MSPs are always on the lookout for new tools and technologies that broaden their offering for customers, and sometimes that means looking to provide solutions to problems your customers don’t even know they have. Email signature management might seem like a solution for a problem outside of the enterprise, but it could be a revenue-boosting opportunity for both MSPs and their clients of any size.
Exclaimer — a 20-year-old United Kingdom company that got its start developing tools to help organizations apply legally compliant disclaimers to corporate email — is taking major steps to infiltrate the U.S. IT channel with its email signature management solution.
Last June, its solution made it to PAX8’s cloud marketplace. Earlier this month, it announced a North American distribution agreement with Ingram Micro, bringing Exclaimer’s solution within easy reach to tens of thousands of solution providers, VARs, and MSPs. It also hired Global Head of Distribution Shawn Berry to manage its distribution channels.
Exclaimer’s existing partner program is also getting some exciting changes, including a new program specifically for MSPs. In a statement to ChannelPro, Exclaimer said:
“Exclaimer is proud of its partner ecosystem — made up of MSPs, VARs, cloud service providers (CSPs), and distributors aligned to Microsoft or Google — and is dedicated to providing the tools and support they need in order to be successful. Specifically, Exclaimer’s MSP Program allows partners to embed Exclaimer solutions within their product offerings to provide value-added services to all clients.”
Exclaimer is gearing up to elevate its provider offerings with a new MSP Authorized Program launching in April. The program will provide tailored resources and email signature management solutions for members to enhance existing relationships and tap into new customer segments — broadening their portfolios. “With access to trainings and technical support, program members will be able to amplify their impact, drive revenue, and build lasting client relationships,” the company said in the statement.
However, getting MSPs on board may take a little effort. After all, many’ve never even thought of email signatures as more than some text at the end of an email, let alone a way to bring value to customers and put money in the bank. The question this skeptical editor wanted to know: Is email signature management a real opportunity for the average SMB-focused MSP, and what is its strategy to help MSPs be successful?
To find out, I sat down with three Exclaimer executives:
- Product Marketing Manager James Wayne, to get a demo of what the company’s email management solution does.
- Robert Gavin, senior vice president of growth, and Amy Illingworth, partner development manager, to speak to its strategy and what it intends to do for partners.
“Why do emails still matter in this day and age?” Wayne asked as he began his demo, going on to illustrate its position that the company considers email to remain the principal way organizations communicate and conduct business. Exclaimer estimates nearly 400 million emails will be sent and received every day by 2026.
“And that’s probably why 87% of B2B marketers still use email as a primary means to share content and generate leads,” said Wayne, who pointed out that organizations and marketers must believe email works because many typically have something in place to operate email campaigns, using MailChimp as an example.
Statistics show that email campaigns have a reliable return on investment, according to Exclaimer. What that had to do with signatures was what I wanted to know, and then, two minutes into James’ demo, it clicked.
“This is potentially where we start to come in one-to-one emails perform better than traditional email marketing. And that’s an interesting thing to start considering when we start to look at our product, because if one-to-one emails are more effective, what can we potentially do that in that space to optimize that effectiveness?” he said.
“We can point to one-to-one emails being potentially the fastest way to achieve trust, and that’s why they’re so effective. They’re inherently more trusted because they’re kind of expected. The recipient of an email is going to have some cognizance of the people that are sending them that one-to-one bespoke email. There [are] some great benefits to those one-to-one emails that perhaps other channels cannot boast … which makes them really an ideal space to create brand impressions, generate demand.”
In other words, to Exclaimer, email signatures can be more than just contact information and disclaimers. It’s a valuable, likely unleveraged ad space that organizations can profit from.
But to use that space effectively poses challenges, which is why centralized management of email signatures is necessary. In many organizations, SMBs in particular, marketing doesn’t have control over that space, meaning emails don’t generally conform to any kind of branding or standards. Automating signature management gives “a consistent email signature on absolutely every email that is sent by an employee in the organization, and doing so with great efficiency.,” he said.
Consistent disclaimers still are a key part of Exclaimer’s solution, perhaps a hidden opportunity that many of your customers haven’t thought about. That won’t get your customers excited though, but what Exclaimer is doing from a marketing perspective would.
Exclaimer’s solution feels like an ad platform, where signature campaigns are devised, scheduled, deployed through users or groups in an organization, and results are measured. It supports several interesting functions out of the box, like collecting feedback or adding a survey right into the signature. The drag-and-drop, template-driven approach looks easy enough for MSPs to offer it as a service, or to sell it as a value-add and let your customer drive their own marketing efforts.
“We see examples of our customers and our partners’ customers using signatures to promote new content that they come up with for an event or virtual webinars and the like, driving sales efficiencies by including meeting links,” explained Wayne. “Personalization has become a big thing in the world of marketing. Marketers really want to achieve this with every channel that they have at their fingertips.”
Personalization can be extensive, thanks to tight integration with M365, Google Workspace, and Salesforce. Co-selling is part of Exclaimer’s partner strategy, helping MSPs leverage those integrations to provide unique and innovative solutions for their customers.
“We have a metallic tiered program — silver, gold, platinum — and now, we’ve just launched as part of that an MSP program that we’re really excited about. When I talk about a co-sell notion, that’s because they actually have access to all of our salespeople as well,” said Gavin, who went on to explain that Exclaimer also has technical resources who can work directly with MSPs. On the marketing side, partners get access to MDF funds, collateral, and co-branded materials.
And there’s more to come for MSPs specifically, who are gathering feedback directly from those enrolled in their early access to their MSP Authorized Program. One area of focus is integration with PSA tools for provisioning and billing, as well as making it easier for customers to try it out.
“They can [show the customer] the offering and then trial their end customers for a month or two to show the value, the signatures, the brand consistency, the disclaimers, and the messaging that their customers can give. [Then,] we can activate those into paid subscriptions for them.”
More details on Exclaimer’s upcoming MSP Authorized Program will be available on its website and the Exclaimer Partner Community on LinkedIn in April.
Email signature management hits the right notes of a great add-on to have in an MSP’s lineup, particularly for those selling M365. It’s likely not something your customers have thought about, it can bring value to their business, and can bring in some easy MRR.
Gavin summed it up perfectly: “It’s a little bit of extra revenue for them, not only in regard to the license revenue but also if they want to build the signatures themselves or maintain a monitor the signatures, there is a good revenue stream in that for them.”
Image: iStock
