LinkedIn Marketing For MSPs

Far too often IT companies think they can log into LinkedIn, manually share a few syndicated blog posts about "Why You Should Outsource Your IT", send a few 1:1 messages, and make a sale just like that — without having any real idea who their ideal target audience might be.

Are technology businesses having success on LinkedIn?

Of course, they are, but let’s be very clear here…

The IT companies & MSP's that are seeing success on LinkedIn right now are doing so because they’ve done their research & they know exactly whom they’re targeting.

They’re not blindly sharing syndicated blog articles or sending templated mailers - crossing their fingers in hopes that the CEO of that 50+ user manufacturing company around the corner will suddenly call back while holding a rubber duck, a packet of aspirin or a tiny eye and say..."I'm In"!

Here's what IT & MSP companies ARE doing on LinkedIn before they start marketing on LinkedIn.

They’ve taken the time to identify:

• Whom their ideal clients are, based on the clients they are currently serving
• Segmenting their total target audience into smaller segments (typically organized by vertical)
• What each individual vertical's pain-points are in regards to technology
• What each individual vertical's motivating factors are, in regards to goals or initiatives they have for their role in the business
• What solutions or service offerings are best paired with these pain-points and desired benefits

The biggest difference between IT companies that are successful with marketing and lead generation across LinkedIn, and those that are not seeing any results or working too hard to get those results is simply this: they understood what clients were most profitable and they asked those people what content they'd like to see.

Super complicated, I know.

The thing is, the smartest people tend to skip over the simplest solutions. Specifically, business owners and entrepreneurs tend to rush into implementation without developing a sound plan of action only to find out that the only way to see success is to go back to the drawing board.

You need to understand the people you are marketing to because it is ridiculously expensive to execute without direction.

So now the question becomes this:

How do you understand and identify the target audience that's right for your IT & MSP organization BEFORE you start developing campaigns?

I'm going to make it super easy for you to 1. understand exactly who your most profitable clients are in your business today, 2. understand what those clients want, when they want it and how to serve it up to them in a way they understand - and most importantly; 3. how to attract prospective clients that look exactly like them to your IT organization.

Sound good?

#1 Understand Exactly Who Your Most Profitable Clients Are In Your Business Today

I know you've been frustrated for months, trying to figure out why LinkedIn marketing just isn't working for you. You've probably been searching for a complex answer to a complex solution - when it's much simpler than that.

Open up your quick books application and take a good, hard look at your client base - then ask yourself the following questions:

• What handful of industries do my clients fall into?
• What 3-5 industries make up the majority of my client base?
• Which clients are the most profitable?
• Of the most profitable clients; what trends exist?
• Who is my main POC for my most profitable clients?
• Who are my worst clients/least profitable clients?
• Why are those clients not as profitable as others?

Answering these very simple questions is extremely important, and something most IT business owners never take the time to consider. I am willing to bet you have never seriously asked yourself these questions - or if you have, it was simply a guess rather than a validation of data.

The fact is; you have valuable data that you aren't using.

Data that unlocks the door to success for campaigns you are probably spending a lot of time, money or resources on.

Don't make the mistake of serving your guests without setting the table. This simple yet important task will provide you with a detailed roadmap for step 2; all you need to do is answer the above questions.

Once you answer the above questions to understand your ideal audience, you'll need to break this down into even more specific data points, in order to leverage LinkedIn Sales Navigator to filter a public database by only the prospects you want to do business with.

Here are the data points you'll need to determine:

• What geographic locations define your target audience (in greater metro areas, towns etc)?
• What industry categories define your target audience?
• What company size defines your target audience?
• What is the decision making roles that define your target audience?

Now that you have a tight list of data points that define your target audience, you'll need to input that information into LinkedIn Sales Navigator and save the list for future campaigns.

#2 Understand What Those Clients Want, When They Want It, And How To Serve It Up To Them In A Way They Understand

You just defined your ideal client, but do you know what your ideal client wants?

You certainly understand what you do. You're passionate about security and modernizing infrastructure, but - they're not.

If you don't know what your target audience wants to hear - I promise you, they won't listen.

Your only strategy here is to make assumptions...and you know what they say about assumptions.

Making assumptions about your audience's desires can be a huge determent when it comes to marketing.

Although developing attractive looking images and content requires more of a creative approach, understanding the elements that are needed to produce an outcome - are purely scientific.

In fact, it's possible to predict the outcome from marketing - as long as you are collecting and analyzing the right data before investing any time, money and resources into the development of the marketing material or strategy of delivery itself.

SO...how do we collect and analyze this data?

The answer is simple; ASK.

One way you can ask your audience what they want to see, hear or learn more about - is to run a marketing research study.

Companies Like www.Respondent.io make this process ridiculously simple to do.

Here are some questions you might want to consider asking in order to extract information that can be used to arrive at an actual insight:

• How would you describe your existing technology resource in place today?
• What is your biggest frustration with your existing technology resource today? (please describe in your own words)
• What are some of the goals you have in mind for your organization over the next 12 months? (please describe in your own words)
• What type of technology or technical solution do you believe could help you reach those goals a bit easier/faster/more efficiently? (please describe in your own words)
• Are you concerned that your firm might be the victim of a cyber-crime attack in the near future? Is this a real fear of yours or not very important? (please describe in your own words)
• Regarding technology for your business; what subjects are you interested in learning more about? (please describe in your own words and be as specific as possible)
• If we hosted a webinar on cybersecurity best practices and you decided to attend, what information would you like to walk away from the webinar with? (please describe in your own words)
• What is the single most important thing in your business, right now? what keeps you awake at night? (please describe in your own words)

#3 Attract Prospective Clients That Look Exactly Like Your Most Profitable Clients To Your IT Organization.

You now know who your most profitable clients are, exactly what they want to hear and how they want to hear it - now the last step is to actually leverage all of this insight to develop a strategy.

An attraction strategy can be pretty cumbersome, involving many moving parts to ensure that your campaign is reaching all of your prospects everywhere that they are living.

The truth is; there is no one silver bullet. There's no one single campaign that works forever, or even on its own.

People change every day - and marketing strategy changes every day.

To make this simple, let's live by a simple methodology rather than say a single campaign will work forever.

Deliver the right information, at the right time, to the right people in order to educate your audience in the way they prefer to learn, and on the social platforms, they currently use.

To do this more specifically in today's world, it would be to develop extremely relevant industry publications or blog articles that are around specific subjects your prospects told you they were interested in.

Promoting those blog articles on LinkedIn and Facebook, in order to drive social traffic to your website.

Then converting web traffic into high quality leads by simply starting a conversation with a prospect or providing a prospect with an avenue to start a conversation with you.

So, How Do I Start Marketing To These People On LinkedIn?

You'll need to develop a strategy for connecting, messaging and responding to prospects on LinkedIn before you do anything.

But, defining your target audience is certainly the first step in this strategy.