Our 5 Steps to Finding the Right MSP Marketing Agency for You
By Tracy Trottier
I spend a lot of time talking about marketing with MSPs. While I enjoy hearing their tales of what works for them, it’s also important to understand what doesn’t or hasn’t worked. The most frequent complaint I hear is from partners working with marketing or lead generation agencies that feel they’re paying out a lot and seeing very little reward.
So I thought I’d put together my top five tips for helping ensure a successful marketing agency engagement:
1. Understand the agency’s focus
When you’re looking for a marketing agency to re-do your website, or kick start your lead gen, look for a firm that has experience in those specific areas. It’s important not to get swept away by an agency that has worked on huge government or corporate websites or content. The budgets for these projects can be very large, and agencies will typically use these as showcases. You will be much better served checking that they have examples of work that they have done for businesses of similar size and scope to yours.
In the same way, it’s crucial you set the expectations right out of the gate. Make sure the agency fits YOUR needs and YOUR purposes and be very clear in what you are looking for.
2. Ask LOTS of questions
You can’t ask too many questions when you’re looking to engage a marketing agency. Here’s a quick list of some of the types of things you should consider exploring:
- Find out what type of customer they like working with.
- Do they typically only work with government organizations or non-profit organizations or do they work with a lot of local, small businesses.
- Check out their google reviews (if they have them)
- Ask for testimonials from customers not listed on their website and from customers who are similar in size to you with similarly sized projects.
- If you’re hiring a company to do lead gen for you, ask about their process for generating and qualifying leads and what makes their campaigns successful.
- If you’re looking for an agency to work on your website, ask them about their process. Understand how many times you can make changes to graphics, to colors, to text before you are charged. Most agencies will allow you to change certain things at least twice before they charge you for any subsequent changes.
You would expect your customers to ask you questions, so you should approach hiring a marketing agency in the same way. You’re only going to find out if they are a good fit for your business if you ensure you leave no stone unturned.
3. Getting started
So you’ve decide on the agency you want to work with, what do you need to do before you finally push the button? Before you actually put pen to paper on any contract, make sure it spells out exactly what you are paying for and what you are expecting as results, this includes the schedule for regular weekly meetings and any required reporting. No detail is too small.
Shortly after the signing of the contract, you should have a project meeting where you meet your agency’s project manager assigned to your project. This is your time to work out the schedule and project plan. This is a critically important first step that will help set the tone for your project and relationship with the agency.
4. Set your project up for success
Onboard your new agency exactly the same way you would a new customer or a new employee. Your agency does not know your business and needs to be educated on your ideal customer, who you are trying to attract, the messaging you want to use—all of it. And ask them to repeat it back so you know they are understanding who you are and what you do.
If your agency is running a lead gen program for you, build in time for several dry run and role-playing calls into the schedule. This will help find any gaps in their knowledge and understanding of your company and the message.
5. Regular check-ins and reports
As part of your project plan, your agency should set up a series of meetings with you. The first few may be long as they are onboarding and getting their resources to support your project aligned.
Do not miss these meetings. These meetings will keep your project on track and will allow both you and the agency time and space to pivot if needed.
Working with a marketing agency can feel like a significant amount of up front work—and it is—but if you spend the time and effort to onboard your agency in a similar way to onboarding a new employee, you are ultimately setting the project up for success. Ask lots of question and give your agency as much information as you have about your company, your market, and your project.
If you follow these five simple steps you will help to ensure that you’re putting yourself in the best possible position to have a successful relationship with your agency and a successful project.
Don’t forget if you’re looking to boost your MSP marketing, MarketBuilder is a resource that is included as part of your N‑able product subscription and contains thousands of ready-made campaigns on hundreds of different themes that can help you target and bring in new customers.
If you’re an N‑able customer, you can sign up for MarketBuilder now.
Tracy Trottier is marketing manager and heads up the MarketBuilder program at N‑able
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