By Jim Clanin
Selling products online provides the opportunity for you to reach people all across the globe, but the question all companies start with is how? If your company has sales across the globe or has the potential to sell across the globe, what specific steps do you need to do to reach other markets? How do you target such a big marketplace and connect with people of different cultures and languages? Here are four tips on how to reach other markets and sell your product globally.
Start with a Plan
Hoping doesn’t get you anywhere. You need to sit down with your team and strategize a plan. If you’ve already received orders from other countries, which countries did they come from? Also analyze your current web traffic to find out where website visitors are coming from. This information may help you determine which country would be best to start targeting. A proactive marketing strategy towards specific countries will help accelerate the opportunity for people to find you from that country.
Messaging
Once you’ve chosen a country to begin targeting, you need to think about how to tailor the messaging to fit the market. For example, if you are a custom jewelry maker who specializes in engagement rings, it’s important to know if it’s customary for the women in your target country to wear diamonds. Women in other countries may prefer a different type of stone. Knowing this type of information will help you target your messaging appropriately to be the most effective.
Standardization or Localization?
Standardizing your company’s products minimizes cost and keeps consistency, whereas localization changes a product in some way to be geared more towards a specific market. Each company needs to make this decision independently by considering your industry, market, goals and objectives, and the benefit vs. the risk. For some types of products, it’s absolutely necessary to make changes to the product. Using the jewelry maker example above, they will likely need to make specific engagement rings for specific markets. But other companies may not need to change anything other than their marketing activities.
Global Marketing Strategies
In order to reach people across the globe, you’ll have to determine what marketing strategies to include. Some ideas to consider include:
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Making modifications to your website.
If you haven’t sold your products online yet, getting an ecommerce website is your first step. You also might consider making your website readable in various languages, removing information specific to your local market, or adding a page for specific countries.
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Rethinking your social media strategy.
If your previous target market was your local town, your social media posts were probably targeted to those people as well. It’s likely not appropriate to post about the local farmer’s market or small town art show if many of your customers are coming from thousands of miles away. Consider a new strategy for your products that is more all-inclusive.
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Signing up for pay-per-click advertising targeted to specific countries.
Online advertising can be a huge benefit for companies attempting to reach different marketplaces. After you’ve chosen the right product and messaging for a specific market, set up online advertising for that market. Read more about Atlanta PPC Marketing Services
Moving into new markets can be an exciting new step for a local business. But there’s no need to do it alone. DoubleDome has helped countless companies build ecommerce websites that allow them to start selling their products globally and reach new markets. Call us at 888-799-6067 or fill out our consultant contact form for more information.
