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8th Light

8th Light

Digital Authority Partners transformed 8th Light's digital presence through Fractional CMO leadership and full-service marketing execution. Within 12 months, we achieved a 45% increase in enterprise MSP leads, 180% growth in qualified enterprise traffic, and a 400% boost in local search visibility. Our integrated team turned their website from ranking for 150 keywords to over 1,200 enterprise MSP terms, building a consistent pipeline of Fortune 1000 opportunities. Through strategic content, technical optimization, and targeted campaigns, 8th Light evolved from relying on referrals to generating qualified enterprise leads 24/7.

increase in enterprise MSP leads YoY
45%
enterprise IT decision-makers actively seeking MSP services
92%
increase in local SEO leads
400%
Client:
8th Light
Industry:
Managed Service Provider & Custom Software Development
Bio:
8th Light manages mission-critical IT infrastructure for over 100 Fortune 1000 companies across financial services, healthcare, and highly regulated industries. Their 24/7 managed services operation handles everything from daily IT management to complex digital transformation projects. While also offering custom software development, 8th Light has established itself as a premier MSP partner for enterprises requiring sophisticated technical operations and stringent security compliance.

How we helped 8th Light

Digital Marketing Services
Fractional CMO Services
Content Strategy Services
Account-Based Marketing
SEO Agency
National SEO Services
Local SEO Services
Technical SEO Services
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Lead Generation Agency
Email Marketing Automation
Marketing Analytics

Project Summary

When 8th Light approached Digital Authority Partners, they faced a common MSP challenge: referral-based growth had hit a ceiling. While they managed mission-critical IT for over 100 enterprise clients with proven expertise, they couldn’t predictably attract new Fortune 1000 opportunities. Companies actively searching for MSP partners simply weren’t finding them online.

Our Fractional CMO partnered with 8th Light’s leadership to implement a strategic growth plan for their digital marketing efforts. Together, we developed enterprise-focused lead funnels, launched Chicago-specific campaigns targeting local prospects, created content for IT decision-makers, optimized their website infrastructure, and deployed account-based marketing to attract Fortune 1,000 prospective clients.

The Challenge

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Digital Marketing Didn't Match Their Expertise

Despite managing mission-critical IT for over 100 enterprise clients, 8th Light’s online presence didn’t reflect its MSP leadership. The company website focused heavily on software development, lacking opportunities to showcase its expertise in managed services.

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Invisible to Enterprise MSP Buyers Online

Before partnering with DAP, 8th Light was missing from key enterprise MSP searches. Their site ranked for only 150 keywords – most related to software development rather than managed services. This meant CIOS and IT leaders searching for terms like “enterprise managed service provider” or “IT infrastructure management” weren’t finding 8th Light, even though they had an impressive track record serving Fortune 1000 clients.

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Trapped in the Referral Loop

Like many MSP leaders, 8th Light was stuck in the feast-or-famine cycle of referral-based growth. While they had a solid base of enterprise clients, relying solely on referrals meant:

  • Inconsistent lead flow, making it impossible to predict or plan for growth
  • Too many small-business leads that didn’t match their enterprise-level capabilities
  • Lost opportunities to competitors with a stronger digital presence
  • Sales team spending time disqualifying prospects instead of closing enterprise deals

This reflected a common MSP challenge: excellent service delivery but no systematic way to attract and qualify the right kind of enterprise prospects.

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Missing Out on Local Enterprise Deals

While 8th Light had an impressive roster of local enterprise clients, they were invisible to other Chicago-based companies searching for an MSP partner. B2B buyers overwhelmingly prefer local MSPs for:

  • Face-to-face strategic planning meetings
  • Rapid on-site support when needed
  • Local compliance and regulatory knowledge
  • Established relationships with regional data centers
  • Quick response times for critical infrastructure issues

8th Light’s competitors were winning these valuable local contracts simply by showing up in Chicago enterprise MSP searches. The impact? Not just missed opportunities, but missed high-converting ones – local MSP deals convert at 3X the rate of national searches due to the trust factor of local presence.

How we helped 8th Light

Digital Marketing Services
— Fractional Marketing

While 8th Light had an impressive roster of local enterprise clients, they were invisible to other Chicago-based companies searching for an MSP partner. B2B buyers overwhelmingly prefer local MSPs for:

  • Built and executed their first comprehensive marketing plan
  • Created positioning that highlights their MSP capabilities to enterprise buyers
  • Conducted full analytics and tech stack audit for optimization
  • Trained their team on lead qualification and enterprise sales processes
  • Established KPIs and reporting focused on Fortune 1,000 leads
  • Implemented marketing performance tracking and auditing systems

Within 180 days, we turned their ad-hoc marketing efforts into a structured program generating qualified enterprise opportunities. Working directly with the company’s CEO, our Fractional CMO ensured every marketing initiative aligned with their goal of attracting larger, longer-term MSP contracts.

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— Content Strategy Services

Our content team revamped 8th Light’s entire digital presence to showcase their managed services expertise. The 12-month content strategy balanced technical depth with client success stories, driving more qualified leads from every channel. From security whitepapers to video case studies, each piece addressed specific IT buyer concerns and questions.

Key deliverables included:

  • Created detailed case studies showing real-world impact and ROI
  • Developed technical documentation showcasing their methodology
  • Launched a thought leadership program covering emerging IT trends
  • Built conversion-focused service and solutions pages
  • Established a monthly insights newsletter for IT leaders
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SEO Agency
— National SEO Services

We transformed 8th Light’s national visibility by focusing on enterprise MSP-specific search terms. Our team developed comprehensive service pages targeting keywords like “enterprise managed service provider” and “IT infrastructure management services.” Within six months, 8th Light ranked in the top 3 positions for these valuable terms across major U.S. markets, driving over 5,000 qualified enterprise visitors monthly and around 50 SQLs each month from our marketing efforts.

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— Local SEO Services

For Chicago-area clients, we built location-specific landing pages targeting terms like “Chicago enterprise MSP” and “managed
IT services Chicago.” This local focus resulted in a 400% increase in Chicago-area enterprise leads.

— Technical SEO Implementation

Beyond content and keywords, we executed critical technical SEO improvements:

  • Fixed crawling issues and XML sitemap errors
  • Improved site speed by 65% through code optimization
  • Implemented proper schema markup for services pages
  • Resolved mobile usability and responsive design issues
  • Enhanced URL structure and internal linking
  • Fixed duplicate content and canonical issues
  • Optimized robots.txt and meta directives
Marketing Strategy Consultants
— Account-Based Marketing

We identified and targeted Fortune 1,000 companies seeking MSP partners via LinkedIn and cold email outreach campaigns. Our
ABM campaigns included:

  • Custom landing pages for specific industries
  • Targeted email nurture sequences for IT decision-makers
  • Industry-specific case studies and ROI calculators
  • Integration with their CRM for seamless lead handoff
  • Personalized content paths based on company size and needs

This focused approach generated 28 enterprise opportunities in the first quarter, with 5 converting to large MSP contracts.

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Lead Generation Agency
— Lead Generation Systems

Our CRM and analytics integration helped 8th Light turn website traffic into sales meetings. Our approach helped:

  • Track overall site engagement and user behavior
  • Score leads based on engagement patterns and interest
  • Route qualified opportunities to the right sales team members
  • Provide data-backed insights on content performance
  • Optimize marketing spend based on conversion data

Within 6 months, this system helped 8th Light’s sales team spend 40% less time on qualification while increasing qualified
opportunities by 45%.

— Custom Marketing Analytics

8th Light needed to know exactly where their best leads came from and why they converted. We built custom analytics tracking that showed which marketing channels, content, and campaigns drove actual sales meetings. This gave their leadership team clear ROI data to optimize their marketing investments.

Our analytics tracked:

  • Which channels brought in sales-qualified leads
  • Full conversion paths from first visit to signed contract
  • Content performance by deal size and close rate
  • Competitor rankings for key service terms
  • Monthly reports showing revenue impact by channel
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What we achieved

45%
MORE QUALIFIED LEADS
The numbers tell the story: 45% more qualified leads in just 12 months. These weren't just any leads - they were the enterprise-level clients 8th Light was looking for.
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180-traffic-growth
180%
TRAFFIC GROWTH
Website traffic to MSP service pages grew by 180%, with a significant shift in visitor quality. The growth came from enterprise IT decision makers actively searching for managed services, including:
400%
INCREASE IN LOCAL SEARCH VISIBILITY
With a revamped SEO strategy centered on purchase-driven keywords, a meticulous overhaul of existing content, and a renewed commitment to high-authority content, DecisionLink's website a staggering 178% surge in organic search traffic within a year.
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Team Analyzing Growth Data on a Monitor in a Meeting
INCREASE IN WEBSITE CONVERSION RATE
  • Pages now load in under 2 seconds
  • Contact form submissions up 45%
  • Client inquiries from 5 new industries
  • Ranking for 1,200+ relevant terms
  • Email response rate increased 40%
  • Demo requests up 35%

Looking Ahead

8th Light continues to grow their digital presence while staying focused on what they do best: building great software. Their website now works as hard as their development team does, bringing in qualified leads while they focus on serving clients.

jason and reece shaking hands

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