Marketopia is a highly trusted marketing agency for MSPs. But how does it compare to the MSP Marketing Edge? Let's find out
Marketing is a distress activity for many MSPs. It's the complete opposite of technical work, where you can successfully figure your way through any problem. To many, marketing is mysterious and a dark art!
Which is why lots of MSPs turn to a full service marketing agency for help. In this guide we're comparing one of them, Marketopia, with a business that sits at the other side of the world of marketing services, the marketing and content champion MSP Marketing Edge.
Full transparency: This article has been written by the team behind the MSP Marketing Edge. Our goal is to give a fully balanced view. This review is based on information available on websites and Google Reviews.
The service: Marketopia
Marketopia was launched in Tampa, Florida, back in 2014 by husband and wife team Terry and Andra Hedden. Since then it's grown dramatically, becoming a real force in the channel.
Within just a year they had 25 staff, and doubled their head count to 50 by 2016. They were named one of Inc's 5,000 fastest growing private companies in 2018, and in 2021 expanded across the Atlantic to open an office in the UK.
Since then, Marketopia has acquired a London-based MSP marketing agency (Continuity Marketing), giving it a very solid footing in both countries.
Marketopia is a full service marketing agency offering a range of bespoke done with you and done for you services to help MSPs, including websites, brand development, digital marketing, content creation and appointment setting. There are few marketing services that they don't offer.
When you talk to MSPs, you hear that Marketopia enjoys an extremely good reputation in our world. It works with vendors as well as MSPs, and even puts on its own GrowCon conference, this year featuring guest speaker Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First.
The service: MSP Marketing Edge
The MSP Marketing Edge sits at the other end of the MSP marketing world, offering a single service featuring high quality marketing materials at a low fixed monthly cost.
It was set up by MSP marketing expert Paul Green in 2016. The MSP Marketing Edge team creates hundreds of pieces of marketing materials every month and gives them to all members. Everyone gets everything.
To make sure that members never have their marketing materials clashing with local competitors, it only works with one MSP per area. If your area has already been locked by a competitor, you can join a waiting list.
Paul and his team now work with more than 700 members, and work tirelessly to help them succeed with their marketing. As a member you also receive the strategic support you need to attract new clients, retain existing clients and sell more Monthly Recurring revenue (MRR) to them, in a way that strengthens your relationship, rather than damaging it
The MSP Marketing Edge releases new content for its Weekly Marketing System every Thursday, with an additional bunch of bonus content delivered on the 10th of every month. There's also a library of evergreen marketing tools, including:
- Lead generation campaigns
- A book about security called Email Hijack
- An IT Services Buyer's Guide that you can brand as your own
- 100 technology videos to instantly enhance your website's credibility
- Smart web tools such as a password checker, Have I Been Pwned email checker, and a pricing/downtime calculator
The cost: Marketopia
It's rare for a full service marketing agency to publish its costs, as the answer to "how much will it cost" is, of course, the same as it is for managed services: "It depends on what you want and need".
Refrehingly, Marketopia is clear on much of its pricing. On its website it lists the costs of annual MSP marketing plans, starting from just $49 a month to teach you about marketing, to $499 a month for access to its marketing resources.
If you want to enjoy their done WITH you service it starts at $799 a month, and their full done FOR you plan starts at $2,999 a month.
The cost: MSP Marketing Edge
The MSP Marketing Edge gives all of its marketing resource, support and community to all members, and has a single price tier. At time of writing this is just £149 + vat for MSPs in the UK, and US$199 for MSPs everywhere else in the world.
Every new member enjoys a 30 day free trial, and is protected by the guarantee of no contract, cancel any time.
Because the service has more than 700 non-competing MSP members, it can deliver massive value to all members, all the time.
What MSPs say
At time of writing, Marketopia has 60 Google reviews with an aggregate score of 4.5. The reviews are very positive, and include kind words from former staff as well as existing clients.
Here's one of the most relevant recent reviews:
Meantime, MSP Marketing Edge (through its parent company Paul Green's MSP Marketing) enjoys an average score of 5.0, from 73 reviews.
Here's the most recent review:
About the people behind the services
Marketopia's Terry and Andra Hedden are both highly active in the channel, and are often found on webinars or seen on stage at events.
MSP Marketing Edge's Paul Green is equally high profile, and is the host of Paul Green's MSP Marketing Podcast.
Back in April 2022, Paul featured Andra in a special edition of his podcast. They met at Marketopia's new London office just after their acquisition of Continuity Marketing. Andra talked about how MSPs could develop a growth mindset, and where they should focus their marketing efforts. You can listen to that episode here.
