Building Your MSP Brand

How Do You Start Building Your MSP Brand?

Building Your MSP Brand is no different from building any brand! I was featured recently in Authority Magazine’s “Self Made Women” series, and it was a pleasure sharing my story with Ming Zhao, who is also an entrepreneur.  The article was focused on answering one simple question:  What Are The Five Things You Wish You Had Known Before You Started Your Business?  You can take advantage of opportunities like this to build your MSP brand!

To be featured, I had to respond to a PR query and catch the eye of the editor, answer some initial questions, answer some follow up questions, agree to an interview, and record that little video.  All in all, it took about two hours of time.  Over two days on LinkedIn, it generated over 70 engagements.  By comparison, a post by me about my business, featuring unique, useful, well thought out content isn’t nearly as sticky!

For reference:

The first example is a post of a Managed Sales Pros article on the different types of marketing generated leads MSPs receive , and how to sell to each one of them.  It’s valuable content that took me far more than two hours of time to write, publish and promote online.   That first Linkedin Post has been online for two weeks, and it’s had 341 views, and one engagement.

The second post is a post featuring the article.

In two days, it’s already had ten times the views, it’s been shared four times, and 78 people interacted with the post.  That bumps me up in the Linkedin feed, telling the algorithm to reward me for creating great content.

But I didn’t create the content.  In fact, every time I’m featured in someone else’s content, I reach far more prospects – especially important prospects that I don’t have eyes on yet, who are outside of my personal or professional network!

Building Your MSP Brand and Your Personal Brand

I’m focused on building my brand.  The best content in the world isn’t valuable to me if nobody is reading it.  I’m balancing thoughtful content with content that gets liked, commented on, and shared.

Building your MSP Brand doesn’t need to be complicated, or expensive.  There are a ton of opportunities available to you every day to promote your business, but it can be hard to know how to begin.

Is Building Your MSP Brand The Same As Building Any Other Brand?

As much as I love to be the center of attention, what I like even more is the added engagement and extended market reach that I get every time I’m featured any place that isn’t in my immediate circle.

My clients, peers and vendors already know what I do.  I don’t need to convince them that I’m an expert.

It’s my prospects that need to see me as an expert – they haven’t made their mind up about me or my business yet.

The more often I show up in their news feed, the more likely they are to take that extra step to learn more about me, or Managed Sales Pros, or Richardson & Richardson Consulting.

Build Your MSP Brand Using Free Opportunities For Media Exposure

Every week, I share PR requests and other opportunities to be featured online (like this one!), to speak at live and online events, be featured on podcasts (here’s ours!) or submit guest blog posts with our MSP clients and prospects.

If you’re looking for more opportunities to be seen as an expert, schedule some time with me and get on the Managed Sales Pros I.T. Experts List – our team reviews PR requests and profile opportunities, then distributes them to our list of interested MSP business owners.

It’s Simple!   If you’re interested in submitting a comment or a quote for an article, being featured on a popular podcast, or having a profile featured in an online publication, just reply to the query in the email.  We’ll help you with tips on the best ways to get your quote or story featured.

Get on the list, schedule time with me here!

Use Managed Webinars To Build Your MSP Brand

One of the new things we’ve rolled out for our clients is a managed webinar solution built around regular one-to-many online events.  These monthly done-for-you webinars generate a year’s worth of content, and provide access to our calling team to boost attendance, then more calling to follow up with the guests who registered for the event.  We help you engage with new prospects, usually in one particular niche, but general content works for companies that have not yet chosen specific industries to work in.

Check out this webinar series that we built, produced and hosted for Ntiva!

If you’re interested in creating original content for online events on a regular schedule, and then in having someone recruit prospects to attend those events, and follow up after them, we’re excited to help!  Schedule time with me to learn about it!

Build Your MSP Brand Through Managed Podcasting

I spent a ton of time trying to figure out podcasting in 2020.

I started my own podcast,  I tried three different outsourced agencies (on and offshore), and I learned a lot through the process.

First, I learned it’s an incredibly valuable relationship creation and network expansion vehicle.

Second, I learned that there are a lot of moving parts to podcasting, and managing to produce new and interesting content on a weekly schedule  while managing my normal schedule became prohibitively time-consuming very quickly.

For the next podcast, for my consulting practice at Richardson & Richardson, I adjusted to account for everything I learned. Together, Ian and I learned how to recruit guests, build a content calendar, and reduce the amount of time it took us to get through the process from set up to publication and finally promotion.

Once we cracked the code on how to use podcasting as a prospecting solution, Ian processed it out so we could do it at scale for other entrepreneurs!

Interested in learning how to take your 1/200 cold connection numbers up to 1/4?  Schedule some time with me to see how it works, and let’s get started!