1. Marketing Consulting Proposal
For:

2. Situation Analysis Fix and Repair Business Annual Revenue: $250K
In business 15 years, loyal customers
Avg customer size (10 empl)
Average customer value (??/yr)
No MRR revenue stream today
Annual Revenue: $250K
50% revenue from one source
Annual Gross Profit: 80K
Doing no marketing or lead gen
Not positioned for services, Website offline

3. Top Level Goals Implement managed services business model
Drive new business leads thru digital channels
Reduce dependence on 1 client (50% sales)
to 25% by end 2017, and 10% by 2018
Drive 15-20% Q-o-Q Sales Growth in 2H 17
Surpass $350K annual sales by end 2017
with 10-15% revenue coming from 35%+ GM

4. Presentation Agenda Digital Marketing Assessment
Marketing Strategy big picture
90 and 180 day action plan
Budget and next steps

5. Marketing Assessment
Quick assessment of your digital footprint, and first-impression highlights.

6. Independent website rating
NOT REALLY
Not implemented
correctly. Not
focused on
managed services
no SEO plugins
No visibility
NO Image ALTs
Not ranking
Askimet – OFF

7. Digital Marketing Assessment
This is a semi-empirical "first impressions" critique of your website and digital footprint.
Intended as a discussion entry point, to frame the action plan, and expected outcome.

8. Over 70 Factors Evaluated

9. First Impressions and Broken Stuff

10. Website - First Impressions
Seriously broken
Loads of clutter in WP
Example pages from AVADA
Should be deleted immediately
Makes it hard to see what you have
More than 1 day downtime is bad
Sending wrong message to Clients and Google…
Google indexing can’t get past first page
Telling Google you have NO CONTENT

11. I’ll Bet you $50 at 10:1 odds Recommend: Drop Studio3K Immediately
Studio3K will not deliver complete 10 page site…
before I complete this proposal
How can I be so sure they will fail?
Even their own website doesn’t work
Not deleting Avada example pages
Can’t write the copy you will need on pages
Failed to implement / fix fundamental things
SEO, Google analytics, Comment security, Alt text, 404 handling
Recommend: Drop Studio3K Immediately
I can fix all this fast, in a few days, get back online
The opportunity cost of downtime is worth 10x the delta
between my $25 rate and whatever you pay Studio3K

12. Important Avada THEME out of date
Lots of new features missing, better UI
But most important – security risks
4 step upgrade from 3.7 > 3.9 > 4.0 [ > 5.0]

13. No Google Analytics Should have Google Analytics Tracking info here.
Did anyone ever Create a
Google Analytics account?

14. Inappropriate Fav Icon
What is THIS,
when your COLORS
and Logo are
this – Shouldn’t it be
DVS

15. Market Size

16. Market Size By Business Size
Number of Firms, Number of Establishments, Employment, and Annual Payroll by Small Enterprise Employment Sizes in OHIO 2014
2014 Census Data – Have data for 5-50 employees by industry
TAM: 71,000 Establishments with 5-50 employees

17. Market Size By Business Size
Number of Firms, Number of Establishments, Employment, and Annual Payroll by Small Enterprise Employment Sizes for the OHIO, NAICS Sectors: 2014

18. More Work to Pick Target Verticals
From census data we can figure out the verticals with the highest number of businesses with employees
From this we should be able to focus on 2-3 verticals which you already have some experience and reference customers in.

19. Competitors

20. Google Page 1 Competition
With right site structure
20-30 pages and good SEO
should be able to rank on P1
for IT Managed Services; Managed IT Services and other key terms appended with Canton, maybe for Akron too!
ONLY 9 PAGES

21. IT Managed Services Examples
Lots of good examples to
borrow content and messaging from and improve, and to
learn what tactics they use
including emulating their Ads

22. PPC Ads and Landing Pages
Not a High Volume Term
But High Priced
Lots of good ads and LPs to
borrow message and ideas

23. Similar Intelligence for display Ads
With the right Intelligence tools we can …
…Learn from the best.
IBM, Dimension Data, Presidio ….
Then apply to local markets.

24. SEO

25. DVS is Not Ranking At All

26. Collective Keyword Volume
Rough estimate of 10,000 search /month for:
IT Managed Services
Managed IT services
Hosted voice services
Remote PC management
Remote PC support etc. etc.
Obviously only a fraction is from Ohio
Local companies will qualify search…
…with town name or state in search string
Must win the SEO battle, to get free traffic
Backlink important long term strategy
Can also use PPC competitively
Not industry terms (CPC $30-40)
Trigger on competitor brands (CPC $0.05-$0.50)
Need to research
long tail terms
and work hard
to do off-page and
on-page SEO

27. SEO for Local City Names is KEY
Liberal use of Canton, Akron and other city names
Must use throughout the website, on blogs, case study, testimonials, snippets and body copy.
TESTIMONIAL ILLUSTRATION
NOT LIKE THIS:
Data Voice Solutions (spelled out) in downtown Canton
LIKE THIS:
Alt image text: CEO of Sunrise Equipment, Canton, OHIO
Founder and CEO
Canton, Stark County, OH
no-follow, Hyperlink, with Canton, OHIO in alt Text

28. Say what YOU WANT Said
Testimonials should be planned (see slide 40 as well) you need a bunch of canned testimonials that say what you want your customers to say about you FEED testimonials to your best customers and get them to sign off on them.
Go back to those you have already -get them to sign off new-improved version.
Every customer visit is a sales opportunity.
Plan ahead and come back with SOMETHING on every call… a testimonial, a referral, a lead, a service improvement suggestion. WORK your customers for the next one.
Check for typos!!!
This one has a horrible
unintentional meaning!
Loses credibility… either user is
a moron (not like me the reader,
therefore this testimonial
doesn’t count as “birds of a
feather”), or you are a sloppy
worker for not spotting this!
Either way it’s a Lose!

29. Plugins and Tools You Need
Askimet – enable and configure
Thriveleads – list building
Yoast – SEO
Tweet this – for blog sharing
Testimonials – show testimonials nicely
Budget Marketing Automation Platform
e.g. Drip.co (recommended, because of integrations with other solutions, incl. Thrive)

30. Referring Links (AKA Backlinks)
Better than nothing
Your Business: datavoicesolutions.com
My Hobby: ecuadorbeaches.org

31. Backlinks mostly Directories
Local directories good! Well done!
Generally cheap or free. Lets find more.
Find local blog sites and guest blog on them
Some will allow Follow backlinks to you.
We need to create some bogus IDs and give you good reviews on some of these sites.
I have many IDs I can use.
But needs to be done over time.
Can’t suddenly have 10 reviews all on same day.

32. Social Media Channels

33. Social Media Channels to Focus on
LinkedIn wins hands down for your market

34. Social Media Profiles LinkedIn – not developed - important
Twitter – don’t have – low priority
Suggest building following of SMB owners in Canton, Akron etc. This can be done mostly on auto-pilot using tools – Doing so is free exposure
Facebook – don’t have – not important now
Others – don’t have – not important now
Youtube – In future we should have video
With right tactics, can often rank video…
… where you cannot rank a web-page.

35. LinkedIn Profile
Beef up Linkedin profile and encourage followers in your s and connects.
May be able to land-grab showcase pages
With your important keywords
Use channel to post blogs, news, case studies

36. Press and Local PR Didn’t find any activity
Local press coverage should be easy to get
Especially in relation to high/medium profile wins
First decent win is a good excuse to reach out to journalists with a Manages Services story

37. Chat Box
Done right your website can create the illusion that you are much larger than you really are.
Tools such as Web Chat Box contribute to the illusion.
However, unless you are deskbound, this means having an agent on your phone that alerts you if someone types in the chat box.
How do you feel about manning the chatbox on your smartphone during office hours (8-6)?
Do you live on your phone, or are you averse to texting and typing on your phone?

38. Testimonials and Customer Sat
You have a good collection of testimonials - Well done, and get more!
Should be spread strategically through the site.
Also we should develop a Customer satisfaction questionnaire that you use regularly after each engagement to gather new testimonials, and get immediate feedback loop for learning how to improve your service and damage control.
Also with best friends look at doing some video testimonials.
Get media / videography student from OHIO state to help, he builds portfolio, you get videos cheap.
Agree on package for 4 or 5 in one day - bring customers into studio setting – plan it, scripted questions …. Set Expectations / Scripts ahead of time - you want soundbite answers, NOT AIMLESS BLAAAH.

39. Web Summary: Fix Immediately
Get website back online ASAP
Configuration, plugins, analytics, copy – all broken
Define products and services
Service detail, testimonials etc for each service
Identify and profile target verticals
Break out each vertical onto a separate page
Implement lead-gen framework
Need low budget Marketing Automation and tools

40. Marketing Strategy

41. Marketing Strategy in a Nutshell
Focus on two or three vertical markets in Local area
Develop targeted messaging and campaigns for 2-3 verticals
Lead with 3 or 4 strategic service categories (Voice must be one)
Emphasis on inbound marketing (organic search, backlinks)
WHY: Organic traffic is the cheapest and easiest to obtain
HOW: Implement good copy, and good page hierarchy and break content into as many discrete pages as possible, plus Link building.
The bar is not very high, should be able to get on P1 for LOCAL searches which include local city name.
Larger than life professional website, and slick web-tools
Boost credibility with customers and boost authority with Google.
Over 6 months, expand and improve web content. Page volume is a key factor for search ranking. Much more emphasis on social proof.
Limited, highly targeted outbound marketing
LinkedIn advertising, Retargeting, , Competitive PPC

42. Local Competitor Vertical Focus
Dental
Legal
Doctor
Retail
OTHER
TBA
Food
Hospitality
YOU
ABC
DEF
GHI
Placeholder
to be completed as part
of on-going work

43. To be completed as part of on-going work
DVS Vertical Targets
Automotive (car dealerships, parts, repair)
Usually highly dependent on servers and apps
Healthcare (dental, doctors offices ….)
Mission critical, but not really, security yes
lot of competition here.
Real Estate? (lots of PCs and admin staff + lots of independent individuals that, the office admin could give you as leads)
To be completed as part
of on-going work

44. Local Competitor Service Focus
To be completed as part
of on-going work
Wi-Fi access is
HOT & strategic
Few pushing this…
PLUS my strong suit
Kinda Need this.
Esp for Medical

45. DVS Product / Service Offerings
3 or 4 strategic service categories illustration
Everything else falls underneath this…
THIS:
Wi-Fi and
Network Support
Voice and Telecoms Support
Applications and Systems Support
Network and Application Security
or THIS:
NETWORK
VOICE
SYSTEMS
SECURITY
or THIS:
DATA
VOICE
SOLUTIONS (apple/pear)
SERVICE (apple/pear)
SYSTEMS or
SECURITY
Playing on
your name
D V S

46. DVS Product / Service Offerings
Illustration of how this could be organized
Wi-Fi and
Network Support
Voice and Telecoms Support
Applications and Systems Support
Network and Application Security
Network moitor
Wi-Fi installation
Wi-Fi support
Social Login
Captive portal
Wi-Fi marketing
BOYD management
…..
Setting up DID
Voic
Handsets
Hosted PBX
IVR/ACS
PC support
Off-site backups
disaster recover
Sever maintenance
Server whatever
security
Server security
Network security
PC/Mobile secirty
Mobile Device Mgmt
Threat protection
Security training

47. Don’t need to know this all, NOW
Just settle on a general framework you feel comfortable with, and we’ll flesh out the subordinate content over time…
To get you back on the map fast, we’ll group stuff together loosely to start. Then we’ll sort, cross reference and subdivide until we have one page for each distinct service component.
e.g. A whole page about what Server Monitoring really means, what they get, service levels (4 hour, 12 hour etc) and having a price (not necessarily published) for this as a discrete managed service offering. Eventually all backed up with testimonials, blogs … all related to this topic, for the customers in your key verticals.
I imagine you will also have several discreet services rolled up into a bundled service (e.g. network, servers and desktop package – which is really a roll up of network monitoring, firewall security, security, desktop monitoring, xxx, yyy) with a bundle discount
See next page to understand how this plays out in terms of content

48. Vertical / Solution Matrix (for example)
Eventually fill in every cell in this matrix with something.
Orange cells represent actual pages (the minimum)
White cells represent things added to page, or link to from that page
See YELLOW CELL e.g. say you get a case study for a doctors clinic with a focus on network maintenance, that now goes on a page of its own, and gets created in PDF form as well… appearing as an asset on the medical page and on network support page… and any other page it is vaguely related to… until we have something even more focused to replace it with (on loosely related uses)
More granular
is even better
We get what
running a café
is about

49. Possible Online Quoting Tool
Can’t do this before your pricing is baked… but, could be a powerful lead gen catalyst in future (note – not in the plan)
Prospects like to get visibility of what pricing they may be in for. But no-one wants to publish their prices online…(I only noticed it on a few competitors) this is an opportunity.
We could create a simple quoting tool… that asks customer for some basic data and offers in return an instant quote
BTW I am EXPERT at TCO / ROI modelling – I’ll show you an example
The instant quote maybe responds with a top level number… but doesn’t explain the terms and conditions… or detail, thus prompting user to give you their address for you to send it to them, so they get more info. This could be fully automated. Great way to qualify propsects.

50. DVS Service Pricing Guidelines
General pricing strategies:
Cost Plus Price Match Value Pricing
Measure service costs and profitability of your price match offering, to know when to adjust upward.
Service Level and equivalent hourly rate:
Level 1 support ~ $80/hr – 95/hr
Level 2 support ~ $90/hr – 110 /hr
Level 3 support _~$100/hr – 120 hr
Often best for late
to market entrants
WHAT MOST
PEOPLE DO
EVOLVE TO HERE
WHERE PROFITS FLOW!
START HERE

51. How should you price the Services?
We need to fill in the blanks based on industry-wide and
local competitive analysis – this will happen as part of
the process of defining and describing each service offering

52. Which Services should You Offer?
This is a balancing act between: Services you must have to play, services you have unique skills / experience / ref customers in; Which are top growth areas: less competitive service categories in your Geo; more strategic functions that lead to consultative role.

53. Top Growth Areas
Best growing
Services
% of revenue by source

54. What’ Driving Managed Services
We need to message these drivers/trends in layman terms
for each industry using their industry language, and in your blogs

55. What do you sell to whom Depends somewhat on client maturity IMMATURE
GETTING THERE
MATURE
Sell Fix
and Repair
Promote
Manage Service
Sell per category
service agreements
Per device/ user
cost plus/ price
match pricing
Promote / Upsell Tier2
and Bundled Services
Sell bundle service
service agreements
with value pricing,
performance SLAs etc
Tier 3
Support
with SLA
guarantees
Tier 1
Support
Tier 2
Support
Tier 1 /2
Support

56. Template For a Maturity Matrix
Evaluate your customers against this…
See which ones you may be able to convert…
Need so how them why they’ll pay less, same or more and get better overall services.
Best way to introduce this is when there’s a environmental change catalyst.
Create this for your market
and use it to profile existing
customers and new prospects

57. General MSP Performance Yardsticks
What to be getting $100 per user per month
Higher service level gets higher retention
Therefore push for highest service level you can sell from the get go… and DELIVER
CUSTOMER RETENTION is EVERYTHING

58. Customer / Support Portal
Managed service offerings often provide user access to analytics via a Portal.
Even if you don’t offer this, need the illusion of a portal login, to make it feel real.
Easy to fake…until you need it.
Also need a way for clients to report trouble tickets and get immediate response.
Eventually implement real ticket system.

59. Service Level Response Time
Each Service level needs tiered response
1hr response, 4 hr response, 24 hr …
All (default) service pricing is priced with tier 1 service level. To keep list price at lowest point in range….over time, backfill support and upsell better service level.
Establish tiered pricing from outset… this is a profit maximizer… if you upsell customers to next tier on renewal. Every call out is opportunity to validate “is this fast-enough response for you?” there’s a faster option… you could trial it for (x months – enough time for 3 or 4 incidents) for a (tiny irresistibly low, trial fee) then roll over to it as standard.

60. What are your differentiators
You as a individual
your company
your services
A lot can be done on the website to make the service offering and value more clear than others do, more social proof, more comfort/less risk perception… but at the end of the day you still have to convince them why they should use your small company instead of that small company or worse, that slightly bigger one.
The obvious default: “our service is more personal” – is pretty flimsy!!!
This is the toughest part… for a small team, you simply cannot give them 24/7 * 4 hour response… but we need to find something to position you above everyone else that offers the same services.

61. Hence: For Q1 read 1H, Q2 Read 2H
Everything that follows is presented in terms of 90 / 180 Day Plan… However I don’t think you can afford this accelerated timeline
Depending on your risk aversity and budget, this may need to spread over a longer timeframe
Hence: For Q1 read 1H, Q2 Read 2H

62. 90 Day Action Plan! 90 day goals Complete looking website back online within 30 days Google P1 rank for IT Managed Services [Local Cityname] OH Marketing automation and list building framework in place Finger on pulse for Web and Funnel metrics

63. 90 Day Marketing Priorities
Focus is: Relaunch business as a bone-fide MSP
Improve credibility of website and sales tools
Implement tools and analytics needed on website
Define and implement product/service positioning
Implement effective SEO and get ranked
Get you back in the game and on digital map
Put minimum pieces in place for Q2 lead gen
Implement infrastructure to execute lead-gen
Create minimum lead bait for Q2 campaigns
Develop minimum for first outbound campaign

64. FIRST 30 Days Get Website Online
Get website back online properly configured
Strip away all the garbage
Configure analytics, plugins etc
Start building out minimum content for top level service categories. Expand on this over time, as each service becomes better defined.
Put minimum pieces in place for Q2 lead gen
Implement infrastructure to execute lead-gen
Create minimum lead bait for Q2 campaigns
Develop minimum for first outbound campaign

65. 90 Day Expected Outcome
This is a non-empirical "first impressions" critique of your website and digital footprint.
Intended as a discussion entry point, to frame the action plan, and expected outcome.

66. 90 Day Web Performance Goals
Web Metrics for 1st month post 90 Day Plan
Compared with benchmarks at start of project
Weekly Stats
Benchmark
Improvement
Bounce Rate %
Down 20%
Visitors
Up 10%
Page Views
Up 15%
Avg Time on Site
Up 25%
Referred Visitors %
Up 5%
Organic Visitors %
Up 30%
Social Media Relevance
How much will
this move the needle?
Placeholder

67. 90 Day Funnel Performance Goals
Funnel Metrics for 1st month post 90 Day Plan
Compared with benchmarks at start of project
Weekly Stats
Benchmark
Improvement
Leads/mth
Up 20%
Cost per lead
Down 40%
Conversion rate
Up 15%
Cost per customer (CPA)
Down 60%
Partner leads
Up 25%
Other enquiries
Up 10%
Orders volume
Average order value
How much will
this move the needle?
Placeholder

68. 180 Day Action Plan!

69. 180 Day Marketing Priorities
Execute lead gen campaigns (~50% of effort here)
Launch , LinkedIn and retargeting campaigns
Continue campaign development for nurturing
Possible competitive PPC campaign
Continue sales tools & content development
Will need 5-6 more assets thru remainder of year
Begin very low-level social media and backlinking
Mostly driven around blogs, to increase domain authority.
Blog topics: How to…, Did you know…, 10 tips…Security FUD, Horror stories
Not heavy thought leadership, more in-the-field tips
Based on recent real-world realities uncovered in the field
Backlinking strategies including guest blogs
Extent of SM is blog sharing, and follower building
Beef up Social Proof with Testimonials
Develop focused case studies, testimonials, survey tool
For one or more of your target verticals
More detail to follow nearer end of phase one

70. Expected Outcome after 180 Days
This is a non-empirical "first impressions" critique of your website and digital footprint.
Intended as a discussion entry point, to frame the action plan, and expected outcome.

71. Specific Activities and Deliverables

72. Specific Activities and Deliverables

73. Budget Estimate Over-budget for everything in 2 quarters!
Obviously need front loaded a lot of work
All doable in 12 mths, plan $25-30K budget

74. How Will you Pay For That?
ROI will come from:
Organic enquiries from website from Q2
Shorter sales cycle due to better tools
Improved close rate, face to face
Ability to command higher pricing
Accounts with MRR going into 2018

75. Division of Responsibilities
10-20 hrs/wk
5- 10 hrs/wk
hrs/wk
TBA
Marketing
Sales
Service
Support
Mark or
someone else
Keith
Keith +
Part Time Partner
Keith then Future desk bound guy
Website
Qualifying
Leads
Fulfilling everything you sold to customer and making them happy
Fielding support calls
Branding
Closing new Accounts
Selecting platforms and tools for optimizing service delivery
Proactive Support
Content
Upselling Fixed / Repair to MRR
Service Definion and pricing continuous reevaluations
Back office net design, configuration
Lead Gen
Contract Nogotiations
Backoffic H/W or S/W support
Social / PR
Asking for Testimonials
Pricing
Service Pricing

76. Next Steps NOW Then One Final Step
Proposal review meeting
Discuss verticals, services, goals
Review budget and timing
Then One Final Step

77. Final Step is a Committed Plan
A realistic plan you are prepared to fund!
GET FROM THIS
BUDGET ESTIMATE
A PRACTICAL, ACTIONABLE
EXECUTION PLAN with TIMELINE TO
AND TASK LIST

78. Marketing Plan Conclusion
Now you have a strategy
How you’ll define, select and price your services
The services you are going to lead with
Which vertical markets you will target
How your are going to reach that market
Primarily: Winning in SEO, , Linkedin, Backlinks
Now you have a plan
The timeline of what we will get done by when
Now you have a budget
Bottoms up tasks list provides some confidence it is costed right, and you have an actionable plan within your budget.