4 Marketing Tips for ERP Software Companies

The four steps of marketing ERP include:

1. Understanding your audience
2. Analyzing your competitors
3. Leveraging online promotion techniques
4. Engaging in traditional, in-person outreach

How to Market ERP Software: 4 Steps

The ERP landscape is highly competitive—major developers like SAP, Microsoft, and Oracle are all vying for ERP market share. To stand out, you’ll need a well-rounded marketing strategy that considers your audience, competitors, and both online and offline promotional tactics.

1 Know Your Audience

First, identify your ideal customer:

• What is the typical organization size or number of users?
• How much scalability do they need?
• Do they work in a specific industry?
• Do they require any regulatory compliance?
• What are the budgetary restrictions?

Answer based on what your target market currently is and what you want it to be. Knowing your current customer base is important for proving why you’re a good fit for similar clients. And exploring who you want to work with early can help you shape future marketing campaigns.

There is another benefit to knowing your audience: knowing who it isn’t. Who you won’t serve will have a huge impact on how you advertise your ERP. Marketing too broadly can bring in leads that aren’t a good fit and a waste of your time.

2 Know Your Competitors

In order to stay competitive, you need to know what other ERP developers are doing. This shouldn’t be limited to just their marketing tactics but how they’re developing their own software. See how many offer free trials, what add-ons are available, and, if possible, their pricing structure. If you find all your competitors are releasing annual updates for free, while you’re hiding new features behind a paywall, you might need to adapt your methods to keep customers from leaving.

If customers are coming to you because they are dissatisfied with a competitor’s ERP, you can use that information to further tailor your marketing strategy.

3 Use Online Promotion Methods

Use the following methods to promote ERP software through online means:

• Webinars Webinars showcasing how an ERP can drive business success are an effective way to reach prospective customers online. You can prerecord or live-stream interviews with business experts, share short tutorials, and address other issues which are important to your buyers. The overall goal is to clearly demonstrate all your ERP has to offer business owners.

Live webinars are a great way to interact with potential customers. At the end, hold a Q&A session to address any questions from the audience.

• Social Media Channels Social media is another easy way to expand your branding. LinkedIn and YouTube can be better avenues for reaching future leads. At the very least, you want to maintain a social media presence with regular activity so buyers know your company is responsive and up-to-date.

Don’t forget your company website when making social media posts. Share industry articles, case studies, or blogs on your own site to build a hub of information for prospective customers.

• Email Campaigns Email campaigns are a modern take on traditional mail marketing. Yet, building a contact database is going to be difficult. To avoid being perceived as spam, it’s best to only reach out to those who have subscribed. This is where those contacts made through webinars and social media can come in handy.

Starting a company newsletter is another way to keep your email communication active. Share updates on upcoming developments, expansions to functionality, and other important news. For example, if regulatory changes are coming to an industry, detail how the ERP meets the new compliance requirements.

• Online Demos Free trials are a great way to introduce your product to potential customers. Give your prospects a way to test out your ERP from your website. There are a variety of ways to present these trials. You can offer limited functionality, preload dummy data, or set a time limit on how long the software can be used. If your software is on-premise only, guided or pre-recorded video demos can showcase your software.

• Partner with a Lead Generation Service Websites like Software Connect can help you find leads based on your target market. These businesses can then promote your product to new businesses on your behalf.

Learn more about Software Connect.

4 Try In-Person or Direct Outreach

Traditional, in-person outreach is another way to find potential customers for your ERP:

• Trade shows: Sometimes, face-to-face interaction is the best way to win over new customers. Get a booth at a trade show and let your prospects come to you. If you have an on-premise system, record a demo displaying a wide range of features.
• Seminars: Like webinars, in-person seminars cover general business topics but help get your company name out there. This is another chance to show users in person how your software works and can directly benefit them.
• Mailers: While not as popular as the other methods, sending out old-fashioned mailers to prospective clients can still be successful. In fact, this method can work best for business owners who are a little tech-shy and need a little more prompting to adapt their processes to software.

Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing

Inbound marketing methods involve attracting potential customers through value-driven content. Outbound marketing is a less targeted approach, pushing a product to a large audience. According to a study from Invesp, inbound practices generate 54% more leads than outbound methods.

Inbound Marketing for ERP

• SEO: Optimize product pages, FAQs, and even video titles and descriptions to rank for relevant search queries.
• Content Marketing: Create case studies and blog articles highlighting how the ERP system addresses common business challenges.
• Demos: Offer live demos or webinars to give potential customers a chance to see the software in action.
• Email Campaigns: Send targeted emails to leads depending on where they are in the sales funnel.

Outbound Marketing for ERP

• Ads: Run ads on industry-specific websites or in publications to reach C-level executives and IT teams.
• Referral Programs: Incentivize existing customers to refer new clients by offering credits or discounts.
• Cold Outreach: Directly call or email potential customers, targeting companies not yet considering an ERP system.

Note: Cold outreach can be perceived as spammy or aggressive, which could damage your brand’s reputation. Generic messaging for a broad audience often leads to low response rates.

How to Measure Marketing Success

If your own ERP has a customer relationship management (CRM) system, use it yourself! And be sure to mention it to prospects. Otherwise, track your customers’ interactions with a third-party CRM to detail where leads originate, how many prospects become clients, and more.

Monitoring marketing campaign performance allows you to see what’s working and what needs work. Analytics gathered by CRM programs can lead to data-driven marketing decisions. Real-time data collection also lets you adapt to evolving market trends and customer behavior.

Other Tips for Selling ERP

Once the marketing draws in prospective buyers, it’s time to seal the deal with sales. An easy way to do this is by sharing success stories. Direct customer testimonials are ideal for showing how real users have excelled using your software. Video testimonials are particularly powerful ways to share success stories with prospects. And case studies can delve deeper into data on the measurable results from an ERP.