the day. 

At SMBs (small-to-medium sized businesses), you might encounter someone who functions in multiple capacities and has less technical knowledge about MSPs. They are likely to want someone technically adept, but at a price they can afford. 

Set yourself up for success by employing messaging and tactics that are specific to their needs — this is how you stand out above the noise of the competition.