If I told you there was a massive marketing opportunity out there for MSPs, a way to reach thousands of decision-makers from your desk, and that it was free, I’m pretty sure you’d say, ‘Yes please, Paul, let me sign me up today and I’ll give you my firstborn child as a thank you.’
But your enthusiasm might fade a bit if I told you it was... YouTube. Am I right?
In fact, you might even be a little bit scared. You might hide behind a cushion and say, ‘Please, Paul, don’t make me do it!’
Well, sorry to break it to you, but it is YouTube. But before you click away, just hear me out on why this is such a huge opportunity for MSPs.
YouTube is enormous. 2.1-billion-active-users-a-month enormous. It’s the world's second most used search engine, after the almighty Google, which of course owns YouTube.
Everyone uses YouTube. They actually do. Whether it's videos watching good stuntmen watch bad stunts (me), how to fix your lawnmower (my dad), or someone taking a toy out of a box and reviewing it (my child), we apparently can't get enough of it.
What's this got to do with your MSP? 93% of people say video is helpful when purchasing a product. That’s insane. And it’s not just about purchasing their next vacuum cleaner, it’s also true when picking their next MSP.
But just because it’s big, it doesn’t mean it has to be scary. The truth is that, once you start, filming videos is not actually that scary either.
And because most MSPs don’t realise this, it's area where you can really cash in.
Now, confession time. The video at the top of this page was filmed in a ‘professional’ environment. I hired a studio. I had a lovely chap working two cameras and the lights. I had a producer to bring me water and powder my nose (that did actually happen, to my horror). And it was edited by someone clever on my team whose job it is to do that.
But to get started with a YouTube channel of your own, I promise you do not need all of that.
When I got started with my YouTube channel, it was just me and my phone. Have a watch of this from a few years back. because it really can be that simple.
Your phone - like mine even way back then - has a great camera in it already, and you’ll notice in that example I was walking around outside. That’s because when you're indoors, lighting becomes a lot more complicated.
So as a starting point, pop your shoes on, go for a walk and talk to your phone. You can get a plug-in microphone if you want to clip to your jacket which always makes things feel a bit more ‘pro’, but natural light is the best light going.
Not having to faff about with much kit (to start off with, at least) lets you focus on the No. 1 most important thing when it comes to YouTube. The content.
So, then, the big question - what should you talk about in these videos? Well, not cyber security and productivity and Microsoft and all of that kind of stuff. No one's really interested in that.
Humans are interested in normal things, e.g. how do I do this? How to I get over that? How do I sleep better at night? Listen to the things your ordinary clients are saying to you, or calling your help desk about. I have a whole list of ideas on this, again in my Video Guide.
My final piece of advice on this is if you really want YouTube to work for you, make sure you get into a rhythm of creating regular content. This is to ensure you make the most out of it and get big mo. I’d recommend you put out at least one video, if not two, for a whole year.
You can actually do a job lot of filming (since these can be very short videos), so you've always got three or four weeks’ worth of videos banked and ready to go.
Maybe your first ones will be a bit rubbish. But you know what? Once you're a few months into it, and certainly by the end of that year, you might even find that you love those videos, and maybe even enjoy making them. And more importantly, your clients and prospective clients will be enjoying them too.
I’d of course love to see your efforts - you can share them in my MSP Marketing Facebook group , or if you’re a bit shy, email me at paulgreensmspmarketing.com , I only bite very occasionally.
