Seven Easy MSP Marketing Activities You Can Do This Summer

Just because school is out doesn’t mean that you should let your marketing efforts take a summer vacation as well. Here are seven easy activities to market your MSP that you can implement that will keep your marketing efforts chugging along through the heated months to set you up nicely for the fall and winter ahead.

1. Be community-focused

Hopefully, your community outdoor events are starting to make a return. If so, use these outdoor events to get your MSP business name out there. Sponsorship of local street fairs, festivals, or BBQs are all great ways to meet new people. Promote the events you plan to attend on your LinkedIn or Facebook feed and in your weekly emails or monthly newsletters. Encourage your existing customers and contacts to support these local events as well and use it as an opportunity to provide some additional promotion for the community event organizers—which I am sure would be greatly appreciated.   

2. Host your own summer event

Or consider hosting your own event to encourage local business owners to come out and visit your location to learn more about managed service could help their business. Host an outdoor BBQ, followed by a short presentation about your services. Or host an event benefiting a local charity where, for any new contracts signed over the summer, a portion of the proceeds will be directed towards that charity. Customers love when their purchases will benefit a local cause. And be sure to promote your event on social media, through email, via your newsletters, and post pictures afterwards of you and your team engaging in your community.

3. Refresh your webpage

Has it been a while since you last looked at your website? Use this time to invest in a website refresh for your MSP business and promote via social to encourage prospects to go check it out. If you are looking for ideas on what to do to make your website more engaging, be sure to check out my two-part blog post I wrote earlier this year on this all-important activity: Part 1. Part 2.

4. Write a summertime-themed blog post to boost your SEO

Once your website has been refreshed, write a few new blog posts that the target audience of your MSP might be interested in. Topics can be serious, fun, or a combination of the two. Some potential topics to write about could include:

1. Tech gadgets or the best apps for planning a fun summer family vacation
2. Technology trends to create a more productive workplace
3. How to get more out of the tech you have
4. Tips to keep your employees and business safe from cyber attacks

Post a snippet to your social feeds, then direct your contacts to your brand-new website to read the full copy. Hopefully after reading, they will be motivated to poke around your site for a bit to become more familiar with you as a managed service provider and the services you offer.

5. Relaunch your referral program

Use this slow business time to reconnect with your existing customers, schedule some strategic business reviews, and, at the end of the reviews, ask for any referrals. Or consider building (or relaunching) your referral program if you haven’t been promoting it lately. Offer customers an incentive like 15% off your monthly managed services package cost for three months for every new customer they refer to you and who signs a new contract with you. Or, for each referral they send over, their name goes in a drawing for a monthly prize.

6. Gather social proof

And while you are asking for referrals, also use this time to gather quotes and testimonials from your top customers that you can post to your website. Encourage them to post a review on your Google Business page to improve your rankings against other MSPs. Take it a step further and see if you can snap pictures of you and your team with your best customers and post to your social feeds. Pictures with happy customers, positive reviews, and customer feedback posted prominently on your website are super helpful in establishing trust with businesses that may not know you. Businesses are more likely to consider partnering with you for MSP services if they see numerous customer testimonials on your website or a social feed full of happy people.

7. Create a social media posting calendar that highlights a few fun holidays that are taking place this summer

Of course, you want to use your social feeds to showcase your skills and expertise, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use a few days each month to create some light-hearted posts and have a bit of fun to highlight your MSP’s playful side. Some holidays you might be interested in celebrating include:

1. July 1, International Joke Day: Post a few jokes to your social feeds or ask your contacts to share their best “dad jokes” to encourage engagement
2. July 8, National Video Game Day: Have a favourite video game? Offer a review of it and encourage your contacts to post about their favourite game.
3. July 10, National Kitten Day: Anybody on your team a cat lover? Post a few pictures of some of your staff with their kitty and encourage your contacts to do the same.
4. July 19, National Ice Cream Day: Use this day to have an open house and invite everyone to your offices for ice cream—customers and prospects alike!
5. August 9, National Book Lovers Day: Use this day to have your staff post and give a few of their favourite books and encourage your contacts to do the same.
6. August 12, National Vinyl Record Day: Give this holiday a spin for the audiophiles.
7. August 26, National Dog Day: Now let’s get the dog lovers in the mix! For those on your team that are dog lovers, post a few pictures of your team with their beloved canine and encourage your contacts to do the same.

MSP marketing isn’t a one-and-done type of initiative. It is something that requires persistency and consistency for long term success. As tempting as it might be to put your marketing on the backburner during the summer months, in actuality, your marketing shouldn’t take a holiday. But hopefully, with a strong MSP marketing plan, you can have some fun with your marketing this summer months that I am sure both your customers and prospects will enjoy.   

Stefanie Hammond is Head Sales and Marketing Nerd at N‑able. You can follow her on LinkedIn and on Twitter at @sales_mktg_nerd.