What Is The ROI When Working With
An Outsourced MSP Marketing Company?

Every month, the Ulistic team fields dozens of great questions for MSPs around the globe. One of the top questions revolves around the return on your investment if and when you decide to hire an outsourced managed services marketing company.

Here’s the typical question:

“Stuart, what will my ROI from marketing be when I outsource to a company like Ulistic?”

Like I said, great question but very difficult to answer.

The answer is this: It depends.

There are a number of key factors that determine success (positive ROI) or failure (negative ROI) when you decide to outsource your managed services marketing.

Here are 7 key factors:

1. This is the biggest factor. How good are you at selling?

   Now, the usual answer is “fantastic.” Great, I think we can all hit a home run from time to time when we have a prospect who’s ready to buy. However, not all leads are ready to hand over a signed contract or give you a check. Allow me to ask this question again a different way. How good are you at selling to a cold prospect? This is where it gets interesting. The success rate now is extremely low. Why?

2. What is a lead to you?

   This plays off number one. Many MSPs expect their marketing to open up floodgates of high-quality, ready-to-buy, prospects. Actually, leads like this are extremely hard to find. Are you skilled and patient enough to work the lead through a maturity model that takes them from somewhat interested to definitely interested?

3. Are you willing to get out of the way?

   A key factor that contributes to negative ROI is the client’s failure to get out of the way. Many great MSPs fail at marketing because they infuse their own beliefs into their marketing and shore up obstacles to success against their outsourced MSP marketing agency. Are you willing to let the professionals call the shots? If so, your success will skyrocket.

4. Are you a great communicator?

   Any outsourced marketing agency is exactly that, outsourced. We aren’t in your office listening to all the great stuff you’re doing so we can take that information and run it through a marketing strategy. Your success increases rapidly when you send news and important information up the chain to your MSP marketing company.

5. Do you let the professionals do their job?

   See point 3. You’re not a marketing professional – many of you are techs. You hate when your clients micromanage your tech work, why do you feel like you need to micro-manage marketing. Things like SEO articles, live chat, website forms and other marketing tactics are essential to success. Let the professionals do their job and get out of their way (Point 3 again).

6. Are you engaged?

   Outsourcing your marketing to a professional MSP marketing agency is all about engagement. Those clients who put in the extra effort reap the rewards. Just because you outsource your marketing doesn’t give you a free pass to disappear.

   Here’s the biggest success factor.

   Are you ready? You’d better sit down for this one.

7. Are you a media company first, marketing and sales organization second and a technology company third?

Master Points 1 – 7 And You’ll See Huge ROI Working With An MSP Marketing Agency

This is the Kool-Aid you must drink…Repeat after me, stick it on your bathroom mirror and post it as the screen saver on your computer:

“My company is a media, marketing and sales company that markets and sells IT services to businesses in a local area or industry vertical.”

When you adopt these simple strategies, your relationship with your MSP marketing agency will be a whopping success. Only then will you achieve a remarkable return on your investment.

If you don’t adopt these simple principles, your ROI will lower, and you’ll be looking for a new MSP marketing agency, yet again. You’ll have the same mindset and get the same results.

Hope this article helps to answer your questions on ROI when you work with an outsourced MSP marketing agency.