Go International:
5 Steps for Effective International Marketing

Research Targeted Markets Before You Go International

Many companies skip this crucial step and jump right to market penetration. They open an office in their target market and hire a local salesperson. After a year, they find that this office still has more expenses than revenue. We suggest conducting brief research to identify the local market needs to protect yourself. This helps identify specific market trends, competitors, and ways the solution can be customized to meet demand.

This step delivers a positioning strategy that enables you to refine your marketing messaging and define your potential client segments. For example, if you want to enter the US market, you should first determine what states are a good fit for your solution and first focus your attention on these regions. This will lower your initial costs and enhance the likelihood of turning prospective customers into clients when you go international.

Create an Actionable Marketing Plan

In place of a short planning phase, most SMEs choose to respond to random opportunities. For example, a potential reseller contacts them, and they say to themselves, “Sure, why not bring them onboard.” After two years,  they find out the reseller is not delivering results. By this point, the company has invested a lot of resources to train this reseller without seeing a return on that investment.

To avoid this scenario, we suggest building a marketing plan to generate demand based on the initial research (as described in Step 1) and the available budget for your targeted international market. Choose international marketing tactics that enable you to focus on the target market that best fits your product/service.  Encourage prospects to learn more about your offering while your sales team operates from your headquarters. If your company wants to go international and develop a distribution network, our plan will include a process to identify, validate, and monitor resellers.

Adjust Branding/ Messaging

As international markets are different, there are many considerations for you to examine. For example, tariffs & trade barriers, proximity, and currency are some of these. But what about cultural differences? How do you handle these?

To this end, we implement the positioning strategy from Step 1 and make sure to adjust the website, sales/marketing material, and other documents designed to reflect the localized message. After all, if your messaging does not match your target market, potential clients may overlook your solution.

Customize the “Go International” Marketing Plan

In place of a short planning phase, most SMEs choose to respond to random opportunities. For example, a potential reseller contacts them, and they say to themselves, “Sure, why not bring them onboard.” After two years,  they find out the reseller is not delivering results. By this point, the company has invested a lot of resources to train this reseller without seeing a return on that investment.

To avoid this scenario, we suggest building a marketing plan to generate demand based on the initial research (as described in Step 1) and the available budget for your targeted international market. Choose international marketing tactics that enable you to focus on the target market that best fits your product/service.  Encourage prospects to learn more about your offering while your sales team operates from your headquarters. If your company wants to go international and develop a distribution network, our plan will include a process to identify, validate, and monitor resellers. 

Go Global While Measuring Impact and Improving Results

You need to measure each international marketing campaign regularly to ensure the company receives the desired results. The assessment should concentrate on the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the marketing plan. For example, though the number of prospective clients is critical, we highly suggest assessing the quality of the prospects and defining whether the potential clients meet the specific definition of the potential client base as defined in step 1.