MSPs: 7 Best reasons to offer SEO copywriting services to your existing IT clients

For small and medium businesses (SMBs), MSPs are one of their most trusted and important partners. The services provided by MSPs, like hardware and software installation and maintenance and managed security services, lend themselves to long-term relationships with existing clients. Those relationships can be leveraged by offering a more robust range of services, and SEO copywriting is among the most valuable marketing services for the average SMB.

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Landing new clients as an MSP is becoming more difficult. While Datto’s 2021 State of the MSP Report found that 47 percent of MSPs saw a slight increase in revenue as a result of COVID-19, nearly one-fifth saw a decrease in revenue. What’s more, competition was reported as the overall biggest challenge facing MSPs.

What does this mean for MSPs that want to grow their businesses in the years ahead? The post-pandemic landscape is increasingly competitive, and IT companies that can offer more value to their existing clients while successfully competing for new clients will see the most growth. MSPs offering only traditional hardware and software sales, without augmenting their offering, will face stiffer competition from those who can round out their offfering and become indispensable to their clients.

Here are 7 reasons why MSPs should be offering SEO copywriting services to their existing clients.

1. Say yes to your clients

Every time a client comes to you with a request for SEO copywriting services and you refer them elsewhere, you’re leaving money on the table. The reason they came to you rather than going directly to an agency indicates that they trust your business to handle this important component of marketing on their behalf.

There is no shortage of marketing agencies offering SEO copywriting services out there, and not all offer high-quality services. For clients, it can be challenging to discern which agencies can deliver results. Going to their MSP—an already-vetted partner that they know to be competent—is an obvious choice. Being able to say yes when your clients ask for this service will only make you more valuable to their business.

2. Add a revenue stream

As the Datto report found, MSPs are feeling the pressure of increased competition. While the COVID-19 pandemic increased many businesses’ requirements for hardware, software, and IT support as they moved their operations online, more managed service providers also emerged to meet the demand.

The relationship between an MSP and a client is also sticky, because it can be complicated and difficult to switch to a different provider. This means that winning over new clients is a challenging process.

Instead, adding a new revenue stream in the form of SEO copywriting services not only increases the potential revenue from existing clients, but it also opens up the possibility of working with a range of new clients who need SEO copywriting services but may not need IT services at the moment. In a competitive landscape, diversifying your range of revenue streams is a key component of growth.

3. Lock in recurring revenue

Unlike hardware sales, SEO copywriting services represent a recurring source of revenue. It takes time to see success with SEO strategies. There may be some SEO copywriting tasks that are done less frequently, such as website copywriting, but creating fresh SEO content regularly in the form of blog posts is essential to getting results with SEO. This means that offering SEO copywriting services represents a reliable recurring monthly source of revenue.

4. Compete against other MSPs

Increased competition in the MSP industry means that those who can reinvent themselves for the current landscape will be most successful. Adding marketing services to your traditional core offering can help your IT company be more competitive against those who are still focused primarily on hardware, software, and IT services.

If a new client is shopping for a managed service provider and is choosing between one who can provide the basic offering and one who can also help grow their bottom line with SEO copywriting services that boost their visitiblity online and drive traffic to their site, the best choice is clear.

5. Upsell existing clients

Landing new clients can be costly. This doesn’t mean it isn’t well worth the effort to grow your customer base, but if your cost of acquisition is high, it’s especially important to maximize the revenue from existing customers, boosting margins and improving the overall profitability of your business.

Existing clients have already established a high degree of trust in their MSP. This is a requirement of the relationship, since MSPs have access to delicate information like passwords and company data. That trust makes it possible to upsell existing clients with marketing services that are valuable to them and help grow their business, like SEO copywriting services.

6. Become a one-stop shop

Given the option, it’s a safe bet that most small and medium sized businesses will prefer working with fewer contractors for their IT and marketing needs. For small businesses, agency costs can be quite high, and they may outsource SEO copywriting services and other marketing services to various freelancers and contractors. This is inconvenient from the point of view of managing all of the moving parts of their marketing strategy, and it’s also likely to be less effective.

By becoming a one-stop shop as an MSP that also offers SEO copywriting services, you can become the single touchpoint for an SMB’s IT and marketing needs. By showing your clients and prospects a Snapshot Report of how their current SEO efforts are stacking up, you can demonstrate that you understand their needs and present strategic SEO copywriting services that can fill the gaps in their current strategy and grow their business.

7. You don’t have to hire staff

Another key finding of Datto’s 2021 State Of the MSP Report was that 22 percent of respondents see hiring as a major challenge facing managed service providers. Combine this with the 24 percent who identify profitability as a major challenge and the 23 percent who put work/life balance among their top concerns, it’s clear that MSPs should be looking for ways to offer more with less.

Hiring and managing staff can be resource-intensive and difficult. Instead, offering SEO copywriting services through a trusted, white-label team of experienced professionals means you can be confident you’re providing your clients with high-quality SEO content. White-label SEO means you can focus on selling your services to existing clients and pitching to new clients, without cutting into your profitability with hiring costs.

In 2022, SEO should be an essential component of any SMB’s marketing strategy. Even those who might have coasted on referrals in the past recognize the importance of an effective, ongoing marketing strategy that incorporates search engine optimization.

SEO copywriting can be extremely time consuming, especially for SMBs who do not have dedicated staff for the job. Most marketers agree that SEO is more effective than PPC advertising, but it takes a while to see results with SEO.

Become an invaluable resource

If you offer hardware, software, and maintenance services, you’ve likely had the experience of having clients ask if you can take on SEO copywriting services and other marketing tasks. By adding services to your offering, you can boost your revenue and profitability, become a valuable one-stop shop to your clients, and draw in new clients with your robust offering.