Last-Minute Marketing Magic

[00:00:02] Welcome to the Powered Services Podcast, your go-to source for all things MSP. Each episode, we're diving deep into the world of MSPs, exploring cutting-edge solutions, strategies, and insights that empower you to supercharge your services.

[00:00:23] Join us as we connect with industry experts, thought leaders, and tech visionaries who are reshaping the managed services landscape.

[00:00:32] Plug in, power up, and prepare to elevate your MSP game to the next level. Now, here's your host, Dan Tomaszewski.

[00:00:46] Greetings, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Powered Services Podcast.

[00:00:51] So excited to have you with us today as we're going into another marketing strategy.

[00:00:58] You know, we're trying to end the year, trying to end 2024 with a whole bunch of different things that MSPs are doing to really move the needle when it comes to marketing, branding.

[00:01:08] Our last episode, we dove into Google reviews.

[00:01:12] Hopefully, you took something out of that and are looking at your Google reviews and seeing where you're at.

[00:01:17] Today, you know, I love going into topics.

[00:01:20] You know, I hear all the time MSPs get invited to events, you know, last minute in some cases.

[00:01:26] And everyone's always scrambling, what can I do?

[00:01:29] And our next guest was invited to some events and last minute and needed to pull some things together.

[00:01:36] And the strategy and the idea behind it and just how she implemented it was outstanding.

[00:01:41] So I'm excited to have Annette Slavik with me today, vice president of Prodigy.

[00:01:47] And she's going to walk us through what took place.

[00:01:51] And I think you're going to love the ideas that she came up with and how she handled that.

[00:01:56] So, Annette, thank you so much for being with us today.

[00:01:59] Super excited to have you on the podcast.

[00:02:02] Hey, Dan.

[00:02:03] Thank you for having me.

[00:02:04] Yeah, so let's talk about this for a second.

[00:02:07] And let's walk people through, you know, I'm going to call it punny marketing because I think it's what I heard you say before.

[00:02:15] You got, let's tee it up.

[00:02:18] You got called to do an event last minute.

[00:02:20] Let's take our listeners through that.

[00:02:21] Like explain what happened and, you know, how all of a sudden you had to scramble.

[00:02:26] But how did that come about?

[00:02:29] So we were invited to do a security event.

[00:02:35] And one of our clients actually recommended us for this event.

[00:02:41] So it was a really great honor to be thought of by our clients and saying, hey, you're really great for us.

[00:02:48] So why don't you do this event for the rest of the diocese?

[00:02:51] And we're like, okay, great.

[00:02:52] The problem was we only had a handful of days to get it all together.

[00:02:58] And we were definitely not prepared for an event.

[00:03:02] We were very uninformed as in how many people are we going to be surrounded by.

[00:03:08] We didn't know.

[00:03:11] We had no clue what this event was going to be like.

[00:03:14] We had never been at one before.

[00:03:15] So we were kind of going in blind.

[00:03:21] Yeah.

[00:03:21] But at the end of the day, it was an opportunity that we could not miss.

[00:03:27] So we just, we had to go with the flow and figure it out.

[00:03:31] And we had to figure it out really quickly.

[00:03:33] Yeah.

[00:03:34] And look, though, congratulations on just taking the step, though.

[00:03:37] So many of us in the MSP world, the opportunities hit us and we're not ready.

[00:03:42] And we say no because we're not ready.

[00:03:44] But instead of saying no, you said, let's go forward.

[00:03:47] We'll figure this out.

[00:03:48] And we're going to come up with something.

[00:03:50] And excuse me, that something will be better than not doing it and missing the opportunity.

[00:03:56] So I think first and foremost, that's the thing that a lot of us in the MSP world, opportunities do hit us.

[00:04:02] And you got to swing the bat when they're there because we can't just pass them up.

[00:04:07] Because you don't know how many of those we're going to get.

[00:04:09] So let's walk people through the process.

[00:04:11] You know, I know you, you know, from whether it's giveaways, branding, the swag type of things you do, you did at the event.

[00:04:19] Let's walk through.

[00:04:20] What did you end up coming up with?

[00:04:22] Because like you said, you only had a couple of days.

[00:04:24] What did you come up with?

[00:04:25] And let's talk people through that.

[00:04:28] Awesome.

[00:04:29] So, yeah, I was kind of scrambling.

[00:04:33] And I'm on every possible website that you could think of that those personalized, you know, pens, bags, everything.

[00:04:41] And I was like, OK, so how quickly can I get quantities of this?

[00:04:47] And, you know, if we do express shipping, will we get it in time?

[00:04:51] And the reality was, you know, maybe with the exception of like 7000 pencils, we really couldn't get anything with our name or brand on it.

[00:05:02] So I had to kind of switch gears and say, well, what can we do to really get our brand out there and get it done quickly?

[00:05:12] But then also, how do we collect the leads?

[00:05:16] Because at the end of the day, that's what we want.

[00:05:19] We want more leads.

[00:05:20] We want to be able to have someone to market to.

[00:05:27] I'm not going to get any clients that day.

[00:05:30] But the reality is, is as I keep them warm, call them up again, you know, get them in my email system, then at least I have something to go to.

[00:05:40] So. So first I started with branding, I had a retractable like banner made and then I made matching brochures just with some information on there.

[00:05:58] But everything was themed in our colors and our our logo.

[00:06:02] Everything looked exactly the same down to the tablecloth.

[00:06:06] Like it's just a tablecloth.

[00:06:08] It wasn't personalized, but everything looked alike.

[00:06:11] And so that was our one of my goals was to get our brand out there.

[00:06:17] So then I had to think about, well, how do we get people to our table and how do we collect these leads?

[00:06:27] Right.

[00:06:27] So I thought of the giveaway.

[00:06:29] Anyway, this was coming into fall.

[00:06:33] So I know I live in Florida.

[00:06:36] However, it's still fall.

[00:06:39] And, you know, when you think of fall, you think of at least I do, you know, like bonfires and things like that, you know, just like sitting outside.

[00:06:47] And it does cool down a touch down here.

[00:06:51] So I thought, you know, how cool would it be to do like a little giveaway based on that?

[00:06:56] So I put together a little gift basket with a solo stove and a s'mores kit.

[00:07:04] And that's kind of how we came out with the giveaway.

[00:07:07] And it's we'd like to get to know you some more.

[00:07:12] And then we collected all of the names.

[00:07:14] We had little they could either drop out their business cards or fill out one of our little forms.

[00:07:20] And it just collected their general information, the names, phone numbers, emails, what organization they worked for.

[00:07:28] So we were able to collect those leads in that way.

[00:07:34] And then from there, once I got John on board with with the puns, it was downhill from there.

[00:07:44] I was just like, OK, well, let's roll with this.

[00:07:46] What else can we do to kind of, you know, I'm a teacher at heart.

[00:07:53] And one way to grasp everyone's attention is always to be corny because, you know, they groan and they roll their eyes.

[00:08:01] But at the same time, it's it's memorable.

[00:08:04] And so that's kind of where the inspiration came for the rest of the products.

[00:08:10] It's yeah, but you I mean, one of the things you said, though, that is like, you know, the s'mores.

[00:08:17] We want to get you to know you more like it's a it's creative, you know, and if I'm walking through it, if I think about it, no matter where you're at, if I was at a golf, a trade show, you know, wherever.

[00:08:28] And I go back and I go, you know what?

[00:08:30] There was 13 IT companies at an event.

[00:08:32] But this one, they had some fun like they were all into it.

[00:08:36] They they will remember the pun.

[00:08:38] They'll remember what you did.

[00:08:40] And they may not remember the other places that all looked and feel the same.

[00:08:44] And I think that what you did there from a branding perspective, top like key, like you said, the brochures to the table to everything all looked and feel the same.

[00:08:53] It's what we teach a lot.

[00:08:55] You got to keep consistent branding.

[00:08:56] You did that, but then you had fun with it.

[00:08:59] So now people people will remember your brand when they see it in emails.

[00:09:04] They'll remember it when they see it in other social wherever they see your name, your logo.

[00:09:10] They're going to always be able to kind of tie that back to the fun that you had at the event.

[00:09:15] And so I think that that's a big step.

[00:09:17] And a lot of times that's a step that we miss is how do we differentiate ourselves when we go to these different types of things?

[00:09:24] So I love the idea.

[00:09:26] I think it was it's creative.

[00:09:28] And you did a couple other items, too.

[00:09:30] So can we talk about those?

[00:09:32] Like because you went all into the camp, like, you know, that theme of what we would be doing.

[00:09:37] And I think it's cool that you went all in on it.

[00:09:40] So let's let's talk about the other items.

[00:09:42] Yeah.

[00:09:43] Yeah.

[00:09:43] So basically the idea of the giveaway is great, but that's only going to go home with one person.

[00:09:50] Right.

[00:09:51] So how do I get everyone else who is entering to remember who I am if they're not the ones receiving the solo stove?

[00:10:02] So, again, we didn't have time to get like personalized bags, but we put together like little just white gift bags with our brand on it.

[00:10:10] And then inside and on the table, we had some edibles, edibles, you know, just snacks.

[00:10:21] We had I made little snack size Doritos with a sticker on it that said Prodigy is Nacho Average IT Company.

[00:10:29] so you know the whole nacho cheese kind of um pun there um we did popcorn thanks for popping in to

[00:10:38] see us and then we also had little gum packets um it was extra gum so what we did with that one was

[00:10:47] the difference between ordinary and extraordinary extraordinary is that little prodigy extra

[00:10:54] so it's just in my mind the way i was thinking about it was okay so they're gonna come see us and then

[00:11:02] when they go home they're gonna forget about us but now they're going to reach for a snack whether

[00:11:07] it's at home or it's at the workplace or whatever or hey you know i i really want a piece of gum or

[00:11:12] whatever it is and now they have us and they're like oh that's right this company was uh you know

[00:11:19] i saw at this one event they were really cool and that was kind of my whole point was

[00:11:27] why stop here why not let them remember us later on and you know and you pack pack in a bunch of

[00:11:34] these snacks into each of these bags and it's not just going to be like we ate the snack and it's

[00:11:40] done it's they've got more and more to go and then they're sharing it with others and so that was kind

[00:11:45] of the whole point is why stop here and let's keep going and that's that was the whole thought process

[00:11:54] behind it and again meanwhile branding everything with our name with our logo um all of all of the

[00:12:00] giveaways had something to do with prodigy or our logo and consistently with our color scheme so um

[00:12:08] i had a lot of i had a lot of fun with this maybe more than i should have but um yeah this is this

[00:12:15] is and you know like this is me i am a really corny everything corny mom corny teacher corny

[00:12:25] in any way shape and form and um i think i this was an opportunity for me to embrace it and kind of see

[00:12:34] where is this going to take us does this actually work um since we were just kind of testing the

[00:12:42] waters so to speak in in this event i kind of thought why not take the risk and see where it takes us

[00:12:49] so we had um excellent response oh pretty much everyone who came up to the table was just um

[00:12:59] giggling at some at one of these you know it was like oh my gosh that's so creative oh i love this you

[00:13:05] know uh it was constantly really great feedback um and it was clear to see that we were definitely

[00:13:12] the most popular table there so uh we were at one out of three it companies in the whole security event

[00:13:19] so it was pretty nice to see that that the branding and and just um our personalities that

[00:13:28] really showed and reflected in this event it drew people to us so um gave us a lot of confidence too

[00:13:36] yeah i'll tell you something the big thing and you just said some of it if there's three other it

[00:13:42] companies or there's three it companies at an event people want to do business with people they don't

[00:13:48] want to go into a process where it's long drawn out um you know or they can't relate to them and the

[00:13:58] things that you did make you relatable it makes you human for a lot of folks and not this oh my gosh i

[00:14:05] don't know what a dns server is what a gateway is what all these things are and it's very intimidating

[00:14:10] for people to want to even talk to an it company but you embrace you embraced something that made it to

[00:14:17] whereas all these guys are fun like i can talk to them i'm probably not going to ask them something

[00:14:23] and make myself feel like stupid you know what i mean and i think a lot i hear that a lot of people

[00:14:27] are like i don't ever want to ask you this because i don't want to feel stupid because i don't know the

[00:14:31] things you know but when you come to them at their level and you humanize your marketing you humanize

[00:14:37] your brand you'll start to see that people come to you more and they start to remember you more

[00:14:43] and when those opportunities strike because like you said in the very beginning is you weren't coming

[00:14:48] into this to sign a deal at the event you're coming into these events to really structure yourself for

[00:14:55] the future and that is when the opportunity is right whether they're in an agreement and their

[00:15:01] agreements ending or whether they're looking to get into an agreement they don't have something

[00:15:05] you want you and your brand to be the things they remember and those activities you did were there

[00:15:10] and you said it people were coming to the booth and telling you this is awesome i love this this is cool

[00:15:15] this is clever and probably some of the people that came to your booth they're going to do it at their event

[00:15:20] their next one because they want to do those things so what uh was there any other results

[00:15:26] like i think you and i were talking before and it sounds like you were even asked to come and do another

[00:15:31] event um you know did it allow you to have any follow-up conversations or do you have follow-up

[00:15:37] conversations or did you build your your crm up even more at this event like kind of talk through some

[00:15:42] of the results yeah so um the event wasn't overly large but by the counts of it we had approximately

[00:15:53] 40 percent of the attendees that became new leads for us um so that was i mean that was huge we we've

[00:16:02] never done an event like this ever before so just to get that many leads was amazing for us um and we have

[00:16:12] been following up um we we were kind of interrupted a little bit um because shortly after this event

[00:16:21] was when our area kind of suffered through some you know some of the hurricanes but uh the good news is

[00:16:29] that we had been um invited to come back and do another one of these events for a different part of

[00:16:35] the county so um although that's been delayed a little bit we are still on the books to do that as

[00:16:41] soon as it is rescheduled um and i'm really excited because now we can take this and any and build on it

[00:16:48] like it's a concept that i can continue to build on um continue to grow and just kind of maybe stay

[00:16:53] consistent with the branding um but the fact that we were invited back to something that

[00:17:00] was so last minute and you know we were still really popular for i was just so ecstatic to

[00:17:09] to see that we had an impact enough to be like hey you know these guys know what they're talking about

[00:17:15] yeah so let's uh i like to ask this question to everybody that comes on you know so we talk about

[00:17:22] it sounds fun all these things but i'm sure you had some challenges i mean the challenge one was is

[00:17:27] you had like a day or two to do this and you're rushing around but like were there any other

[00:17:33] challenges that you faced when implementing this or like what did you learn that you know from this

[00:17:38] process you know that someone that's listening going she's making it sound really easy was there

[00:17:43] any challenges in terms of trying to figure out items or obtaining items the branding for those like

[00:17:49] you know how to how were you able to overcome that and do that pretty quick i mean time was definitely

[00:17:56] our biggest challenge um not having the you know a good amount of time to get things together and really

[00:18:05] make it as pristine as i would have liked it that was probably my biggest challenge so i had to

[00:18:12] kind of drop some of my perfectionism um then find like you know finding the actual items and finding

[00:18:19] them in bulk thankfully we have you know a costco really close by so yeah uh costco became my best

[00:18:25] friend you know um amazon anything that i could get from amazon overnight was coming to my house i

[00:18:31] mean we were there was zero time to to rest it was full force you know from the second we find

[00:18:40] found out until we did this there wasn't a lot of sleep going on you know in the meantime we're

[00:18:44] trying to run the business we're trying to um you know we still have a family to take care of and all

[00:18:49] that kind of stuff so time was our biggest kind of um challenge however it was also just kind of

[00:18:57] letting go of not being perfect and understanding that this was just kind of let's see how it goes um

[00:19:05] and then really not knowing how this was going to be received because it is really untraditional

[00:19:12] i mean any events that we've ever gone to you don't really see humor you don't everything is just very

[00:19:22] branded to to you know uh that specific kind of company and and it's usually uh you know popular

[00:19:31] items or or useful things pens notebooks cups things like that and so this was a very um this was a big

[00:19:39] risk and and that in itself was a huge challenge to be able to take the risk and see where is this

[00:19:45] going to take us is this going to work or is this going to be a big flop because you know that's always

[00:19:52] that that can always happen and um i mean you just have to be confident and i don't know that i was

[00:19:59] confident but i think you are now like if you were asked to go do another event and you just say you had

[00:20:05] 90 days to prepare versus three days would you still embrace into the puns and the the fun thing

[00:20:10] because it seems like the response was there like would you change that strategy um no i don't think so

[00:20:18] i i i really feel like this was a great way to stand out and like you said to really humanize ourselves

[00:20:27] and kind of just be like hey we're just normal people we're just part of the community like everyone

[00:20:32] else um maybe i could you know make it more personal and actually have it branded um you know

[00:20:41] professionally versus me having to slap on stickers and things like that but maybe you'll

[00:20:46] have custom labels done or something you'll have labels done that you can go and put on those items

[00:20:51] that are off of rolls or whatever but like you know you're going to still embrace what it is just

[00:20:56] maybe up the level of you know quality of the things that you're able to do absolutely

[00:21:01] yeah i think that this is um for us this was definitely something that um actually helped us

[00:21:09] as well because because we weren't uh trying to give away you know things that we maybe not necessarily

[00:21:19] would have loved to get ourselves um it made us feel comfortable because i'm like you know

[00:21:24] nobody gets uncomfortable around doritos yeah and so we were able to kind of drop our guard and just

[00:21:31] be be ourselves so i think in a lot of ways it yeah it drew people in for us but it also helped us

[00:21:39] to be ourselves yeah i i remember you know you talked about getting involved in the community and

[00:21:45] standing out and all of that and i think that's really good advice um in the terms of like what did

[00:21:51] you learn um i think you know i did a photo booth at like our local trunk retreats and a lot of people

[00:21:58] thought why would an it company buy a photo printer that you go to the mall and you see people take

[00:22:03] pictures and all that we did it and we put our logo on the pictures and every year at the trunk retreat

[00:22:09] we had like a little backdrop with some pumpkins and straw bales and people sat down and every year

[00:22:14] they came back they wanted their picture their family picture and we became known for that and people

[00:22:20] appreciated the fact that like you said we humanized ourself and we had fun with it and it embraced who

[00:22:28] we were and i can tell you that that was a big part of the success that i had and i think it's a big part

[00:22:34] of the success you're going to have too with all of these different strategies as you continue to

[00:22:38] embrace them is people realize that you're a really good person and i think i've said that multiple times

[00:22:43] but i think it's really important that all of you think about this that are listening is

[00:22:48] how in your marketing are people getting to know you how through the efforts in the community

[00:22:55] are people getting to know you and your staff it's so vital you're asking people in some cases that run

[00:23:02] multi-million dollar businesses to want to do business with you and they don't even know you and

[00:23:07] they have to get that trust and one way to get to the trust is humanizing yourself and a lot

[00:23:13] of us don't do that and uh really again congratulations to you guys on that um as we wrap this podcast up

[00:23:22] you know we've talked about challenges we talked about what did you learn you know is there any advice

[00:23:28] that you would give an msp that says there's no way i could do this on a couple day notice or

[00:23:33] i got asked to go do something you know you know last minute like what advice would you give

[00:23:39] someone that's an msp that maybe has never done anything before and they're like there's no way

[00:23:45] there's just no way i could do this um there's there's so much first of all take the risk i mean

[00:23:53] if you've been asked to be at an event you have to do it if you've been asked to be there

[00:23:59] there's absolutely no reason not to take that opportunity um so first of all definitely take the

[00:24:06] risk and then also um just be yourself like if there was the greatest lesson that i think we took

[00:24:13] away from this was we were able to be ourselves for once we were always so nervous and trying to make

[00:24:20] sure that we're saying the right thing and and uh you know leaving an impact we're so worried about it

[00:24:28] but in this case it was so nice to kind of drop that card and so when you are yourself and i think

[00:24:35] like you've been saying dan just like humanizing that part of you i am just a normal person that

[00:24:42] happens to do it really really well so that's all people want to know is that you're just a regular

[00:24:49] person you're you're not going to speak in a language that they don't understand um and and be

[00:24:56] completely comfortable with who you are you know whether you're the funny one whether you're not

[00:25:02] it doesn't really matter just be yourself um and then embrace that and do whatever it is that you have

[00:25:09] to do to get to this event whether it's funny marketing or anything else to just brand yourself

[00:25:16] get out there do it and be yourself um and you won't regret it i mean one lead is one lead more

[00:25:24] than you had yesterday so what's you know what's the problem there i don't get it yeah and look you

[00:25:30] did another great thing too is is that you are building your crm like you said that 40 of the people

[00:25:35] that filled out are new leads for you so at that event at a bare minimum when you go into things

[00:25:41] you can't go into things thinking you're signing a contract there you're going into things to build

[00:25:46] your funnel and we want to get people that are coming in that are going to be top of the funnel

[00:25:50] and we want to get people that eventually work their way down the funnel um through the rest of

[00:25:55] our marketing and the memorable things that we're doing so great advice and annette i just want to

[00:26:00] say thank you to you for coming on and and having this conversation with me i need to like turn this

[00:26:06] into like this is not your average podcast or something and start giving away like doritos to

[00:26:11] like our listeners uh but i appreciate you coming on and sharing your your practices

[00:26:16] with everybody today so um thank you thank you so much for having me on dan all right everybody and

[00:26:25] that's it for this episode of the powered services podcast uh until next time everybody have a great day

[00:26:33] and that's a wrap for today's episode of the powered services podcast with dan tomaszewski

[00:26:40] we hope you're leaving with your mind buzzing with new ideas and strategies to revolutionize your

[00:26:46] msp offerings don't forget to subscribe for more insights and join us next time as we continue to

[00:26:53] decode the complexities of managed services until then keep powering through and remember the future

[00:27:01] of msp is bright and fully charged thank you for listening and stay connected