A lot of people assume that just because their particular industry is not location-based and the services they provide are digital, they have a global presence by default. Sure, in theory, someone from across the globe could learn about your enterprise and reach out to you randomly, but such a thing is unlikely to happen.
This is a myth that many Managed Service Providers (MSPs), for some reason, still believe.
In reality, geographic expansion of this sort has to be carefully orchestrated. It has to be planned. Moreover, you cannot rely on someone randomly learning about your business or having a one-in-a-million lucky try of a keyword that will lead them straight to your MSP’s site. When running a business, you cannot rely on random luck.
At the same time, you want to tap into this global market. By expanding into new regions, you’ll get more clients and more opportunities. As long as your infrastructure and workforce can take it, you should reach out to as many markets as possible. In fact, even in this digital era, your growth potential may be limited by a geographic factor.
With that in mind and without further ado, here’s how you can prepare your MSP for geographic expansion.
Assessing Market Opportunities
The first massive misconception about global expansion is that all the markets are the same; they’re just scattered across the globe. In the minds of people who believe in this myth, search engines randomly discriminate based on your location, and when you overcome this with a targeted campaign, you’ll be out of the woods.
This assumption is wrong.
Each region represents a new market, and proper market research is essential to determining whether the market is lucrative for your business.
This is a complex task in its own right, but if you want a quick version, you can break it down into two simple tasks.
- Competitive analysis: Chances are that you’re not the only one providing this service in the area. What kind of offer do competitors have, and can your USP (unique sales proposition) match it?
- Customer demand: What exactly are customers looking for, and, more importantly, are they willing to pay the price you want to charge for it?
These two alone will give you a much better idea of what the market environment is like.
Strategic Planning for Expansion
Your expansion needs to be carefully planned. If you just randomly enter a new market, you risk diminishing your service quality, which would be a huge problem in the long run. Dissatisfied clients can sue you and make you pay fines, but they can also tarnish your reputation online, undoing all the good work you’ve invested in your digital marketing.
First, you need to come up with a solid business plan for your geographic expansion. What you also need to do is figure out if your technical expertise and certifications match the market need. You also need to conduct client case studies and testimonials, as well as come up with advanced solutions that could be lacking locally. This could be your massive market opportunity.
Naturally, your accounting team should create a quick financial projection and risk management. Just keep in mind that your plans are one thing, and the practice is something else entirely. Regardless, you still need to know the numbers.
Regulatory and Compliance Considerations
The biggest challenge in doing business in another country is the fact that you’re potentially working in a different regulatory jurisdiction. This is what makes international marketing so difficult. After all, marketing relies on user data, and regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and others may force you to change your approach to this subject as a whole.
You should start by researching local laws and regulations. Ideally, you would tackle this issue with the help of two sides.
First, you want to reach out to local providers of similar services. At first, they might see you as a potential competitor, but with the right outreach, you could get the information you need.
Second, you want local legal help. Sure, legal advisors on your retainer can research the local regulation; however, their expertise in this particular matter will never match that of someone who has spent decades applying this in practice. First-hand experience is a resource that should never be downplayed.
Establishing a Local Presence
Geographic expansion doesn’t really need to involve having offices worldwide. For an online business in a digital world, this is an expensive redundancy. However, you do need to establish a local presence in a different way.
First, you need to hire locals, which is where you should heavily focus on the MSP staffing and recruitment services you have available. This way, you can get a much faster market entry without breaking your hiring budget. Outsourcing reduces overhead costs associated with hiring full-time local employees, which is already a huge boost for an enterprise that’s pouring most of its available resources into expansion.
We have already brushed on this topic, and it’s important that you understand the situation in the field. Having local assistance is not just a boost to your workforce; it’s also a way to provide local allies who can fill in an advisory role when needed.
You want to create strong local customer support, preferably with local partners and employees, which is also where MSP hires can be of immense assistance. Providing customer support in a local native language is often all you’ll need to get through to your audience. This will be proof enough that you have a local presence, and, for you, it’s a far cheaper alternative to actually renting and filling an office in a local capital.
Just keep in mind that when hiring locally, you’re not just expanding the headcount on your roster. You’re getting a whole new perspective, and you need to ensure that it matches your company culture.
Another thing you need to do is boost your site’s local visibility through targeted local SEO. We’ll discuss this a bit later.
Leveraging Technology for Expansion
You’re already working remotely, which is why you have such an amazing growth potential. Your team is already remote, and you’re probably already using remote management tools and project management platforms. Your CMS doesn’t depend on a location, and neither does your ERP.
Now, you need to figure out whether to hire conventional employers or boost your MSP hiring success by getting contract workers. Both ideas have their merits, and you must ensure that the action you take aligns with your long-term plans for the region.
Just keep in mind one more thing: cybersecurity still matters. When hiring remote employees, you won’t be able to conduct such a thorough comprehensive vetting process or hire a reputable MSP staffing agency to help with the process. This is why you have to take other means of cybersecurity (like restricting access) way more seriously.
Developing Marketing and Branding Strategies
While international marketing has its benefits, the reality is that it’s never as effective as a locally targeted marketing campaign (unless you’re willing to pour millions into it). In reality, search engines take geographic location very seriously, and they provide users with answers based on where they are.
The real challenge comes with finding a balance between brand consistency and localizing your message. No, the message won’t be the same across the board, but the spirit of the message needs to be within the same ballpark.
Look at it this way: while different areas may have different quality standards, you probably shouldn’t market your business as high-end in one area and label it as budget in another. This is contradictory and may come back to haunt you if any of your clients ever try using a VPN. It’s especially the case with the MSP industry, which has an audience that’s significantly more familiar with the industry norms and standards.
Local communities require targeted and specialized effort. The biggest misconception about marketing is that you just put up your ads and content out there and just reap the results. You have to constantly measure, adjust, and re-engage in order for your efforts to make any sense.
Decide How to Evaluate Success
Most importantly, when conducting geographic expansion, you need to know how to evaluate your success. As we’ve already mentioned, different regions have different standards of living (and different purchasing power parity), meaning you cannot just compare profits. This kind of comparison can be misleading.
Also, there’s this psychological phenomenon of moving the goalposts, which makes you retroactively determine that something was either a bigger failure or a greater success than it was.
Hindsight is 20/20, and retconning has an addictive effect on its users. It’s so easy to alter the goals to fit your narrative, but it’s a dangerous habit that will conceal the true state of affairs.
You need to determine the KPIs early on and set ranges that you’re aiming for. You also need to set milestones, develop a roadmap, and even make a progress bar.
In the MSP industry, for instance, some of the most important KPIs are:
- Service level agreement compliance
- Customer satisfaction
- First call resolution
- Uptime and availability
- Client retention rate
- Employee utilization rate
Moreover, when the numbers roll in, you cannot afford just to be content with the results. You should always move in one direction – forward. In a field as competitive as MSP, this is the only path to survival.
Ideally, you’ll get the reports, find a way to improve, implement these changes, and then measure the results again. A feedback loop is the only way for your expansion to be systematic and effective.
Conclusion
You must approach this issue strategically in order to conduct your geographic expansion reliably and effectively. You need to get local help, meet local regulatory requirements, and focus on localized marketing efforts.
Other than that, you’re just following the path of any regular business expansion. This means that you have to update your business plan, pick scalable methods for the expansion of your team, like hiring outsourced MSP staff, and leverage technology to help you out.
While all of this may sound scary, the reward is more than worth it. With the right strategy, no enterprise should fear this expansion.
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Learn how to prepare your MSP for geographic expansion with market analysis, local presence, proper branding, and strategic planning for long-term success.
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