SAP sought to provide three key business partners in New Zealand with qualified leads for their SAP Business One product. Previous marketing activities - such as telemarketing and advertising through technology publications - weren't cutting through. Even when leads were guaranteed by other marketing service providers, they were found to be unqualified. For example, the follow up action from telemarketing leads was too often "call prospect in 18 months when they are due for a review". Pretty weak stuff, so we were tasked with ensuring that leads from the target audience were genuinely interested in the key drivers that result in system purchases.
The ideal prospect was a key decision maker within a small to medium-sized business which was at the critical stage of it's lifecycle where operational inefficiencies were hindering growth potential.
Key Considerations
We were faced with a couple of challenges. The budget was only enough for one campaign but we couldn't create the campaign under the SAP brand because of access limitations and operational red tape. There were three partners though, and each technically competed with each other within the NZ market, even though they were operating from different parts of the country.
The Solution
The best way to generate qualified inbound leads is through strategic content marketing. When you create a piece of content that addresses a key issue which only your ideal prospect, at the right stage of their buying journey would be interested in, you effectively uncover only those who are candidates to buy and you avoid poor quality leads that cost money to generate.
We wanted to generate leads only from key decision makers within small to medium-sized businesses which were at the critical stage of their lifecycle where operational inefficiencies were hindering growth potential. We didn't want leads from businesses that didn't want to grow, or from those that had already systemised their business as this was a net-new approach rather than a displacement approach. For that reason, the topic we strategically chose was "How Kiwi SMBs can scale through systemisation and design thinking".
Wellington Partner, BOS IT, eBook design
We overcame the budget limitations by creating one key piece of content - an eBook - and rebranding it for each partner. We also overcame the market competition clash by allocating one region per partner based on their geographic location - Auckland, Wellington & Wairarapa, and Canterbury.
The eBook, which was gated, was promoted through LinkedIn over two weeks generating 46 inbound and qualified leads. Each of those leads entered an email nurture sequence designed to digitise the sales funnel while building trust and educating the leads on the benefits that SAP Business One has provided for other similar businesses.
Each partner received an eBook, a landing page, and ad assets. We even threw in a bit of social media help with LinkedIn as the company pages were inactive which detracted from social proof which is an essential ingredient in marketing success.
Wellington Partner, BOS IT, landing page
Contact us to find out how we can generate qualified leads for your business.
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