Make Anti-Spam a Major Selling Point of Your Service

Did you catch the Ulistic webinar with Bill White of Roaring Penguin where we talked about how an MSP can leverage an anti-spam solution as a selling point? There was a lot of great advice given out there on just what an anti-spam solution actually means for an MSP, not only as an integral service, but as a key part of your selling process.

Here’s the important thing to remember about anti-spam, as Bill says: “Email is the front door for every computer. As an MSP, it’s your job to make sure there’s a lock on that front door.”

So right there is the main reason to include anti-spam as part of your offering: your clients are going to expect it. MSPs are taking the place of old system admins who used to be in charge of shielding end users from spam and pornography, and so your clients will expect you to do the same job. If they find themselves affected by viruses via email or phishing attacks, they’re going to look at you and wonder why you’re letting them down.

But there are more reasons to leverage anti-spam than just client expectation. Here are a few that Bill laid out for us:

1. It’s steady, reliable revenue.

Anti-spam doesn’t make a whole lot of money, but here’s the thing: NO ONE quits anti-spam once they’ve started. Once you set it up, it’s yours to keep rolling out month after month, year after year. You can buy it from Roaring Penguin or another provider for, say, $0.50 per user per month, and then mark it up to a buck for your clients. That’s pretty solid recurring revenue.

2. It’s bundled with email encryption and archiving – a conversation starter.

You probably have at least one or two clients with a regulatory requirement on their email, either to maintain confidentiality and privacy or to retain copies of correspondence for up to 7 years. If your anti-spam bundles these services together (like Roaring Penguin does), you can talk about that with your clients and prospects. Let them know you have a solution for these compliance issues right up front.

3. Anti-spam can be a piece of your security solution lead-in.

“For an MSP, anti-spam is one small part of an overall security solution,” said Bill. “Yes, you should bring it up, but it should be part of the bigger conversation about security.”

Your clients are becoming more aware of the security risks out there. The news is full of stories about data breaches on companies across North America, and they are waking up to the fact that they’re vulnerable too. Have a conversation about security with your prospects and include anti-spam as part of that conversation. Use the front door analogy that Bill provided and talk about how you secure that important gateway to your clients’ systems and data.

Because here’s the thing: spam isn’t going away.

“Email works fairly well,” said Bill, “and spam is the curse we have to put up with. Roaring Penguin started back in 2003, and back then spam was mostly trying to sell you something. Nowadays, we have much more vicious attacks, like the Cryptolocker guys trying to blackmail you into giving up your computer. Spammers don’t have to be sophisticated because they can rent or buy anything they need. It’s not going to get better, but the good news is that the major anti-spam packages like ours are very good at detecting and blocking spam.”

And recent anti-spam legislation, like you see up here in Canada, has done nothing to halt the flow of spam. “The spammers aren’t going to stop just because the government said it’s illegal,” said Bill. “Spammers are bad people. We didn’t even see a dip when the legislation came into effect.”

So it’s time to start thinking about your anti-spam service and if it’s truly serving your needs and your clients’ needs. If you get the right service now, you’ll save yourself and your clients time, frustration, and money, and you’ll be able to make a profit while you’re doing it. All it takes is a bit of foresight.

Have questions about setting up the perfect business continuity marketing solution?  Call Ulistic immediately, we can help. Call 716.799.1999 or email [email protected] for more details.