Strategy on generating inbound leads for ERP experts

Endeavour first approached Concentrate seeking help on developing their brand awareness and inbound lead generation strategy as they were too reliant on referrals from their network and clients. Tim Ryley, Endeavour Chief Executive explains, "Our challenge was that we didn't have enough inbound leads coming into the company. We got to a position where, through circumstance, our own in-house marketing person was no longer in that role. That gave us an opportunity to evaluate what the best path forward was; to remain in-house or outsource?"

Tim explains that in addition to this, Endeavour was facing challenges with brand awareness. That despite their increasing product range the historic reputation they had established as a MYPB Greentree product supplier since opening their doors in 1986 had "hung over them." Adding, "What we needed to do was increase the awareness of what we did, to our target markets, but also to increase the volume of inbound leads."

Challenged internally with generating a higher volume of inbound leads and brand awareness, Endeavour approached Concentrate. A HubSpot Diamond Certified Agency Partner based in Christchurch, New Zealand that offers an all-in-one outsourced marketing solution that would help Endeavour to fill their skills gap and meet the growth aspirations they had as a company.

Concentrate initially proposed and implemented the following four-pronged approach:

1. 1.  The first step revolved around understanding what markets Endeavour should focus on, prioritise and then, market to. The process saw Endeavour and Concentrate evaluate the attractiveness of each market discussing the validity of which were the best to pursue.
   2. Concentrate then completed a customer insights programme that involved interviewing Endeavour’s current customers to find commonalities and gain deeper insights in order to better understand their target market. Tim notes, "Really helped us to understand how we differ from our competitors."
   3. The third prong was to implement and execute a lead generation and marketing program that locked down the activity Endeavour needed to drive growth through brand awareness and lead generation.
   4. The fourth prong was to implement HubSpot - a full platform of marketing, sales, customer service and CRM software.

Endeavour have now been working with Concentrate for three and a half years, and in that time have seen great improvement in their inbound leads and brand awareness. Tim explains, "Once we implemented the growth program, and got the execution of the activities going, we saw a fast and rapid rise in our social following which flowed through into our nurture database."

Given the long sales cycle of ERP systems, Concentrate enabled Endeavour to leverage HubSpot to manage marketing and sales qualified leads. With a simple system to pass leads through the sales funnel, Endeavour can now ensure each lead regardless of where they are on their buyer's journey, receives the right communications they need at the right time. Tim explains, "This method provided us with a sufficient platform to nurture leads and develop relationships from them. It helped the team to establish more marketing qualified leads that the sales team were able to pick up and progress and then pass back when appropriate to nurture for the future as well."

In all, Tim described the process of outsourcing lead generation as, "Really successful for us. It helped us grow our inbound lead sources. Instead of being reliant in the past on referrals, we now have three main sources of lead generation, and we've got a much more balanced flow of inbound leads into the business which helps us to sustain our sales and overall business goals." Adding, "It's certainly introduced a lot of capability and allowed us to execute activity that we would otherwise have struggled to do."

Tim describes the partnership as focussed, "We're very focused together on what we're doing. We're getting good cadence with lead generation activities that are creating great brand awareness and sales opportunities for us. We've got a really good platform and engine working together now that provides consistent activity."

Endeavour CEO, Tim Ryley describes the impact Concentrate has had on Endeavour's lead generation activity as consistent and effective, "What I personally find in my own position really powerful for us is the ability to make something happen quickly and effectively. We can execute with consistency and cadence. We have access to marketing expertise that we just don't have internally, which means we have consistent programs running and activity happening all the time."

"We've recently taken on a new product distribution at the end of last year. Within the first three months, Concentrate had a whole program of activity up and running, in play, and underway," adds Tim.

In an effort to drive more sales qualified leads for Endeavour, Tim explains, "What we are focusing on at the moment are more granular approaches to our target markets. We're starting to refine and learn more from the activities with them and get even smarter at what we're doing."