LAST UPDATED: JULY 2026
MSP Marketing Foundations
Foundations is the layer beneath everything else in this curriculum. Before you run a campaign, post on social media, or spend a dollar on advertising, you need to understand how MSP marketing actually works, know who you're trying to reach, and be able to say clearly what you do and why a prospect should choose you. Every other part of this guide assumes you've worked through what's here.
The seven topics in Foundations — plus an optional Business Baseline intake before Topic 1 — don't require a marketing background. They do require honesty about your current position and some time sitting with questions that don't have obvious answers. That's the work.
Scope: Foundations covers who you sell to, what you say, and what you charge: the internal decisions that every other channel and tactic depends on. It does not cover any specific marketing channel (search, social, referrals, and so on). Those live in Get Found, Get Trusted, and Get Kept. New to a term used here? Check the Glossary page.
How to Use This Section
Every topic below includes a short workbook: a handful of prompts right on the page. You can ignore them entirely and read Foundations straight through as reference. Or you can answer them as you go, and your answers quietly build into a free marketing plan you can read any time.
Nothing here requires an account. Your answers save automatically in your browser, tied to no name and no email address, and there's no signup wall between you and any part of it, including the finished plan.
That plan is a starting point built from what you already know: it isn't the same thing as a Jackdaw report, which is researched externally against your named local competitors. More on that difference below.
Beyond the Basics
Want to see exactly where you stand against the competitors fighting you for the same customers?
Topics in This Part
TOPIC 0
BUSINESS BASELINE
An optional intake: a few range questions about revenue mix, MRR, years in business, and growth trajectory. Answers stay in your browser only and build the baseline Business Snapshot at the front of your Marketing Plan.
TOPIC 1
HOW MSP MARKETING WORKS
The awareness, consideration, and decision framework in plain language, and why the MSP sales cycle runs 3 to 12 months.
TOPIC 2
KNOW YOUR IDEAL MSP CUSTOMER
How to write a one-paragraph description of your best customer using your existing client list rather than guesswork.
TOPIC 3
MSP POSITIONING AND DIFFERENTIATION
Writing the one-sentence positioning statement: what you do, for whom, and why you specifically, and how to differentiate from what other MSPs typically say.
TOPIC 4
MSP CORE MESSAGING FRAMEWORK
The three sentences every MSP needs written down: what you do, the problem you solve, and proof you solve it.
TOPIC 5
YOUR MSP OFFER AND PRICING
Packaging your services into a clear, nameable offer, and the pricing psychology behind building tiers that sell.
TOPIC 6
MSP BRAND IDENTITY
Name, logo, and a consistent visual identity done simply and cheaply, plus the brand voice guidelines that keep every channel consistent.
TOPIC 7
MSP MARKETING GOALS AND BUDGET
How to set one realistic goal and a starter budget as a percentage of revenue, and how to adjust allocation as you learn what's working.