Email is going nowhere – especially not for marketing. It is an excellent tool for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to seek engagement from their audience, but it can also help create brand awareness, no matter what part of the buyer’s journey your customer is in. Email marketing has become a foundation of modern marketing efforts by gaining prominence in MSP marketing. But what is MSP marketing in the context of email marketing? There are several pros and cons to keep in mind before you dive in.
What is email marketing, and when should you use it
Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that sends commercial messages to your target audience via email. These messages usually include promotional content, advertisements, company updates, and other relevant content. It’s used to build relationships with current and potential clients and can increase brand awareness, drive sales and engage customers when done correctly.
As an MSP marketing agency, we know a thing or two about email marketing. The best part? MSPs can use email marketing at any stage of the buyer’s journey. For example, you can use it to welcome new subscribers, nurture leads, promote services, announce special offers, gather feedback, or re-engage inactive subscribers. By delivering timely, relevant, and valuable content to your subscribers’ inboxes, you can stay at the forefront of their minds when they’re looking for an MSP.
Pros of email marketing
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways for MSPs to find an efficient tool to connect with prospects, nurture leads, and create lasting client relationships. In short, the benefits of email marketing include being cost-effective, having targeted reach, brand awareness, measuring analytics, automation, and educational content.
Cost-effective communication with your target audience
To significantly improve your marketing efforts as an MSP, choosing email as a cost-effective choice can positively impact your business. Unlike traditional marketing channels like print or television advertising, the initial set-up costs for email marketing campaigns are usually low. With affordable pricing plans catering to businesses of all sizes, an email marketing campaign can work with the tightest budgets. This accessibility allows you to allocate resources efficiently and direct funds to other business areas.
Targeted reach based on customer demographics, interests and behaviours
A targeted approach through MSP email marketing allows you to produce relevant and personalised content for specific parts of your audience, thus increasing engagement and driving conversions. By segmenting email lists, you can collect data from your subscribers on factors such as age, gender, location, job title, and company size. Tailor your messaging to resonate with each target group’s characteristics and preferences. In addition to this, email marketing enables you to target based on interests and behaviours. For example, if you specialise in cybersecurity, you could identify factors that interest your audience in data protection, threat intelligence, or compliance regulations. Capturing your audience’s attention is the foundation of a great email marketing campaign.
Changes to email marketing protocols such as DKIM and SPF
Google and Yahoo have implemented new rules related to email marketing. All senders need to follow a basic set of requirements depending on the volume of the mail and the type of mail. These include:
- Making it easy to unsubscribe
- Be clear that the email is from you using authentication. Set up SPF (Sender Policy Framework) or DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) email authentication for your domain.
- Ensure the email you send is wanted.
Setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is essential for maintaining trustworthiness with your recipients. In a world where cybersecurity threats are ever-evolving, adhering to these standards will enhance your email security and deliverability and reputation. Failure to keep up with these changes could result in email delivery issues, spam filtering and reputational damage to your business.
Enhancing brand awareness and loyalty through consistent and strategic emailing
If you want to maintain regular communication with your target audience, email marketing is for you. Producing engaging and valuable content directly to your subscriber’s inboxes can ensure you stay front and centre in their minds, increasing brand awareness. Whether you’re sharing industry insights, company news, educational resources or discounts, each email increases your brand identity and expertise in the IT field.
Measuring the effectiveness of campaigns through tools and metrics
Email marketing provides an array of tools and metrics to track your campaigns’ effectiveness. Analytics lets you gain valuable insights and make data-driven decisions to maximise your email marketing strategy. These metrics and analytics include open, clickthrough, and conversion rates. By monitoring them, you can assess their effectiveness and whether you’ve successfully captured the attention of your subscribers. Have your subscribers visited your website, downloaded a resource or booked a call? Understanding how they interact with your emails will improve your engagement and conversion rates.
Automation to create personalised and targeted email campaigns at scale
Creating email campaigns saves time in the long run. Bulk-creating weekly emails for predefined workflows and sequences frees up valuable time and resources while ensuring consistent and useful communication with potential clients. Tasks such as scheduling emails, creating lists, and sending follow-up messages can be automated to allow more time for important tasks like content creation, performance analysis, and refining marketing strategies.
Educational content through valuable insights and more
Email marketing provides education opportunities by enabling you to deliver informative content directly to your target audience’s inbox. Create and share educational resources such as eBooks, guides, case studies, whitepapers and blog posts that address trends, common challenges and developments within the IT industry. Offering practical solutions and advice positions you as a trusted authority against other MSPs.
Cons of email marketing
While email marketing offers numerous pros for MSPs, it doesn’t lack challenges or drawbacks. From competition to time management, being aware of these cons will allow you to have a successful campaign should you try this marketing strategy.
Competition for the attention of your subscribers
Competition could pose a challenge if you’re considering writing emails as a part of your chosen marketing strategy. As the world has grown more digital, more and more businesses across industries are recognising the value of email marketing as an efficient and cost-effective way to engage with their audience. As a result, you might face harsh competition to grab the attention in your subscriber’s inboxes. The average office worker receives dozens, if not hundreds, of emails daily, limiting their attention spans. You must compete with various emails from other businesses, including your competitors. However, with detailed planning and a good strategy, you can overcome these challenges and leverage email marketing to build relationships, increase engagement and grow your business.
You could potentially end up in a spam folder.
Spam damages the sender’s reputation and undermines the effectiveness of legitimate email marketing efforts. For your MSP, being labelled as spam could damage your brand image, reduce deliverability rates and cause potential legal issues. You must tread carefully to ensure your subscribers perceive your email campaigns as legitimate and valuable. Otherwise, you could make it more difficult to engage with them in the future. That being said, by paying attention to best practices, ethical standards and compliance with regulations, you can mitigate the risks associated with spam and create effective email campaigns for your audience.
Email campaigns take time to create
Although automation is a massive benefit to email marketing, email campaigns can still take time to create. As you juggle various responsibilities such as client management, technical support and business development, finding the time to plan, build and manage emails can become challenging. Creating these emails requires considerations such as target audience, content creation, messaging, timing and frequency. However, hiring an MSP marketing agency can help ease the workload.
So, should you invest in email marketing?
Email marketing is an amazing tool, especially when communicating with an opted-in list. When your target audience has willingly subscribed to see emails, they’ve already demonstrated an interest in your company and services. Using an opt-in list shows a level of trust and engagement from your potential clients.
On the other hand, sending cold emails to a purchased list where recipients have not consented to receive the emails can lead to negative consequences. Purchased lists often use outdated email addresses, thus resulting in low engagement and high bounce rates. Not to mention, recipients who see the email will most likely perceive it as spam, damaging your reputation and trust.
If you want to use emails effectively, engaging with an opted-in audience and building relationships is the most ethical way. Not only does sending cold emails to purchased lists risk legal consequences, but it also damages trust. Focus on building relationships with those who are interested.
What is MSP email marketing, and how to get started
- Define your goals – You need clear goals and objectives before getting started. Whether improving client retention, boosting brand awareness, or generating leads, clearly understanding what you want to achieve will benefit you from this marketing strategy.
- Build a relevant email list – Collect email addresses from existing clients, prospects, website visitors, and other relevant sources. Do not use a purchased list! Secure proper consent from subscribers to ensure your email list complies with data protection regulations.
- Create engaging content – Consider your audience’s challenges, interests, and preferences when creating content. For example, you could include educational articles, industry insights, case studies, promotions, and events.
- Design visually appealing emails – Make sure they look good and are mobile-responsive. Use captivating subject lines and clear CTAs (Calls to Action) to encourage your subscribers to open, read and engage with your emails.
- Monitor results – Track performance metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of email campaigns. You can also do this to identify any trends and change your strategy if needed.
Invest in a CRM like Hubspot
Investing in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is an excellent option for MSPs seeking to optimise email marketing efforts. A CRM centralises customer data and allows you to create segmented lists based on interests and intentions. Using a CRM like HubSpot, you can easily and efficiently segment out email lists and target communications towards different audience segments precisely. For example, you could create segments based on clients’ industries and service needs, ensuring each email they receive is relevant to them and drives meaningful interactions.
Additionally, investing in a CRM lets you gain priceless insights into your customers’ behaviour and preferences. The detailed analytics and reporting features give you actionable insights into email performance metrics like open, clickthrough, and conversion rates. This data lets you identify trends, track campaign effectiveness, and update strategies to maximise engagement and results.
Using HubSpot’s automation capabilities, you can send welcome emails to new subscribers or even follow-up emails based on user interactions. Doing so will help you save time and focus on more important daily tasks within your business.
Overall, make sure to keep track of four crucial metrics to monitor the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign. These are:
Deliverability – Measures the rate at which emails reach your subscriber’s inboxes.
Open rate – The percentage of people that open your email.
Clickthrough rate (CTR) – The percentage of people that click on your CTAs.
Unsubscribe – Measures the number of subscribers unsubscribe from your email list once they have received and opened your email.
How xpandly can help with MSP email marketing
Ready to take your marketing to the next level? We’re an MSP marketing agency with 15 years of experience in technology environments. Our team, founded by technology growth experts, specialises in crafting targeted email campaigns that drive engagement, nurture leads and increase client retention. Let us help you leverage the power of MSP email marketing to grow your business.
Not only do we understand that success in the technology landscape requires a comprehensive understanding of the market, but we also have a solid grasp of future trends, enabling us to create innovative and effective go-to-market strategies for our clients.
Get in touch now to schedule a consultation and create a powerful MSP email marketing strategy!