Three ways MSPs can market compliance services

Originally published on SmarterMSP.com

Many managed service providers (MSPs) believe they must approach marketing from a granular level. This can work in some instances, but the vast majority of the time, this is the wrong approach – especially for the more technical service offerings.

I’ve been running Tech Pro Marketing – an MSP marketing agency – for more than seven years. I get all sorts of requests from MSPs needing help to market, X, Y, and Z services. Whether it’s cybersecurity, networking, compliance, etc. the answer is not always as easy as it seems.

As we close out Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I want to touch on one of the more technical – difficult to market – IT services: compliance.

MSP owners normally say they’ve tried a handful of different marketing tactics they read about online – and nothing is working.

The reality about compliance is it’s a service that a lot of small businesses need, but it’s not something many are actively thinking about.

This is the biggest challenge that technical MSPs face in marketing. They understand their products + their value on a molecular level. However, many struggle to connect this to what exactly their clients want.

In this article, I’ll discuss some key tactics for how MSPs can best market their compliance services.

1. Market general IT services

This is a big one that many MSP owners miss the mark on – especially the more technical-minded ones. The reality is most MSP clients aren’t super well-versed in the finer details of IT services.

What they really want is an expert to step in and “take IT off their plate”.

When you sell to these types of business owners, getting into the weeds of compliance may be counter-productive.

My recommendation is this: include compliance as part of your sales process – bundled in with the rest of your managed IT services.

Ultimately, you may struggle to generate leads and close deals if you’re aggressively marketing compliance – you’re essentially selling a solution to a problem that many business owners aren’t aware they have. The task now is to educate them on compliance and then nurture interest – which is significantly more difficult than marketing generalized IT services.

2. Use compliance as a topic that you’re promoting to your existing list

A lot of MSPs have a great email list to send marketing material and newsletters to.

If you have spent time and effort building up your list, bravo! You’re already a leg up.

You’re likely reading this post on SmarterMSP.com because you trust that they are always going to provide good, insightful content.

The same logic applies to your email list.

These people already trust you – and are happy to read the content you send them. Unlike a cold email, you’re not some stranger who may or may not have ulterior motives when sending messages.

This is a prime opportunity to educate your contacts about compliance.

The goal here is to get them interested in the topic and explain why it’s important to prioritize.

You can always send them longer-form email content. Or you can take it a step further and host a webinar about the topic. Whoever registers for the webinar are the ones who are clearly interested – and the ones you should be marketing the service to.

3. Use cold email outreach in an easy-to-understand way

Now, I mentioned in the last section that promoting compliance services with cold email can be challenging. I didn’t say it was totally ineffective.

If you approach cold outreach properly, it can be extremely effective. Typing up a long, individualized cold email about a technical service might not give you the ROI you want. On the other hand, keeping it short and sweet allows you to cast a much wider net.

The most successful email of all time is Dean Jackson’s 9-word email – give or take a few words.

Here’s what it would look like in this context:

Hi (first name),

Do you need help with compliance this year?

You can send this simple email to thousands of people in a day – and a few people will inevitably raise their hands. We’ve tested this out many times against hundreds of other emails and we can assure you this works the best.

Over to you

Compliance can be a tricky topic. In most cases, it involves educating your prospects and getting into the nuts and bolts of why it’s important. If you approach it the wrong way, you’re almost certainly looking at an uphill battle.

Both your time and your prospects’ time are precious. It’s remarkably easy to lose people when you have the wrong marketing approach.

Is conveying the value of your compliance services the key to unlocking your growth? Let’s find out. Head over to https://www.techpromarketing.com and schedule a one-on-one strategy call, so we can help you figure it out – together.