Veronica Green-Gott — November 1, 2019 Believe it or not, there are just two months left in 2019. It’s time to start looking ahead and planning out a new lead generation strategy for 2020.
Viewing your marketing plan for managed service providers from a future-oriented perspective opens you up to a big-picture perspective and highlights the need to stay on top of the latest lead generation trends. If everyone else is using interactive videos and position zero SEO strategies to garner leads, you’ll be left picking up the scraps.
What’s your 2020 marketing plan for MSP companies?
Interactive Content
We’ve seen Walmart use it for kids’ toys—but it’s only a matter of time before it comes to the B2B market. Interactive and experiential videos are taking shopping to the next level. Landing page videos used to be considered cutting edge. Next, your customers will be able to buy their service plan while watching a video.
Consumers are craving experiences. The best B2B lead generation strategies cater to that need and provide experiential interactions for their customers. This trend started a year or so ago with webinars and Facebook live. Netflix showed us how to take it to the next level for entertainment purposes with Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Now it’s on marketers to elevate interactive content to a business level.
Interactive content can be as simple as blog posts with responsive graphics or questions that take you to a different section. Or it can be as complex as a series of videos and buttons that lead to a customized shopping experience. No matter which route you choose, it’s important to start implementing interactive content on your website to accommodate more experiential ways of generating leads and contacts.
Personalized Marketing
Personalized marketing goes hand-in-hand with interactive content. Personalized subject lines used to be considered cutting edge. Data still shows that you can increase open rates by up to 26 percent. But if you really want to give your lead generation strategy a boost, it’s time to take it up a notch. With some clever tracking of contacts, you can personalize your entire website.
Take a moment to imagine clicking on to a website and seeing a homepage personalized for your company, name, or job title. Instead of “We do the IT. You do the business.” You would read, “We do the IT. You do the [Insert Industry Field Here].” Small ways of tailoring your website like this can greatly increase your conversion rate to that coveted one percent.
Personalized marketing is especially useful when integrated across a multi-channel campaign. Google Ads with inserted names. LinkedIn InMail that uses first names. Email with the classic personalized subject line. If you integrate personalized marketing across a multi-channel campaign, not only can you increase brand cohesiveness, but you stand out from every other email that lands in that inbox or website that that user clicks on each day.
If you want to take your marketing plan for MSP companies to the next level, you need to create an individualized content marketing experience.
New Realities
Virtual and augmented reality are becoming almost easy for your average marketer to get their hands on. Currently, virtual reality is mostly limited to the B2C market. However, this is set up to change in 2020. Virtual reality has big capabilities to create amazing event experiences. Think of how you could showcase your message at networking events and conferences if you could immerse your audience in a world of your own creation.
Architects have already started using virtual reality to showcase interior and exterior designs to business owners. With some creativity, managed service providers could use virtual reality to help business owners gain a deeper understanding of how an IT network works, what’s happening inside a server, and how a cyberattack works. Imagine diving into the world of a cyberattack. I don’t know about you, but I’d be more likely to buy a cybersecurity package after that.
The Hunt for Position Zero
Marketers use to fight tooth and nail to be the top-ranked result on Google search pages. Now, we’ve all been one-upped by Google. Position zero is the new number one. Have you ever googled a question and had a small box appear that pulls the answer to your question out of the page directly? This is position zero. Position zero was implemented to provide quick and easy answers for users who are searching via voice.
For example, I googled “ransomware explained” and this is what popped up:
You may notice that in this case, position zero was pulled out of the content of search result number one. Often, this is the case. However, there are occasional SERPs where position zero is pulled from result number two. While your page may be ranking for number one, a position zero ranking requires that your website is high-ranking and lays out the answer to the question clearly and plainly. In the example above, my query “ransomware explained” also happened to be the exact title of the position zero article.
Striving for position zero is an important trend to take note of for your marketing plan for MSP companies for 2020. If your website gets picked up for position zero, you become impossible to ignore.
If you’ve read through this list and realized that your strategy for lead generation for managed service providers feels a little outdated, that’s okay. It means there’s room for improvement. However, it’s a good idea to revamp your marketing plan for MSP companies every year. For ideas on how to bring your MSP lead generation strategy to the next level for 2020, check out our B2B Lead Generation Playbook.
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