How to Market Your MSP: A Simple Beginner’s Journey

Marketing your MSP isn’t about gimmicks or chasing every new channel. It’s about clearly defining who you serve, what you solve, and consistently showing up with a simple, repeatable plan that builds trust and conversations over time. Get the basics right, stay focused for 90 days, and you can turn referrals into a predictable pipeline without burning out.

Marketing your MSP means helping the right companies discover you, understand you, and trust you enough to talk to sales or book that meeting. It is how you move from “we only grow through referrals” to a steady pipeline of good fit clients.

Think about the Super Bowl. The touchdown gets all the attention, but it only happens because of all the plays that came before it. Sales is the touchdown. MSP marketing is the playbook that gets you down the field.

Hi, I am Matt, founder of Tactics Marketing. I owned and sold an MSP, and I have bought pretty much every “magic” marketing system out there. Most of them did not work. Some were bad systems, but most of the time I just did not have the bandwidth to run them. This guide is the simple version I wish I had when I was still in the trenches.

If you are asking how to market your MSP, or how to market your MSP business without losing your mind or your weekends, this is for you.

What MSP marketing really is

MSP marketing is everything you do to get ideal clients to notice you, believe you can help, and raise their hand. That includes your website, your emails, your LinkedIn activity, your offers, and your follow up. Marketing creates demand and opportunities. Sales turns those opportunities into contracts.

If you want the full classroom version of MSP marketing, including deeper strategy and channels, I break that down in more detail in our MSP marketing guide.

Think of a classic movie like “Rocky.” The final fight is the sales moment. All the training scenes, the music, the buildup, and even the trash talk are marketing. Without that build up, the final fight would not matter much to anyone watching. Your MSP is the same way. If you only focus on quotes and proposals, and skip the trust building and education, you are always playing from behind.

Before you start: a few basics you cannot skip

Before you worry about tools or ads, you need three simple things in place. These do not require a big budget, but they do require clear thinking.

1. Pick who you really want as clients

Your MSP cannot be “everything IT for everyone.” The best beginner MSP marketing starts with a clear target.

Choose a type of business that is a great fit for your services. That might be by size, by industry, or by region. A few examples:

• 20 to 200 user professional services firms in your metro area
• Multi location retail or franchise groups within your state
• Healthcare clinics that need strict compliance and security
• Be creative - anything that people identify strongly with and sets them apart- it could be that you are the #1 IT company for Cheeshead Fans

Clear targeting makes your message sharper and your marketing cheaper. It is like choosing a bowling lane with bumpers. You are going to hit more pins when your throws stay in one lane.

You might be thinking, "I'd take a lead from anyone right now just to get some new business." While that's understandable, effective marketing requires specificity. Ask yourself: would you rather buy new car tires from a tire store or a general big-box retailer? If you're not a specialist, you're a generalist. And if you're a generalist, you can only compete on price—which is a precarious position for any business.

2. Get clear on your core offer and promise

Your offer is what you want people to buy first. For MSPs, that might be a managed services bundle, a cybersecurity package, or co managed IT.

Keep it simple. One or two main offers is plenty for a beginner. Strong offers sound like this:

• We keep your systems up, your people working, and your IT costs predictable.
• We give in house IT teams their nights and weekends back with co managed IT support.

If your offer and message feel fuzzy, this is a good time to tighten your brand. You can DIY this, or you can lean on a partner who does it all day. At Tactics Marketing, we help MSPs do that through our branding and messaging services.

3. Set one simple goal

For your first 90 days, set one main marketing goal. Keep it easy to track.

For example:

• Book 5 qualified discovery calls in the next 90 days.
• Add 10 good fit contacts to my pipeline list every month.

Trying to “add 1 million in MRR” out of the gate is like deciding you want to go from couch to the NBA in a summer. Let us just get some consistent shots up first.

Your first 90 days marketing your MSP

When MSP owners ask me how to market an MSP, this is the basic 90 day path I walk them through. You do not need to become a marketer. You just need to follow the steps.

1. Fix the basics so people can understand you

For the first month, your goal is simple. Make it easy for a stranger to figure out who you serve, what you do, and how to talk to you.

Start with your website:

• On your home page, can a new visitor tell within five seconds what problems you solve and for whom? If not, rewrite your hero section so it says the basics in clear language.
• Add a clear call to action on your key pages. Something like “Book a 20 minute consult” that links to your calendar.

Check your online presence:

• Update your Google Business Profile with current info, services, and a short description that includes phrases like “managed IT services” and “IT Support” in your region.
• Clean up your LinkedIn company page and your personal profile. Make sure your headline says what you do for clients, not just your job title.

If you want a deeper dive on digital foundations, we put together a separate MSP digital marketing guide that walks through websites, SEO, and channels in more detail.

Think of this phase like the first half of a good heist movie. Before anyone cracks a safe, they get the crew together, scout the building, and check the gear. Weeks 1 to 4 are your gear check. You are making sure your online presence is ready before you start driving people to it.

2. Launch one simple campaign

In month two, you launch your first real MSP marketing campaign. Pick one main channel. Not three. One.

For most MSPs, the fastest path is a mix of email and LinkedIn to a small, focused list.

Here is a simple version:

• Build a list of 50 to 100 companies that fit your target, for example local accounting firms with 20 to 200 staff.
• Find the main contact for IT decisions, such as the owner, CFO, or head of operations.
• Send a short, plain text email that talks about one problem, one promise, and one next step.

A basic email frame:

1. Call out the problem: “Many firms like yours struggle with surprise outages and unpredictable IT bills.”
2. Make a clear promise: “We help firms keep systems stable and IT costs flat, so your team can bill more and stress less.”
3. Offer a small, low risk next step: “If that sounds helpful, I can walk you through a quick 15 minute review of your current setup. Want me to send more details?”

Support this with LinkedIn:

• Connect with those same people.
• Post one or two times a week about simple, real issues you solve. For example, “what happened when a client moved from break fix to a managed plan,” or “three tickets we see every Monday morning and how to prevent them.”

This is how you start MSP marketing for beginners without needing a giant list or complex funnel. You are getting in front of the right people with a clear offer and a human tone.

If you know you want to do more with SEO, ads, and content but do not have time to run it all yourself, this is where a team like ours can plug in. That is what our MSP digital marketing services are built to handle.

3. Measure, adjust, and keep going

In month three, you look at what happened and make smart tweaks.

Track a few simple numbers:

• How many emails did you send
• How many real replies did you get
• How many calls or meetings did you book
• How many moved into proposal or closed deals

You do not need a giant dashboard. A spreadsheet or CRM is fine. The point is to see if your message is landing.

If you got zero replies, do not panic. Look at three areas:

• Is your list actually a good fit
• Is your offer clear and specific enough
• Is your ask too big

For beginners, asking for a quick call works better than “schedule a full strategy session.”

If you are getting replies but not meetings, tighten the language in your follow up. If you are getting meetings but no deals, that is more of a sales and offer issue than a marketing one.

This is also a good time to step back and think about your bigger growth goals. If you want help mapping marketing to revenue and planning next steps, our growth consulting for MSPs can save you a lot of expensive trial and error.

Beginner friendly MSP marketing tips that work

Now let us dig into a few MSP marketing strategies that fit a simple journey. These are the things I see work again and again for smaller MSPs who are just getting serious about how to market an MSP.

1. Referrals, but with structure

Referral marketing is still one of the best MSP marketing tips. The problem is that most owners treat it like a wish, not a system.

Ask happy clients to introduce you to one or two other businesses like theirs, and make it easy for them to do it.

Some ways to make this work:

• At the end of a successful project or quarter, send a short thank you email and ask “if there is one other business owner you think we should meet, would you mind introducing us”
• Give clients a simple way to introduce you, such as a short description of who you help and what you do

Think of “The Avengers.” One hero can do some damage. When they call in a couple more, everything changes. Each happy client is a hero who can pull one or two more into your world.

2. Simple email plus LinkedIn, every week

We talked about a starter campaign earlier. The real secret is consistency.

Here is how MSP marketing looks in practice with email and LinkedIn:

• Every week, send a small batch of new outreach emails to good fit companies
• Every week, post something useful on LinkedIn that speaks to your target market
• Every week, follow up with people who opened or replied

Keep the content focused on real problems:

• Downtime and lost productivity
• Surprise IT bills
• Security worries and compliance headaches
• Internal IT teams that are stretched too thin

This is not about spamming people. It is about being the MSP that shows up with clear, useful insight at a steady pace, not a random blast once a quarter when things are slow.

For a more advanced view of digital channels to layer in over time, you can bookmark our MSP digital marketing article for later.

3. Basic content that answers real buyer questions

Content marketing for MSPs does not have to mean a huge blog library. To start, think about the top five questions you hear in sales calls, and answer them in short articles or videos.

Examples:

• How much does managed IT cost for a 50 person company
• What is the difference between co managed IT and a full MSP
• How long does it take to switch MSPs

Write clear answers on your site. Use everyday language your buyers use, not vendor jargon. Content like this helps you show up for real search queries and gives you something useful to send in follow ups.

It is like the training montage in a sports movie. None of the individual scenes wins the game on its own, but together they get the player ready. Each small piece of content is a rep that builds trust and authority over time.

Common mistakes I see MSPs make in their first marketing journey

After working with a lot of MSPs, I see the same beginner mistakes over and over.

First, trying to do everything at once. You sign up for tools, start a podcast, dabble in ads, send a few emails, then burn out. Pick one main path for now. That is why this guide focuses on a simple 90 day plan.

Second, copying big competitor messaging. Many MSP sites look like they were written from the same template. Safe, vague, forgettable. You will do better speaking in your own voice and talking about real client stories.

Third, quitting too early. A lot of MSP owners try outreach or content for a few weeks, see nothing huge, and give up. Most real marketing results show up after consistent effort, not after week two.

Fourth, ignoring alignment between marketing and sales. If your marketing promises the moon, but your sales calls feel flat, people will walk away. Make sure what you say in your emails and on your site matches what you deliver and how you sell.

When it makes sense to get help

You can get your first 90 days of MSP marketing going on your own, especially with a simple plan. At some point, you may hit a ceiling.

Common signs you should bring in help:

• You know what to do next, but do not have the time or team to do it
• You are not sure which channels to invest in next and you do not want to waste a year guessing
• You want to tighten your brand, offers, and sales process so marketing actually leads to revenue

That is exactly why I built Tactics Marketing the way I did. We know MSP owners are busy and pulled in ten directions. You need someone who can do the lifting, not just hand you another “system.”

If you want help clarifying your message, check out our branding services. If you want a team to run campaigns with you, look at our digital marketing for MSPs. If you need a bigger growth plan, our growth consulting ties it all together.

Learning how to market your MSP does not mean becoming a full time marketer. It means putting a simple, honest plan in place and sticking with it.

If all you do after reading this is pick a target, tighten your offer, and run one small outreach campaign for the next 90 days, you will be ahead of most MSPs in your market.

And if you want a partner who has sat in your chair, built an MSP, and now lives and breathes this stuff, you know where to find me.

FAQs

1. What is MSP marketing?

MSP marketing is everything you do to help ideal companies discover you, understand what you do, and trust you enough to start a conversation. It includes your positioning, website, content, email outreach, LinkedIn activity, referrals, and follow-up. Sales is what turns those conversations into signed contracts.

2. How is MSP marketing different from general IT marketing?

MSP marketing focuses on long-term, recurring relationships, not one-off IT projects. It emphasizes trust, reliability, and outcomes like uptime, security, and predictable costs. Unlike general IT marketing, MSP marketing must support longer buying cycles and multiple decision-makers.

3. What should an MSP do first before running ads or SEO?

Get the basics clear: who you serve, what you offer, and what action you want visitors to take. Your homepage should communicate those answers in seconds, and your site should have a simple CTA like “Book a 20-minute consult.” Then make sure your Google Business Profile and LinkedIn presence match that same message.

4. What’s a good core offer for a beginner MSP marketing plan?

A simple offer is one that’s easy to repeat and easy to buy first, such as managed IT services, cybersecurity-focused managed services, or co-managed IT. Keep it to one or two primary offers, and describe the outcome in plain language like uptime, predictable costs, and reduced risk.