Cindy King's International Business Blog » international market research

9 Tips To Learn More About Your International Markets Over The Phone

Cindy King — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 03:00:48 +0000

When it comes to market research for international audiences, it’s tempting to outsource everything if you can afford it. And today many people today try to do their international market research online. But when you do lots of online research you can get complacent.

No matter what your business is, there comes a time when you must have direct contact with the people. People in your international markets. You can pick up lots of useful information when you communicate with others in person. And this information can prove to be vital when it comes to people who live in a different country, have a different lifestyle and a different way of thinking. Unfortunately I meet a number of people who seem to avoid picking up the phone.

Here are the most useful tips I have found when connecting with people in your international markets by phone.

#1: Do Your Prep Work

First of all, remember why you are seeking direct contact. Take a few steps back and review your situation. You want to see the big picture and not get bogged down in too many details. You’ll hear more feedback when you are open to what could be of interest to you.

#2: Get Comfortable With The Phone

Get social!
(CC licensed Flickr photo by the waving cat)

Sometimes it’s easy to pick up the phone and call people located in your target country. And this is great! Phone calls can be a great starting point.

And if you think it’s impossible to reach the right people by phone, try thinking outside of the box. Look at the contacts you do have. Look at the social media contacts you already have, and the ones it would be easy to cultivate. With the notion of six pixels of separation, slowly start networking and look for a way to begin to get feedback from the right source.

#3: Who To Connect With

This is where many people jump into sticky mud. In some cultures you could get away with reaching out directly to the person you’re interested in. But in many cultures this is not the best place to start. And you could hinder relationships by Why not start with the outer circle of your contacts and gradually move inwards towards the people you are most interested in connecting with? This takes a bit longer, but if can give you insights into how best to proceed.

#4: Review Context Before You Call

: Don’t make it difficult for others to understand you.
(CC licensed Flickr photo by Richard Scott 33)

Context is everything. Review the reasons why you are calling this particular person before you pick up the phone. Think of what you’re going to say. Now imagine the person on the other end of the phone. Will this seem normal to him?

One clear goal per phone call usually works best. Because if you ask for too much information or want to get too much out of a call, this can confuse people from different cultures or send wrong messages. You want them to quickly understand why you are calling them and the context has to be relevant to both of you.

#5: Stay Focused

There’s a balance to find in being clear about what you want and remaining open for helpful feedback. And this is how a few well planned questions can come in handy. But in order to get useful feedback from your international contacts you’ll also need to go with the flow because that’s where you can uncover some gems of information. So, you’ll need to remember to stay focused on the big picture.

#6: Keep A Mental Tab Of What You Can Say

I just mentioned having a few well planned questions, but you can also review a few other things you can say to get the conversation going. And when talking to people of different cultures over the phone you might find you need to adjust your usual communication tactics. Here are some good things to keep in mind.

Confirm what you know, what you understand from this and ask if this is accurate.
Ask if there’s more information you need to know
Ask for suggestions and then try to understand the relevancy

When doing international market research by phone I like to cross-reference the same general questions with several sources. This makes it much easier to understand cultural differences.

Clarity will help you to figure out how everything fits together. (CC licensed Flickr photo by Jerrycharlotte)

#7: Get Over The Fear

It is normal to be apprehensive about calling someone you do not know. And when you are calling to a different country it can even be daunting. Add in the factor that you may not know if the person speaks English and you may not feel like reaching out. There’s no need to be afraid. People are basically polite. Even more so when they feel they are helping you.

#8: Cultivate Curiosity To Open Communication

When you call someone thousands of miles away, they will be curious why. This can be a great way to start conversations and get the information you’re looking for.

#9: Create Better Connections With Your International Markets

Make these eight steps a habit. Whenever you interact with someone related to your international market be open to feedback and try to learn a little bit more. This is how you’ll learn to build stronger connections and ultimately have a better foundation for understanding your international markets.

A Better Understanding Of Your International Markets

The knowledge you can gain through simple phone conversations with your international markets can help you improve your international strategies and get more international clients. Of course you’ll need more research, and even in-person meetings, but connecting by phone is very easy to incorporate into your schedule and can help you to understand your international markets much better.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

9 Tips To Learn More About Your International Markets Over The Phone

5 Tips For Great International Search Marketing

Cindy King — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:00:27 +0000

In international business your clients will look for you online because they expect a certain form of communication online from an international business. But they’ll need to find you online first and this is why search marketing is critical for your international marketing success today.

I recently came back from a trip to Toronto where I attended the Search Engine Strategies Conference. At the summit much of the talk on international search was about language and how many people fail to get the “translation” right for search marketing and this causes businesses to lose money.

But international marketers know that language is just the visible part of the challenge. Mastering the navigation among different languages while keeping your business focus requires a deeper skill set. And beyond this, there are the fundamental cross-cultural challenges of doing business with people who are different to your home market. This is where businesses are challenged to deepen their knowledge of marketing and how to learn about their own markets.

With this is mind, here are five tips for successful international search marketing that go beyond language skills and translation.

#1: Get To Know Your International Audiences

This is where your international business begins. People from different cultures are different. There are often opposing differences in how people like to do business. You can’t expect to connect with people in any meaningful manner unless you understand them well.

First you need to research your market. You also need to stimulate as much feedback as you can from each of your international markets. And while doing both of these you need to adopt a sort of cross-cultural lens to ensure that you come to the right conclusions.

Understanding your international audience starts with language and communication, but you also need cross-cultural competency to connect on a level deep enough to develop an international business.

#2: Get Your Research Right

There are a few ways where you can get your research wrong right from the beginning.

How you carry out your international search marketing campaign will depend on your business objectives. You’ll have different strategies for branding, selling products or qualifying leads. And you’ll need to adapt the research you carry out for each of these different business objectives.
There are a variety of reasons why it’s not always easy to interpret statistics and research in an international context. Most of these reasons relate back to cultural differences, different ways of doing things and differences in markets. Although you may get more traffic from one country, your best business opportunities may be within another country.
These cultural differences also impact language translations. The translations you use may not be the ones you need to obtain the information you need. This is why you need a local marketer to help find the right keywords to use. There are jobs where you absolutely must use humans… and humans with the right professional background.
And to complicate things, you also need to have a good understanding of how local markets use the web in your particular industry. The web continues to evolve for everyone and you need to have this local knowledge to get your international search marketing right.

It’s not easy to research international markets without actual international business experience and local expertise in both your particular market and in search marketing. You can save time and avoid potential blunders by working with people with these skills. If you don’t have this option, start small, take your time doing your international market research, and above all question all of your own assumptions. (Learning how to recognize your assumptions is a skill by itself.)

#3: Learn About Local Search Engines

The Google algorithm is used by most of the search engines out there. The only exceptions are for a few countries with non-Latin alphabets. It’s easy enough to find out the leading search engines in the countries you are targeting. But don’t assume that just because they use the same Google algorithm as you are used to in your own country that everything’s the same.

Spend a bit of time looking at how the local search engines work and monitor this regularly. Keep your search marketer’s hat on while doing this and you’ll probably notice some little differences. Use these little differences can help you strengthen your own international search marketing campaigns.

It’s often easier to rank for keywords in countries outside of the US, simply because there is less content, which means less competition for those keywords. So you need some fine skills in analyzing which keywords to target in different countries.

#4: Use Multiple Competencies

Language competency is essential to getting good international search results. But so is are good marketing skills, and marketing skills are needed both in understanding the local market and also in how this is applied online specifically for search marketing. This is why a successful international search marketing campaign is the fruit of good:

Translation
Search marketing
Local marketing expertise in your industry

Keep this in mind. You don’t want to rely solely on a translator or a search marketer or a local marketing expert. You’ll need to find the right balance within your international marketing team.

#5: Invest In Localization

This is just a reminder… For best results you’ll always need to have a localized web presence and this means:

Local language content
Local web host
Local domain registered locally
Local currency
Local address and shipping practices
Local physical address
And anything else that’s specific to your industry that needs to be local

Although it’s usually not possible to begin with 100% localization, you should keep striving towards this goal. Think local until it becomes second nature and you’ll get better results from your international marketing.

Now it’s your turn…

What tips can you share for successful international search marketing?
How important is search marketing to your international business success?
How does language impact your current international search marketing results?

Different Membership Models For Your Business Needs

Cindy King — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:00:59 +0000

Membership Sites

The first WishList Member Training & Certification sessions took place earlier this week and it really sank in how you can use this membership plugin in many different ways.

If you have followed me for the last couple of weeks, you’ll know just how jazzed I am about the WishList Membership Plugin. I’m always on the look out for ways to use content marketing and thus web marketing to reach international audiences.

This new membership site software does provide some very interesting options for international marketers. Of course international marketing is complex and takes a fair amount of skill and effort. But I’m up to the task and just can’t wait to set up a few membership sites to start playing around with the free membership options for some international market research activities.

Different Memberships Models

But after listening to the first Wishlist training calls I came away with a very clear vision of how I wanted to set up all of my websites and the sales funnel I want to make in 2010.

By using a variety of different membership sites and by repurposing content I already have I can create a strong product series that makes sense for my business. All of my niche sites will soon be on WishList.

Here are the different membership site options I’m looking very closely at for my business:

A “Modular Membership Site” where you pay everything up front (maybe with payment options) and where content is delivered over a few months. This means once you create the content and set it up, you leave it.
A “Combo Membership Site” with “Private Access” + “Micro Continuity Membership” + “Protected Forum Membership“. Sounds familar? Well, I’m dropping my Ning group project and setting it up on WishList.
A “Coaching Site” with both common access areas and specific membership levels for each individual clients. Using a membership site plateform makes it easy to work with international clients.
A “Project Management Site” for launch management. This is similar to the Coaching Site except the content delivery will be set up differently. And again, it will be a big help in international launch management.
A “Protected Download Site” for some niche specific marketing activities. My ideas are still bubbling on this one, but this will be for targeted marketing tactics.
And I’m also extremely interested in the “Free Membership” options for international marketing research tactics. This should play a huge role in my international market research, or should I say international community research.

Choose The Right Membership Model For Your Content Creation Commitment

Now you may not have noticed that I am not yet including the more popular membership site models just yet.

The traditional “Publisher Membership” site and sister “Monthly Content” model. These require a long term commitment to creating content every month over a long term.
The “Micro Continuity Membership” programs. These are short fixed-term membership programs with a monthly payment and they are getting a lot of buzz right now.

The reason for this is because I already have lots of content I want to use for at least one Modular Membership Site. All of the membership options I’m looking at do not require heavy content creation.

After blogging for two years and on two different blogs, I have enough material to put a few different packages. Of course, I do need to edit and repurpose existing content and I will have to create some new content. And this will take some time. The launches of these membership websites will be staggered out throughout 2010. And right now I am busy drafting:

Editorial Calendars
Communication Schedules
Promotion Plans

Once these membership sites are up and running I’ll go back and look at the membership site models that require a bigger commitment to content creation.

Fun With Membership Site Marketing

But quite frankly, I’m expecting to spend time tweaking my membership site marketing. I don’t anticipate launching any of the bigger content heavy models next year.

You see, technically these membership site options exist because you can control many different things on the different levels of your membership site. You can drip feed content, change sidebars & dashboards for different membership levels.

There are New Marketing Opportunities With Membership Sites and these are worth spending the time exploring. Besides once the developers have access to the Wishlist API, there will be more fun plugins to play around with. Next year there will be more creative options to beyond the traditional membership sites models to check out.

What about you?

What other membership site models do you want to try out?
How do you think a membership site can help you research your online community more?
What would you like to get out of a membership site and what model would be best for you?

Guerrilla Marketing With Social Media To Enter New International Markets

Cindy King — Wed, 06 May 2009 23:00:46 +0000

Cross-Cultural Social Media

Yesterday, I suggested using free classified ads through Fabrice Grinda‘s company OLX as a free international web marketing strategy. OLX is similar to Craigslist, except OLX is well established in over 90 countries and growing. Plus it is also more social media friendly.

Social Media Marketing Adapted To Local Cultures

Guerrilla Marketing

One of the reasons this is good news for international marketers is because it is free way to reach international audiences. You can use the knowledge you have of different cultures and their preferred social media platforms within:

An international market research strategy to enter new markets
A international lead generation strategy based on information products and content marketing

The other reason lies deeper within OLX’s social media friendliness.

As a cross-cultural marketer, when studying the cultural dimensions of different countries, I would be able to make a fairly educated guess where free classified ads may work best for specific marketing campaigns.
This educated guess increases in accuracy when you have information on cultural social media preferences.

For example, many Latin American countries have high scores on the “Collectivism” scale. It is not really surprising then to learn that Facebook is so appealing to Spanish-speaking Americans.

Some cultures have a natural affinity to certain social media platforms.

American marketers research their Latin markets in depth, and this includes the monitoring of Latin preferences using social media. You can read more here.

The research shows that Spanish-preferring Hispanics in the United States visit social networking sites more frequently than non-Hispanic whites.
Another factor to note is that Facebook is also exploding in Spanish speaking countries.

In fact, it is not just Facebook in South America. There are also many local equivalents to Facebook and other similar social media platforms that are reaching very large audiences in these cultures. For example, the South American players include: Espacio Terra, Mi Página, MySpace Latino, Páginas Personales, QuePasa and Tu Mundo.

Culture Customized Multi-Channel Marketing

Now, let’s go back to free online classified ads with OLX…

OLX is popular in most South American countries
OLX has a Facebook interface and is web 2.0 friendly, this makes viral buzz possible
Facebook is popular in most South American countries

When you look at this, it becomes clear that there is an opportunity for a free multichannel web marketing campaign targeting South Americans using social media platforms and a strong content marketing strategy. This opportunity is much more interesting now that Facebook also allows for language targeting, in addition to geography, sex, age, education level, workplace, relationship status and interests.

Without a solid business or marketing background this is not easy for everyone. I am not saying it is easy for all businesses either. But there is a free international web marketing opportunity here that many companies can take advantage of it they give it some thought. It is also an opportunity for marketers to show what they are capable of.

More on Cross-Cultural Social Media

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Guerrilla Marketing With Social Media To Enter New International Markets

Cross-Cultural Communication Challenge Tip 9

Cindy King — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:00:34 +0000

Cross-Cultural Communication Challenge – Expand Your Mindset

You need to know your international markets well before you really know how to sell to them. This is why today’s Cross Cultural Communication Challenge Tip is so important.

Establish some simple market research tactics as much as possible within your daily business. Ask questions, analyze the answers and try to adapt to your international clients. When you systematically try to use and improve your cross-cultural skills at the same time, you learn more about your international clients.

Cross-Cultural Communication Challenge Tip #9

International market research develops both your market intelligence… and your own cross-cultural communication

Your challenge to improve you cross-cultural mindset:

Read your daily tips every day during the challenge
Think about what this means to you
Reflect on how this could help you get more international clients

Suggested Reading:

Get All Cross-Cultural Communication Tips:

Free Mini-Posters With Monthly Calenders

Mindset	Clarity	Trust

Expand Your Mindset	Get Extreme With Clarity	Build Trust

Customer Expectations, Satisfaction & Loyalty

Cindy King — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:00:40 +0000

International Customer Expectations

More than ever businesses are looking at the tactics they use to get and keep their customers. Rohit Bhargava wrote Customer Satisfaction Doesn’t Matter because most customers will go after the best offer no matter what you do to keep them happy. Today customer satisfaction is not as important as customer loyalty.

This is true generally in international sales too. But there is one area where customer satisfaction needs your utmost attention. In international sales you need to pay special attention to customer expectations.

Customer Expectations

Different cultures have different expectations. International business success can be made or lost depending on how well you appreciate these differences in expectations.

An example of how differences in expectations can lead to a loss of business is the Schindler elevator incident in Japan. An elevator accident happened in 2006 killing a teenager in Japan. In Japan people expected an immediate public apology from the Swiss company. The incident is still under investigation and the Swiss company thought an early apology would amount to accepting their fault.

This leading elevator company has been struggling to make sales in Japan since the incident.

Becoming Acquainted

In order to find out what your foreign customer expectations are you need to become acquainted with them. This is a process that can take some time when dealing with different cultures. Customer satisfaction is a good barometer of how well you are doing.

Loyalty In Different Cultures

Customer loyalty is a critical issue for most businesses in today’s world of globalization and down economies. The company with the better offer will always win.

But if you are do sell to international clients you also need to be aware of cultural differences in loyalty.

Here in France for example, face-to-face meetings are almost always essential for a good business relationship. There is a more personal element to loyalty.

In other cultures this personal element in loyalty is stronger. You can expect to see differences in loyalty between cultures with high scores on these cultural behavior scales:

Customer Centric Marketing

Before this customer centric trend, businesses learned to adapt to these differences as they proceeded to develop into different countries. It is true that with more experience throughout different countries you acquire certain “international skills”. What are these international skills? They are centered around flexibility… flexibility to others.

The current customer centric marketing environment should make it easy for businesses to go international. The strategy, processes and tactics exist for adapting to different customer expectations. At least within a basic format.

International Customer Experience

Cindy King — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:00:19 +0000

International Customer Expectations

In order to get international clients you need to pay special attention to your international customer’s experience.

What does this mean? Well, you really need to be aware of what your international customer is going through.

Where? At the intersection of your business and your international customer’s needs.

Response To Customer Needs

Let’s have a look at the two different levels of his needs in international business:

The need your international customer has and how your offer fulfills this need.
Your international customers needs during his buying process.

Cultural Differences

In international sales the response to these two different sets of needs can highlight cultural differences.

Positioning Your Offer For The Best Cultural Response

The first basic need all businesses need to address is the offer.

Selling a product to different countries usually involves a new product positioning.

Different cultures may appreciate different qualities or features
Different cultures respond to different emotional buttons in sales

Identify Cultural Differences In The Buying Process

Different cultures have different ways of buying things. And they may have different needs during the different buying stages:

Inquiry
Evaluation
Purchase
Use of product or service
After sales support

Some cultures may have more developed needs at different points in the buying process. This can make the buying process seem different in different cultures. You may need to address different points in varying degrees of detail or differently.

Process And Questions

All good sales professionals follow a process for evaluating their customers needs and moving them towards the sale.

You need to adapt this process for your international clients.

Part of this process is knowing which question you need to ask your customers.

With international customers you need to remember to ask the appropriate questions at each of the different buying steps.

Your Offer

First, you need to keep their one big need in top position. This is the need your offer fulfills.

For sales success, you need to understand exactly how your offer fulfills this need. And this information comes from your international customers. Any assumptions based on customers from other countries can be wrong.

Immediate Needs

Next, you need to know what your international customer needs at each specific step of his buying process.

This means systematically asking what your customer needs at this particular point in time. Again, assumptions based on your knowledge of what works in another culture can be wrong.

If you are just beginning to develop your business in a particular country, these questions and their answers are also vital for your exploratory market research.

Focus On Your International Customer

The process of finding out what your international client needs is important. Your company might have a process that does not give your full value.

A good process does not need to be complicated. Often it is the most simple tactics that work best.

International Sales Guide

With the right process you will be able to create an International Sales Guide, or cheat sheet. This is a very short guideline outlining all of the key sales and marketing information for selling one specific product in one specific culture.

How do you do this? Well it all starts with:

Finding the right questions to ask
Asking the right questions to identify your international customer’s needs
Finding your best response to these needs
Identifying anything stopping your international customer from fulfilling his needs
Good teamwork and collaboration to see the whole picture of your international customer’s experience
Creating the best experience for your international customers

Use Your Strengths

A very large part of creating a good experience for your international customers is in the details.

Most people focus on language and cultural barriers. This is natural.

But instead of focusing on your weaknesses, why not focus on your strengths.

You can often create a great experience by paying attention to the details you hear from the international customers you already have. This is a process most good sales professionals do well. They simply need to adapt these skills to international customers.

Yes, cultural differences can make the process seem difficult in the beginning. But perseverance in listening to your international customers will increase your international skills.

The process of finding the right questions and asking them at each step along the way gets easier with practice. And improves your international sales.

Happy Holidays

Cindy King — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:00:14 +0000

Merry Christmas

Here is to a wonderful holiday season to everyone.

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