MSP Summit/Channel Partner Leadership Summit — Alison Bergamo knows the power of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing. Bergamo, a principal at Bergamo Marketing Group, uses that kind of his AI in his own company. Bergamo can’t go wrong. Statistics show that in 3-5 years, he will rely on this type of technology for 80% of what the marketer does.

Alison Bergamo, Bergamo Marketing Group

However, “it’s not plug and play,” Bergamo said, adding that marketers need clean, unstructured data to work with some technology.

Bergamo was part of a panel of marketing professionals speaking at the MSP Summit/Channel Partners Leadership Summit in Orlando on Thursday. Their advice to audiences ranged from using artificial intelligence technology, to learning how to master relationships, to how to market on a budget. The latter is less important for MSPs, they said.

Many MSPs are small and have limited resources, but that doesn’t mean marketing should be ignored.

“You can find money in your budget to allocate to this, which is important,” said Marcial Velez (pictured above right), CEO of Xperteks Computer Consultancy. “Historically, MSPs grow about 10%. [annually]If you want to top that rate you should invest in this. “

And the investment doesn’t have to be expensive, panelists said. You can do tech-savvy marketing without spending a lot of money. Velez says digital business cards are a great example because they allow information to be shared beyond one’s name and affiliation. Social media and blog posts can also be exchanged with this tool.

“Now you can connect right away to the content you want your customers to see. You can now show your story,” he said.

Charlene Ignacio (pictured center, above), CEO of The CMO Guru HireXPro, also agreed that simplicity goes a long way. She likened it to the difference between buying an expensive Mercedes (a euphemism for an expensive marketing program) and buying a Honda. “Everyone wants a Mercedes,” she said.

“The Honda works perfectly. It lasts 20 years and requires less maintenance,” says Ignacio. “When it comes to marketing, I like to keep things simple because marketing can be like a (cost) black hole.”

However, knowing whether to use a cost-effective AI and digital business card tool assumes that the company’s team has some basic knowledge. If a company doesn’t have that knowledge and needs a marketing program to acquire that resource, where do they start?

make a mistake

Finding a company to outsource your marketing can be a good first step. Also, the company could have initially found a marketer who understood its business model. But panellists said their first choice of marketer likely won’t work out. Prepare to fail, they said. However, it soon fails.

Take Reggie Stevens (pictured above left), CEO of Iris Solutions, for example. In 2018, Stevens acquired Iris Solutions and began looking for a marketing team.

“I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said.

It turns out that neither does the marketer. Yet Stevens did not spend his time hesitating over the fact that he could not acquire the expertise he needed to promote his own company.

The pandemic has made life even more complicated. With so many people working remotely, Stevens knew he needed to keep his customer community engaged in a different way.

He remained steadfast and found another marketing company.

“As you know, we went through this extraordinary moment and went back to basics and started experimenting,” he said of working with the new marketing team. rice field.”

And he started seeing results, but it took a year.

He said it’s important to establish reasonable expectations for how long it will take to generate a marketing pipeline. It requires commitment.

However, it’s even more granular than that. This is a 24/7 process, he says, Velez.

“I think today’s marketer is someone who sees marketing as more than just an activity,” he said. “We need to automate these systems to continuously outreach and do something for our existing customers and develop leads for our clients.”

He added: