MSP University Managed Services Blog

Targeting and Tracking Website Visitors for Managed Services Providers

Managed Services Providers are in a unique position where they not only provide certain services to clients but also benefit by applying the same techniques within their own businesses. Clients who utilize Managed Services count on their provider to offer a full range of services from security and data backup to managing their website.  Successful businesses understand that having an online presence is necessary to remain competitive.  Managed Services Providers must not only know how to promote their own businesses on the web but also provide the same services to the clients with whom they have achieved Trusted Advisor status - true business partners that entrust them with numerous facets of their business for improvement. 

Despite the fact that millions of people use the Internet daily to find products, services, news stories or other tidbits of information, many of these users do not know exactly what happens when you enter information into a search engine.  The same applies to business owners and managers who may not have to time or interest to learn how visitors get to their website.  This is where knowledge in search engine optimization (SEO) comes in handy.  But before you tackle SEO, there are other important factors to consider.  Before you can reap the most rewards from your website, you must first know a few things about the people that are visiting your site and the people you want to visit your site.  After all, if the wrong people are getting to your website, neither party benefits.  Ask the following three questions before you focus on SEO:

• Who is visiting your website? 
• Are the customers visiting your website the type of customer your sales team would try to sell products or services to?
• Are there changes you can make to your website that would weed out the inquiries that are not resulting in sales?

Basically, you want to determine if your website design and content are attracting the right visitors to the site.  The goal is to provide potential clients with information needed to make an informed decision as to whether or not they can benefit from your services, and provide additional supporting information (such as testimonials and case studies) that can build credibility in these prospects.  

How are people finding your website?

Another important piece of information that you will need to know is how visitors are arriving at your website.  This can be accomplished in a number of ways:

• Ask new clients how they found your website.  You are specifically interested in learning what keywords or phrases they entered into a search engine to find your company.
• Ask established clients what words or phrases they would enter into a search engine to find your company. 
• Use online analytics tools such as Google Analytics to track how people are finding your website. 

Once you have this basic information you are now in a better position to focus on SEO.  Experiment with different keywords or phrases and track the results.  Your goal is to use the information and tools at your disposal to target qualified customers and position yourself so those customers can easily locate your website.

Erick Simpson
MSP University
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MSP University helps solution providers succeed...period.

MSP University to Offer CoreConnex' Corelytics™ Financial Dashboard and Business Analytics to Members

MSP University is proud to announce our newest strategic partnership with CoreConnex, whose Corelytics Financial Dashboard receives data from a company's financial accounting systems and provides a secure, hosted platform to display financial performance, key indicators and forecasts. When utilized by an IT Solution or Managed Services organization, the Corelytics Financial Dashboard empowers the organizations' leadership with information to calculate their true cost of service delivery for each of their lines of business, along with margins and profitability. See my previous posts here and here regarding the importance of calculating the profitability of every one of a provider's deliverables, including service desk.

Read the Press Release here

We feel this partnership will provide MSP University members with the business intelligence, benchmarking metrics and financial management tools necessary to run their practices by the numbers and improve their net profits.

Click here to find out how to attend our next 3-Day Boot Camp Sept. 1st-3rd in Washington DC with NEW HEALTHCARE IT TRACK ABSOLUTELY FREE (a $2,995 value)!

Erick Simpson
MSP University
Visit our Mobile Website here
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Join MSP University FREE for all things Managed Services

Selling The Cloud To Small Business Owners

Among others, small business owners share two common concerns when it comes to the day-to-day running of their businesses.  These include not having enough time devoted to growing the business and dealing with a much smaller budget than that of a large corporation.  Managed services providers must acknowledge these concerns and offer solutions that SMBs can envision working for their businesses.  Some business owners will be open to new suggestions and technologies while others might prove to be a bit more resistant to change.  In order to truly deliver quality service you must be able to pinpoint what services will benefit the company and then successfully sell these services to the client. 

Cloud computing services are a hot topic of discussion right now as this technology is changing the way companies are doing business.  To sell these services to SMBs you must be able to explain how cloud computing will benefit the client in a way they can understand.  While some business owners will want to know the how's and why's of cloud computing, the majority will be interested only in how these services will impact their business, specifically how their business will benefit from cloud computing services.  Instead of making this a separate sales pitch, your sales staff should be trained on how to present cloud computing benefits combined with managed services as the best solution for their business needs where appropriate. 

All business owners want their business to be successful.  This is how you will approach the subject of cloud computing.  By explaining how the cloud will reduce costs while improving turn-up, management, maintenance and upgrade efficiencies, you touch on subjects that any business owner can relate too.  If you provide services that will allow the business owner more time in their schedule to focus on the important task of running their business and you can do so while saving them money, you will definitely have captured their attention. 

Managed Services Providers who are able to not only explain the combined benefits of cloud computing and managed services but also deliver the goods as promised will find their own success in the industry.  What sets you apart from your competition will not be the technology itself but how you manage that technology to ensure the needs of your clients are met.  When this occurs you not only guarantee the success of your clients but also the success of your Managed Services practice.

Click here to find out how to attend our next 3-Day Boot Camp Sept. 1st-3rd in Washington DC with NEW HEALTHCARE IT TRACK ABSOLUTELY FREE (a $2,995 value)!

Erick Simpson
MSP University
Visit our Mobile Website here
Subscribe to our blog here
Subscribe to our Newsletter here
Join MSP University FREE for all things Managed Services

MSP University Announces New Mobile Website With MSP Pricing Calculator

We're proud to announce the release of MSP University's Mobile Website specially programmed for mobile phones!

Our new Mobile Website can be reached at: http://m.mspu.us and provides access to MSP University's:

• Live Training Schedule (featuring live streaming of this week's San Antonio Boot Camp co-located with CompTIA Breakaway)
• Boot Camp Schedule
• Course Catalog
• Latest News
• Press Releases
• Upcoming Industry Events

And our business-winning Managed Services Pricing/ROI Calculator!

That's right - now you have the ability to do a quick ROI calculation in the field, and email yourself or anyone else the results!

    

Here is the report that is contained in the email:

       

Click here to watch a video on how to use our Managed Services Pricing/ROI Calculator.

  
Please help us test our new Mobile Website and post your comments and feedack!

Erick Simpson
MSP University
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MSPU San Antonio Boot Camp at CompTIA Breakaway Day 1 Recap

What a great first day to kick off our San Antonio Boot Camp at CompTIA Breakaway! Our streaming sessions were a big hit, with attendees joining us virtually from all over the world!
 
We are streaming recordings of each day during all 4 days of Boot Camp at: http://www.mspu.us/livebootcamp between 8am and 12pm CST on August 9th-12th!

Download the Agenda at: http://www.mspu.us/signup/boot-camps/default.aspx/#agenda
 
This Boot Camp has been tailored to cover specific areas in 8 areas of IT solution provider and managed services practice improvement:
 
1. Leadership
2. Financial acumen
3. Organizational structure
4. Talent management
5. Marketing
6. Sales
7. Service delivery
8. Vendor relationships
 
We started the day off with opening comments followed by the Keynote Presentation from our Platinum Sponsor and host at Breakaway 2010 – CompTIA, highlighting the benefits of membership in the IT Industry’s member-driven trade association. Are you a CompTIA member? Join today at www.comptia.org.

During our sessions today we covered marketing, sales, service delivery and how to effectively use DISC Behavioral Profiles for improved hiring, team-building and sales engagements. A big thanks go out to Kevin Brown of Kutenda for his informative session on growing your business through online marketing, and joining Anissa Harte from Business By Demand, Stuart Crawford from Ulistic and our own Mark Sanders in delivering a great Marketing Expert Panel Session covering telemarketing, online, social media and website marketing. In addition, we received a valuable presentation from MSP University’s own Giovanni Sanguily on how to get the most from your MSP University membership.

Special thanks go out to our expert video team from Varvid (www.varvid.tv) – once again delivering our CEO Track in amazing HD quality streaming for our online attendees. Focused on video services for the IT channel, make sure to visit them for all of your video needs.

After the conclusion of MSP University’s 1st Day of Boot Camp, our attendees had their choice of attending a variety of CompTIA Peer-to-Peer Reseller Discussion Sessions, a Feature Presentation by Autotask CEO Bob Godgart, an Industry Analyst Panel with predictions for 2011, Intronis’ Welcome Reception, an invitation-only CompTIA Board Dinner and CompTIA’s Hospitality Suite in the Sunday House.
 
We kick tomorrow off at 8am CST with a Keynote Presentation from our Platinum Sponsor Autotask at 8am in the main room, so log in early and be prepared for our second full day of training and education, where we add continue our Service Delivery, CEO Operations and our Marketing and Sales 101 tracks. We have our Cloud Expert Panel queued up with panelists, from Own Web Now, Ulistic, ITEEx and MSP University, followed by presentation from Cornerstone Backup focused on how to make Managed Services sales easier by introducing a backup and disaster recovery solution to your prospects and clients.

Check out MSP University’s new Mobile Page for a valuable surprise just added at http://m.mspu.us!

Invite your staff and colleagues to participate in our Boot Camp virtually at www.mspu.us/livebootcamp

Follow our tweets at www.twitter.com/mspuniversity

Friend us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/MSP-University/221646450703!

Erick Simpson
MSP University
Subscribe to my blog here
Subscribe to our Newsletter here
Join MSP University FREE for all things Managed Services