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Welcome to Episode 288 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green. This week…

• 3 wins for MSPs on LinkedIn right now: LinkedIn is the hottest place for MSPs to go prospecting, the only snag is the algorithm changes. Here are three algorithmic wins for MSPs on LinkedIn right now.


• Does your MSP’s marketing have personality?: It’s hard to differentiate your MSP from your competitors, but one of the ways that you can do this is by making sure there’s real personality in all of your marketing.


• MSPs: How to sell unwanted client contracts: Could the process of finding new clients or getting rid of unwanted ones be as simple as ordering on Amazon or selling old clothes on Vinted? My guest has developed a hassle-free way to buy and sell managed service contracts.


• Paul’s Personal Peer Group: A common question I get asked is how often should we post on LinkedIn. The answer may surprise you…

3 wins for MSPs on LinkedIn right now

Have no doubt, LinkedIn is the hottest place for MSPs to go prospecting right now. It’s been that way for a few years and I can’t see that changing.

Why? Because every possible prospect you could ever do business with is already there on LinkedIn. And you have access to the tools to connect with them, get your content in front of them, and ultimately build a relationship before they’re ready to switch MSPs.

The only snag with LinkedIn is that the algorithm changes and what worked a few years ago isn’t quite as powerful today.

Let me tell you three wins for MSPs on LinkedIn right now.

My team and I produce a lot of content intended for use on LinkedIn, and that’s for our MSP Marketing Edge members. Now of course, it can be used across lots of different social networks, but as I just said, LinkedIn is it. It’s the easiest and most accessible platform to access decision makers, the ordinary business owners and managers that you want to reach. And a couple of times a year, we do a bit of a deep dive on what’s going on in the algorithm at the moment. Because as you know on LinkedIn, the performance of your content is very much dependent on what the algorithm is trying to reward at that time. And you can see this change over the years if you use the platform regularly, In fact, any platform. I’ve noticed in the last few months that engagement in my Facebook groups has completely fallen off a cliff. And that’s nothing I’ve done and it’s nothing to do with the members of those groups, it’s just something that someone, somewhere, some vice president at Facebook has tweaked the algorithm and if I wait a few weeks, that engagement will come back. This has happened five or six times over the last 10 years or so. But anyway, back to LinkedIn and these are some of the wins that we’ve noticed from our research which are making a difference right now. I’ve got three of them for you.

Win number one is to upload a PDF carousel. PDFs are performing very well on LinkedIn. They actually look beautiful when you see them in your feed on LinkedIn and they’re kind of easy to use as well, you just upload a document. The trick is to have carousels with many pages, aim for around about 12 pages, but each page only has a tiny amount of information on it. I mean, I’m talking literally like one sentence, half a sentence on each page. The idea is that people tap through to see something that you’re trying to say and you just say it one sentence at a time. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap 12 pages or more on your PDF carousel.

Win number two is to write longer human comments. So that means when you are commenting on other people’s posts, you write something of substance, not just Hey, great post. In fact, if you write more than 10 words, that can have up to two times the impact of a comment with less than 10 words. But please don’t use AI for commenting. It’s kind of obvious when you’ve just written something with AI. The goal is to actually say something and use your authentic voice and your authentic personality.

And then finally win number three, and this is a weird one, you should like your own post. So you post something on LinkedIn and you like it. That does feel very weird, I’ve done it myself, feels very strange to do. But from all the research that we’ve done looking around and remember, we don’t know what LinkedIn’s algorithm is, all we’ve got is based on what people are seeing, and if you see lots of trends across the web, then the chances are that that’s the way the algorithm has worked. So we believe there is an algorithmic benefit right now of you liking your own post.

Does your MSP’s marketing have personality?

Same, same, same.

I look at lots of MSP’s websites and they all look the same.

But so what, is that a problem? Is there a link between an MSP’s samey looking website and the ability to find new clients and earn more money? And if there is a link, what can be done about it?

Let’s unpack the connection between sales and your website, find a simple solution to fix bad websites and how you can easily differentiate from the 40,000 other MSPs out there.

It’s hard to differentiate your MSP from your competitors, but one way that you can do this is by making sure there’s real personality in all of your marketing.

I got something by email a few weeks back that’s really made me smile. It’s from a UK gifting website, I think I bought something from them. And sure this is a consumer example rather than B2B, but it’s certainly different.

The subject line of the email I received said, You’ve got a message from the big boss. And then the content says Hello, I just wanted to say hi, and thank you for signing up to our newsletter. I’m Philip, I’m the boss of Firebox (that’s the name of the company) and you won’t hear loads from me because I’m super busy and important, (I thought that was nice), but I thought I’d let you know that we’ll now be sending you 48 emails a week (and then actually they’d cross that out and replaced it with) we’ll be sending you the occasional roundup of the coolest new stuff we’ve found plus exclusive offers only available to subscribers.

Okay, so that might not be to your personal liking, but it’s very consistent with the style of the Firebox website and their emails. It’s all packed with personality and we can assume it’s the personality of Philip, the boss. There are some MSP examples that I’ve come across over the years that get that personality across in exactly the same way. And the first one that jumps to mind is Christian Fleming of Northstar IT here in the UK. He’s been on the podcast in the past and his marketing is themed all around Star Trek.

His commitment to that theme is very impressive, and I know it gives him a massive advantage in a very busy marketplace because it’s really easy for business owners and managers to say, Hey, you’re the Star Trek IT guys. Does it put off some people? Well, yes, of course it will. But that’s a good thing because when you turn off some people, you automatically attract other people. You want people to have an opinion about your MSP that’s been formed through your marketing. And it’s better that they have an opinion, in fact a negative or a positive opinion about you, than no opinion at all.

Here in the UK we call this Marmite marketing. So Marmite is this delicious food spread and you either love it or hate it. It’s made from yeast extract. Well, Marmite has actually been using that “love it or hate it” as their marketing slogan since 1996. If your marketing is bland, you’re making it too hard for people to form an opinion about you. And seeing as decision makers pick a new MSP based on how they feel about them, if they can’t form an opinion on you, you’re making it too hard for them to pick you.

My final thoughts on this, if you’re going to put personality into your marketing, it must be an authentic personality, and that probably means your personality. This isn’t something that your website designer can invent for you. It’s not something your marketing agency can create. The personality in your marketing must be authentic and it must be consistent. And that’s really easy to do when it’s based on a real human, like you.

MSPs: How to sell unwanted client contracts

Featured guest: Matt Yesbeck is a seasoned technology professional with 28 years of experience in the Richmond, VA tech industry. Over nearly three decades, he has built a reputation for delivering strategic IT solutions, streamlining business operations, and empowering organisations through technology.

Driven by an entrepreneurial mindset, he and his son Gage founded MSPX (www.mspx.store) to provide innovative contract marketplace for managed service providers (MSPs). Recognising a growing need for dedicated Apple and Microsoft IT support for SMBs, he launched Yesteck IT Services (www.yesteck.io) in 2024. As co-founder, he leads business development, marketing, and sales, ensuring Yesteck delivers responsive, expert-level IT solutions that businesses can rely on.

Thanks to technology, everything in our lives is easier, but ironically, not so much for MSPs. Why can’t the process of finding new clients be as simple and hassle-free as ordering on Amazon or selling old clothes o