LISTEN to the Mindwhirl Marketing Podcast Ep 34 – Two Keys to Successful Marketing for Managed Service Providers
WATCH The Mindwhirl Marketing Podcast Ep 34 – Two Keys to Successful Marketing for Managed Service Providers
Podcast Transcript
Mike Miller 00:28
Welcome, everyone to the newest episode of the Mindwhirl Marketing Podcast. We’re excited about this topic, because it’s the two keys to successful marketing for managed service providers. There’s two keys that we’ve seen and identified. As we’ve been doing research, you know, we’ve been going around looking at people’s websites and doing major research on every market and America.
Shelly Miller 00:58
And the Top Producing companies. Yes,
Mike Miller 01:00
and identifying who are the Top Producing companies, and what are they doing, that no one else is doing?
Shelly Miller 01:10
And my thought is that makes them richer than everybody else.
Mike Miller 01:13
Yeah. And I want that.
Mike Miller 01:14
Right. Yeah, richer because they’re able to serve more customers in, you know, better, more exciting ways. Part of that is through marketing. You know, marketing helps a lot of things in your business, right. So like, if you’re feeling under appreciated, and customers are, like, you know, thanking you for everything you’re doing for them. It could be because either you suck. Let’s click on No, or more likely, no, like, 99% chance. You’re not educating them on what you’re doing and the value of what you’re offering. What you’re delivering great point.
Shelly Miller 02:05
Great point. Yeah. Because a lot of times you’re giving a good service, and and you’re getting a good return. But you’re not providing that information in a format that your client can see that you are doing those wonderful things for them. The growth. Yes. The bottom line numbers. Exactly. Instead of saying you had 15% more engagement this month.
Mike Miller 02:28
Yeah, exactly. A little agency humor. All right.
Shelly Miller 02:34
I think they’ll get it though. Yeah, they want it. Everybody wants to hear, what did I get in sales? How many new clients? Did I get? You know? Yeah, they’re all like that, who doesn’t want to know that? Exactly. Engagement, you’re like, Hey,
Mike Miller 02:46
you know, yeah, or, you know, like, you guys had trouble this month, and you had to replace your router. But since you’re on our managed service, you know, package, we gave you that 30% discount, and that equated to, you know, $273 savings, which is going to go towards, you know, whatever you want it to, or your next month, or whatever it is. But telling them, yes, is is very important. And now, I’m going Why did I start there because of consistency?
Shelly Miller 03:23
Well, and they need to know that anyway. Yeah. Across the board for everything, but yes, consistency, let’s start there. Right. And, and that’s the thing, you know, if
Mike Miller 03:31
you consistently tell people your value, and what you can do for them, or what you’ve done for them, then they’ll start to know, and, you know, trust that what you’re saying is what they’re going to get and what they’ve been receiving,
Shelly Miller 03:53
yes.
Mike Miller 03:54
Right. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you want to be good at marketing, you have to be consistent, right? It’s not really about being good. If you’re consistent. Like, imagine a salesperson, if they just keep taking swings, you know, they’re not very good at it. Maybe they’re a new Sandler person and they’re actually they missed, they missed took it the Columbo thing, and they’re like, excuse me, sir. Let me see. So, do you have the budget for let’s say something like this? Which is horrible, right? So it let’s say they do it wrong. And they they they just suck but they keep taking swings. Eventually, they’ll get a sale. They’ll get us a Yeah, they will. They’ll get a sale a well and then they’ll start getting better. But and you could also apply this to, to your dating. You know, let’s don’t Well, that’s how Grant cardones got his wife. He says,
Shelly Miller 05:07
Well, sure, that’s great.
Mike Miller 05:09
Yeah.
Shelly Miller 05:09
I mean, you know, that happens with a lot of people. Let’s don’t. Well, then we’ll be here all day. Yeah. Okay, you know, going into all kinds of examples that I know everyone could relate with.
Mike Miller 05:21
Yes, that’s true.
Shelly Miller 05:22
But they might get tired of how long I can I can actually go on.
Mike Miller 05:26
I know. So we have 1000s of metaphors we can drag out of the closet. So
Shelly Miller 05:30
well, we’re copywriters. So we we play a game and it lasts hours.
Mike Miller 05:34
There you go. Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, in order to be a great marketer, the name of the game is consistency, it is you have to be in front of them, you know, as much as possible, every day, if possible, you just have to figure out a reason to be in front of someone every day. So it and it translates from the marketing side to the sales side of the client magnet system. Because in sales, you want to you don’t want to just call someone one time, you want to call them over and over until you get a conversation. Right? Because that’s the whole goal. Yes. So once you get a conversation, if it doesn’t go the way you want it to, like, it doesn’t end up and then you know,
Shelly Miller 06:26
purchasing or moving to the next step.
Mike Miller 06:28
Yeah, taking a strategy session or getting an assessment or whatever, then your goal is to call them back. Right? Yes, get him back on the phone, get them into another conversation. And that just repeats until they become a customer or they tell you to stop bugging them. We don’t want to hear from you anymore. Which happens. Believe it or not? It does. Yeah. So sales and marketing have to be consistent. They have to continually market and get their message in front of people in order for that message to resonate. And for actually, so the first stage is people realize that you’re even talking.
Shelly Miller 07:19
Right, right.
Mike Miller 07:20
And then the second thing is, they realize that what you’re actually what your offer is, what you’re offering, what your messages, and then after the hearing a couple more times, they’ll start to go, I might need that. Right?
Shelly Miller 07:38
Yes. That’s that’s how it happens, though. Yeah. And they do that because they keep seeing you.
Mike Miller 07:43
Exactly. distantly. Exactly. It’s like, when you hear a song on the radio, you know, the first one two times. And you think, you know, though, the words the lyrics, you know, and you’re like, you know, massacring the lyrics, because you’re not sure what it is? Yes. So that’s what happens to us humans, as we’re, you know, hit with messages. At first, we don’t understand what it is, then we start to go, hey, that’s what they’re selling. That’s what they’re offering. Yes. And then like three or four more times, then we understand what the message is and what the value actually might be.
Shelly Miller 08:22
Right? I mean, it’s it’s just, you know, you’re watching TV or, or YouTube. And you hear something. Yeah, but it’s over. And you couldn’t you couldn’t tell anybody what it was? what they were talking about or anything? Yeah, but now you’ve watched YouTube all night, or for the last week straight? You know, you know how we do. And you start picking it up that well, that’s that’s thing, if you think about it that way, and any any media that you watch, and any advertisements that you see, you’ll notice that you’ve seen it many times heard it many times. And it just the more you hear it, the more it starts resonating. I mean, we have a billboard here. And I know her name, because she’s everywhere. And she has been everywhere for three years. I don’t I don’t need a personal injury attorney and I’m not getting divorce. So right. But But I know her name. Glenda Mitchell, you know, because she’s been, she is everywhere, two years. And she’s not stopping.
Mike Miller 09:19
Yes.
Shelly Miller 09:20
And that doesn’t mean that Mike and I are telling you that you know it, you have to spend 1000s and 1000s of dollars, but you have to understand that the consistency of it all is to stay in front of everyone. So if you do something continually do it, right. So we like to get you started on the thing that will help you and what you feel like you can do consistently and then go from there. Keep doing that thing over and over again.
Mike Miller 09:46
Yeah, and it all It all depends on your budget, right? So yes. Whatever your budget is, and whatever you can afford to do continuously, then that’s what you should do.
Shelly Miller 09:58
Exactly. Right. That’s art. That’s always been our policy, we’ve always implemented that for everyone, because then then you’ll keep doing it, and you can pay for it. And you while you grow, you’ll get excited and want to do more.
Mike Miller 10:09
Yeah, and that’s exactly. And so you want to continue to as your business grows, you want to put more back into your business. Because you do you know, your, yeah, your business evolves over time. And it has to, because the external conditions in the marketplace change. You want to up your game, hopefully, you know, you don’t want to go to market with the same old stuff you were doing eight years ago, right? Unless nothing’s changed, let you know, if you’re, if you’re a plumber, and it’s still that pipe, you know what I mean, it’s still that fitting, there’s nothing you can do. But in technology, everything changes so fast, you have to be up to date, and you have to keep up with it. You do. Like, it’s almost as if you have to be consistent with your learning in order to stay relevant and engaged in you know, in the marketplace, and in the industry. And that cutting edge, I hate that word. But you know that staying up to date on the latest and the greatest tools technologies actually gives you a benefit over your competitors who aren’t doing that? It does. And if you can relate, right, this goes back to what I started with in the beginning, if you can relate that that value, right, that’s superior technical knowledge. If you can relate it, then you separate yourself from your competition, you know, instantly you do,
Shelly Miller 11:51
because I mean, even in older industries or industries that don’t seem to change much. Everybody wants to continually have something new. So you know, you mentioned a plumber. Well, people are building new houses, and they want newer technology that will ensure that you know, they like you know the water tank pan, you know, yeah, they got better though. Water tank. Yeah, there you go. The water heater pan and the expansion expansion tanks to make sure you didn’t you know, get leaked on you know, you did your house and get flooded, etc. Yeah, so it’s the same thing in marketing. So we are in any industry in all every basically every part of your business, you want to have the thing that will help you the most now. And as technology advances, it makes our lives easier and takes less time. And that’s what we want. So we want to we want that for ourselves, we want to offer to our customers,
Mike Miller 12:40
right? So yeah, we continually want to upskill and uplevel get better,
Shelly Miller 12:47
right? And in your in that education and learning that you do you want to pass that on to your customers. And you do that through marketing. Exactly. So and when your business grows as a result,
Mike Miller 13:00
it starts over again, it does you take the profits and you invest them back into your business to make your business even better to separate yourself from your competition. Even more. Yes. And it’s just an iterative process until you’re a billionaire. There you go have your own island. Yes. Which is my goal.
Shelly Miller 13:19
Oh, well. Okay. Yeah. Your own island.
Mike Miller 13:22
Yeah, exactly. So, um, so the other key to successful, you know, marketing on the MSPs that we’ve been seeing is that they’re there. They’re going multi channel. They do. You know, there. We call it omni channel, multi channel makes more sense. But basically, they’re everywhere. Right. So what am I talking about? there? They got a great website. Their websites focused on keywords that people care about. They’re using messages that resonate. They’re creating, they have a blog, but the blog isn’t content that they bought from someone else, and that they’re just repurposing or reusing. It is custom content that’s valuable to their customers their ideal client profile, right? Yes. They’re not just stopping with blogs. They’re taking it to the next level. They’re doing videos, having a YouTube channel being consistent. They’re moving into podcasts. Right? They’re, they’re adopting multiple multimedia. Right? And then they’re doing ads on Google, right. So you got your Google ads for when people come to the search engine and they have intent to purchase or they’re looking for help. So you’re you’re advertising on Google. Then they also do Facebook ads and linked and Instagram, right? But they’re using those ads as a part of their social media strategy. Right, and they’re using social media, then they’re using LinkedIn in the same way. They’re using LinkedIn to advertise. But they’re also using it as a social media channel, right. And then they’re using those channels to drive traffic into the middle of the funnel, where they offer lead magnets, guides, right, like the 25 questions. Whatever your ICP is, should ask before hiring a managed service provider. Right, right. Right. So they don’t just
Shelly Miller 15:47
do one thing, right. And they’re consistent. So they they make sure that they’re everywhere that their ICP is looking?
Mike Miller 15:53
Yes.
Shelly Miller 15:54
And they have a budget that they understand that this is a continual. So it’s consistent. But it’s continual?
Mike Miller 16:01
Yes. Not well, I’ll
Shelly Miller 16:02
be consistent for three months, right? It’s an ongoing business process. Right? Exactly. It
Mike Miller 16:08
has to be it has to be evergreen, it has to continually recycle through all of your campaigns. And through all of your offerings, basically, all of your products and services have to have their own campaign. And then there should be a campaign for all of it together.
Shelly Miller 16:27
Right? Well, I completely agree. And a lot of people will say, Well, I only need three customers this quarter. I don’t need to market. You know, yeah, and here’s the thing, if you would have been doing something consistent, like, you know, sending out emails, providing lead magnets, something of value to your clients. Maybe having a webinar with some new event or new tool that you’ve been using that will help them out. That finding those three, you won’t have to do a lot. It won’t be cold calling and crapping your pants at the end of the quarter, when you don’t have the three write the last week. Yeah, it’ll be one of you’ll get the three from those three months of doing those activities. So again, it’s consistent marketing, even on a small scale, so even if you’re just telling me that I need three clients in three months, yeah, you still need to, if you are, if you’re doing something, you can probably get two or three clients from that. Yes, from those activities.
Mike Miller 17:35
Yeah, it’s true. Well, and the thing is, is I remember that person saying that, and the thing about it to me is, then you just want a job, right? You’re not a business person, you’re not an entrepreneur, because an entrepreneur wants to continually grow their business. And so if you need three, this quarter, then next quarter, you’re gonna want four, right? And then five, and then six. But why not go ahead and get them now? I mean, if the trajectory is up and to the right. However, that is, if it’s up into the right, you know, hockey stick, then you need more than just three, you need to, you know, keep going keep marketing, keep selling. You do because otherwise, you’re just like, well, I don’t want to work harder than that. Anyway, all right, I went off, I went somewhere. Alright, so
Shelly Miller 18:32
that goes back to our last conversation about goals. So that’s that topic. But it’s, you know, it’s, it’s the truth. You, you, you have to make your goals and set your goals and then do the business processes accordingly. Marketing is a business process, like sales is a business process, and you need to do it consistently.
Mike Miller 18:48
Right? Exactly. Yeah. Hey, that’s a good one. So let’s imagine going, you know, being a salesperson, and, you know, the manager comes to you and says, Have you made calls today in there? And you’re like, no, my calls are scheduled for next Wednesday, and man, I’m gonna be good. I’m gonna rock it next Wednesday, is gonna be amazing. Don’t you think you should do it every day? That’s for suckers. Man, I go, I go places in my head donor. I just I just think that, you know, consistency is the key. And it’s amazing to me that I hear managed service providers or business owners in general. I mean, I’ve heard dentists say this, you know, that, wow. When I committed to it, and I started doing it, like every day and like tracking it and making sure it was happening. My business took off. Mm
Shelly Miller 19:51
hmm. Is that
Mike Miller 19:52
Yeah, Assistant, but I had tried marketing before I had sent a postcard once and it didn’t do nothing. Yes. But now Now that I’m doing it consistent and sending more than one and like going from email to calls to cards to Facebook ads to retargeting to videos and blog, and
Shelly Miller 20:14
yeah, but I do that it’s on a cycle. Yes, he will cycle so right,
Mike Miller 20:20
you know, all the sudden, all of a sudden Yeah, I get business coming to me yes like on the regular configures the kids say,
Shelly Miller 20:30
Oh goodness,
Mike Miller 20:32
you know me? Yes. So I think that if you’re not consistent and you’re not doing all you can write with the resources that you have and think about social media as a resource. You know, Gary Vaynerchuk goes off all the time about how you have the ability to reach billions of people for free. But you’re not investing in it. You’re not taking advantage of it
Shelly Miller 21:01
right now. Yes. And you need to do need to do now,
Mike Miller 21:05
I won’t say that Twitter is going to solve all your business problems, because it’s not.
Shelly Miller 21:10
No, no. But that’s why you also need a logical plan. And exactly, that’s what we provide, if that’s what you’re looking for. So a consistent logical goal, goal oriented plans that
Mike Miller 21:22
delivers results, there you go, that generates leads.
Shelly Miller 21:26
That’s what and that’s what you need. Exactly. We all need for our business.
Mike Miller 21:30
Exactly. And it starts small, you know, marketing is this is a locomotive. It’s a steam engine. And the terminology Yes, very takes a minute to get off the starting blocks. But once it starts going, it’s too heavy. There’s too much momentum behind it. You can’t stop it, right. And but what happens is people stop it. They’re like, okay, cool, and they start coasting to a stop with their marketing. Right. And that’s what kills them. That’s what stops the cycle of growth.
Shelly Miller 22:03
Yes, it is.
Mike Miller 22:04
Yeah. So, I mean, it’s really simple. I mean, we’re talking like one plus one equals two. But and I get it, you know, you got to spend money to market and will it resonate? And will people like it? And will we make money? And will I will it just be a waste?
Shelly Miller 22:27
And that’s the wonderful challenge of being a business. Exactly. That’s an adventure.
Mike Miller 22:31
It’s the adventure, that’s the game is you can take off most of the losses on your taxes. So, you know, Is it that bad? Anyway, all right. Well,
Shelly Miller 22:44
I guess maybe we didn’t need to do a mindset podcast. Yeah,
Mike Miller 22:46
exactly. So Well, anyway. Well, I
Shelly Miller 22:50
think I think they understand. I think we understand I think we all understand.
Mike Miller 22:54
I think so too. Yeah. So I’m done ranting awesome. Yeah.
Shelly Miller 22:58
I don’t think we’re ranting I think I think we all need to be reminded of this, you know, as humans we forget. Now we know. Yes, we remember, oh, be consistent and do omni channel marketing.
Mike Miller 23:09
Right. Exactly. Yeah. You know, as we look out at the MSP landscape, managed service providers, you know, the it landscape as a whole, really, we’re seeing that, you know, everybody’s trying, it’s not that you’re not trying, you’re a lot of people are doing it wrong. I will say that, but the people who are at the top, they’re consistent, and they’re going wide with their message. multichannel the truth.
Shelly Miller 23:39
That’s a good place to end. Alright,
Mike Miller 23:42
that’s my cue.
