It’s rare to start a business that merges both your own passion and your spouse’s passion. In 2010, that’s exactly what we did. My wife’s background in health care and my knowledge of solving IT issues came together to form US Medical IT, providing IT support for the medical community of the Dallas–Fort Worth area.
Hungry for more clients and to streamline our marketing process, we joined TMT and went through our first Rapid Implementation Workshop five years ago. Because we were expanding our services to non-health-care clients, one of our first marketing actions was to rebrand as USM Technology.
USM Technology
This past May we decided to build upon the success of our previous workshop. Therefore, along with our marketing manager, Jenny Chen, I participated in my SECOND Rapid Implementation Workshop. Since that workshop, Jenny and I have leveraged cross-selling to our clients, improved our technology business review process and frequency, focused on list-cleaning to impact direct mail results and strengthened my celebrity exposure.
A Direct Mail MACHINE, We Are Consistently Booking First-Time Appointments!
I firmly believe in direct marketing. In fact, we’ve been using Robin’s proven direct mail campaigns for five years now. We made progress by LANDING MULTIPLE APPOINTMENTS through the Aspirin campaign and Closer Look campaign, which resonated with office managers and doctors alike.
After the pandemic, we launched the Sneaky Duck campaign, Poker Chip campaign and modified Godfather campaign, highlighting our unique strengths and generating promising opportunities. (All of these campaigns are available on the Dashboard.)
Out of the marketing efforts we are doing, our Co-Managed IT direct mail campaign has seen more success since we switched to blue window envelopes. This unique wrinkle made our mailers stand out in a sea of white envelopes. We also recently upgraded from TMT’s Marketing Automated Platform to MAP 2.0, and we are thrilled that it has greatly improved the flow and efficiency of our campaigns. Through our direct mail efforts, we landed SEVEN FIRST-TIME APPOINTMENTS!
How Does One Make 6,905 Phone Calls? Angelo.
Hyperproactive. That’s how I would describe our new commitment to following up by phone as well as making calls for list-cleaning. Although we first tried it with in-house dialers, we found success with the outsourcing IT specialists Scalable OS. Not only do they help you to hire one of their Philippines candidates, but they also manage all the issues related to having one of your employees working out of the Philippines, including HR, hardware, taxes, holidays, etc.
After interviewing multiple candidates, we found Angelo. Every time we give him a list, he hammers through it fast. In just 100 days since the Rapid Implementation Workshop, Angelo has helped us make 6,905 phone calls! This includes 5,358 calls for direct mail follow-ups and 1,547 calls for list-cleaning.
Making A Name For Ourselves Throughout Texas
True to what Robin teaches, we’ve discovered that by growing your celebrity and authority, you also grow your trust and influence. As part of TMT’s Trust-Based Marketing program, I was recently featured on the cover of MSP Success magazine with basketball legend Magic Johnson. Adding even more celebrity exposure, Texas CEO magazine will soon publish a cyber security article I wrote.
Delivering A Little “Shock-And-Awe” With Our Newfound Celebrity, Authority And Trust
Before meeting with a potential client, it’s difficult to convey your celebrity and authority through a ho-hum e-mail. It doesn’t elevate your brand. It doesn’t allow you to stand apart. That’s why Jenny has designed our custom Shock-And-Awe box, complete with our new USM Technology branding and logo. Among other marketing materials are credibility enhancers, including the MSP Success magazine featuring me, as well as our FBI briefing document to educate about cybercrime dangers.
While mailing or hand-delivering a physical Shock-And-Awe box is optimal, sending an Online Shock-And-Awe presentation also works. Then, when we meet with the prospect, they already know about our strengths and why we are trustworthy.
Parlaying An FBI-Led Cyber Security Event Into Multiple Marketing Campaigns
One way to inflate your credibility and celebrity is to align your MSP with an internationally known organization. Enter the FBI. We had a special agent from the FBI’s Dallas cyber task force join us at a recent in-person event. For our prospects, clients and the local economic development corporation, we had an engaging 90-minute presentation centered on cyber security and the value of preparing to respond to a cyber-attack.
Because this FBI event was full of great content, we parlayed it into multiple marketing campaigns. First, we made a round of phone calls to all attendees to inquire about doing a cyber-attack simulation for their executive team. Next, we are doing an outreach to media outlets in the Dallas–Fort Worth area to inquire if they wish to interview me about the event. The reporters received a big red envelope featuring the issue of MSP Success with my face on the cover, as well as content we generated for the FBI event. Finally, Jenny drafted us a script asking our prospects if they would want a cybercrime findings report delivered from the FBI. We are currently using this script to further qualify and validate our contact information.
How Our New Technology Business Review Strategy Helped To Boost Year-Over-Year Revenue By 33%!
With cybercrime at record highs and inflation the highest it’s been in decades, it was the perfect time to confidently raise our prices. Therefore, we had a major push last fall to raise our monthly rates and promote our premium cyber security stack. Here’s our fee-raising tactic:
- Step 1: We now schedule regular technology business reviews (TBRs) with our clients every six months or less.
- Step 2: We vastly improved our TBR process. Rather than simply reviewing the tickets with our clients, we now follow Bruce McCully’s strategy from Galactic Advisors and start with a penetration test.
- Step 3: Results from the penetration test usually open the conversation to offer our premium cyber security stack.
- Step 4: The clients who opt for the better security gladly paid our new higher rates.
In addition to our marketing campaigns, our cyber security enhancement has also bolstered our year-over-year growth. Our monthly recurring revenue increased by 17%, our revenue grew by 33% and gross profit by 12%!
What A Difference A Year Makes!
Our journey from our humble beginnings to the present has been marked by continuous growth and adaptation. With the support of TMT, and going through the Rapid Implementation program a second time, we are confident in our ability to leverage cross-selling, enhance TBRs, launch co-managed IT campaigns, grow our Dream 500 List and build our celebrity. Since last year, we’ve raised our prices, added five new mid-market clients and increased our MRR by 17%, our revenue by 33% and our gross profit by 12%!
Some of the future marketing plans for Q4 include activating more drip marketing efforts through TMT’s Prospect Hopper, further optimizing our list-cleaning process and sales pipeline flow and executing the Galactic Scan direct mailing campaign.
To access all the campaign examples mentioned by this month’s Marketing Genius Of The Month, go to the Dashboard under the Marketing Strategy Brief resource and access them there.
