How to Market My MSP Business in 2026: A Simple One-Page Plan
Market your managed service provider (MSP) business with a small monthly routine, not a big campaign. Start with referrals. ConnectWise's 2026 survey found 72% of MSPs call referrals a key driver. Then add reviews, Google Business Profile, email, local events and LinkedIn. Add AI search as one more channel. Give each channel a few hours a month and one number to track.
A one-page MSP marketing plan: referrals, reviews, Google Business Profile, email, events, LinkedIn, vendor funds and AI search, each with hours and one metric.
On this page
Why do most MSPs struggle with marketing?
Most MSPs don't lack ideas. They lack a routine. They also can't tell what works.
Kaseya surveyed 1,061 MSPs in November 2025. 71% named new customers as their biggest challenge. 15% said they have no lead-generation strategy at all. 70% plan to improve their marketing this year.
ChannelPro ran the 2026 MSP Marketing Report for ConnectWise. Only 26% of MSPs felt fairly or fully sure their marketing works. That is up from 20% the year before. Still, three in four MSPs are guessing.
The Channel Company found the same pattern in 2025. It surveyed 151 solution providers. 44% of them were MSPs. 71% said marketing is critical to their future. Over 60% said their marketing falls short.
You don't need more tactics. You need a short plan with a number next to each line.
What do the reports say actually works?
The reports agree on referrals. They agree less on the rest. Here is what each one says.
| Source (who measured, when) | What it found about channels |
|---|---|
| ConnectWise 2026 MSP Marketing Report (run by ChannelPro, 2026) | 72% of MSPs call referrals a key driver. 48% put email in their top three. Social, events, SEO and paid ads follow. |
| ConnectWise 2026 report | Among MSPs with a referral program, one in three get over 50% of revenue from referrals. |
| The Channel Company, State of Partner Marketing 2025 | Nearly 90% of partners call in-person events very important. |
| Kaseya 2026 State of the MSP (1,061 MSPs, Nov 2025) | 33% say new clients mostly switch from another MSP. 49% see a mix of switchers and first-time buyers. |
| G2 buyer study (1,076 B2B buyers, March 2026) | 51% of software buyers now start research in an AI chatbot. In April 2025 it was 29%. |
Note two things. ConnectWise and Kaseya sell software to MSPs. Their reports are vendor-funded. G2 also sells to software vendors. Its study covers software buyers. It does not cover people hiring an MSP.
The switcher number matters most. One in three MSPs say new clients mostly leave a rival. Those buyers already know what an MSP does. They want proof you're better. Reviews, case studies and referrals give them that proof.
How much should an MSP spend on marketing?
Here the sources disagree. We'll show you each number.
| Source | Budget figure | Caveat |
|---|---|---|
| Service Leadership, quoted in ConnectWise's 2026 report | 1.8% of revenue is "best-in-class" | Service Leadership is a ConnectWise company. |
| Angus Robertson, ConnectWise CMO, quoted by GTIA (Jan 2025) | 1.8% today, but "it probably should be about 6%" | One person's view, not survey data. |
| Pronto Marketing guide (Sep 2026) | 2% to 5% to hold steady. 8% to 10% to grow. | Pronto sells MSP marketing. It cites no study for these ranges. |
| ConnectWise 2026 report | 51% of MSPs spend under $10,000 a year | This is what MSPs do, not what they should do. |
No one knows which is right. The honest range runs from about 2% to 10% of revenue.
Here's a simple way to pick. Take your revenue. Try 2% first. A $2M MSP would spend about $40,000 a year. Track results for six months. Raise the budget where a channel brings real meetings.
Your time counts too. Most small MSPs have no marketing staff. The Channel Company found only large partners had a dedicated marketer. Usually it was one person. So plan hours, not just dollars.
What's missing from the page-one guides?
We read the top guides. Guardz lists eight pillars, from brand to events. MSP360 says to do one thing at a time. Both give sound advice.
But they skip three things. Neither gives a budget figure. Neither says how to measure each channel. Neither mentions AI search at all. The plan below fills those gaps.
Your one-page MSP marketing plan
Copy this table. Review it on the first Monday of each month.
| Channel | What to do this month | Rough time | How to measure it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referrals | Ask your five happiest clients for one intro each. Offer a clear thank-you, like a gift card or a month's credit. | 2 hours | Intros received. Meetings booked from intros. |
| Reviews and case studies | Ask three clients for a Google review. Write one short case study with real numbers. | 3 hours | New reviews this month. Case studies live. |
| Google Business Profile | Fill every field. Add your services. Post one update. Answer every review. | 1 hour | Calls and website clicks in the profile stats. |
| Send one useful note to clients and past leads. Pick one topic, like a new phishing scam. | 3 hours | Replies. Meetings booked. | |
| Local events | Go to one chamber, trade group or client-industry event. Book two follow-up coffees. | 4 hours | Real conversations. Meetings booked within 30 days. |
| You, the owner, post once a week. Share one lesson from a real ticket. | 2 hours | Profile views from local owners. DMs. Meetings. | |
| Vendor co-op funds (MDF) | Ask your main vendors what marketing money they offer. Ask how to claim it. | 1 hour | Dollars claimed this quarter. |
| AI search | Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity ten buyer questions, like "best MSP for dental offices in Dallas." Ask each one five times. | 2 hours | How often your name shows up, out of all runs. |
That's about 18 hours a month. Split it across two people.
A quick note on MDF. MDF stands for marketing development funds. Vendors give partners money to promote their products. The Channel Company found large partners get over half their marketing budget this way. Smaller partners often struggle to qualify. It's still worth one email to ask.
Where does AI search fit in the plan?
AI search is one row in the table. It is not the whole plan.
Why does it earn a row? G2's 2026 study says half of software buyers now start with a chatbot. No study we found shows the same for SMB owners hiring an MSP. Some of your prospects likely use these tools anyway. A few may ask them about you.
Keep the check simple. Pick ten real questions your buyers ask. Run each one five times in each tool. Answers change from run to run. So one screenshot proves nothing. Count how often your name appears. Write down that ratio.
Most of the work overlaps with good SEO. Clear service pages help. Reviews on outside sites help. Case studies with real numbers help too. The new part is the measuring. Nobody can guarantee your spot in ChatGPT. Anyone who promises that is overselling.
Want help with this row? See our AI SEO services for MSPs page for how we run these checks.
How do you know the plan is working?
Look at one number each month: meetings booked. Then note which channel each one came from.
After three months, compare the channels. Drop the one with zero meetings. Move its hours to the best one. After six months, check your budget against the 2% starting point.
Only 26% of MSPs trust their own marketing results. You can join them with a spreadsheet and one honest question: "How did you hear about us?"
Sources
- 2026 Kaseya State of the MSP Report — Kaseya, April 2026. https://info.kaseya.com/rs/596-INX-704/images/Kaseya-2026-State-of-the-MSP-report-2026-V9.pdf
- AI Emerges as the Key to Scaling MSP Operations as Growth Gets Harder — Kaseya press release, 14 April 2026. https://www.kaseya.com/press-release/ai-emerges-as-the-key-to-scaling-msp-operations-as-growth-gets-harder/
- 2026 MSP Marketing Report — ConnectWise with ChannelPro, 2026. https://www.connectwise.com/globalassets/media/asset-docs/ebook/mspmarketingreport-demandgen.pdf
- Breaking the MSP Marketing Paradox: How to Succeed with Limited Funds, Resources — GTIA (Scott Campbell), 17 January 2025. https://gtia.org/blog/breaking-the-msp-marketing-paradox-how-to-succeed-with-limited-funds-resources
- The State of Partner Marketing 2025 — The Channel Company, 2025. https://www.thechannelco.com/article/state-of-partner-marketing-2025
- New G2 Research: Half of B2B Software Buyers Now Start Their Research With AI Chatbots — G2 via PR Newswire, 15 April 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-g2-research-half-of-b2b-software-buyers-now-start-their-research-with-ai-chatbots-302742807.html
- How much should your MSP spend on marketing in 2027 — Pronto Marketing, 4 September 2026 (updated 14 September 2026). https://www.prontomarketing.com/blog/how-much-should-your-msp-spend-on-marketing-2027/
- How to Market My MSP Business Effectively — Guardz, 16 March 2025 (updated 13 May 2026). https://guardz.com/blog/how-to-market-my-msp-business-effectively/
- MSP Marketing: Easy Ideas on How to Start So It Works — MSP360, undated. https://www.msp360.com/resources/blog/msp-marketing/
Frequently asked
How do I market my MSP business with no budget?
Start with referrals and Google Business Profile. Both cost time, not money. Ask five happy clients for one intro each. Fill every field on your Google profile and answer every review. Then post once a week on LinkedIn as the owner.
What percentage of revenue should an MSP spend on marketing?
Sources disagree. Service Leadership calls 1.8% of revenue best-in-class. A ConnectWise executive said it should probably be about 6%. Pronto Marketing suggests 8% to 10% for growth. A fair starting point is 2%. Raise it where a channel books real meetings.
What is the best marketing channel for an MSP?
Referrals. ConnectWise's 2026 MSP Marketing Report found 72% of MSPs call referrals a key driver. Among MSPs with a referral program, one in three get over half their revenue from referrals. Email came next, with 48% ranking it in their top three.
Should an MSP invest in AI search?
Yes, as one channel among several. Give it about two hours a month. Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity real buyer questions, several times each. Track how often your MSP appears. Nobody can guarantee a spot in AI answers.
What is a managed services marketing plan?
It's a short list of channels with a task, a time budget and one metric for each. It covers referrals, reviews, Google Business Profile, email, events, LinkedIn, vendor funds and AI search. You review it monthly. You move time toward channels that book meetings.
Written by
Lourdes Paul Agilan runs GeoCited, a generative engine optimization agency. He works with B2B companies on how AI assistants describe and recommend them. He writes about that work here, and shares the experiments behind it. The tests that worked, and the tests that did not, written up the same way.