Although international marketing offers great growth opportunities, some online business owners are apprehensive about the idea of global marketing. However, with a little planning and research, you can start selling abroad faster than you think.
Taking the time to prepare to expand your business globally can help ensure a successful start when you open your online store to international customers – and that you don’t make any costly mistakes that have the power to destroy your brand.
Learn how to get your store ready to grow and start selling worldwide.
Step 1: Identify online global marketing opportunities
Before preparing an international marketing plan, make sure you have a really effective opportunity to sell a unique product.
How to do it?
Start by doing market research around your product to determine the product’s potential. This is the same thing you have to do when creating a home business plan, only this time, you are analyzing the global market.
Start with a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to determine how your product will stand out in this new market.
Step 2: Analyze the global market
Before you turn to cross-border marketing, it is important to conduct international market research and understand the needs and potential of customers. What products are they looking for? How much are they willing to pay for them?
Analyze the needs of global customers
To do international market research, you can start by looking at data from current customers. Do you have some foreign clients? If so, where are they? What products do they buy?
If you don’t have international customers, you can use tools like Google Trends and Google AdWords to understand what people in different countries are looking for.
Work with a single focus
Before selling internationally for companies like the global B2B marketplace, you want to make sure that customers in your target foreign markets will respond positively to your product.
Conducting focus group research among the population of the country you want to target will be a good indicator of whether your product will work well in the global market.
No need to travel: you can hire a company that does market research. For example, CRI or FieldworkHub conduct online international monitoring groups. You can find other research institutes in the Green Paper directory.
Look at your competitors
You can also check your competitors and see how they are selling in international markets. What products do they offer for cross-border sales? How do they promote their brands in other countries? What features can you learn from?
Step 3: Assess the requirements for cross-border marketing
Once you have determined whether your product has a good chance in the global market, you should start thinking about a few international markets where you want to do business. This will help you understand your new audience and create more relevant marketing information.
Business principles
First, be sure to read the customs and business regulations of the country in question.
Learn the phrases that are considered good in emails, the right way to greet customers, and a little about local history to make sure you don’t make unnecessary mistakes in the culture. You must look at the process that the Chinese B2B platform follows.
Competitive analysis
Next, start getting to know your main competitors in the target country.
See if you can differentiate your product from existing models. If you don’t know where to start this research, you might consider hiring the help of a trademark attorney in the target country to speed up the process.
Compliance with the law
Be sure to check your country’s legal restrictions to make sure you’re not trying to sell and distribute illegal products. For example, CBD products cannot be shipped or sold in certain countries.
To avoid penalties, know the border laws before you start selling internationally. Requirements and documentation required to import goods may vary by country.
Some products may have restrictions or special rules. For example, Belgian leather products require an import license.
No matter which country you decide to expand your international business to, stick to the best practices of global sales. This means using fair business and marketing practices, creating secure online payment methods, and protecting customer privacy.
Step 4: Prepare your store for global buyers
After you’ve evaluated your product opportunities and researched potential global markets, it’s time to prepare your online store for international buyers.
Pay attention to your brand name
Brand name is an important part of your international business, so make sure it is suitable for international customers.
You should avoid any cultural bias, so take the time to research what your brand name means in different countries.
Display your online store in multiple languages
Imagine that you have to copy and paste the product description into the converter to buy your favorite product. You can describe it as a great shopping experience, right? And neither can your potential customers. That’s why one of the most important things about cross-selling is presenting your online store in the language your customers prefer.
The unique thing about building a multilingual store is that you don’t have to translate your store yourself. Incorrect text languages for storefronts, buttons, catalogs, invoices and email notifications are automatically translated into 50 languages.
Important advice! You should add manual translation for any special text, such as product names and descriptions.
Start selling globally
Covering these bases makes it easy for global consumers to access your website and shop, regardless of where they live.
Take the time to do your research to create the best possible experience for these new customers. With the right platform you’ll be able to instantly promote your online store to global buyers.
