A young MSP CEO shares his hard-won lessons about building a marketing strategy that actually works. Spoiler alert: throwing AI at your marketing problems might feel smart, but it's probably killing what makes your business genuinely compelling to clients.
Look, I get it. We're all obsessed with AI right now. Every marketing tool promises to automate your way to success, and honestly? It's tempting. But here's the thing I've been thinking about a lot lately: the MSPs that are actually crushing it in 2025 aren't the ones that went all-in on automation. They're the ones who figured out how to blend smart technology with something AI simply can't replicate—authentic human connection.
This hit me while watching an interview with John Snyder, a 26-year-old CEO of Net Friends who's already cracked the code on what mature MSP marketing actually looks like. And yeah, age is kind of irrelevant here, but it's wild that someone in their mid-twenties already understands something that seasoned MSP owners are still struggling with.
Here's what I realized: every MSP sells basically the same thing. Managed IT services, cloud solutions, security, backups—the feature list is nearly identical across the industry. So what separates the MSPs that are booked solid from the ones desperately chasing leads?
It's the story. It's the personality. It's you.
When you automate everything, you become invisible. Your marketing blends into the noise because it sounds like everyone else's marketing. Your emails feel like they came from a robot (because they did). Your social media posts feel like they were written by a committee of accountants (because they probably were).
The MSPs winning right now? They're the ones with actual humans behind the message. People who understand their market, who can genuinely articulate why their approach is different, and who build relationships instead of just converting transactions.
Here's something that's important if you're a smaller MSP feeling intimidated: you don't need to hire a full in-house marketing team tomorrow. That's actually the opposite of what you should do.
Most small MSPs make this mistake where they think they need to choose between "do nothing" or "hire a full marketing person." There's this whole spectrum of options in between that everyone ignores.
Start with your PSA (Professional Services Automation platform). Yes, your PSA. Most MSPs are using it purely for operations and billing, but it's actually a goldmine for understanding your own business patterns. What services are your most profitable? Which clients are easiest to work with? What problems do you solve most effectively? Your PSA already knows the answers—you just have to look.
From there, you can start building a content strategy that actually matters. Not "10 reasons to choose our MSP" (nobody cares), but real insights about the problems your specific clients face and how you actually solve them.
Eventually, if you keep growing, you'll reach a point where you need dedicated marketing resources. But here's where most MSPs get it wrong: they think it's either in-house OR agency.
The real answer? Both.
A mature MSP typically has someone in-house who understands the business deeply—your culture, your sales process, your actual value prop. But that person can't be a one-person marketing army. They need strategic support from an agency that brings expertise, fresh perspectives, and the ability to execute tactics that require specialized skills.
The in-house person is like your quarterback. They know the game, they know your playbook, and they're calling the shots. The agency is your coaching staff—bringing strategic guidance and specialized plays that move the ball forward.
What kills this dynamic is hiring the wrong people. And this matters way more than most MSPs think.
This is where I'm going to get a little spicy: most MSPs hire their marketing people the same way they hire support techs. They post a job, take whoever seems competent, and hope it works out.
That's backwards.
Your marketing person isn't a support tech. They need to be someone who genuinely understands business development, who can write clearly, who actually enjoys building relationships, and who cares about your specific market. These people are rarer than they feel like they should be, and they're worth paying for.
Bad hiring is expensive. When you hire someone who just goes through the motions, you're not saving money—you're burning it while they pretend to do marketing. Meanwhile, your competitors with good marketing people are taking your deals.
Here's something that surprised me: the CEO should stay involved in marketing. Not in a micromanaging way, but in a "I understand our market and I'm part of the messaging" way.
Your CEO knows why your MSP actually exists beyond just making money. They know the problems you're solving that competitors aren't. They understand the culture that makes your team special. That perspective needs to be in your marketing, not buried in some corporate playbook.
Let me address the elephant in the room: AI is genuinely useful for marketing. It can help with research, drafting, ideation, and managing workflows. I'm not saying "don't use AI."
What I'm saying is: AI should be a tool that makes your humans better, not a replacement for humans having ideas.
The trap is thinking that an AI tool can be your marketing strategy. It can't. AI doesn't understand your culture. It doesn't know what makes your MSP different. It can't build relationships. It can't read the room in a sales call and adjust messaging on the fly.
The MSPs that are struggling with AI-generated marketing are the ones using it as a shortcut instead of a supplement. They're pumping out content that sounds fine but feels hollow. It performs badly because prospects can sense that it's not real.
If you're building marketing for your MSP, here's the practical path:
Start: Understand your own business deeply. What makes you different? Use your PSA and your sales data to figure out what you're actually good at.
Grow: Build content and messaging around real insights, not generic MSP talking points. Get your team involved. Make it authentic.
Scale: Bring in someone in-house who can own the strategy and build relationships. Don't expect one person to do everything.
Mature: Partner with an agency that brings strategic and tactical expertise. Focus your in-house team on what they do best.
Everywhere: Stay suspicious of shortcuts. If it feels easy to automate, it's probably not worth doing.
The MSPs winning in 2025 aren't the ones with the fanciest tools or the most AI automation. They're the ones with real strategies built on real understanding of their market, executed by real people who actually care.
That's it. That's the edge.
Tags: ['msp marketing', 'marketing strategy', 'ai in business', 'ceo insights', 'small business growth']