The modern business landscape is defined by escalating cyber risks and stringent compliance requirements. Organizations of all sizes must implement fundamental controls mandated by state- or industry-specific regulations. Robust cyber risk management and resilience are no longer optional; they are essential for preventing breaches, fostering trust with customers and partners, and even reducing cyber insurance premiums.
As an MSP or MSSP offering cybersecurity services to SMBs, you need a compelling marketing strategy, and messaging which highlights:
- The need for reasonable cybersecurity
- Why businesses should choose you as a security service provider
In this post we outline the components of a marketing strategy for security service providers protecting SMBs.
The article makes a few assumptions:
- Your target customer is a small or midsized business
- A unified / consolidated platform that includes multiple capabilities makes up a significant part of your techstack
- Your services for SMBs are focused on cyber risk reduction, compliance and implementing foundational controls.
Why Cybersecurity Services are Essential
You may have to educate small and midsized businesses about the need to maintain a strong cybersecurity posture and why engaging an MSP is better than managing security in-house.
As a security service provider, you should be seen as an expert in cybersecurity. Ensure you publish plenty of thought leadership content, best practice checklists, security awareness articles, and the latest news and trends in infosec. Your potential clients should see you as a trusted guide and advisor who can break down a complex subject for them and do what’s necessary to keep them secure.
Cyber Threats Impact Businesses of All Sizes
Emphasize the growing frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks, citing recent data breach statistics and the associated financial and reputational damage.
- Bad actors increasingly target SMBs to evade scrutiny: Talk about recent reports that point to bad actors increasingly targeting SMBs to evade detection and scrutiny. This is partly due to strong law enforcement action against well-known ransomware groups like LockBit and ALPHV last year.
- SMBs with weak defenses are attractive targets: Hackers routinely run scans to find open ports and businesses that are online but aren’t sufficiently protected – meaning they target anyone with weak security. This makes the size of the business immaterial. Attacks on smaller businesses do not make the news, but they happen every day.
- The need to protect sensitive data: Your customers’ systems likely store not just internal organization data but also customer data and partner data. Any of this data being compromised could lead to grave consequences, including non-compliance penalties, customer and partner lawsuits, brand damage, revenue losses, and permanent closure in extreme cases.
- Business disruption due to a cyberattack: Even if an incident does not impact your customers’ most sensitive data, it could disrupt operations and lead to extended downtime. Each day of not being able to operate optimally translates to a bigger hit to revenue. This is why it’s important to put basic preventative controls in place.
- Breach reports and cybersecurity advisories: Use breach data from well-known annual reports like the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, IBM and the Ponemon Institute’s Cost of a Data Breach Report. Also, quote reports and advisories regularly published by CISA, the ACSC, the NCSC, and other government cybersecurity agencies.
Meeting Compliance Requirements is not Optional
Underscore the mandatory nature of compliance for businesses across geographies and sectors. Explain the potential penalties for non-compliance.
- Data Privacy Regulations: Educate your target audience about industry-, region- and state-specific data privacy regulations and the costs of non-compliance (Examples: HIPAA for Healthcare, FERPA for the Education sector, PCI DSS for any business that handles credit card information, GDPR for businesses that operate in Europe, CCPA for businesses that operate in California).
- Best Practice Frameworks: Also, talk about popular best practice frameworks like the CIS Critical Controls and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework – and why they are important to manage security in a structured and repeatable manner.
- Customer and Partner Needs: Emphasize that end customers and supply chain partners increasingly require companies they buy from or partner with to demonstrate a commitment to data privacy.
The Ongoing Business Benefits of Strong Security
Position cybersecurity as an investment, not an expense. Highlight the positive impact on customer trust, brand reputation, and business continuity.
- Cybersecurity as a Differentiator: Businesses are increasingly using strong security and a track record of implementing data privacy best practices as a competitive advantage.
- Customer Trust: Following best practice frameworks and having the reports and certifications to prove it allows businesses to build trust with customers. Customers today are more aware of data privacy. Strong data security practices can attract and retain customers who value their sensitive information.
- Partner Questionnaires: A common tactic used by cybercrime gangs is to compromise SMBs with weak security controls, unpatched vulnerabilities, or exposed entry points to gain access to larger organizations with a stronger security posture. SMBs that are part of larger supply chains regularly get security questionnaires from their larger supply chain partners to make sure they are following risk management best practices and are compliant.
Cyber Insurance Advantages
Explain how a robust security posture can lead to lower cyber insurance premiums and improved coverage. There is increasing pressure on SMBs because of more stringent cyber insurance requirements.
- No longer just a checkbox exercise: Getting cyber insurance now involves brokers and underwriters meticulously verifying each bit of information provided by organizations, regardless of size.
This requires maintaining a strong cybersecurity posture on an ongoing basis: Providing proof that essential security and privacy controls are properly implemented is crucial.
Why Should They Choose You?
Along with cybersecurity awareness building and thought leadership content, create content pieces to make a compelling case for the services you offer. Why should businesses choose you over your competitors? What differentiates you?
- Customer research: Talk to your happiest and most profitable customers and find out what they like about your services. Look for common patterns and the characteristics shared by your happy customers. Are they concentrated in a specific sector or set of sectors? Are they all in the same size range? What are your biggest strengths?
- Messaging: Based on your customer research and focus area within cybersecurity services, think about what you want your messaging to look like.
If you’re using a unified cyber risk management and compliance platform like CYRISMA, here are a few themes you could focus on:
Cybersecurity made simple
SMBs are often overwhelmed with the idea of cybersecurity services. Create messaging to emphasize how you’ll make it simple for them. Is the solution quick to deploy and easy to use? Will you be able to demonstrate value and ROI clearly? Will the client be able to understand their cybersecurity posture? Think about how you will communicate value and make it simple.
Essential security services in one package
Make effective security accessible by combining essential services in one package and telling your audience what value each component of the bundle provides to them. Basic security done right can protect businesses from the vast majority of threats and keep them from becoming easy targets. Use a multi-feature platform to create a power-packed service package that includes solutions like vulnerability management, data loss prevention, compliance assessment, security awareness and more, depending on your client’s specific needs.
Affordable and effective cybersecurity
Talk about how you make cybersecurity affordable for SMBs. Leverage a platform to provide unmatched value to clients without charging too much. One of CYRISMA’s partners told us that our platform enabled them to offer MSSP-level services at MSP prices, which is great! Think out of the box and use interesting phrasing to emphasize affordability. Create service packages for every SMB need, emphasizing priority-based top controls to make individual services even more pocket-friendly.
Measurable progress and clear KPIs
Tell your target audience that you provide measurable results – with clear reporting on month-over-month progress, scan results, and steps taken to close security gaps. Will they be able to see improved risk scores, meet compliance needs, and get closer to implementing all foundational controls in a framework?
Translating cyber risk to a monetary value
Emphasize the financial impact of cyber risk and how the ability to see their risk in dollars, euros, and other currencies can simplify security-related communication with stakeholders. Leverage a tool for this. For example, with CYRISMA’s risk monetization feature, businesses can see what a data breach or ransomware incident could cost them and what their data would be worth on the dark web. Use this information to speak directly to the business bottom line.
Easy-to-understand cyber risk metrics
Break down cyber risk metrics into easy-to-understand category scores and present scan results in user-friendly reports and executive summaries. Ideally, anyone from the CEO to the Director of IT should be able to skim through risk assessment reports to quickly understand the organization’s existing risk posture and month-on-month progress.
Cybersecurity tied to compliance needs
Educate your audience about how reducing cyber risk brings them closer to meeting compliance requirements and how you tie the two together. GRC platforms like CYRISMA combine cyber risk scanning and assessment and compliance features in a single platform, making it easy to check security controls off compliance questionnaires and auto-track tactical controls.
What sets you apart?
Provide specific examples of how your services are differentiated. Do you have a specialized approach to risk assessment or incident response? Do you offer 24/7 support or personalized onboarding? Do you have flexible pricing options or value-added services? Highlight anything that differentiates you and that your existing clients love about your service in your messaging.
Marketing Assets and Channels to Post On
A Website with Clear Positioning
Create a website talking about your value proposition, services, and how they will affect your customers’ bottom line. Include testimonials and customer success stories, and clear calls to action. Learn about search engine optimization and try to optimize each page for key phrases relevant to your services.
Social Media Posts
Build your social media presence. Post regularly on LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and any other community platforms that you’re a part of. Encourage employees to repost what you’re publishing online to amplify your messaging. Your posts keep your existing customers informed of and interested in your services. They are also a continual reminder of your role as an expert and your service portfolio to those in your sales pipeline who follow you. Finally, and most importantly, new prospects who are just becoming aware of your services will doubtless visit your social media profiles. It’s important that you keep these profiles updated and put out great content consistently to build trust and confidence, encouraging prospects to take the next step and call you.
Customer Success Stories
Ask your top clients for interviews, testimonials, and reviews. Create case studies highlighting how you’re addressing your existing clients’ pain points; the before and after states; and quotes from clients. Remember that your prospects will research your MSP or MSSP on the internet before engaging with you – invest time and effort in getting testimonials from them.
Email Campaigns
Develop email drip campaigns to keep anyone who’s been through your sales pipeline and warm leads informed about the latest in cybersecurity and any major announcements. These could be emails around a particular educational theme (like zero trust and how you help achieve it), major service announcements and special offers, or periodic newsletters with a mix of internal news and industry news and trends.
Thought Leadership Content
Creating thought leadership content is critical for service providers offering cybersecurity solutions. Your role is to help your clients navigate an increasingly complex IT landscape in a secure and compliant manner. Position yourself as a hands-on expert in IT security, data privacy, and the compliance standards you cover. Make these subjects easier for your audience to understand. Create blog posts, white papers, guides, best-practice articles, podcasts, and interviews – anything that you have the bandwidth to cover.
Podcasts and Webinars
If you have the time and resources, set up and participate in video podcasts and webinars designed to discuss current data privacy and security issues in an informal manner. Being able to explain the cyber risk landscape, challenges, and evolving compliance requirements in a simple manner will cement your position as a thought leader. Also, putting a face to the business will enhance trust and approachability and remove any hesitation business owners have in booking that first consultation. Finally, you can snip short sections from long-form video content to post on social media. Short videos are more easily absorbed and drive more audience engagement than any other form of content. Use it to your advantage!
Conclusion
Marketing cybersecurity services to SMBs requires a multi-faceted approach that combines education, thought leadership, and a clear articulation of your value proposition. By emphasizing the critical importance of cybersecurity, the potential consequences of cyberattacks, and the benefits of partnering with your organization, you can effectively reach your target audience and establish yourself as a trusted security advisor. Remember to leverage various marketing channels and create compelling content that resonates with SMBs’ needs and concerns. By consistently delivering valuable information and demonstrating your expertise, you can build strong relationships with potential clients and drive business growth.