TNHS Helps MSP Narrow Focus To Legal Sector, Launch New Advertising Campaign

AKAVEIL Technologies Inc. (AKAVEIL) is a small but growing managed IT services provider that reached out to Tortoise and Hare Software (TNHS) in May of 2022 for help with their marketing. AKAVEIL had been struggling to generate traction with outreach efforts and determined that additional marketing support was needed to generate more leads and scale their MSP.

Formulating An MSP Marketing Strategy

AKAVEIL and TNHS began their relationship with a short consulting engagement to determine how to best optimize their sales and marketing efforts. After conducting interviews with internal AKAVEIL personnel to get more information on the current customer base and internal skill sets, TNHS and AKAVEIL agreed on 2-3 potential customer segments for further research. From there TNHS conducted an online marketing assessment by looking at search engine traffic, potential competitors in segments, and other factors while considering the internal capabilities of AKAVEIL and made a recommendation of narrowing focus to the legal sector for the company. After reviewing the reasoning for the recommendation and discussing pros and cons, AKAVEIL accepted this recommendation and narrowed the focus of their MSP to provide IT support for law firms.

Updating MSP Marketing Messaging Across Digital Properties

The next step after committing to the change was to shift the focus of current outreach efforts to law firms. AKAVEIL directed their prospecting resources to shift focus to outreach for a defined segment of customers with firmographics consisting of a defined firm size, geography, and other characteristics. AKAVEIL was able to generate qualified meetings the very next month after shifting focus with their outreach, but that was only the beginning.

Updating Social Media Profiles

Next AKAVEIL and TNHS worked together to update social media profiles and employee LinkedIn profiles to put in place messaging that reflected the shift in MSP marketing strategy. Things that were updated included:

• Cover photos
• Company Taglines
• Company Descriptions
• LinkedIn Job Titles
• Social media graphics
• Future social media posting

TNHS also recommend a multi-posting software called Publer to help with more efficient content distribution.

Website Management And Basic SEO

AKAVEIL’s website was being managed by another agency at the time of the engagement. After inspecting the website and attempting to make some basic SEO updates it became clear that a change was needed. TNHS was able to educate AKAVEIL on some website management blind spots and scalability blind spots that were hindering the marketing efforts of AKAVEIL. TNHS was able to show that despite numerous blog posts and content items being published, no traction was generated. In fact, the entire website was set to no-index and had been for almost a year! Furthermore, the previous agency was digging holes with poor web development practices that were creating negative user experiences, potentially hindering outreach efforts and definitely hindering online marketing efforts.

TNHS took over the website management efforts and made several emergency restorative changes to repair the user experience and start the process of restoring the site’s SEO potential. SEO is a long-term process, but you can see that even a few short months of effort have started to yield a positive impact to search engine traffic since beginning in May.

Updating Directory Citations And Basic Link Building

Next TNHS helped AKAVEIL update their online presence by distributing their updated legal IT support positioning to major online business directories such as Yellow Pages, Google Business Profile, and another 75+ key online directories with major search engine traffic. These basic backlinks raise the authority and trust signals for the website and allow it to capture more search engine traffic over the long term. These citations take a long time to distribute and register, up to 6 months, but the beginnings of backlink growth are already visible.

Tortoise and Hares listing management service creates verified listings in these online directories and allows the distribution of updated messaging quickly and easily as business conditions change and marketing strategy evolves.

Launching A New MSP Advertising Campaign

TNHS also reviewed the Google advertising account that was managed by the previous agency and was able to educate AKAVEIL on areas where the prior agency was falling short. AKAVEIL transitioned the account management responsibility to TNHS.

The next step in the AKAVEIL marketing journey was to supplement their outreach efforts with an advertising campaign. Tortoise and Hare’s extensive experience running MSP advertising campaigns on Google Ads was the perfect complement. TNHS and AKAVEIL discussed setting an advertising budget and launching a 3-month pilot program for Google Advertising via paid search campaigns. TNHS and AKAVEIL held an MSP value proposition analysis meeting to discuss the unique selling points that AKAVEIL could bring to the table and get a better understanding of what key customers valued most. This information was then used to create a pay-per-click dedicated landing page for use in the new revised advertising campaign.

Click the image below to view the full-size screenshot (large file size, may load slowly)

From there TNHS created a new campaign within Google Ads, and installed conversion tracking for form submissions and phone calls, and deployed the conversion tracking to the website. TNHS also applied its extensive list of negative keywords that commonly invade MSP advertising campaigns to the Google Ads account, saving them money right out the gate.

AKAVEIL’s advertising campaign launches August 2022. Keep an eye out for more updates in this evolving story.

MSP Ad Campaign 6-Month Launch Results

After working with AKAVEIL for approximately 6 months, we were able to source around 24 raw leads and 11 marketing-qualified leads via advertising campaigns several of which lead to proposal stage opportunities that are actively being worked on. Technical SEO improvements on the AKAVEIL website have also led to a 500% growth in search impressions on Google and a handful of clicks for desirable keywords including terms like:

• managed it for law
• managed it for law firms
• managed it for lawyers
• managed it provider for law firms
• managed it service for lawyers
• managed it services for law firms
• managed it services for lawyers
• managed it support for attorneys
• managed it support for law firms
• managed services for law firms

There’s always room for improvement, but so far it has been a successful launch of a marketing effort, greatly exceeding the performance of previous agencies, and there’s a lot to be excited for in the future as the lead flow continues, search engine traffic grows, and market penetration increases.

Wrap Up

Choosing the right MSP digital marketing partner can have a significant positive impact on your marketing efforts. TNHS has helped MSPs add millions in new annual recurring revenue since launching in 2018. We help MSPs scale their lead generation efforts with bespoke marketing solutions that are custom to each individual client. Our extensive experience within the information technology sector and running lead generation efforts MSPs allows us to serve as the perfect complement to your team. See if you qualify. Book a free consultation to discuss your MSP’s marketing efforts and see if Tortoise and Hare is the right fit for you.