Summary
In the second episode of our Human vs. Robot marketing message series for technology companies, we take a look at a marketing message from a Managed IT Services Provider. Who takes this one home? The human or the Robot?
Original Marketing Message and Question:
Question: How are you different from your competition as a Managed IT Services provider?
Answer: At Managed IT King, our 24/7 support team proactively manages and secures your IT infrastructure with cutting-edge IT solutions, visibility, and insights.
——-
It used to be that in the past, you either had to have the resources to hire a full staff in-house IT team, or you may struggle with managing your IT infrastructure by yourself. Hiring an independent IT consultant was always a great option, but never entirely offered the longevity and long-term strategic IT planning that most businesses require today.
The advent of Managed IT Services has bridged the gap between having a full-staff IT team and the need for full-service IT management. As such, there has been an influx of Managed Service Providers (MSPs). They often provide a wide range of IT services, including cloud hosting, security management, backup and disaster recovery, and IT monitoring. The Managed Services market is set to grow to 329 billion by 2025. The problem that most Managed IT Service Providers face is that, their services sound very similar to what the competition offers.
It seems as though, for businesses who prefer access to their IT team locally, a local presence for an MSP is often used as a differentiator. However, how do you use your messaging to differentiate your Managed IT Services from your competitor if you are both local to the potential customer?
Mainly, Managed IT Service Providers are tasked with a tall order when it comes to differentiating their business. With MSP marketing, every little detail counts when creating a brand differentiator. It could be from the story of how the MSP company was started, to the type of team that you have put together, to your core philosophy on managing IT issues. Whatever that secret sauce is, when creating your marketing message for your Managed IT Services company, it’s critical that it shines through. Making your MSP marketing message sound just like everyone else in the industry, just won’t do the trick. You won’t stand out in the sea of robotic Managed IT Service providers if you sound just like your competitors.
Read Previous: Human vs. Robot: Episode 1 – The A.I. Machine
Robotic MSP Marketing Message Analysis
In our first episode, we spent a lot of time explaining the scope of our robotic marketing message analysis concept. If you missed it, learn more about the robotic marketing message analysis concept.
As part of our humanized technology marketing message assessment, we have three main elements that we believe every humanized marketing message should have:
- It should make the audience feel like you listened
- It should make the audience feel like you empathized
- It should make the audience feel like they can see your dream
Again, check out the previous post to learn more about the elements.
Get Started: View Brand Differentiation Strategies
Robotic Marketing Message Analysis for Managed IT King
Let’s get to the fun part of grading our MSP marketing message.
Here’s the message again:
At Managed IT King, our 24/7 support team proactively manages and secures your IT infrastructure with access to cutting-edge IT solutions, visibility, and insights.
Human vs. Robot Messaging Grading
- Does this audience feel like you listened? Does the author understand their pain? – No, there is no mention of the audience’s pain.
Winner: Robot
- Does the audience feel like the author empathized with their pain? Is there a connection between the pain and the solution? – No, there is no connection because it doesn’t mention the pain.
Winner: Robot
- Does the audience feel like they can imagine a dream world where the solution makes their life better? – Yes, the entire message hinges on the benefits of the solution, which is the dream, but it misses the connecting elements.
Winner: Human
Tally: Robot – 2 | Human – 1
Ultimate Winner: 2/3 – Robot
Trending: 11 Technology Marketing Strategy Examples to Learn from Uber’s Move to Grocery Delivery
Why this marketing message is too robotic
What this messaging does well
- Selling the dream: The message does a great job of selling the dream or benefits of deciding to go with Managed IT King. It talks about all the things to expect, including having access to a 24/7 support team and proactive IT management.
What this message doesn’t do well
- Not connecting the pain with the solution: Though the message sells the dream because there isn’t any mention of the pain, you find it challenging to connect the problem and the solution. Surely, you can connect the dots yourself, but it requires a bit more decoding.
- Not clearly explaining the benefits or solution: The use of words like cutting-edge IT solutions, visibility and insights don’t explain the solution adequately. What are the cutting-edge IT solutions used? What kind of visibility do you get? What insights does the customer gain? Once again, the user has to do a lot of work trying to understand the message.
How would we humanize this marketing message?
First, we have to start by fixing the writing style. As usual, we are going to use my easy to remember messaging phrase:
‘If you don’t tell me why, I won’t care about how you do what you do, and I certainly won’t want to do what you want me to.”
Essentially you want to make sure you are telling the audience why, followed by how, and then what you do.
Here’s the breakdown
At Managed IT King, our 24/7 support team proactively manages and secures your IT infrastructure [What] with access to cutting-edge IT solutions, visibility and insights [How].
Now that we’ve looked at the storytelling format, we’ll combine the elements of storytelling and humanizing a message to create a different version of the message.
Read Also: Why Should I track Micro and Macro Marketing Metrics?
Humanized marketing messaging elements:
- Listening: Based on what we know from this message, the Managed IT Services Provider is solving the problem of stopping IT issues before they happen, including detecting IT security vulnerabilities. The user also has access to an IT team and resources that they might not have today in-house. As a result, the user gains better visibility into their IT infrastructure and can make better decisions.
Problems or Pain:
- Not having a full IT staff in-house
- Concern or experiencing IT security issues
- Not having a clear picture of their IT infrastructure
- Empathize: Now that we know the pain, we have to build a connection by making the audience feel that we understand their pain. This is done by not just mentioning the pain but also talking about what life looks like today.
Questions to answer:
- What kind of issues or inefficiencies does not having a full IT staff in-house cause?
- How are the IT security issues or concerns currently affecting the business?
- Why is it necessary to have better visibility into the company’s IT infrastructure? Are systems fragmented today?
- Dream: Finally, we’ll talk about how the solution solves that pain. As you may have noticed, that was the element that the messaging got right. The messaging focuses on outlining the benefits, which is essentially the dream. However, we’ll attempt to take this a step further by simplifying the message.
Read: No, Your Customers Won’t Ask for A Faster Horse
New Humanized MSP Marketing Message
Remember, the question was for Managed IT King to differentiate itself from its competitors. Ideally, when working on that type of messaging exercise, you’d want to go deeper beyond the standard features and benefits that everyone offers.
For instance, what kind of 24/7 support team does Managed IT Services King offer? Are their support teams certified in certain areas that make them more qualified to handle your issues? Are they local? Do they speak multiple languages? Anything that sets you apart is worth mentioning.
IT security – What is Managed IT King doing that’s different from the competition when it comes to managing customer IT security? Do they have a team that contacts you as soon as something happens? Do they intercept and handle issues when needed if you are not available?
Visibility – How does Managed IT King provide visibility that’s different from the competition? Do they have a proprietary system that they’ve developed that’s better at IT monitoring? What kind of KPIs will the person be able to access?
Undoubtedly, answering all these questions may create a more extended version of your answer. In my view, it’s better to be thorough than to be vague or, as we call it – robotic.
Taking a lot of creative liberties here, we can create a marketing message that sounds like this:
At Managed IT King, we take the headache out of managing your IT infrastructure and security yourself when you don’t have a full IT staff in-house. Our 24/7 support team is certified in nearly any business system and is available to visit your business when needed.
You don’t need to worry about using the latest IT systems because we’ve built a proprietary, cutting-edge IT solution that automatically monitors your environment while providing you with access to all your IT infrastructure with a single click.
Bonus message that makes you sound more relatable: Our customers don’t call us the King for no reason. We rule when it comes to ensuring that you have the peace of mind needed to run your business.
Clearly, I was having too much fun writing this, but I hope you get the idea.
It’s a wrap, folks! On this one, the Robot takes it.
One more thing, Managed IT Services messaging and marketing, requires focusing on your unique brand identifier. Dig deep and ensure that you are communicating what’s truly different about your services.
About Human vs. Robot
Human vs. Robot is a video and blog series from Brisque, where we look at how to humanize real marketing messages that sound overly technical or ‘robotic’ from technology companies. Marketing messages used in the episodes are modified to remove any identifying features of the sourced company. All company names used are fictional.
Do you have the guts to find out if you pass the human test?
Get a free messaging assessment to find out how you can transform your marketing message from sounding too technical to more human. Email your marketing message (no more than a paragraph long) and a brief description of your company to hello@brisquemarketing.com. Be sure to include in the subject line: “Human vs. Robot.”
Please note: By emailing us, you agree that we can use your marketing message as part of our video and blog series. As usual, we eliminate all identifying characteristics, and your original message may be further modified to ensure obscurity. Simply put, no one will know it’s your marketing message except for you.
About the Author: Hellen Oti
