Business Blogs To Open Foreign Markets

How To Create An International Business Blog

Yesterday I wrote about how a web presence is content marketing and described how different content can be used to fulfill different business objectives. Business blogs are great sales conversion tools because you create relationships, credibility and trust through blogging. At least this is how it works in your own markets.

Are blogs still sales conversion tools in international markets?

Today let’s look at how businesses can use blogs to open foreign markets. Before seeing how a business blog can fit in with your business objectives, let’s look at three key points to consider when blogging to build international markets:

Research For Feedback Before Investment

A business blog can be used to get feedback from a wide international audience. You can:

• Use tools such as polls, to stimulate feedback
• Carry out integrated marketing campaigns to targeted feedback

And of course you can do this targeting international audiences.

For businesses with a longer international strategy, a business blog can be a wise investment.  It can shorten your time to enter a foreign market when you do decide to expand and it can help you avoid basic cultural blunders.   You can use your time blogging to:

• Become familiar with international markets of interest to you
• Dialog with international clients to find out how you need to adjust your marketing strategy
• Identify primary regions or countries for further international development
• Uncover business opportunities you cannot see from your current location

A business blog can be a powerful international market research tool.  In some cases, it can also be a stepping stone to reach your international markets before further business development.

Content Marketing Adapted To Foreign Markets

A business blog can only help you open foreign markets if you adapt your content marketing to communicate well within these foreign markets.  This may sound complicated and it would be with a typical company website.  With a blog it is much easier than you think.

Learn to listen to other cultures

You see, good blogging practices involve writing specifically for the people reading your blog.  Blogging is about dialog.  Bloggers use other social media platforms, together with some basic marketing tactics, to find out what their readers are interested in.  It often simply involves asking readers what they want… and listening.  You can easily do the same by filtering out your international readers.

Your international readers will probably have different concerns than your domestic clients.  Blogging is a great way to find out what these are. Once you know what interests your readers, and find out how they like their information, it is easy to give it to them.

Language

When adapting your content for foreign markets there is the question of language.  Foreign language, culturally-customized content will always get you more sales.  But can you rush into selling someone your product if they do not know you?  Probably not.  You need to transition into foreign language content when you are ready.

I don’t know about you, but translation in blogging definitely does not appeal to me.  Good blogs have personality.  I think blogs are better when they are written directly by one person instead of two, which is what happens with translation.  Otherwise readers will sense the translation and you risk losing the contact with them.

I always read books and watch movies in their original version.  I think I would do the same with a blog.

The choice of language raises the important question of defining very clear readership targets with specific business goals.  The determining factors in your decision will be whether your company language is English or not, where you are located and where you are targeting.

• An English language company can usually create a blog in English for an international audience
• A non-English language company might want to look into creating a blog in English to reach a wider audience

If you are an English language company and do not have one narrow cultural target audience, it is probably not worth the investment of getting a blog written in a foreign language. At least not until you find out more about your international markets and how your business objectives fit into that market.

Social Media Relationship Builders

These first two points may, or may not, be enough reason for you to consider creating a business blog to reach your international markets.  There is one more element that you must not overlook… and must not underestimate.

• Blogs are social media and different cultures respond different to social media

…and this can be great news for many businesses.  To me, this is reason enough to get excited about blogging for international audiences.  It acts as a turbo charge to the relationship-building aspect of having a business blog.

What does this mean?

Well, when you look at the different cultural scales you can see that some cultures have higher scores than others on the cultural scale of collectivism.  This usually means that they like to talk to each other. They probably have other popular social media platforms in their country.  You should be able to get a business blog to work well with people from these cultures.

The reason is because your blog is a social media platform. You have the possibility of connecting with other social media platforms and engaging in the dialog with your international markets.  These countries probably have different social media platforms and you will need to find out where these are, how people use them and how you can connect to them.  But the potential for authentic dialog with international clients while sitting in your home office is real.

International Relationship Building Tool

After all of this, do you think that a blog is an international sales conversion tool?  Can a business blog can fit in with your business objectives?  And where does it fit in?

Well, when you look at these three points it become clear that a blog targeting an international audience is more about discovering your international markets and building relationships.

This does have a strong advantage over traditional international business expansion methods.  You can begin to learn about your foreign markets by creating a business blog:

• From your current location
• Without travel
• Starting with little knowledge of your international markets

And you can create relationships with your prospects and clients abroad.  An international business blog can take you a certain distance along the path towards international sales conversion.  But alone it has its limits.  Luckily in many cultures a well-thought out social media marketing strategy might bring you even further along that path towards sales conversion.  More about that in the next article.

What about you?

• How are you using your blog to engage with your international clients?
• What challenges do you face when using your blog to reach international markets?
• What successes have you had in connecting with international clients through your blog?

Please share your comments below.

More on How To Create An International Business Blog:

• 3 Different Communication Challenges Of An International Blog
• My International Blog Promotion Secret
• Investment In An International Business Blog
• Business Blogs For Sales Conversion
• Business Blogs To Get International Clients

More on International Social Media

• An International Business Blog To Discover New Markets

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• Build Your International Marketing Strategy
• International Web Marketing
• Connect With Your International Markets
• International Market Research

Tagged as: blog, blogging, business, business blogs, foreign market entry, foreign markets, International Business, international business blog, international business blogging, international clients, International Marketing, international markets, International Sales, International Social Media, relationships, sales, sales conversion, social media, web marketing