Link ‘n’ synch for maximum marketing clout

Whether you’re pushing narratives or numbers, ensuring everyone in your marketing and sales ecosystem is well connected is key to MSPs’ marketing success in 2024 and beyond.

It’s not hard to imagine that, like many of us, Bruce Fitzgerald’s index finger hovers over the delete key as he scans the scores of emails pitching into his morning inbox. But if your subject line leads with: ‘Cybersecurity’ or ‘Essential Eight’, there’s a good chance he’ll open it.

Fitzgerald said that, although most marketing communications fall on barren soil, anything about cybersecurity’s existential issues piques his interest.

“Cybersecurity is probably the number one [priority] for us” as a business.

As CEO of Extel Technologies — a specialist electronic product designer and manufacturer to high profile and defence clients — he stays on top of all things cyber. Never more so following Extel’s February 2024 acquisition of US business, Synergetics Manufacturing.

Indeed, when the time came to renew with his MSP, it was how well a challenger addressed cybersecurity that determined his decision about who would become his trusted adviser and technology partner.

“Cyber education is a big push that I see and I've started following quite a number of different organisations. And that's a common message I see coming through in which I have an absolute interest in because it's so important for all of us.”

He wanted his new MSP to be well versed in frameworks such as Australia’s Essential Eight and NIST from the US. And his new MSP won early plaudits — it immediately identified gaps to straighten Extel’s cyber posture the previous incumbent missed.

So, cybersecurity education marketing, such as short, monthly training videos accompanied by self-assessment quizzes, were very valuable for building Extel staff’s knowledge, Fitzgerald said.

From narratives to numbers: Developing meaningful messages that cut through

A continuum is emerging between intimate, personal and bespoke human interactions on one end, and automated, data and analytics-driven AI responses on the other. The question for MSPs and their marketers is how to loop the circle so they are mutually supportive?

As founder and managing director of boutique marketing agency, Braveda, Nina Christian advises her MSP clients to tell human-centred stories that connect emotionally with their intended audiences. Connections and stories are more memorable than product features, Christian said.

“Marketing should speak to people, rather than just annoy them.”

Marketing should be like butterflies that “capture people's attention in a positive way” instead of “pesky flies” that annoy people, said Christian who is about to embark on a national tour to promote her new book, Marketing Me, for B2B professionals seeking to connect on a human, relatable level with their customers.

“They're getting in people's faces and noses and all people want to do is ‘shoo’ them away. But when you create content that is elegant, and you are a unique thing of beauty, people actually enjoy engaging with your content.”

On the other end of the spectrum, marketing agency Mogrify is developing a “scalable campaign framework” to eliminate labour-intensive account management. It collects structured data to generate content such as blogs, emails and ads, said Mogrify co-founder and director, Thomas Unwin.

“It's a programmatic approach to collecting structured information to produce certain marketing assets and collateral,” Unwin said.

Mogrify's system houses assets and automates workflows through marketing automation software to empower salespeople with a streamlined sales process. Unwin said Mogrify’s goal is to use artificial intelligence to “rapidly deploy orders of magnitude more activity” for the same cost.

Perhaps equally as importantly, it provides a structured way for sales and marketing teams to collaborate, Unwin said.

Executives said the platform illustrates how MSPs must evolve business communications. By automating content creation and workflows between teams, MSPs can scale efforts and cut through noise - critical moves for the digital marketing landscape.

Christian and Unwin warned of a coming tsunami of content that threatens to overwhelm traditional marketing teams and their approaches. MSPs that publish the occasional blog or LinkedIn update will struggle, they said.

Emboldening MSP employees to become influencers for sales appeal

In his time at the Channel Company, Nigel Murphy, witnessed how nimble MSPs circumvent these limitations by pooling funds to support their own bundled offerings.

He recommended MSPs focus on “nurturing leads over six to nine months through content” rather than just seeking “sales-ready leads”.

He said partners should use vendors’ MDF “for your early stage leads”.

“Fill up your nurture programme and then use the events to move those to sales-ready," he said.

Many MSPs wrestled with defining “what their solution is and why they're special … to their target market”.

Murphy, who recently took up a position as head of growth for B2B social selling agency SocialGen, said individuals are increasingly buying from individuals, not companies, so companies must adapt their sales strategies and empower employees accordingly.

MSP business leaders should “plant the seed” to encourage employees to become influencers in their own social networks, he said.

“We would be working with the sales director or the managing director to drive their content through their brand, and having them represent the company into that social space."

He emphasised the importance of creating a culture that motivates employees to engage with leadership and build their personal brand on social media platforms like LinkedIn. Murphy also suggested empowering mid-level employees to take ownership of their personal brand and generate leads for their company through social media.

“You can't force anyone to do that. They will only do that if you motivate them in a good culture.”