Paul Green's MSP Marketing Podcast

• Accountable to no-one: A blessing or curse?

  The podcast powered by the MSP Marketing Edge Welcome to Episode 289 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green. This week… Accountable to no-one: A blessing or curse?: There is a huge benefit of being accountable to someone, and being accountable to your team is a great way to make sure you get things done. It forces you to plan ahead, be more disciplined, and be a better team player. The free MSP marketing tactic that nearly got me arrested: This is a lesson in lateral thinking. You don’t need lots of money to market your MSP, you just need a desire to get new clients, some ideas, and a little time to implement. How this MSP built a GREAT marketing system: My guest shares the warts and all story of how she grew her MSP, and how it really took off when she put in place a proper marketing system. Paul’s Personal Peer Group: Should MSPs use WhatsApp for marketing? My answer to this question might surprise you. Accountable to no-one: A blessing or curse? The joys of being an MSP owner… complete control. Yeah you want to be always onboarding new clients and improving your tech stack and providing the best customer service. But if one week you don’t want to do those things, no one can stop you from not doing those things, because you’re the owner of the business. You’re the boss, right? Well, if right now you’re not accountable to anyone, there is a huge benefit of being accountable to someone. But who is this person you should answer to? Stick around, you’re not going to believe who I’m going to suggest. There are many reasons why someone starts their own business and I say that as someone who’s been in business for 20 years himself. People who don’t start their own business think that we do it so that we can earn more money and not have a boss. But I think those of us who’ve been doing it for more than a couple of years, which means we are going to keep doing it for a couple of decades, we know that we started our own business primarily to have control. And by that I mean control over what work we do, who we do it for and how it’s done. Most of us, I believe, start our own business because we have a deep desire to do something amazing and we want to control freak it all along the way. Sometimes when we work for someone else, we’ve had bad bosses. I know that I have, I’m looking at you, Terry, but also we’ve had good bosses. I’ve had some of those as well, fact loads of those. But escaping the boss is not always the reason why we start our own business. As I say, making more money and building an asset, something that you own, that’s the side benefit I believe of running your own business. I truly believe control is the primary driving factor for doing it and keep doing it. But nevermind all of these upsides of starting your own business and not having a boss, let’s look at the downsides as well. And I don’t really mean the fact that you for many years, worked longer hours than you ever have for probably a lower salary, that does eventually go, but it’s mostly a pain in the first few years, I don’t mean that stuff. I do mean the downsides of not having a boss. Because, and this might be hard to swallow, but there really are downsides to not having a boss. The biggest downside to not having a boss is that you are accountable to no one. Think back to when you last had a job. Someone, somewhere was in charge of you, right? You were accountable to someone in some way and forgetting all the negative impacts of that, there were positive impacts...

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• 3 wins for MSPs on LinkedIn right now

  The podcast powered by the MSP Marketing Edge Welcome to Episode 288 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green. This week… 3 wins for MSPs on LinkedIn right now: LinkedIn is the hottest place for MSPs to go prospecting, the only snag is the algorithm changes. Here are three algorithmic wins for MSPs on LinkedIn right now. Does your MSP’s marketing have personality?: It’s hard to differentiate your MSP from your competitors, but one of the ways that you can do this is by making sure there’s real personality in all of your marketing. MSPs: How to sell unwanted client contracts: Could the process of finding new clients or getting rid of unwanted ones be as simple as ordering on Amazon or selling old clothes on Vinted? My guest has developed a hassle-free way to buy and sell managed service contracts. Paul’s Personal Peer Group: A common question I get asked is how often should we post on LinkedIn. The answer may surprise you… 3 wins for MSPs on LinkedIn right now Have no doubt, LinkedIn is the hottest place for MSPs to go prospecting right now. It’s been that way for a few years and I can’t see that changing. Why? Because every possible prospect you could ever do business with is already there on LinkedIn. And you have access to the tools to connect with them, get your content in front of them, and ultimately build a relationship before they’re ready to switch MSPs. The only snag with LinkedIn is that the algorithm changes and what worked a few years ago isn’t quite as powerful today. Let me tell you three wins for MSPs on LinkedIn right now. My team and I produce a lot of content intended for use on LinkedIn, and that’s for our MSP Marketing Edge members. Now of course, it can be used across lots of different social networks, but as I just said, LinkedIn is it. It’s the easiest and most accessible platform to access decision makers, the ordinary business owners and managers that you want to reach. And a couple of times a year, we do a bit of a deep dive on what’s going on in the algorithm at the moment. Because as you know on LinkedIn, the performance of your content is very much dependent on what the algorithm is trying to reward at that time. And you can see this change over the years if you use the platform regularly, In fact, any platform. I’ve noticed in the last few months that engagement in my Facebook groups has completely fallen off a cliff. And that’s nothing I’ve done and it’s nothing to do with the members of those groups, it’s just something that someone, somewhere, some vice president at Facebook has tweaked the algorithm and if I wait a few weeks, that engagement will come back. This has happened five or six times over the last 10 years or so. But anyway, back to LinkedIn and these are some of the wins that we’ve noticed from our research which are making a difference right now. I’ve got three of them for you. Win number one is to upload a PDF carousel. PDFs are performing very well on LinkedIn. They actually look beautiful when you see them in your feed on LinkedIn and they’re kind of easy to use as well, you just upload a document. The trick is to have carousels with many pages, aim for around about 12 pages, but each page only has a tiny amount of information on it. I mean, I’m talking literally like one sentence, half a sentence on each page. The idea is that people tap through to see something that you’re trying to say and you just say it one sentence at a time. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap 12 pages or more on your PDF carousel. Win numbe...

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• Great marketing for Windows 10 end of life

  The podcast powered by the MSP Marketing Edge Welcome to Episode 287 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green. This week… Great marketing for Windows 10 end of life: There’s a hot new opportunity – Windows 10. This soon to be obsolete operating system is good for your MSP with this end of life marketing opportunity. Ask this cybersecurity question to speed past phone gatekeepers: Most MSPs really struggle to reach the person they want to speak to. This trick will help you get past the gatekeeper and start a much more productive conversation. Can you drive new revenue with DMARC?: DMARC isn’t just critical for ensuring messages reach people’s inboxes, my guest believes that DMARC can actually generate new leads and new revenue for your MSP. Paul’s Personal Peer Group: This week’s question is about getting more attention and engagement by adding personalised videos to emails. Find out which software options are available for this. Great marketing for Windows 10 end of life So you’re an MSP trying to find new clients and also increase revenue from your existing clients. Well tell me, have you heard about the hot new opportunity – Windows 10? Yeah, you heard that, right? But how could talking about an old, soon to be obsolete operating system be good for your MSP? Is this a credible way to win new clients or upsell your existing clients? Let’s find out about the Windows 10 end of life marketing opportunity. Five months. That’s what we’ve got until Windows 10 reaches its end of life and it’s been with us a decade you know, it first launched in 2015. Will you be sad to see it go or are you already a big fan of Windows 11? Anyway, that’s kind of irrelevant to this conversation, and I know that loads of MSPs still miss XP. I’m kind of joking there, although do you? But what we’re talking about here is using Windows 10 as a marketing opportunity, not only to win new clients but also to upsell your existing clients. You see anytime there’s a big enforced change in the marketplace, like a major operating system reaching its end of life, that creates an opportunity for you. And one of the key things in marketing is always putting yourself in the shoes of the person that you are trying to reach and influence. For an ordinary business owner or manager, Windows 10 reaching its end of life is going to be a bit of a shock to them in October. Not for you and me, they announced the 2025 end of life date four years ago can you believe. But what’s big in our world and surrounds us every day does not surround ordinary business owners and managers. And you and I both know that there will be many, many people running their businesses on Windows 10 with no idea that this is coming. And maybe their MSP or their break/fix outfit has told them, but they weren’t listening or they’ve ignored it and ignored it and ignored it, and then suddenly it’s October 2025 and it’s crept up on them. So what’s the best way to tackle this for prospects and for existing clients? Well, let’s look at those separately. And the easiest way to start is with the prospects. Now, I’m guessing you as an MSP have a preferred route forward at this point, in terms of what to do after Windows 10. So many MSPs will want their clients to upgrade to Windows 11. I do know a few MSPs that are still trying to hang on to Windows 10, and let’s not get into a technical conversation about that because that’s not really what this podcast is for. But I guess for your existing clients who are still on Windows 10, their routes f...

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  26:15
• How to get your MSP recommended by ChatGPT

  The podcast powered by the MSP Marketing Edge Welcome to Episode 286 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green. This week… How to get your MSP recommended by ChatGPT: Ordinary people don’t just use Google for search anymore, many searches are being done using generative AI platforms. Are you ready to find out about GEO and how to leverage it for your MSP? 3 marketing priorities for your MSP in May: Want to do something to speed up your MSP’s growth as we near the middle of the year? Here’s some marketing ideas for May. 99% of MSPs do no proactive client retention: MSPs generally hold on to clients long-term, but not necessarily by design. My guest tells us why we should build an “intentional” retention programme to help improve customer experience and drive growth.  Paul’s Personal Peer Group: Would your MSP survive without you for 3 months? Find out how you can prepare your business in the event of your absence. How to get your MSP recommended by ChatGPT I’ll admit this could be a contradiction. You need to market your MSP so you can find new clients, and no doubt you want to hear about specific tactics that are going to work for you. Now, normally my advice is to ignore shiny new things because most of the time they’re just unproven ideas and a complete waste of time. But this really is different. Have you heard about the tactic that could be huge for early adopters? Are you ready to find out about GEO, the evolution of SEO? Find out about the huge potential for MSPs, what the main advantage is and why you can’t afford to ignore this day one alert. More and more MSPs are starting to wake up to the fact that ordinary people don’t just use Google for search anymore. There are no hard stats about how many searches are being done using ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms. There are certainly lots of predictions that traditional search traffic will be down by 25% by the end of next year, but even without hard figures, there are times where a generative AI search does produce more useful results than a traditional Google search. Google is still great for looking up something quick, but generative AI is great for doing research into something complicated that you don’t really understand. And if we look at managed services from the point of view of ordinary decision makers, well that’s something complicated that they don’t really understand. Do we think it’s possible that business owners and managers are already using generative AI to research which MSPs they should switch to in their marketplace? If they’re not doing that already, then they’re certainly going to do it in the very near future. And this is where you have an opportunity to get into something right at the beginning. You see, just as the rise of search engines saw the birth of SEO, search engine optimisation, so the rise of generative AI has seen the birth of GEO, generative engine optimisation. It’s designed to help your website appear in the research results output by generative AI. Now, I’ve been reading a ton about this in the last few weeks, and there are three simple things that you can do to your website today, which will help to give the generative AI platforms answers. And if you can give them answers about your MSP, they’re much more likely to recommend you to people asking them which MSP should they look at. The first is to make your website crystal clear about what you do, how you help, and what makes you different. But crucially, this must be written in plain English. So here...

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• To grow your MSP, scrap these pointless tasks

  The podcast powered by the MSP Marketing Edge Welcome to Episode 285 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green. This week… To grow your MSP, scrap these pointless tasks: One of the curses of the MSP owner is the never-ending list of things that you need to do. Use the 80/20 rule to identify the things that make the biggest difference to the growth of your business. Don’t be scared to present that cyber security webinar: Speaking at a seminar or a webinar can be an incredibly powerful way to attract prospects, warm them up and persuade them that your business is the one they can trust. Why so many MSPs fail at LinkedIn ads: LinkedIn is an insane lead generation and prospecting tool for MSPs, but which things should you do? I’ve hunted down one of only 90 certified LinkedIn experts in the world to find out. Paul’s Personal Peer Group: There is a word that you must never, ever use when you’re talking to prospects or clients. It’s a word that must be banished because using it can damage your chances of a sale or your retention. Can you guess what it is? To grow your MSP, scrap these pointless tasks Growing an MSP can sometimes feel like a game of poker, can’t it? If each and everything you could do to grow your business was a different card in your pack, choosing which cards to play can be overwhelming. And doesn’t it seem like the hand you’re dealt, everything that’s on your to-do list, just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So how do you decide which cards to play with and which to leave? How do you make sure you can quickly identify the things your MSP can do to become a real winner? The biggest problem with being an MSP is having a massive to-do list. Just shout back to me now as you are listening to this or watching it on YouTube. How many things do you have to do today or tomorrow? I’m guessing it’s like 20, 30, 40 things. Because that’s one of the curses of the MSP owner is there is a never ending list of things that you need to do just to look after your clients, never mind actually growing your business. And the net effect of that is that you can get to the end of another day and another, and another and another, and you’ve done the work that your business needs to do, but you haven’t grown the business at all. This is a common problem for MSPs and frankly, it’s a massive problem. The goal is to make a little progress every single day, and it feels frustrating when you don’t, doesn’t it? This is why I think sometimes you need to take an 80/20 approach to your list of things that you could do, and I’m sure you’ve heard of 80/20 before. It’s also known as the Pareto principle named after Vilfredo Pareto. He was an Italian economist in the 19th century, and he was busy harvesting peas in his garden when he made an interesting observation. He noticed that some pea pods had a lot more peas in them than others did. So he counted the number of peas in each pea pod. He clearly didn’t have a lot to do that day, but he found that 80% of the peas came from only 20% of the pea pods. And what was really interesting was he then later noticed the same pattern in how wealth was distributed in Italy in his home country. He found that 20% of the people in Italy owned 80% of the land, and these 20% were very wealthy. The remaining 80% of the population owned only 20% of the land. Now, don’t get too caught up on the 80 and the 20, the actual numbers themselves, just take from this the big principle that input and output in anything rarely match. For example, if you were...

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