'There is loads of unused MDF out there' - our marketing panel give MSPs their top tips

Marketing experts run through the dos and don'ts for MSPs and resellers

Resellers and MSPs are leaving millions of pounds worth of MDF funding from vendors on the table, according to a marketing panel at CRN's MSP North conference.

Speaking during a panel discussion between marketing experts, Glen Robertson, managing director of channel marketing agency PureChannels, told delegates that vendors are sitting on cash, waiting for partners to request it for marketing campaigns.

"About 80 per cent of our clients are tier-one vendors, global organisations, and they have absolutely buckets of money to give to you guys," he said.

"It doesn't matter if you don't have the knowledge or resource to do anything with it; they have money piling up on the table that you guys aren't accessing."

Robertson highlighted that money for MDF is already put aside by vendors, making it more easy for partners to access than a lot of them realise.

"You can put a plan together and write bits and pieces, but the bottom line is you don't have pay for it," he added.

"The point is that budget is related to rebates and sales that have been made. It is not new money, it is budgeted and all you have to do is fill in a form.

"You can get £5,000, £10,000, £20,000 and if you don't have the knowledge you can get the likes of us to come in and do it for you.

"We are pitching with a huge vendor and their opening sentence to me was ‘we had £2m last year of unused MDF just lying around'. That is money you guys aren't spending.

"So they came to us to ask how best to speak to partners. If you don't use it, it's wasted, so it's about vendor relationships and how you talk to them."

Our panel also talked the channel audience through their top tips to tighten up their marketing strategy, with a particular focus on social media.

Paul Green, founder of MSP Marketing Edge, said it is important for MSPs to build up a potential customer base, even if this won't generate sales right away.

"People only buy when they're ready to buy, so you have to build relationships before they want to buy," he said.

"So you have to build audiences, get people to onto the website; LinkedIn is great as well.

"Someone who is happy with their MSP will be unhappy with them for some reason at some point down the line.

"You have to start it today so that three, four, or five years down the line so that when they are unhappy for some reason they feel as though they know you."

Robert Gibbons, head of managed services at Evaris, said it is important to not have a half-baked social media strategy.

"If you are looking at marketing, pick the platform that you are most happy with do it consistently," he said. "Don't do something once a quarter.

"We were targeting schools, but one time we had nothing to target so I just sent an email saying ‘happy Easter, see you when you're back'. That was it, just because it was constant every Tuesday afternoon."

PureChannels' Robertson added that affective marketing has moved away from merely bombarding customers with information.

"It's about being a little bit more sophisticated," he added. "At the moment, quality is winning, and that's quality of communication, quality of consistency and quality of the messaging you are putting out.

"You need to go after audiences in a way that speaks to them specifically as people with a message that is dedicated to them, not any message that could have been delivered to a number of other people."