Hello and welcome to a very special edition of the podcast. For the first time ever, we’re doing a complete deep dive into one of the biggest growth opportunities available to your MSP right now… co-managed IT.

Welcome to Episode 339 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green, powered by the MSP Marketing Edge.

Grow Your MSP 10x Faster With Co-managed IT

Before I get into it, I want to tell you something about how we prepared for this episode, because I think that’s going to matter. So some background… we’re launching a new co-managed IT marketing membership, and I’ll tell you more about that at the end of the podcast, although if you do want to sneak peek, it’s on my website right now at mspmarketingedge.com/membership.

Anyway, to help us get this right from day one, over the last six months, my team and I have done hundreds and hundreds of hours of research into this topic. We’ve interviewed IT directors, real ones who actually buy co-managed IT, so people who sit in the role that your MSP will be trying to reach if you did this. And we’ve also interviewed MSPs who already have co-managed clients and are winning more of them. And all of that work has helped us to build a new membership. And of course, it’s also got into this podcast episode.

So what you’re going to hear or see today isn’t just my opinion about marketing to IT directors, it’s grounded in what they actually told us. In their own words about how they think, what they fear and what they want, and crucially, how they make buying decisions. In fact, throughout this episode, I’m going to play you some clips from one of those research conversations. It was an interview I did with an IT director who was very open with us, and I’m operating here on the principle that it’s better to seek forgiveness than it is to ask permission so he doesn’t know I’m playing these clips. Let’s keep this a secret, shall we?

To protect his privacy, his voice has been filtered, and I’m going to call him Dave. Obviously, that’s not his real name, but these are his real words, completely unscripted. And remember, the call that I did with him was a research call six months ago. It wasn’t an interview. I’ve picked Dave for this because he really gave us insight into the emotions that an IT director goes through when they think about partnering with an MSP. And I think when you hear him speak, it’s going to change how you think about this massive opportunity.

So, four things we’re going to cover today. First of all, what co-managed IT actually is, and just as importantly, what it isn’t. Number two, who makes the buying decision. Number three, why businesses choose co-managed. Number four, how you need to position and market yourself differently if you want to win this kind of work. Let’s go.

What co-managed IT is and what it isn’t

The single biggest mistake that MSPs make when they try to enter the co-managed market is assuming that it’s just a variation of what they already do. They take the same messaging that they use for business owners and bolt the words co-managed onto the front. And then they wonder why the conversation dies. Well, it dies because the buyer is completely different and a different buyer needs completely different language.

In traditional B2B sales, you’re usually talking to a business owner or a senior manager who doesn’t live inside technology every day like you do. They don’t really want to understand it. They don’t want to talk about governance, architecture, service tiers, all of that stuff. What they want is relief. They just want someone to take all of the technology away from them. And that’s why phrases like, “We handle everything” or “Leave your IT to us”, they work so well in B2B marketing because you’re selling peace of mind to someone who just wants...

Your MSP’s marketing should feel repetitive to you but fresh to the people seeing it… here’s how that works. Also this week, what margins should you aim for and how to increase them, and you can be an influencer in your marketplace without taking photos of your dinner.

Welcome to Episode 338 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green, powered by the MSP Marketing Edge.

Why your marketing should feel repetitive to you, and fresh for prospects

Your MSP’s marketing should feel repetitive to you, but fresh to the people seeing it. And I know that sounds like a kind of a strange goal at first, because when something feels repetitive, most of us assume we’re doing something wrong. We assume we should mix it up and try new things and be more creative. But actually, when it comes to marketing your MSP, the opposite is true.

Now, I’m a huge fan of marketing systems. And by that, I mean a simple set of activities that you do on a regular basis. Small tasks, repeated daily or weekly. Things like publishing a blog or recording a podcast, posting on LinkedIn, emailing your list, putting out videos. None of these things are individually spectacular, but they have a power, which comes from doing all of them consistently every day and every week.

Now here’s the interesting bit, if you run a proper marketing system for your MSP it will eventually start to feel boring to you.

I’m recording this podcast for the 338th time. So every week since November 2019 I’ve sat down, decided what I want to talk about, written myself a script, and then recorded it. And obviously I’ve had holidays and vacations along the way, but in that instance, I just do two podcasts in a week so I never get behind.

It is a hamster wheel, I will tell you. And writing the script is not a thrilling creative adventure every week, I’ll be honest. It’s a job, it’s a task in the system. And of course I still enjoy it, but I have to sit down, I have to write it, I have to record it. My team, I’m sure it’s as much a hamster wheel for them. They have to edit it. They have to do all the colour corrections and the promotions and all of the stuff like that. It’s all just a whole series of systemised tasks. And I do it and my team, which is James and Simon and Laura, they do it as well because it’s an important part of our business’ presence out there.

And the same thing happens with your MSP’s marketing. If you’re doing it properly, there’s going to be a rhythm to it. You’re doing the same types of content every day or every week, the same channels, the same cadence week, after week, after week. And after a while, you might start thinking, “Oh my goodness, am I just repeating myself here? Am I just saying the same things again and again?” And the answer is probably yes. And that’s a good sign because here’s the thing that most MSP owners forget. You see your marketing every day… your prospects do not see it every day. You’re inside the system, they’re only catching glimpses of what you put out.

So if you do think about it from their point of view, a prospect might see one LinkedIn post from you this month, or maybe they read one blog on your website or they hear an episode of your podcast if you do that because someone recommended it to them. They are seeing a tiny, tiny slice of what you produce. Meanwhile, you’re seeing everything… every post, every email, every article, every video. So of course, to you it feels repetitive because you’re experiencing the whole system, but your prospects are not. And even if they do see your content more than once, it’s usually spread out to them over time. So they might see something today and then they might not see anything from you for another two weeks. And then by the time they see the next thing, the first one has already kind of faded from their memory.

Your website is having conversations on your behalf because that’s its job… it’s there to explain who you are, what you do, and why someone should trust you. The question is, what’s it saying? Also this week, why most MSP reporting to clients is ignored, and huge mistakes you’ll make today that’ll damage your exit.

Welcome to Episode 337 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green, powered by the MSP Marketing Edge.

What your MSP’s website is secretly saying to prospects behind your back

Your MSP’s website is talking behind your back. So the only question is, what’s it saying? While you’re out at dinner, walking the dog, in a meeting, or even having a sneaky kip at three in the afternoon, yeah, I know what you get up to. Your website is having conversations on your behalf because that’s its job, right? It’s there to explain who you are, what you do, and why someone should trust you.

The problem is that for a lot of MSPs, your website is having the entire conversation with the prospect, because if they don’t very quickly find something on there that engages them and makes them think, “Oh, right. Yeah, this is the right place for me,” then they just move on. They go back to Google or AI or however they got to your website in the first place, and they go looking at other MSPs.

And do you know what? You never even know that they were there because you don’t know their name, you don’t know what they were looking for. All you know is that another invisible conversation just died. So what is your website saying behind your back?

From what I see, most MSP websites accidentally deliver one of four damaging messages…

The first message is this: We don’t really want to tell you much about us. You see this everywhere in kind of vague written content, which of course we call copy. You see generic service descriptions or a homepage that says almost nothing specific or uses very generic text like proactive IT support, trusted partner, cyber security solutions. And here’s my favourite. We keep your business running. Now, there’s nothing technically wrong with those phrases until you realise that every other MSP within like a 25 mile radius is using the exact same words or the same intentions at least.

And when everything sounds the same, you sound the same as all of your competitors. And when everyone sounds the same like that, the prospect has no reason to choose you. So the silent message becomes, we don’t really know what makes us different, so we’re going to hide behind safe language. And prospects really feel that. If you don’t give them something distinctive that they can hook onto, then they will go looking for someone else who does.

The second damaging message is: Lack of transparency. Many MSP websites avoid talking about price. They avoid explaining how their services work. And they avoid spelling out what’s included and what isn’t included. Instead, everything funnels towards contact us to find out more. So put yourself in the buyer’s shoes. They’re already nervous about switching MSP and they don’t want mystery, they want clarity. If your website withholds really basic information like pricing, then the message it sends is that they have to speak to a salesperson before they can even decide whether you are relevant to them or not. And in 2026, that just kills momentum.

Buyers want to research quietly. They want to understand what you do, roughly how you price and how you think before they ever talk to you. And your website either supports that research or it blocks it. As a side note, if you know that’s a problem and you want an easy way to fix it, I’ve partnered with bestselling author Marcus Sheridan to create msppriceguide.com. You can get an interactive price calculator on your website...