Inbound marketing is a hot topic because it adds a dimension to marketing programs that many companies had simply ignored. But as companies gain experience with it, they are learning that it’s one tactic, not a panacea. If we use a golf analogy, inbound marketing is one of the clubs in the bag. Just as you would not play a round of golf using just one club, you should not use inbound as your sole marketing tactic. It is an important club, so you want it to be really good. In this success story, we highlight an inbound marketing success for an ERP Company. We’ve been working with them to build a North American presence using inbound marketing as one element in our strategy.

When we began working with them, they had an inbound program. It was generating hand raisers from a couple of sources. But there were problems. Here’s how their VP for North America put it:

“Before working with Frantz Group, our inbound program wasn’t producing results and even worse, it was wasting vital sales resources. Frantz Group made two amazing improvements: first, they drove significantly more inbound responses by researching sources and monitoring performance weekly to maximize ROI; second they nurtured/qualified responders into true sales opportunities which has dramatically improved sales productivity and morale. That’s exactly what we needed!”

Over the course of about 6 months, Frantz Group delivered these results:

– Generated inbound responses from 404 companies

– Using a variety of nurturing activities (over 2000!), we engaged with 186 companies

– From those 186, we identified 22 sales opportunities which is 12% conversion rate

– For the sources FG introduced, 22% of the companies engaged converted to sales opportunities

– These are full blown ERP sales opportunities with license revenue of about $200K each

– There are 19 promising suspects that FG continues to nurture

But what matters is how this migrated to the bottom-line. Here’s what one of their Sales Managers had to say:

The Frantz group team is absolutely the best I have worked with. They aggressively follow up on all our marketing leads and truly qualify the prospect. Their summaries are accurate and I completely trust their work. It is a great relief not having to track down hundreds of unqualified replies every month. “