How to Communicate a Service Change in Your MSP via Marketing

Some people love change but others struggle to accept it, implement it, and communicate it.

Which bucket do you fall in? Now how about your clients?

If you’re a long-time MSP, you’ve likely gone through the need to change your cybersecurity or managed services offering in many ways.

Whether you’re working to get prices to match inflation, have changed what’s covered or not covered, or need to implement a new process, marketing can help you communicate this change in a way that benefits your client-to-company relationship.

Let’s start with your largest marketing platform. Your website is often your first line of communication with your clients on a large scale. If you have a “Submit a Ticket” form on your site then some of your regular clients may be there as frequently as they need helpdesk.

You have several options here to get the word out about your service changes.

• Pop-up notices – These can be a good in-your-face option to ensure visitors see and acknowledge that upcoming change. These can be set to only display once per visitor IP so you don’t have to worry about harassing the same people over and over again with your “change of services” pop-up.
• PR releases – These can be a good spot to store notices about company changes. This is a less invasive way of serving info but may miss the mark on getting the word out.
• Display bars – Another great way to make the information noticeable without obstructing navigation. Just throw up a brightly colored bar at the top of the site with a link to more information.
• Lastly, be sure to update any information on delivery on the main page of the service offering itself so that future prospects get accurate information.

Is your CRM up-to-date and fully tagged with your current contact list? Awesome! (You’d be surprised how often this is not the case).

Export this list to your marketing company and request an email blast.

A targeted email blast gets your notice directly into the inboxes of those contacts that are impacted most.

Change in billing? Send it to your accounting contact.

Change in service process? Send it to end users.

Change in covered services or pricing? Send it to key decision-makers.

You have the opportunity to create a very specific outreach that helps them feel informed, educated, and included in your changes.

Conventional mail can feel dead to some but it does have a personal touch. If you feel that the change you’re implementing needs this level of personalization, then by all means, let your marketing team work on a letter template that can be uniquely customized to your outreach efforts. Fair warning, it might get tossed, but it also might feel more real than email.

If you are a medium to large MSP and working with 30+ employees, Powerpoint training might be beneficial. You can create this presentation to suit your employees, customers, or both.

A branded Powerpoint can convey exactly the changes that are implemented, the timeline, and the impact it will have.

Providing training for your team, especially client-facing representatives like vCIOs, TAMs, or vCISOs, ensures that they use the same language throughout. This reduces confusion and creates more streamlined implementation of the update.

Ready to update your services? Get an action plan in place!

Want help planning this type of campaign? Contact one of our team.