ERP Software Lead Generation Tactics: That Really Work

As an ERP Value Added Reseller (VAR), generating leads for ERP software and related services can be a daunting task, particularly for newcomers to the industry. Our founder knows this challenge all too well, having worked as an ERP sales representative in the past.

The ERP landscape is fiercely competitive, with industry giants like Microsoft, SAP and Oracle pouring billions into sales and marketing efforts, while countless ERP VARs compete for potential customers' attention. This, coupled with limited practical marketing know-how and extensive sales cycles, makes it incredibly difficult for VARs to secure new leads while simultaneously managing existing clients.

If you're an ERP Channel Partner finding it hard to generate high-quality leads through your website or blog, this blog post is tailor-made for you. We will provide indispensable insights and guidance to help you kickstart your ERP software and service lead generation process more efficiently and effectively.

Here's are the four primary areas we see ERP VARs struggle when it comes to ERP software marketing and lead generation efforts. 

Let's explore each of these briefly:

1. Lack of Support from ERP Vendors

Many ERP consultants express frustration due to receiving minimal or no leads from the ERP software publishers they represent. This lack of support can make lead generation a daunting task for ERP VARs.
Even if you are part of an ERP ecosystem that provides leads, relying on this single source may put you in a precarious position if the referral source ever disappears. To avoid being caught off guard, it is crucial to learn how to generate ERP software and service leads independently.

Furthermore, numerous ERP software vendors, such as Oracle-NetSuite, have already established extensive direct sales teams comprised of hundreds of Account Executives (AEs) and Business Development Representatives (BDRs). With the need to sustain their direct sales teams, it becomes increasingly challenging for ERP vendors to allocate sufficient leads to their partner network. As a result, the best course of action is to develop a self-sufficient lead generation strategy for your business.

2. Website Not Optimized for ERP Lead Generation

A significant portion of ERP sales cycles originates from online research, with search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Google playing a pivotal role. Google, in particular, dominates the search engine market.

To increase your online visibility, it is crucial that your product or service ranks on the first page of Google search results, ideally within the top 5. According to Backlinko, the top 3 Google results account for 75% of all clicks.

The challenge is further intensified by Google's ability to provide "instant answers" to numerous queries, eliminating the need for users to visit other websites for information.

If you have successfully optimized your website for search engines and driven significant traffic to your site, but still experience low form submission rates, it may indicate that there is too much friction for potential leads to engage with your digital assets. In the following sections, we will provide tips to address this issue and improve your website's lead generation capabilities.

3. Inconsistent Content Creation

Regularly publishing blogs and other forms of content is crucial for gaining traction with Google keyword acquisition. Consistency is key, as Google prioritizes fresh content from websites, and it's likely that your competitors are also consistently producing content. Balancing content creation with other business activities can be challenging, but it's essential to prioritize this aspect of your marketing strategy to stay ahead in the competitive landscape.

4. Lack of Keyword Strategy

Effective keyword research is a critical component of generating ERP software leads. By identifying the keywords your target audience is searching for, you can improve your content's visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). However, merely incorporating popular keywords is insufficient for achieving success. A strategic approach to keyword research is necessary for it to be fruitful.

Focusing solely on popular keywords that are challenging to rank for can lead to a futile effort without a solid marketing strategy in place. On the other hand, targeting long-tail keywords that are easier to rank for but generate minimal traffic may not yield the desired results. By developing a comprehensive and well-balanced keyword strategy, you can optimize your content for maximum impact and lead generation.

7 Things You Can Start Doing Right Now to Generate Sales Ready ERP Leads

As an ERP consulting firm, you understand that selling ERP software solutions is not the same as selling commodity products and services. The ideal ERP buyer is highly knowledgeable and selective in their product choice, as the credibility of the software they choose directly affects their daily work life.

Furthermore, ERP systems tend to be incredibly sticky, often staying with a company for 5-10 years or longer. Given this, it is essential to have a deep understanding of your target audience, including their desires, fears, and objectives when it comes to this significant investment.

To help you start generating leads for your ERP software business, we have outlined seven steps you can take advantage of today.

These steps will help you reach and engage your target audience, build credibility, and establish yourself as a trusted advisor in the ERP space.

1. Mastering ERP Software Keyword Research

Conducting thorough keyword research is a critical component of generating ERP software and services leads. This process involves pinpointing relevant keywords for your business and understanding their role in driving revenue. To accomplish this, it's crucial to comprehend the search terms and phrases your target buyers use when seeking ERP solutions online.

The "Big 5 Themes" serve as an excellent foundation for ERP Software VARs when it comes to keyword selection. These themes encompass price or cost, product comparisons, customer and analyst reviews, "Best of" or "Top" lists, and the problems that your product or service resolves. Utilizing these five themes as a starting point can help you identify the keywords and phrases that a typical ERP buyer might search for online while researching new ERP systems.

With these themes in mind, you can delve deeper into the specific keywords and phrases that ERP buyers are likely to use in their Google queries during their research process.

After identifying the ideal keywords to target, the next step is to assess if your website currently ranks for any of them. If you're unsure how to proceed, there are tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush designed to streamline this process. These platforms can help you gauge your existing keyword rankings and provide valuable insights to improve your overall keyword strategy.

2. Boost ERP Lead Generation with Google Optimized Assets

Upon completing your keyword research, it's essential to align your chosen keywords with the content you plan to create or optimize, utilizing an editorial calendar. This calendar serves as a roadmap for your inbound marketing strategy, keeping you organized and on track to meet your publishing and revenue objectives.

To keep your team organized, start with a basic Google Sheet template or consider using tools like HubSpot's SEO tool to visually structure and link your content.

In the industry, it's common to encounter marketing professionals who create excellent content without proper search engine optimization (SEO) or SEO professionals who write solely for search engines. To achieve successful content marketing, striking a balance between writing for human readers and search engines is vital.

Creating Content for Real People:
When crafting assets for your target audience, ensure the content is engaging, readable, and relatable. Overly technical or formal content can lose the reader's attention, failing to achieve the desired impact. Aim to captivate your audience by delivering information in digestible, enjoyable segments.

Content for Search Engines:
Writing content exclusively for human readers differs from writing for search engines. Search engines have evolved to detect content written solely to manipulate their algorithms. In the past, marketers could rank high in search results by overloading their pages with keywords.

This tactic leads to poor user experiences and high bounce rates, adversely affecting your Google ranking. While on-page optimization of target keywords remains crucial, search engines now also consider factors like page load times, linking page authority, and dwell time when ranking your page for specific keywords.

3. Optimize Your Assets

On-page optimization refers to the array of techniques employed on a website or webpage to enhance its visibility and ranking in search engine results. Factors such as keyword selection and usage, title tags and meta descriptions, link structure, and page speed contribute to effective on-page optimization.

By closely examining and optimizing on-page elements, you can maximize your website's exposure on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. To improve your online presence, prioritize optimizing your on-page factors!

We will focus on two primary factors:

1. Dwell time - the duration visitors spend on a website/webpage
2. Bounce rate - the percentage of visitors who leave a site without engaging with content or interacting with other pages

Dwell Time: A Crucial Metric for Google Rankings

Dwell time refers to the time a visitor spends on a specific page. A longer dwell time is a positive ranking factor for Google, while a shorter dwell time is a negative one.

The logic is straightforward - if your content is valuable and engaging, readers should spend more time on your pages.

Several methods can increase dwell time, including adding more content to your pages. This not only keeps readers engaged but also offers more opportunities for them to spend time on your site.

Incorporating video content in your blogs is another effective way to boost dwell time. Videos provide a quick, engaging overview of the blog topic and help retain visitors on your page longer. Create videos yourself or collaborate with a video production firm. Furthermore, Google indexes videos on platforms like YouTube, potentially enhancing your rankings even if your blog or webpage doesn't rank well.

Lastly, adding chat functionality to your website can increase dwell time and improve user experience. Chatbots provide instant answers to visitor questions, reducing bounce rates and maintaining visitor engagement.

Improve Your Bounce Rate for Increased ERP Software Leads

Bounce rate is a critical metric reflecting your website's ability to provide answers and relevant information to your audience.

A high bounce rate indicates that visitors are not satisfied with your site's content and are leaving without further exploration. This can negatively impact your website's performance and potentially harm your brand's reputation.

To address a high bounce rate, create new or additional calls-to-action (CTAs) to engage visitors. Offer enticing incentives on key pages, encouraging your audience to take action, such as clicking to a landing page in exchange for contact information.

Upgrade your CTAs if they currently consist of a single hyperlink text at the bottom of your website. Consider adding visually striking buttons or images above the fold or, at the very least, not at the bottom of your page. Tools like HubSpot offer entry-level solutions for easy CTA and form creation, potentially increasing your conversion rate and reducing bounce rate.

Track and analyze your bounce rate using free tools like Google Analytics or access the data directly from your individual pages analytics if you use marketing software like HubSpot.

Site Performance

Google PageSpeed Insights is a vital tool for measuring your website's performance speed. It assigns a score between 0-100, with 100 being the highest and fastest rating. This score helps you understand your website's speed and is used by Google to rank your site in search results. Consequently, enhancing your website's SEO requires focusing on increasing page speed.

Google's Lighthouse tool is an excellent resource to help you. As an open-source, automated tool, Lighthouse audits your website pages and offers improvement suggestions. Utilize Lighthouse to identify areas to enhance your page speed, and then use Google PageSpeed Insights to test your changes and assess their impact on your score.

Simple optimizations can significantly increase your website's speed and contribute to better SEO results. To check your website's performance, use the following link: https://pagespeed.web.dev/

With the right tools and a little effort, you can ensure that your website operates efficiently, delivers an excellent user experience, and bolsters your SEO.

Regularly Monitor and Update Your Content
To maintain your website's relevance and search engine rankings, it's essential to regularly monitor and update your content. By doing so, you can ensure that your content remains fresh, accurate, and engaging for your audience. This will not only help improve your search engine rankings but also establish your website as a valuable and reliable resource for potential ERP software leads.

To stay on top of your content updates, create a content audit schedule. Review your existing content periodically to ensure it's up-to-date and relevant. Remove any outdated information or broken links and replace them with current and accurate data. Additionally, consider updating your content's visual elements, such as images or videos, to keep your website looking fresh and modern.

Leverage Social Media and Email Marketing
In addition to optimizing your website and creating valuable content, leveraging social media and email marketing can be a powerful way to generate more ERP software leads. Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook can help you reach a broader audience and drive more traffic to your website. By sharing your blog posts, case studies, and other valuable content on social media, you can engage your target audience and encourage them to visit your website.

Email marketing campaigns are another effective way to nurture leads and maintain engagement with your audience. Regularly send newsletters and updates to your subscribers, offering valuable information, industry news, and exclusive offers. By providing relevant and engaging content through email marketing, you can establish trust and credibility with your audience and encourage them to engage with your website and brand.

4. Grow Domain Authority (DA) via Backlink Acquisition

Google's RankBrain algorithm is an advanced machine learning system that uses over 200 ranking factors to evaluate a website's relevance and authority. Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) are two critical factors that significantly impact your website's ranking in search results.

Enhancing your DA and PA is achievable through acquiring backlinks from high-quality domains. Backlinks from authoritative websites can elevate your own site's credibility and authority, leading to better search engine rankings.

One prevalent method for obtaining backlinks is through Guest Posts. This entails writing and publishing an article or blog post on a high DA and PA website. The post should be relevant and informative, including a backlink to your site. Publishing guest posts on authoritative sites can help you establish yourself as a trusted, knowledgeable information source, leading to increased traffic and improved rankings.

Guest Posts are just one of many ways to obtain backlinks, but they are highly effective for quickly growing your DA and PA. By improving these ranking factors, you can enhance your website's search engine visibility, attract more organic traffic, and ultimately increase conversion rates.

Guest posting and press releases are common ways to acquire backlinks from high-quality domains. For this discussion, we'll focus on guest posting. For instance, if you published a blog post about a "Pricing Guide for Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC," aiming to rank for the keyword "dynamics 365 pricing," you'll want your backlink anchor texts to be related to the target keyword, such as "Dynamics 365 pricing," "Dynamics 365 cost," or "Dynamics 365 licensing."

By aligning the anchor text with your target keyword and other SEO elements like your URL, title, H1, meta description, and alt text for images, you clearly communicate to Google which keywords you want this content to rank for.

There are two options for building links to your website. You can do it yourself, which is a time-consuming and unscalable process requiring outreach to your network to see if someone is willing to publish your content on their site with a link back to your domain. Alternatively, you can automate the process by partnering with a company specializing in both the outreach and copywriting aspects of guest blogging, understanding the importance of anchor text density. This approach allows you to concentrate on your core competencies while leaving the link building to professionals.

5. Lead Conversion Optimization: Transforming Organic Traffic into MQLs

Assuming you've successfully implemented the SEO strategies mentioned earlier, and your website is now ranking well for target keywords, you should see an increase in organic web sessions. While these new visitors may be unfamiliar, with the right approach, you can convert them into known leads or Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs).

Many companies make the mistake of using static forms with too many required fields to gather information from leads. This approach can create friction and frustration, especially if prospects anticipate spam emails or sales calls. By making it challenging for leads to access desired information, you risk losing them to competitors offering a more user-friendly experience.

To circumvent this issue, consider alternative conversion tactics like Typeform. This tool replaces traditional forms with a more interactive and engaging experience, allowing you to build logic jumps into the form and tailor it to your prospects' needs. Interactivity is essential for lead conversion. By offering some information in exchange for their contact details (e.g., email address), you create a smoother, more appealing experience for leads.

Another effective way to boost lead conversion is by incorporating interactive quizzes and calculators into your website. These tools provide immediate value to users and can drive engagement and conversion by addressing their questions on the spot.

Lastly, using reverse IP lookup tools, such as Zoominfo's WebSights or Lead Forensics, can help you identify anonymous website visitors and convert them into known leads. By combining primary domain data with third-party buyer intent data (e.g., Bombora or Zoominfo), you can enhance your outbound prospecting and increase conversion rates with the right messaging, frequency, and call-to-action.

6. Generating ERP Software Leads With Buyer Intent Data

Maximizing the potential of your organic web traffic is crucial for the success of your business. However, it is equally important to understand and track the buying intentions of potential customers who are researching your products and services off domain. This is where buyer intent data plays a crucial role.

Buyer intent software is a type of technology that enables businesses to identify and monitor the purchasing intentions of their prospects. It provides valuable insights into what customers are searching for, and the products or services they may be interested in purchasing. This information can be used to create personalized marketing strategies and enhance customer engagement.

There are various buyer intent software products available in the market, including Bombora and Zoominfo. Some of these solutions only focus on collecting and analyzing data, while others offer additional features such as email marketing and chat support tools.

By combining buyer intent insights with the efforts of a Business Development Representative, you can engage in highly targeted outreach and start a dialogue with potential clients about how your organization and ERP solutions can address their unique problems and challenges.

For a more advanced approach, you can automate the process of identifying leads and integrating them directly into your CRM in real-time. This combined with the right technology stack can automate your outreach process, which we'll discuss in a future blog post. If you're interested in learning more about how to generate ERP sales-ready leads with buyer intent data, don't hesitate to reach out and we'll provide you with all the information you need to succeed.

7. Tighter Sales & Marketing Alignment

Having a tight alignment between sales and marketing is crucial for driving ERP sales ready leads effectively. When sales and marketing teams collaborate, they can effectively identify their target customer segments, uncover market opportunities, and craft messaging that resonates with potential customers.

This teamwork can lead to significant synergies in terms of growing the business, as sales teams can use insights from marketing to close deals more efficiently, and marketing teams can improve their strategies by incorporating feedback from sales.

To achieve this, companies should invest in a technology platform that supports both sales and marketing, such as HubSpot's Marketing Hub and Sales Hub. This platform provides the tools and capabilities necessary for sales and marketing teams to work together and measure the success of their programs.

Moreover, aligning sales and marketing teams can lead to a better flow of leads for sales, and recognition for marketing for driving high volume and high-quality leads for ERP software and services.

In Conclusion

Generating ERP software and services leads on a consistent basis can be a real challenge, but the financial rewards can be huge. We have an amazing track record helping ERP resellers drive more web traffic, more sales-ready leads and more customers, you can check out some real life examples here: Inbound Marketing Examples

If you are serious about growth and need a team that deeply understands the ERP industry and knows how to consistently generate more ERP sales leads for your sales team you should request a meeting from one of our marketing specialist to show you how we can add immediate value to your ERP consulting practice.