3 mistakes MSPs commonly make with Google

[00:00:02] Speaker A: No shortcuts, maybe. But good news. Growing MSPs have this show right here, packed with real tactics, case studies, and all the inspiration you'll ever need. [00:00:15] Speaker B: Well, hi there and welcome to the show. Here's what we've got coming up for you today. Three mistakes that MSPs commonly make with Google, why you should be sending personalized videos to your clients and especially your prospects. And my special guest today reveals what does great marketing look like in a mature MSP. Welcome to episode 302, powered by MSP. [00:00:39] Speaker A: Marketingedge.Com Paul Green's MSP Marketing Podcast There. [00:00:44] Speaker B: Are three mistakes that MSPs commonly make with Google. And when I say three things, I really mean four things. Because the first is assuming that AI is now your new focus for getting search traffic. Well, it's not. It's currently sending only about 1% of. [00:01:00] Speaker C: Traffic to your website. [00:01:02] Speaker B: So the focus right now still has to be doing better on Google. But why? And how do you do this? And what are the three other things that MSPs are getting wrong? We're talking about one of the most overlooked tools in your marketing toolbox, your Google Business Profile. Now, before you skip this or zone out, do stick with me. Google Business Profile isn't just for coffee shops and hair salons. Your Google Business Profile shows up when someone googles your MSP's name. Or even if they just google MSP's My Town. It's kind of like your digital shop front and it can make you look trustworthy or not if you get it wrong. So let's look at three common mistakes that I see MSPs making and how you can fix them quickly and easily. And the first mistake is to have a boring, generic business description. If your profile says something along the lines of we offer IT support and services to businesses. [00:02:02] Speaker C: Oh, you're not alone. [00:02:03] Speaker B: Loads of MSPs do this, but it's bland and it's costing you clicks. So here's the fix. Speak like a human and not a robot. Use the first sentence to make it clear who you help and what problems you solve. So try something like we help town name businesses worry less about it with fast, friendly support, bulletproof security, and advice with zero jargon. I mean, that alone, just using that sentence that instantly sets you apart from other MSPs. Mistake number two, no photos or photos from the year 2005. Did you know that businesses with photos actually get more clicks and more calls from their Google Business Profile? You don't need to go and hire a pro photographer, just Pull out your phone, grab a team photo, maybe grab some photos of your office, your vans, if you've got vans. You could do a behind the scenes look at your setup. It could be be, you know, your help desk, someone answering a phone. It could be your security dashboard with obviously the sensitive stuff blurred out. People just want to see people, they want to see who they're dealing with. And even one new photo added, like today or this week, can boost engagement. If you added a new photo every week, or at least once or twice a month, that could be huge. And then mistake number three, letting your reviews go stale. Google business reviews are like gold dust. They're a critical step in social proof, where people are more easily influenced by seeing what other people like them are doing. Who are they buying from? Who are they trusting? If other people like them trust you, then they can trust you. That's how they feel about social proof. But lots of MSPs stop asking for reviews once they've got a handful of them. And yet, Google loves fresh reviews and so do prospects. [00:03:55] Speaker C: So here's the fix. [00:03:56] Speaker B: Make this a weekly habit. Every Friday, look back at your tickets and look at who you've helped that week. Pick one happy client, send them a one to one email. Hey, would you mind leaving us a quick Google review please? It really helps because most people want their trusted suppliers to do well and just send them the direct link to your review page to make it easy. Now one step up from this is to add an automation to your PSA which emails happy clients after this successful resolution of a ticket. And maybe you'd put some kind of condition in there so they're not being emailed and asked for reviews all the time. But perhaps every specific user at your clients is asked no more than once every three months for a Google review until they've left a review, at which point you can switch that off in their psa. However you do it over time, adding new reviews all the time really do stack up and they really do make you stand out. Look, your Google business profile doesn't need to be perfect, but it does need to be active. Avoid these common mistakes, rewrite your description, add fresh photos, and make review requests part of your ongoing routine. It's all low effort stuff, but it really pays off. [00:05:05] Speaker A: Paul Green's MSP Marketing Podcast still to. [00:05:09] Speaker B: Come, One of the best things for me about this podcast is delving inside lots of different types of MSPs to see exactly how they do their marketing. And no one marketing setup works for every MSP, right my special guest today is going to pull back the curtain to show how he makes marketing work inside his business. It's a mature MSP and they've got a really unique setup. He's going to reveal how they're set up, why they built it that way, and why, as the CEO, he stays really involved in their marketing. It's an exclusive interview and it's coming up in the next few minutes. Tell me, have you had one of these A personalized video message? While it can be quite common for vendors to send them. What about MSPs? Well, I've heard from some that are regularly recording and sending personalized one to one videos as part of their marketing. But is it worth it? Can these kind of videos really help to secure you a new client for your msp? Let's dig into the pros, the cons, and what you need to get started. So do you send these personalized videos? I'm talking the kind that you record on Vidyard or Bonjoro Bombbomb or some other platform. It's kind of just you sitting, sitting down, talking one to one to someone else through a video rather than through a text email. And when you open your mind to it, you can spot opportunities to send these every day to say hi to. [00:06:38] Speaker C: Someone who's just connected with you on. [00:06:40] Speaker B: LinkedIn, or perhaps thank a client for their patience while you cleared a problem. Or maybe show another client how to do something with a screen share. Or you could explain a proposal to a prospect or maybe even introduce your team to a new vendor. I mean, I do this, I send an individual video welcome to every single new member of the MSP marketing edge. I have a standard script and on Tuesdays every week I record several of these in a row because even though it's scripted and it's the same script for each person, I record an individual video for each person, saying their name, just mentioning them, saying hello to them, and then getting across the points I want to make. And that's why I use a scripted video. That can be quite painful, by the. [00:07:21] Speaker C: Way, that approach when you've got like 10 new members in a week. And as you can imagine, that's a. [00:07:25] Speaker B: Lot of videos to film, but it's worth it. I want each person to feel like I've taken the effort, which I have to do a specific video to them, even though it's scripted with the specific. [00:07:35] Speaker C: Points that I want to get across. [00:07:36] Speaker B: And I do think that that kind of personal attention really pays off in the long term. It shows that you care if you're willing to invest the time to do that. Now, the complete sort of opposite of that is an unscripted video that you do much more informally. It's just you sat in front of your laptop, in the office or on your phone, just talking about that's of interest to the person who's going to be watching that video. And you know, those kind of informal, almost more off the cuff videos where perhaps you're not in a great, you know, environment like a studio or your office. You know, I've done them in Starbucks, I've done them in McDonald's before. Sometimes recording something like that in that impromptu environment can be very, very powerful. And in fact, as AI generated content becomes more and more widespread, you and I, we've got to be working harder and harder to be seen as human and real. So let me give you three of many reasons why I believe MSPs like you should be sending personalized videos to prospects and clients. And reason number one is that they still have huge impact. People really do not receive personalized videos as often as you'd think. Even though the tech has been around for years, the average person might only get a couple a year. So anything that rare just stands out. Most of the platforms will create an animated GIF or gif, depending how you say that, as the thumbnail. And often it takes the first two or three seconds. So here's an idea. Do something smart like starting your video, holding up a card with the recipient's name to really catch their attention and pique their interest. Number two, you can track if they've been watched. Most of the platforms will tell you when a video has been watched. Sometimes my videos that I send out to watch seven or eight times and interpret this as the video link being passed around the business, which is great from a sales point of view. You want to know if a prospect has watched your video, right? And then number three, they help you to stand out and look real. As I said, Most MSPs aren't doing this. And anytime you realize, hang on, the vast majority isn't doing this, that is an opportunity for you to stand out. Don't do what most other MSPs are doing. Do what most other MSPs aren't doing. So are you going to start using one to one personalized videos in your business? [00:09:56] Speaker A: Paul Green's MSP Marketing Podcast still to come. [00:10:00] Speaker B: We were talking earlier about doing better on Google and here's a question. Do you often check where your MSP appears in Google search results? If you are going to do this, you need to do it the right way so you can see what ordinary people see when they Google you. I want to explain to you why it's so important to do this and the right way to do it. And I'm going to do that in. [00:10:24] Speaker C: The next few minutes. [00:10:26] Speaker B: MSPs tell me, have you heard this quote? Success leaves clues. If you want to be successful, find someone who's achieved the results that you want and copy what they do and you'll achieve the same results. That's a quote from Tony Robbins, perhaps the world's most successful motivational speaker, author and life coach. And my special gu today, sadly it's not Tony Robbins, but my special guest has successfully built a big msp and he's prepared to pull back the curtain and show you exactly what he's doing with his marketing. It's a mature business that has a very unique approach to marketing, but it's working. And this is your opportunity to see what they're doing and whether you should be doing exactly the same in your business. [00:11:12] Speaker D: Hi, I'm John Snyder. I am from a Durham, North Carolina based managed service provider and I have actually been here ever since I graduated from college 26 years ago. This is my only job I've ever known and we serve a lot of small businesses in and around our geographic area in the Durham Raleigh area and we've got about 40 folks. [00:11:37] Speaker C: Amazing. And 26 years in the same job kind of sounds nuts when you talk about it, but obviously I presume you've grown that business from just you or you know, starting very early with you, into this, this, this much bigger business and we'll explore that in a second. So thank you so much for joining us on the show, John. We are going to talk today about. [00:11:55] Speaker B: What a mature MSP with a solid. [00:11:58] Speaker C: Marketing operation actually does. And I know you're going to share with us today the four components that have made you successful within your business. I cannot wait to hear those components. [00:12:08] Speaker B: Let's deal. First of all, a little bit more into that backstory. [00:12:10] Speaker C: So 26 years, you know, what did you start when you were 10? Is that the study? [00:12:16] Speaker B: What made you start your business in. [00:12:18] Speaker C: The first place and what did that business look like? [00:12:20] Speaker D: So I'm actually not the founder. I was a tech and was in an amazing. I got an amazing opportunity to be gifted ownership and grow into this business. And my story is basically the story of most other MSP founders though. Making it up as I go, hustling hard, just trying to find a way to make a dollar and make customers happy. [00:12:43] Speaker B: Oh, okay. So you've actually. [00:12:44] Speaker C: You have literally had the Same job for 26 years, but with some promotions and job titles and stuff now. And how long have you been the CEO of the business? [00:12:55] Speaker D: Since 2009, I've pretty much been the de facto leader. I officially took the title at the end of 2020, not because of the pandemic, but because that was the year when I finally became the majority owner and bought out the founder. [00:13:10] Speaker C: Got it. Got it. So you're unfairable now. I'm concerned for you. I don't want you to have to go and find another job. It's tough out there. You know, there's. This is awful. As someone who had normal jobs up till he was 30, and I've worked for myself or run my own businesses for 20 years, but I couldn't imagine doing anything else and certainly not going back and getting a job. I think that would be way too tough to actually go and work for someone else and be responsible to someone else. [00:13:32] Speaker B: So let's talk about your marketing. So you said you've got around about 40. [00:13:36] Speaker C: 40 people. [00:13:38] Speaker B: What percentage of your staff? Or perhaps just talk us through without giving away anything confidential or commercially sensitive, of course. What numbers of people have you got. [00:13:47] Speaker C: In terms of generating leads, warming those leads up, and getting salespeople out in front of those leads? [00:13:54] Speaker D: Well, first, you can ask me anything, and everyone can ask me anything. I'm incredibly transparent, and nothing I consider is too sensitive in this community. We always thrive when we're sharing and collaborating together, because we're all in this together. My marketing team consists of four people, including myself. I see myself even though I wear the CEO hat, I'm the marketing director, and my team is made up of a brand manager, a product marketing manager, and a graphic designer. And the four of us are really the beating heart of our marketing talent and team. [00:14:32] Speaker B: And so why those specific people? [00:14:35] Speaker C: And what do each of those specific people actually do? [00:14:38] Speaker D: So, one, we all collaborate really, really well together, and so all of us do different things. An idea can come from any one of us, and the finishing editorial product can come from any one of us. But we feel that those roles are really key. You need someone thinking about your brand, thinking about how people, and this includes future employees as well as future customers. Think about your brand. Think about you as a company and as a whole. As a greater whole, you need someone else thinking about your products. How do they stand out? How do they differentiate? How do they stack up against your competitors. How do they sound in the heads of your prospects and your existing customers? And then the graphic designer role here is pretty much our, our like tool expert, a tremendous amount of talent with our graphic designer. But this person does the video editing work, does the web design, you name it and I'm happy naming names too. Emily is our brand manager, Susanna is our product marketing manager and Gabby is our graphic designer. [00:15:45] Speaker C: Yeah and it's amazing to hear that you've got an in house marketing team because that is quite rare for a lot of MSPs of your size that they will typically go and hire an agency to do all of this. I think you know the we have. [00:15:57] Speaker D: And we still have an agency. I want to make sure it's also clear even though we have an in house team, there's always space and there should always be space in your budget for vendors. Vendors bring a really great perspective. They bring interesting information that's at an edge of the marketing landscape that an in house team may not have and we interplay off each other really well. [00:16:23] Speaker B: So how did you get to this position, John? [00:16:26] Speaker C: So you've got these kind of unique people in these roles. You've got a marketing agency that's working with you as well. And I know from us chatting just before the interview that you know from a marketing point of view you're successful, you're bringing in new people, you've got a machine. And that's the goal for any MSP, is to get, is to build a machine that just hums and operates and brings in new marketing qualified leads as we call them. So you've actually got good people, your salespeople to go and talk to. [00:16:52] Speaker B: How did you get to this point? [00:16:55] Speaker C: What was the, you know, were you sat there with that pain of we just don't have enough leads or no one knows who we are or our brand's poor. [00:17:02] Speaker B: I'm kind of interested in the decisions. [00:17:04] Speaker C: That you've made along the way because I think those decisions could be quite instructive to other MSPs who may be facing similar problems. [00:17:11] Speaker D: Absolutely. Well, there's literally thousands of decisions that have been made. A few stand out though. The very first decision that we made was really emphasizing talent. So a lot of times when you think about starting marketing or doing marketing, you're just thinking about I need to get somebody, you know and you're, if you're a typical MSP owner or decision maker, we have a tendency to just throw somebody at it and you know, what's the harm? We'll figure it out as we go. We got very fortunate early on that we found someone who had real talent and we've also hired someone who did not have talent. And the stark contrast there was key. When you're working with someone with talent, it is night and day. And that's true of a vendor. You gotta have a connection with that vendor and feel like they're really bringing that creative spark that, oh, wow, I hadn't thought about that. Or wow, that's a really great way to phrase that or present that in an image. You gotta be dazzled. If you're not dazzled, your customers aren't gonna be dazzled. So you gotta, you gotta really be insistent that whoever you bring on has some, something special. And more importantly, because I'm involved in marketing, I want to see that I get inspired working with that person, working with that vendor. I want to feel more energized after the conversation and not depleted. So if you've got that positive energy loop, you've got a really great idea and creativity going on with that person. You guys are just, just sparks of creativity flying off every time you come in contact. That's what you have to seek. If you don't have it with your vendor, keep looking. If you don't have it with an in house person, keep looking. It's really important. [00:18:58] Speaker C: Yeah, more so in marketing, I think, than almost anything else because it is difficult and it is, it's very much about forming human connections with other humans. And it worries me. I love AI. I love all the new AI tools that are coming in. But it worries me. And if I just before this interview I was talking to an MSP who's using AI really extensively for his marketing. And I can see that it's starting to lose the human touch, you know, it's starting to become, you know, it's pretty obvious it's written by AI and there's, there's a, you know, hopefully he'll be able to pull that back. But yes, I agree with you completely. Having that human someone I can spark off is so important, whether it's external or internal. [00:19:37] Speaker B: I'm curious why you have stayed in the marketing team. [00:19:40] Speaker C: So Obviously you're the CEO, you've got 40 people there, there's, there's a lot of work to be done. I'm sure it's an efficient machine. But you come from a tech background, you're not from a marketing background. What is it about the marketing that's, that's kept you as part of that team? [00:19:54] Speaker D: How else does anyone know anything about what we do, who we are, the kind of topics we want our customers to be inquisitive about and to be more informed about? So I feel like not being in marketing as a CEO is like being a wanting to be a rock star but refusing any of the audio visual equipment. You just want to go up on stage and use your own, I guess, lung power to get attention. Good luck with that. You're never going to play at a big venue. You're always going to be in these small, intimate gatherings and if that's your vibe, awesome, go be that guy. But if you want to amplify, you want people humming to your tune, you have to be in marketing as a CEO. Your thoughts, your leadership, your guidance has to be a through line with marketing. [00:20:47] Speaker C: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. John, let's wrap this up. And my final question to you would be, Obviously you've spent 26 years in that business. You've seen it from what I guess was a very small business up to what it is today. If you were talking to, let's take the average MSP that's either listening to this podcast or watching this on YouTube. And if you were the business owner, there's you perhaps and two or three staff. You know, you're sort of, maybe in your first five, five, six years or so, you're ambitious, but you're also feeling, you know, like marketing is just too big and there's too many things to do. [00:21:21] Speaker B: Where would you recommend someone get started. [00:21:23] Speaker C: And where would you recommend that they focus their time and their attention? [00:21:27] Speaker D: The talent piece we've covered. Second thing I think is really important is you sit down and you come up with what your strategy is. Who are you going after? What are you going to say? Just pick one or two very short phrases that are going to be your themes. What's your, what channels are you going to put your energy into? Are you going to focus on your website, social media channels, et cetera? Sit down and create that strategy. Then third step, make a budget. Hold yourself to which tools, how much you're going to spend on ads, all that stuff. Get that budget and then get every other decision maker in your team to look at that budget, talk about it with you, and have buy in on it so everyone understands what the strategy is and what we're going to spend and then you execute. And that's something I want to just hold on to for just real one core second, because I think this is a differentiator for us. My marketing team works off of tickets Just like everyone else here. We have Halo psa. Every single blog article, graphic design, website update. Whatever we're going to do, we ticketize it. Everyone in the company sees marketing as a peer because marketing is working tickets just like everyone else here. And I think that's a critical thing. We're an msp, we're technology solution providers. We need everyone here to look similar and act similar and work similar. That brings us all together and makes it so marketing isn't other. You do those things, you have the right talent, you really get that strategy in place with the budget, get that leadership buy in and then you execute like everyone should at an MSP with tickets. And in your PSA system, you're cooking with gas. [00:23:05] Speaker C: Wow. Do you know, I, I'm sure you're not the only person doing this, but you're the first person I've personally spoken to who's using their PSA as, as a marketing tool. Which is, which is just insane and actually makes sense when you talk about it that way because you' avoiding any disconnect between the people who are delivering the work and the people who are bringing in that work. Because ultimately everyone's just part of the same team, Right? [00:23:26] Speaker D: Exactly. And that when everyone's using similar tools, it really does make everybody feel like they're on the same team. It's one of those subtle unspoken thing that just keeps everybody in alignment. [00:23:38] Speaker C: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. [00:23:39] Speaker B: John, you've been so generous taking us inside your business and yet I feel like we've only captured about half a. [00:23:45] Speaker C: Percent of what we could do. So please do come back on the show next year. Come and tell us more about what you're doing with your marketing. It would be great to have you back on. [00:23:52] Speaker B: And just for those MSPs who are. [00:23:54] Speaker C: Listening or watching this on YouTube who think, oh, this is a smart guy, I'd love to just talk to him for whatever reason. [00:24:00] Speaker B: What's the best way to get ahold of you? [00:24:02] Speaker D: So, two great ways to get ahold of me. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm John Snyder Net friends. You can also email [email protected] both ways are great and I'd be delighted to hear from anybody. [00:24:17] Speaker A: Paul Green's MSP Marketing podcast, Paul's personal peer group. [00:24:22] Speaker B: Right, then let's get going with another one of your questions. Producer James, what have we got today? Well, today Paul, a question from Dane in New Hampshire. His MSP there is three years old, doing well, but he's concerned about his visibility online. His question is how do I see my true search position in Google? Well, the problem with just googling it support your town in your normal browser is that it doesn't give you a true sense of where your MSP actually appears in search results. Because Google personalizes the search results you see based on the actions you take. So if you often Google the phrase IT support your town and you click on your website, then over time your website will move up in the search results, but this will only be for you. Everyone else will see it in the original position where it appears for someone doing a cold search for that phrase. So if you want to see what that is and an accurate set of search results that other people see, then always do that search in incognito. It really is as simple as that. And perhaps it's something that you should be doing on a monthly basis just to check how well you're performing for that very simple search phrase it support your town. Now, to submit your own question, email me, go to mspmarketingedge.com and head to the Contact Us page. [00:25:48] Speaker A: Coming up, Coming up Next week Next. [00:25:50] Speaker B: Week we're going to do a bit of a deep dive about how how you can market to accountants CPAs. Most MSPs would love to have more accountancy clients, so let's look at why they switch MSPs, what they want from you, and how to grab their attention. [00:26:06] Speaker A: For MSPs around the world. Around the World the MSP Marketing Podcast with Paul Green.