Show notes
The podcast powered by the MSP Marketing Edge Welcome to Episode 271 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green. This week… How to influence what John Smith buys: Your prospects don’t really understand technology and that can create fear. The smartest MSPs build trust and ease those fears by positioning themselves as the go-to tech authority in their marketplace. Find out how… 3 more bootstrap marketing ideas for MSPs: Let’s explore how to strike gold by turning your existing assets into lead generators, using simple tactics to attract new clients and unlock hidden revenue opportunities… without spending a penny. How motion graphics make complex sales easier: Simple visual tools, like animated videos, can attract prospects by helping to explain complex concepts and products. Could this be what your MSP needs to turn your website into a lead generation machine? Paul’s Personal Peer Group: Are you struggling with writer’s block? Elliot from an MSP in Manchester (UK) is too. I have 3 suggestions to help. How to influence what John Smith buys Have you ever seen someone wrestle with a Rubik’s cube? Well, that’s how most business owners feel about technology. They’re fascinated by what it can do, but frustrated by its complexity. So here’s an exciting thought. If their mind is boggled, that creates a massive opportunity for your MSP to unboggle it. Let’s explore how the smartest MSPs build trust to ease those fears and position themselves as the go-to tech authority in their marketplace. And yes, you can do this too. Somewhere in one of the hundreds of business and marketing books that I’ve read over the years is one of my favourite phrases, and here it is – To influence what John Smith buys, you must look through John Smith’s eyes. And in this instance, John Smith is the ordinary business owner or manager that you want to reach and influence to buy from you and not one of your competitors. You have to really understand what it’s like to be John Smith, in order to persuade him that your MSP is the one he should choose. Let’s do that right now. Let’s imagine John lives in your town and he’s the owner of a small CPA, a small accounting firm. Let’s ignore that old joke that all accountants are dull, although actually we do know this to be the truth, don’t we? But anyway, don’t worry about that. What is day-to-day life like for John running his business? Well, of course technology is mission critical for an accountancy practice, and yet we can probably guess that John hasn’t invested well over the years. So he and his team, maybe they’re using older technology still – they’re definitely still on Windows 10, might even be a Windows 8 machine clunking away somewhere… maybe an XP machine, that might be pushing it too far. Their internet is okay at best, and cyber security is very much something that they just pay lip service to. John’s mindset is that he pays Microsoft, maybe an MSP, perhaps a break/fix company somewhere. He pays the money every now and again or every month, so surely all of the security and everything should be all sorted out, right? That’s his kind of accountant’s attitude towards it. And this attitude towards technology probably means that John suffers from lots of downtime or at the very least, interruptions to his productivity. And I bet his staff complain a lot too. The subtext of this approach to technology is that money is tight for John. And people tend to assume that accountants are great business owners, but actually that’s not the experience that well I’ve certainly had from the accountants that I’ve met. Just like with MSPs, you get some that do very, very well, some that do very badly and the bulk, they just sit in the middle doing okay. John may have lots of clients, but that also means lots of work. And the margins and accountancy are not what they used to be. Also John doesn’t really understand technology and this is the core kind of heart of the matter that you need to understand. Because he understands that technology is mission critical and that at some point he’s going to need to buy new hardware for his team, but he doesn’t really understand even a fraction of the stuff that’s every day for you. Could he explain the cloud in a sentence that makes sense? Does he actually know what ransomware actually is? Would he know that malware stands for malicious software and what that actually looks like when it’s on the screen? Don’t even get me started on phishing. We all know that phishing is going to mean something completely different to him. The point here is that to win John’s business and to have any possibility of changing his attitude towards his technology and getting him to invest in his business properly will, you must understand all of these motivating factors. All of the stuff we’ve just talked about. Selling managed services to the average business manager or owner is rarely about the technology. It’s about what they do with the technology and how it helps them win faster, or holds them back. When someone doesn’t understand the thing that’s really, really important to them, your job as the person influencing them is to position yourself as an authority in technology and then reassure that person that they can make brave decisions and they can make these decisions because it will all work out OK. How do you do that? Well, positioning yourself as an authority, that’s an ongoing task. Just look at what authority figures do – they write, they speak, they are published, they are interviewed, they are known for giving advice and answering questions. There’s no shortcut to being seen as an authority figure, you have to do the hard work. Whether that means buying in pre-written content and putting your name on it or actually generating your own content. There’s no other way around it. Side note, in my MSP Marketing Edge service, we do have a number of different tools that our members can brand as their own, to help them with their positioning as a tech expert. A couple just off the top of my head, we’ve got our 2025 IT Services Buyers Guide, that’s incredibly popular. And there’s a book all about email security, you can put your name on the front of that. Have a look at mspmarketingedge.com for those. But if you want to be perceived as an authority, you certainly need to attend networking meetings, you need to go to events, you need to put on webinars, you need to run seminars, speak at events, get on the stage, all of the stuff like that. And if you do this consistently month after month after month for a number of years, you just assume the position of being an authority in technology. No one tells you you are, you just become one. This happens a lot faster, of course, if you’re in a very specific vertical, but of course you can always just do it in your general area as well. So build that up, keep going at that, it’s a never ending thing unfortunately, there’s no shortcut to it. But once you have an authority position, how then do you reassure people that they’re doing the right thing? Well, this can only come from understanding where they are, and that can only be done by asking them open questions. Now, unlike closed questions where the response is either yes or no, open questions can have any possible answer. And I believe that open questions are one of the biggest weapons of influence that you could possibly wield in your marketing and your sales because everyone loves answering questions about themselves and their business. And when these questions are coming from someone that they perceive to be an authority figure, they are doubly keen to take part. In fact, the more you ask them about their business, and the less you talk about you and your MSP, the easier it is to influence them, the easier it is to get the sale. Because not only will you start to really understand the world as they see it and as they perceive it, but you’ll also win their trust without actually doing any hard work. And I know that this is insane. I know that influencing someone just by asking them simple open questions rather than telling them what you know, is bizarre, that that’s an easier way to influence people. But hey, us humans are wired in a very strange way, and that’s what we have to work with. What I’m talking about here is not a one-off tactic, it’s a strategy. No, actually it’s more than that. It’s a whole way of life. It’s you deciding that you want to be perceived and recognised as an authority in technology, and you want to influence people by being intensely interested in them and their business. You can start doing that today, and I highly recommend that you do. 3 more bootstrap marketing ideas for MSPs Did you know your MSP is sitting on a secret gold mine? Budgets can be tight at this time of year, so right now, you don’t need to spend a fortune to generate leads. You just need to dig into the resources you already have. Let’s explore how to strike gold by turning your existing assets into lead generators using simple tactics to attract new clients and unlocking hidden revenue opportunities, all without spending a penny. On last week’s show, I gave you three bootstrap marketing ideas for your MSP and today I have three more. First one is to get your local media talking about you. I get it, no one actually reads the local paper anymore, but the local media still has massive credibility. And free publicity is much more valuable than advertising because it has higher levels of perceived credibility. When journalists talk about you, ordinary people think that they’ve sought out the best experts. And actually most journalists these days, they just want easy content that’s put in front of them. Here’s the easiest way to get some PR, some public relations. You send press releases to local newspapers, local radio, local bloggers, local TV stations if you have them. They should be about things that are huge in your world, but the rest of the public hasn’t really heard about yet. Now, the media coverage itself is unlikely to get you new clients, so instead you use it to enhance your credibility and your authority. You can put a link to it on your website, don’t just copy it onto your website as there are copyright agencies looking for this, but linking to it is absolutely fine. Share it across your social media, email it out to your prospect database, add it to your About Us page, and make sure you put the logo of the media outlet in the footer of your website, kind of like a as seen in or as heard on. This way you can make one piece of coverage influence your prospects for years to come. Clever stuff that. Let’s do the second one. This is to create videos every week. The most influential way of communicating with and persuading people in 2025 is through videos. And yes, this includes B2B marketing. Few MSPs create enough videos, which is just crazy as they’re so easy to make. I mean, you could make a video in the next five minutes, just grab your phone and film something. Perhaps it’s you just giving a quick warning about the latest email hack, something which has been all over the tech media, but it’s not widely known for the public. Do a quick video, bang it on LinkedIn, and you’re done. The video really can be that easy because you’ve seen what’s on LinkedIn, right? You’ve seen what’s on YouTube. People don’t expect Hollywood style production from you. They’re very, very tolerant of 60 seconds of just quick shot video, very tolerant. If you want to invest in kit, then yeah, down the line focus on lighting and sound and image stability and all of that stuff. But right now, you have a perfectly good camera in your phone. Maybe you’d get some lights to make it well lit or just film yourself outside where you are just naturally well lit and maybe you’d get a microphone just to go on your shirt or something just to make the sound spot on. Down the line you can get a tripod or a gimbal to steady the phone, but you don’t need these things now, they make the videos look more professional down the line for a tiny investment. But honestly, trust me, just get started right now, holding your phone, talking to your phone. And here’s the third one, the third of our bootstrap pretty much low cost or no cost marketing ideas for MSPs, and this third one is to obsessively collect social proof, because most people are sheep. They prefer to do what most other people are doing. And this is a behaviour that’s hardwired into most humans’ brains. It’s part of our survival instincts. So you need to show people that hundreds of other people, just like them, really trust your MSP. This means asking for testimonials, it means soliciting reviews on Google or other platforms, and it means creating case studies for each service that you want to focus your marketing efforts on. Don’t ever be scared to ask clients for reviews and testimonials or to take part in some filming. Sure, some of them will say no, but the law of reciprocity says many will happily say yes as a thank you for the great service that they’re getting from you. And yes, this still works despite the fact that they have paid for this service. And yes, humans are strange. The key thing here is to systemise this in the business so it becomes a regular monthly task and not just a once a year social proof topper. How motion graphics make complex sales easier Featured guest: Chris Walker has spent over 20 years creating video content and strategies for IT, tech, and SaaS businesses, helping them cut through the noise and connect with their audience. Currently, Chris is the director of Joe Mule, a B2B animation studio specialising in helping technical businesses simplify their messaging. He’s passionate about making complex ideas clear and compelling so companies can win the customers they deserve. Crampons and carabiners at the ready. Selling managed services can feel like climbing a mountain, right? It’s steep, it’s exhausting, and every step towards new cash feels like an uphill battle. But what if there was a shortcut, a way to smooth the path, get leads flowing in and help your MSP make more money? My special guest today is going to tell you how a simple visual tool can attract prospects. Turn your websites into a lead generation machine and make closing sales easier than ever before. Hi, my name’s Chris Walker and I run Joe Mule Creative and I’m an expert in animated video content. And thank you so much for joining us on the show, Chris. We were introduced by Christina Hunt, who is an MSP marketer, so thank you, Christina. Animated videos are something I’ve been meaning to talk about on the podcast for some time. And before we delve into your career, Chris, and the kind of videos you produce for MSPs right now, let’s first of all define what you mean by an animated video. Because I’m going to be honest, and this maybe is the elephant in the room, when you talk about animated videos, I see the hand holding the Sharpie that kind of moves across the screen, I think they’re called whiteboard videos, where whatever it is that the voiceover is saying, the hand is writing it on the screen. And those to me feel really, really old school. And that’s not quite what you mean by animated videos, is it? It isn’t. No. Those things, those whiteboard videos, I’ll be honest, are the bane of my life for people who’ve ever paid money for them, for a number of reasons. That isn’t really what I mean when I say animated videos and I’ll just delve into it very quickly. The trouble with those whiteboard videos are they’re very, very generic for a start, and they’re not great at helping you spread brand awareness because of how generic they look. When I talk about animated videos, I suppose a better term, a broader term would be motion graphics. That’s anything that isn’t live shot footage. So that can include things like iconography and shape and abstract movement and things like that that can help explain what might be a somewhat complex concept or product. A…
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