How to Find Blog Topics for Managed Services Providers

When it comes to MSP marketing, there is no doubt that one of the main ways to market anything online is through blogging. 

The effectiveness of content marketing can be tracked in a variety of ways.

According to the graph below, 24% of high-quality leads come from SEO efforts. Having engaging and interesting blog content is a way to strengthen the quantity and quality of leads visiting your company’s website.

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Paid search on different search engines is also an avenue to find high-quality and quantity leads.

It might be hard to start a blog – whether it’s because you are not sure what topics to write about or because it might be hard to gain traction.

However, the internet has made blogging very easy with the different platforms that are out there, such as WordPress, Quora, and Tumblr.

Having a blog can help differentiate MSPs from one another and bring awareness to their services. Not only can it make MSPs stand out from the competition, but blog posts are also a great way to explain the benefits of your products in detail to the desired target audience.

However, there is still a lot of competition, so what can make your MSP stand out from the others? The answer is to come up with the right blog topics.

5 Tips for Managed Service Providers Looking for Blog Topics

1. Understand the dynamics of the IT industry

2. Use SEO keywords

3. Pick long-tail keywords to produce captivating content

4. Research your target audience

5. Stay on top of industry trends

1. Understand the Dynamics of the IT Industry

The IT industry is a very competitive field, and the best way to navigate it is to understand the basics.

It is best to stay focused with your IT marketing strategy rather than going broad when choosing your blog topics – you need to pick a market segment and then focus on a specific topic within that segment.

An example of this involves IT in the healthcare industry. The niche within that market segment is providing managed IT services and consulting to organizations with fewer than 100 seats.

By narrowing down your blog and target a very specific audience – this is where the content will rank higher and increase the chances of getting credible leads.

2. Use SEO Keywords

SEO keywords are essential to getting that coveted first page ranking on Google. However, for MSPs, the key is knowing the difference between short-tail keywords and long-tail keywords, and why long-tail keywords in a blog will make the MSP stand out.

Short-tail keywords are commonly used keywords that are very generic. In this case, an example of a short-tail keyword is “IT services”. That keyword will generate endless searches, but because it is generic, it’s actually highly competitive.

On the other hand, long-tail keywords will attract the attention of a more specific target audience. Long-tail keywords are not as popular as short-tail keywords but are actually more effective – especially for MSPs.

An example of a long-tail keyword could be “cybersecurity for small to medium sized businesses.”

Since this particular keyword is extremely specific, it can generate a lot of traffic from consumers looking to know more about that specific service.

This will also help keep your blogs focused and provide high quality answers to your consumers. The key is to find which long-tail keywords are worth the effort.

3. Pick Long-Tail Keywords to Produce Captivating Content

As seen in this graph from Ahrefs, there are several concepts that go into search and the demand of specific keywords. The vast majority of Google searches involve a set of long-tail keywords.

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Long-tail keywords have a low volume of search, but are more highly-focused that other search queries.

Searches like “How to Manage Your IT Help Desk” will not lead to your service pages. While this may seem pointless, users are not looking for products right away. They are looking for information.

Blog posts with long-tail keywords that provide educational content versus a sales pitch are more likely to attract prospects, engage them over the long-term and then hook them in as long-term clients once that trust is built.

4. Research Your Target Audience

A majority of the time, prospective clients don’t know what service they actually want. This falls on your business to research your audience. Your blog needs to present the most content that users will find helpful and that will help them determine what services they need and require. 

Crafting buyer personas involve a variety of steps. As seen in the chart below, different background questions have to be asked when creating the right target audience for your business.

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Along with asking about past clients, customer hesitations, and other commonalities, other areas need to be expanded upon.

Once you know the answers, you can use a combination of short-tail and long-tail keywords to produce excellent blog content that will provide the answers for your prospective client’s needs and goals.

5. Stay on Top of Industry Trends

When customers are searching for MSPs, they are looking for the ones that are relevant and are up to date on current IT trends – so your blog needs to reflect that.

Research the latest industry trends and think of fresh, relevant topics and add a personal twist to it.

By sharing a unique perspective and a strong knowledge of the industry trends, you will be able to stand out from other MSPs and boost your online visibility.

When coming up with the blog topic, you need to think about how that blog is going to benefit your reader and solve the problems that they have.

MSPs Require Informative and Effective Content for a Successful Blog

Now that you know several ways on how to come up with effective blog topics for your MSP, it’s time to start writing.

When you are writing your blogs, there are several tips to keep in mind:

• Stay objective on your topic
• Ensure the tone of the blog is conversational
• Give factual and educational content rather than doing a sales pitch of your products
• Make sure to update your blog on a consistent schedule – whether it is once a week, once a month or three times a week

Following those tips is just the first step in building a successful blog. Once you have several blog posts under your belt, make sure to check out the analytics of the post – such as page views, inbound links, time spent on the page, etc.

This will help determine which blogs are more useful to your consumers and which blogs are not. Content creation is an ongoing brainstorm, keep the ideas flowing and take chances.