Ins and Outs of Digital Marketing for MSPs in 2021
Many MSPs are still experiencing challenges in their digital marketing efforts and goals. They tend to think that they must do things differently because no two IT providers are the same. Digital marketing is about selling a Unique Selling Proposition (USP), culture, talent, and a unique story. With these factors in mind, MSPs can win business over competitors without selling their technical jargon.
Stuart Crawford, the Marketing Manager at Ulistic, provides actionable tips that MSPs can use to improve their digital marketing plan. This guide is applicable across the board for attorney firms, accountants, retail, or manufacturing sectors.
Make Use of Google
According to Crawford, Google provides a better platform for marketing than Yahoo and other search engines. One of the tools he advocates for is Google My Business. You can optimize the platform and leverage it for sales.
How to Optimize Google My Business?
Before delving into the platform's optimization, the first question to answer is why you should have a Google My Business account. The answer is that this free and easy-to-use tool can help you manage your online presence and appearance in Google searches. The benefits of the platform are:
- Increased visibility in search results
- Better customer experience
- Increased traffic, social channels, and front door
Optimizing Your GMB Account
When you optimize your GMB account properly, you help Google understand your business better. Essential information like who you are, the services or product you provide, and where you allow Google to crawl your site easily. The more Google understands your business, the more it makes your business appear in many types of searches.
Optimizing your GMB account is a process that entails:
- Claiming your business profile
- Completing all sections in the GMB account, ensuring you use the relevant keywords you want to rank high for
- Providing contact information- ensure the business name matches what you have on your store signage and other listings on the web. You want to be careful about duplicate listings, especially if both business names don't belong to you
- Selecting primary and secondary categories
- Marking off applicable attributes
- Writing a complete description of the "from the business: section- the brief description below your business name, which Google uses for consistency across the platform
- Publishing Google posts weekly
- Uploading new photos weekly
- Answering all questions from visitors and clients
- Collecting and responding to reviews
- Adding products and services
- Setting up messaging, especially the live chat feature
- Maintaining the business profile
With this optimization, your Business Profile can become your best free customer acquisition tool.
Local Citations
While at it, you want to pay special attention to your local citations. These refer to any mentions of your business name across the web. Some could not be directly linked to your website, but they count towards SEO. They are crucial in providing backlinks to your site, which improve your ranking. Citations also show Google that the information on your site is trustworthy. In the long-run, having the same content appearing everywhere on the web creates a user-friendly experience.
Invite Connections
It would also help your marketing efforts to invite connections to your Google My Business listing. You will not only increase your following but also boost your SEO rankings in searches like Google Maps. Adding photos and videos will also help generate interest from prospects interested in your products or services.
Another way to strike interest in prospects is to post an industry-related article in your business circles daily. Use these posts to announce events or expand information about your business. A question and answer section can be pretty helpful, especially if you keep it engaging.
Use LinkedProspect to Automate Lead Generation on LinkedIn
LinkedProspect is a proven system that helps businesses target and engage prospects. Reviews show that it is one of the best lead generation tools there are. LinkedIn is one trustworthy platform where you can show off your business profile and connect with like-minded people. It allows you to connect through messaging and by viewing other people's profiles. While this whole process is manual, LinkedProspects helps you automate it for more efficiency.
The first thing is to register on the platform. You can test the features for free for seven days. Upon registering your account, the tool will be synced, and you can start your LinkedIn marketing campaign. Ensure you set up everything as per your marketing needs. You can send out invitations and messages automatically or send bulk messages to your selected connections.
The Power of Video Marketing
What many MSPs may not have realized is that video marketing is hyper-critical in the marketing world today. While still at it, work on streaming videos live on LinkedIn. The live steam feature was launched in 2017, and LinkedIn says that it's the fastest-growing form of content marketing. It is likely to generate 5x more conversions.
Through live-streaming on LinkedIn, you can connect with communities in real-time. Think of how Facebook Live functions, but with a professional twist.
Another way to activate video marketing is to create an active YouTube Channel. Big companies like Coca-Cola, Quicksilver, Dell, and Red Bull are spending a considerable chunk of the marketing budget on YouTube advertising. There are good reasons why they are doing this, and it would be advantageous for MSPs to adopt the same strategy.
Having an active YouTube channel helps you:
- Reach a global audience
- Increase your ranking on Google's search engine
- Get more subscribers to your channel, which is a form of lead generation that expands your email list
There's a popular myth that your YouTube channel must be humorous to attract viewers. This couldn't be further from the truth. An informative video that is well-constructed without any humor could become viral.
Final Thoughts
Digital marketing is still a significant challenge for many managed service providers. Fortunately, you can make it work for you. Experts in the field provide valuable insights into what you can do to grow your MSP business. If you're still experiencing a hard time, you can reach out to Ulistic for a review of your digital marketing strategy.
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