MSPs: You’re tracking the wrong marketing numbers

Couple of weeks ago, an MSP owner sent me a message that went something like this:

“Paul, I’ve been doing my marketing for six months. My LinkedIn followers are up, my email open rates look decent, and I got 47 likes on a post last week. But I haven’t won a single new client. What am I doing wrong?”

Being blunt, what he was doing wrong was tracking the wrong numbers.

And honestly? He’s not alone. It’s one of the most common mistakes I see MSP owners make with their marketing.

So let’s fix that today.

The numbers most MSPs obsess over (and shouldn’t)

Ask an MSP owner how their marketing is going and they’ll typically tell you things like:

• LinkedIn followers: 312 (up from 290 last month)
• Email open rate: 24%
• Website visitors last month: 418
• Post engagement: “really good”

And I’m not saying those numbers are meaningless. They tell you something. But none of them help you grow your business.

These are called vanity metrics. It feels good when they go up. But chasing likes or improving your email open rate doesn't in itself win you new clients.

The two numbers that actually matter

There are really only two marketing numbers I want you to care about. Everything else is noise.

1) Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)

An MQL is someone who has shown genuine interest in what you do. Maybe they downloaded something from your website. Or replied to your email. Maybe they kept turning up in your LinkedIn content, liking and commenting regularly. Or downloaded your buyer's guide.

The key thing: they’ve done something that suggests they might one day want to talk to you about IT support. They’re not ready to buy. But they’re paying attention.

2) Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)

An SQL is a step further along. This is someone who has indicated they’re actively considering switching MSP, or who has a genuine and timely need for managed services. They’re closer to a buying decision. Most importantly, they’re someone you’re actually having a conversation with.

In the MSP world, an SQL is typically someone who has booked a discovery call or IRL meeting with you.

MQLs lead to SQLs. SQLs lead to clients. That’s the chain that matters.

So the only questions worth asking each month are: how many MQLs do I have? And how many of those became SQLs?

Why MSPs get distracted by the wrong metrics

This is not criticism; it's a reflection of human nature.

Vanity metrics go up quickly and visibly. You post something on LinkedIn, then you can go back a few hours later and see some likes. Come on, it is a thrill. You know it is! That little dopamine hit feels like progress.

MQLs and SQLs move more slowly. Building real marketing momentum takes months, not days. So it’s tempting to track the fast-moving, feel-good numbers instead of the slow-moving, meaningful ones.

Also, nobody told most MSP owners what to track. You started your business because you’re brilliant with technology and wanted to help people, not because you studied marketing. So you track what feels obvious.

But here’s the problem. If you’re optimising for likes, you’ll write content that gets likes. If you’re optimising for MQLs and SQLs, you’ll build a relationship system that gets you meetings. Those are very different activities.

The simple system that generates MQLs and SQLs

So if vanity metrics are out, and MQLs and SQLs are in, what should you actually be doing day to day?

My answer is the 3 step lead generation system I’ve been teaching MSPs for years:

1. Build audiences
2. Grow relationships
3. Convert relationships

That’s it. No hacks. No tricks. No clever funnels. Just a system that mirrors how humans actually decide to buy things.

(side note, I'm so committed to that system; it forms the core of my MSP Marketing Edge membership AND I use it for all of my own marketing. This LinkedIn newsletter is part of step two)

Step 1: Build audiences

You need people to market to. For most MSPs that means building two things: your LinkedIn connections (specifically, the decision makers at the kinds of businesses you want to work with) and your email list. Those are your two most valuable audiences.

Notice I’m not saying “get more followers”. I’m saying build a specific audience of the right people. Quality over quantity, every time.

Step 2: Grow relationships

Nobody buys managed services from someone they’ve never heard of. Trust is built over time, through repeated, consistent contact. This is where your content comes in.

Not content designed to go viral. Content designed to be useful and human and relevant to the specific people in your audience. A weekly email. A daily LinkedIn post. Things that show up, reliably, and slowly move buyers from “who is this person?” to “I’ve been following this guy for months and he really knows his stuff.”

This is where MQLs are born. Someone starts paying more attention or reply to an email or comment on a post. They’re warming up.

Step 3: Convert relationships

This is the only stage where you proactively reach out and invite people into a conversation. Ideally, you want them to book a 15 minute discovery call with you.

When someone has been in your audience for a while and has engaged with your content, that outreach doesn’t feel cold. It feels natural. And your conversion rate on those conversations is dramatically higher than cold outreach to strangers.

That meeting is your SQL. That’s the number you’re building toward.

So what should you actually track each month?

I believe you should keep it simple. Three numbers:

Audience size: Are you reaching more of the right people than last month? (LinkedIn connections in your target market + email subscribers)

MQLs: How many people showed genuine interest this month? Replies, enquiries, downloads, meaningful engagement.

SQLs: How many discovery meetings or sales conversations did you have?

That’s your entire marketing dashboard. If those three numbers are growing, you’re doing it right.

If they’re flat or falling, you know exactly where to look:

• Are you building the right audiences?
• Are you nurturing them consistently?
• Are you doing enough outbound activity to turn relationships into meetings

Everything else... likes, open rates, follower counts... is background noise. Nice to know but not worth losing sleep over.

A quick challenge for you

Right now, honestly: do you know how many MQLs you had last month? Do you know how many SQLs?

If the answer is “umm, not really” then that’s your starting point.

Please do let me know if you currently track MQLs and SQLs? Or have you been focused on the vanity metrics? I read and reply to every comment.

PS as I said above, my MSP Marketing Edge membership is there to help MSPs implement exactly this kind of marketing. We only work with one per area, and if your area is available, you can start a 30 day free trial here.