In this article 7 sections
Start with a plan
Darren Strong, founder of Scalable, and Mit Patel, founder and former owner of London MSP Netstar, co-host this scaleUP episode. Their guest is Steph Hackney, Channel Marketing Manager at OpenText. She has about 10 years in the channel, across a reseller, distribution and vendors. The episode was recorded in partnership with HaloPSA.
Steph’s first rule is never to come to a vendor saying “I want to do some marketing”. Sit down with your sales team first and agree what you are trying to achieve. Without that, activities get picked up and dropped quickly, with no proper follow-up.
What works for MSPs
She sees success at regional and county business shows, where MSPs pick up local clients. Meeting face to face builds trust better than an email campaign. Once someone has consented to contact, keep in touch by post, email and a call every six months. “It’s only a no until it’s a yes.” Leadership or needs can change within a year.
A strategy starts with where growth will come from. Growing existing clients calls for meetings and small briefings, “low touch, but high quality”. Winning new clients means deciding how many and what kind. If you are strong with architecture firms, go to other architecture firms. Copying what worked for someone else will look false.
Most MSPs up to around £4M to £5M, the hosts note, market to everyone. Mit describes the MSP market as a switch market, where nearly every prospect already has a provider. An industry-specific message on top of the generic reasons to switch makes it relevant. Steph agrees. A vertical is easier to target, especially online, and stops a prospect seeing you as “just another person that does IT”. Industry events help, especially with clients from that sector in the room.
Online, offline and LinkedIn
Online works best when you are targeting a vertical. Offline gives the personal touch and builds brand awareness, and Steph suggests hosting your own breakfast briefings. LinkedIn is valuable. She sees little value in Facebook marketing. Personal content belongs on a personal page, and the business page should stay snappy and professional.
Hiring and measuring a marketer
In a new marketer’s first 3 months, check what they know about your business, then trust them to say what they would do. Later measures depend on the job: brand awareness, retention, growth or client spend. Mit adds that a first marketing hire usually has a revenue goal, so work out the numbers and backtrack to what marketing must deliver. Steph herself is measured mainly on client retention.
MDF goes unclaimed
A study cited in the episode found up to 60% of vendor MDF allocated each quarter goes unspent. Steph explains that marketing development funds are agreed upfront for joint activity with a vendor, unlike co-op funds, which are earned from sales. Most vendors use a standard request form. Stay honest about expected results, because you report back with proof such as invoices. Telemarketing with the right scripting performs, as do events backed by traceable email campaigns. MDF goes unclaimed because the admin takes time, vendors do not talk about it enough and partners do not ask. The largest award she has seen was about $40,000, in her distribution days.
Darren wants someone at the MSP to own vendor relationships, rather than buying a SKU that is “just a number”.
Consistency, alignment and knowing when to stop
Steph thinks people give up after a couple of weeks. Learn from each activity instead. Sales and marketing should be closely aligned. Mit ran a joint sales and marketing meeting at his MSP, where friction between the two heads was “friction for the right reason”. When time or budget goes in without output, “kill it”. She once cancelled a failing reseller event funded by MDF and moved the money to activity with a track record, which she recalls turned about £50,000 profit.
Mit’s takeaway is simple: do some marketing. The episode closes with a challenge to email every vendor and ask whether it has an MDF programme.
Common questions
Where should an MSP start with marketing?
With a plan. Agree with sales whether growth comes from new or existing clients before choosing any activity.
What is MDF?
Marketing development funds. You apply upfront for marketing activity run with a vendor, then report results with proof to get the money.
Why does so much MDF go unclaimed?
The forms and proof take time, and many partners do not know it exists.
How long should a marketing activity run before you judge it?
Longer than a couple of weeks. Stay consistent, but stop when time or budget goes in without output.
What is the Assurix Trustmark?
The live trustmark for MSPs. Assurix independently assesses 59 controls: 40 security controls aligned to NCSC CAF 4.0 and 19 operational controls built for MSPs. Live-measured controls are checked every six hours and the rest on a set cycle. An Assurix assessor signs off. A failure left unfixed for 30 days suspends the Trustmark publicly.
