After something went wrong
Provider not responding, ransomware recovery, failed audit, outage. Urgent, rare, and the searcher is comparing whoever they can reach today.
B2B
MSP marketing where the search volume is tiny and the contracts are not
An MSP arrived here with a previous agency reporting a cost per lead of forty dollars and nobody signed in nine months. The leads were downloads of a security checklist from people in other countries. The account had been optimising for a number with no relationship to the business, which is what happens when a low-volume, high-value sale is measured like a high-volume, low-value one.
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Marketing does not behave the same way here.
An MSP sells a multi-year contract to a small number of buyers who switch providers rarely and usually only after something goes wrong. Search volume is correspondingly small, so a strategy built on traffic fails, and a cost per lead figure that looks excellent is usually a sign that the leads are not buyers.
The buying trigger is an event rather than a need: a breach, an outage, an audit, a compliance requirement, a provider who stopped answering, or an acquisition. The job is to be findable and credible at an unpredictable moment rather than to generate demand.
The decision involves several people with different concerns, so the material has to satisfy a technical evaluator and a finance signatory at the same time. Vertical specialisation is the strongest lever available, because a provider who genuinely understands one regulated industry can charge more and compete against far fewer people.
How your customers actually search.
Against a compliance requirement
A framework name, a certification, an insurance requirement or a client demanding evidence. Specific, technical, and a strong signal of a real budget.
Vertically, by their own industry
IT support for a named sector. Low volume, very high intent, and the search where a specialist beats a generalist regardless of size.
How an enquiry becomes a customer.
Different intents take different routes. Serving all of them with one page is the most common structural mistake in this industry.
- A trigger event, then a shortlist assembled quickly from search, referral and whoever is already known.
- A technical evaluation and a commercial one, run by different people with different questions.
- A proposal, a transition plan, and a decision that takes months and involves the incumbent contract end date.
- Pages written about services rather than about the trigger events, so the site cannot be found by somebody in the middle of the thing that made them look.
- No vertical or size specificity anywhere, which leaves the firm competing on the broadest and least winnable terms.
- Gated content used to generate leads, which produces a lead count that has no relationship to the contract pipeline.
- Nothing addressing the transition, when the largest objection to switching provider is the fear of the switch rather than the price.
- Small, tightly targeted search campaigns on trigger and compliance terms, where the volume is low and the value per click is very high.
- Geographic and firmographic restriction, because an MSP serves a defined region and a defined size band and everything outside it is waste.
- Negatives against jobs, salaries, certifications, training, home users and consumer support, which dominate unmanaged IT accounts.
- Measuring on qualified opportunities rather than leads, because a low cost per lead in this sector is usually evidence of a problem.
- Long-horizon nurture aimed at the incumbent contract renewal date, which is the moment the buyer is actually available.
- Existing client expansion, since more services sold to a current client is the highest-margin revenue an MSP has.
What the report should lead with.
- Qualified opportunities, not leads
- Pipeline value against marketing spend, over a period long enough to mean something
- Cost per opportunity against average contract value
- Win rate against the incumbent provider
On camera
Four clients on camera, in their own words.
Four clients, four industries, one thing in common: the number moved and they said so on camera.
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It is the best long-term investment we have made in the company, full stop.
Ahmed · Business owner · SEO
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The cost per lead from organic is a fraction of what we pay on ads, and that math gets better every month.
Sandra · Founder · SEO
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People can book a table without calling during the dinner rush. My host actually thanked me.
Aaliyah · Restaurant owner · Website
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These tech geeks know the Facebook analytics and the data and the pixels and all that stuff that makes a musician’s head explode.
David · The Wankers · Social ads
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Read the postQuestions
Questions from this industry.
01 Our MSP cost per lead is very low. Why is that a problem?
Because a managed services contract is bought by a small number of people in a defined region, and there are not enough of them for a low cost per lead to be plausible. In practice a very low figure almost always means the account is generating downloads, newsletter signups or enquiries from outside the service area. Change what counts as a conversion to a qualified opportunity and the number rises sharply and starts being useful.
02 Is there enough search volume for MSP SEO to be worth it?
Not if you measure it in traffic. There is if you measure it in contracts. A handful of visits a month on terms like a compliance framework plus your city can be worth more than thousands of visits on general IT topics, because the person typing it has a budget and a deadline. The work is smaller and more targeted than a normal SEO programme.
03 Should an MSP specialise in a vertical?
It is the strongest lever available to an MSP that is not the biggest provider in its area. A firm that genuinely understands one regulated sector, its audit requirements and its software, competes against very few people and can charge accordingly. The reason most do not is that it feels like turning down work, which it is, and it is usually the right trade.
04 How long before MSP marketing produces anything?
Longer than in most sectors, because you are waiting for buyers to become available rather than persuading them. Realistically the first contracts influenced by a marketing programme land six to twelve months in, and the pipeline is a better indicator than revenue before that. Anyone promising signed contracts in the first quarter is describing a different business.