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

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.

#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

Yesterday I wrote about my recent culture shocks when comparing the American way of live to what I’m used to in Europe and how this can provide some insights for international marketers.  What surprised me was that they are all from a “green” perspective.

There is one other area where cultural differences explain something that had puzzled me previously.

But let me back up first…

A Bit Of Smart Card History

One of my first jobs in Europe was to do international market research in the banking sector.  At the time France had “smart cards” and the United States didn’t.  But what the American banking professionals were really fascinated by at the time was how all of the French banks worked together to provide the best user experience.

Any bank telling machine in France would accept the bank cards from any other bank, and at the time this was not possible in the United States.  Americans had to find cash distributors from a branch of their own bank.

This communication between banks in France opened the doors for other ways to use credit cards which hadn’t started in the United States at that time.

To put it simply this cooperation between the French banks was essentially made possible because there is a central governing body that took decisions and made laws to make this all work and bring all of the banks together.

And I should have realized that “governing bodies” were also in play in another sector later on.

Phones And Mobile Phone Operators

I used to find it a little bit odd that there was so much talk about the different mobile phone operators in the American news I read. Although the readers seemed to be interested enough, it seemed a little boring to me. I couldn’t understand why until I accompanied a friend moving to the US.

He wanted to buy an iPhone. He really wanted a iPhone. Unfortunately because of the area where he lives and also where he works now, if he bought one he wouldn’t be able to use it.  He doesn’t live in an area where iPhones work.

This was totally foreign to me. Until I realized why, and then this story reminded me of the story of the French banks above when you look at it from a users perspective.

In France I can choose my phone service provider based on the service offer, and then buy any phone I want from the service provider I choose.  And my phone will work pretty much the same no matter where I am in France and which service provider I choose.

The situation’s not the same in the US.

What Happened?

In the US, the phone manufacturers hook up with specific mobile operators and the users don’t get to choose which one.  It’s a big country, so none of the mobile phone operators covers the entire territory. This means you’re lucky if you happen to live in an area covered by the service provider who signed the contract with the manufacturer of the phone you want to buy.

In France, there’s obviously some legislation in place to provide a better user experience.  Someone got all of the mobile operators together and worked out a way for everyone to share each others infrastructure. It definitely makes life easier. You can simply find the operator with the best mobile package for your needs and then choose the phone you want.  And you’re sure it’ll work. Users should be thankful!

Why didn’t the American companies get together to provide a better user experience for everyone?  I don’t know. It may be because of the size of the country, or how the different states operate, or cultural differences in how people do business, or a combination of these.

But this explains why there’s so much coverage in the US about the different services providers and cell phone manufacturers: because it impacts the users on more levels than what I’m used to.

International Business Insights

So, why am I sharing this story? Well, I think it highlights how:

• It’s not always easy to anticipate all of the differences in ways of life
• You might need an extended visit to fully understand your international market
• When something puzzles you there may be factors involved that you are not aware of

Plus some cultures

Now it’s your turn:

• How do the mobile phone operators work in your country?
• What different business practices did you notice after visiting a foreign country?
• Is there anything puzzling you about your international target market?

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

How Collaboration Impacts User Experience

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged here and I’d like to share a little bit about what I’ve been up to besides spending time over at Social Media Examiner.

Over the last year I’ve been bouncing back and forth between my home in France and the United States.  Although I grew up in the Bahamas with American radio and television and traveled there quite a bit when I was younger, this is the first time I’ve really experienced the American lifestyle for over 20 years.

And several things stuck out since I’ve become accustomed to the European way of life.  What’s funny is that most of the cultural differences I first noticed are related to being “green”.  Here they are.

Over-sized Cars

The first thing I noticed was obviously the sheer size and the number of big cars and vehicles. Of course I knew this. But it still took some getting used to.

After a couple of months the size of the cars became “normal” because everything seems to be geared towards it.  There are parking spaces of course, but it also now seems logical to jump into a car to get to the next place on your list.

But still, the percentage of big vehicles feels strange when the press you’re used to talks about the world’s oil supply not being indefinite and the constant increase in the price of gas.

If I had a company here and picked up international clients from the airport, I’d probably give careful consideration to the type of car to use if this was their first (second or third) time in the US.

cc licensed flickr photo by TheMM

Lots Of Plastic

Here’s the second thing that took some getting used to. I am dumbfounded by the use of plastic in everything I buy at American supermarkets.  I’ve opened cardboard boxes to find plastic wrapped in yet another layer of plastic more than once.  It seems like there’s a competition on how much plastic manufacturers can use to package their wares and how creative they are with it.

And ziploc bags are definitely a hot trend.

This makes me wonder how businesses adapt their packaging for American markets?  And will this trend in using lots of plastic and more than two layers of packaging spread to other countries?

I’m definitely rethinking all of the packaging I use to send to American clients now.

cc licensed flickr photo by miuenski

Little Recycling

With this use of plastic and sometimes even multiple layers of packaging you’d think there would be a variety of recycling containers.  But there isn’t.

I have seen separate bins for cardboard boxes and similar materials.  But that’s it.

When I lived Switzerland almost 30 years ago I knew several people who even recycled their tubes of toothpaste and the tops from their yogurts in separate recycling bins.  That’s in addition to the one for cardboard.  And they cleaned everything before putting them recycling.  That was commitment!

After seeing that level of green recycling so long ago, I still feel things are slow in the small village where I now live outside of Paris. I have 3 different garbage cans.  And I’m expected to use my vegetable waste to make my own compost in the garden, carry my empty bottles and newspapers and magazines to the special containers down the road.

And you know what I noticed… The garbage can I use for cardboard and plastic in France would be filled in about 3-5 days based on what I throw away when living in the United States.  But when I’m at home in France this garbage can is only picked up once every 2 weeks, and it’s rarely full.

I’m sure the packaging industries are up to speed on these cultural differences in how too much or too little packaging is used. But I think this is something all international marketers need to take note of.

cc licensed flickr photo by ali eminov

Short Washing Machine Cycles

It’s not all bad for the American way of life. I did find something that I’d love to have back home.

The average length of the washing machine cycle I use in France is about an hour and there’s even a two-hour cycle on my washing machine. But in the United States all of the washing machines I’ve used so far have twenty minute cycles.  And that’s the longest cycle I’ve seen.

I definitely like the shorter washing machine cycles. This is so practical!

And speaking of washing machines… this reminds me of a great article in Interactions Magazine on cultural differences when adapting your products to international markets. It’s well worth the read!

cc licensed flickr photo by ny156uk

International Marketing Insights

These little differences may not seem like much, but they can help you with your international marketing more than you think.  They highlight:

• Just how important it is to understand how your international clients live
• How small assumptions can quickly lead to failure

This is why you need to get beyond the differences you see, scratch beneath the surface and try to understand the reasons why the differences really exist. Then you can apply this understanding to your particular markets for insights into how to begin adapting your marketing to different countries.

Now over to you:

Those were the top three things I noticed most.  What about you?

• What cultural differences do you notice between the American way of life and the European way of life?
• Have you become so used to the cultural differences that you don’t question them any more?
• What cultural differences have impacted your business?

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Cultural Differences In Lifestyles: Shades Of Green

One of the reasons why I started this blog 3 years ago was because I hear too many objections from businesses about why they’re not going international.

I live in an area outside of Paris where there are a lot of small and mid-sized businesses. And almost every time I leave my house I run into a successful business owner or local business man.  After the usual greetings, and given my international business background, this person almost always tells me they want to develop their business internationally…

But they always add an excuse.  And I don’t find most of the excuses I hear to be valid reasons to stop you from developing your business internationally if that’s what you want to do.

Here are the three excuses and objections I hear the most often.

#1: Fear Of Change

“We’d love to develop our international business, but you know what, our business is fine as it is. We don’t want to change anything.”

In order to get international clients you usually need to make changes in how you operate your business.  And although the businessmen I meet have successfully built companies they seem to be afraid of change when it comes to international markets.

Tip: Take things slowly.  The advantage to this is it will help you to acquire the change of mindset you need to adopt to develop your business in other countries.

A good first step is to ensure you don’t push away any international clients.

#2: It Costs Too Much

“We’d love to develop our international business, but we don’t have the money for it.”

This really depends on your particular business and the path you choose to take to get international clients. But don’t confuse things by making assumptions too quickly.

There are 5 different way to create an international business and 7 traditional paths to develop your international business.  You can sign a contract with an international sales distributor or open up shop in a foreign country and these options have different costs.

Do your research first and don’t assume you know how much it’s going to cost.

Tip: International content marketing for a broad international audience combined with proactive social media networking might be easy to include in your budget today… specially if you are already marketing online.  And this will help you find the best path to international sales for your business to take.

Strategic content marketing at this level can give you the feedback you need from international markets to make the right decision for your next step towards an international business.

#3: We’ll Do It Later

“We’d love to develop our international business, but you know what, we’ll do it later.”

Fair enough.  There’s a time to actively go after international clients.  You’ll need the right international resources and the right international business skills.  But there is something you can do beyond simply watching what your competitors are doing abroad.

Tip: Look for hidden opportunities to develop your international markets. If you’ve got an online presence the chances are that you’ve communicated with people from other countries.  But what have you done with this communication?  What have you learned from these interactions?

Many businesses don’t really do anything. In addition, so many businesses make the false assumption that a few international sales means they already have an international business and don’t need to do anything else.  But that’s not true.

Your business needs to learn how to market and sell your products and services in different countries before you can develop your international markets. And your initial communications are where you can begin learning how to do this.  You’ll figure out how to get more international business when you look for the opportunities that come to your doorstep.

Develop Your International Business

There are many reasons to seek international business and there are certainly some good reasons not to.  (I’ll write about those later.)  But as you can see from above, some of these excuses not to develop your international business can cost you sales.  It’s foolish to not do anything about developing your international business.

This is why I blog here.  To inspire and get businesses unstuck when it comes to getting more international clients.

Of course, it’s easy for me to think it’s simple. After all I’ve been in international business development for over 25 years in the field. And I know there are steep learning curves and some international markets are not always possible to develop and you need to recognize them.  But there’s no reason for you to add additional barriers.  And that’s where I try to help you here.

Please let me know more about you and where you’re stuck in your international business.

• What’s your excuse for not doing more to develop your international business?
• Are you learning about your international markets from the international clients you already have?
• What have you changed to get more international clients?

Please share your comments below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

3 Top Excuses For Not Developing An International Business

The international aspect of social media can lead to some interesting discussions. Jessica Faye Carter over at Technicultr recently brought up the question of whether social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn should collect information about their user’s ethnicity and she asked me what my thoughts were. You can read more here.

The Big Roadblock To Ethnic Marketing In France

Now I’ve spent many years in international marketing, I live in France and have a French company.  So my first thought was that a French company would not be able to do this.

There is a law prohibiting anyone from keeping any information related to race.  This law is widely regarded as a measure to prevent discrimination, but it also severely limits any form of multicultural marketing in France.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it:

“It is illegal for the French state to collect data on ethnicity and race, a law with its origins in the 1789 revolution and reaffirmed in the constitution of 1958. Some organisations, such as the Representative Council of Black Associations… have argued in favour of the introduction of data collection on minority groups but this has been resisted by other organisations and ruling politicians, often on the grounds that collecting such statistics goes against France’s secular principles and harks back to Vichy-era identity documents. During the 2007 presidential election, however, Nicolas Sarkozy was polled on the issue and stated that he favoured the collection of data on ethnicity. Part of a parliamentary bill which would have permitted the collection of data for the purpose of measuring discrimination was rejected by the Conseil Constitutionnel in November 2007.”

The French Environment Around Ethnicity

When you live in a country with a law like this that’s been around for a long time and regarded by the general public as being something to be proud of, it’s easy to assume that a significant portion of the French population would not react in the same way as people from other cultures to the collection of information on ethnicity.

This is simply because they aren’t used to being asked these types of questions.  Their first response would probably be influenced by this cultural layer.

The French Cultural Environment Is More Complex

But it’s not the only factor at play here.  In parallel to this is the national pride the French have of being the country that wrote the “Droits de l’homme”, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which was a precursor to other international human rights documents.

This heritage creates a very unique environment in how the general population perceives anything remotely related to ethnic information, including collecting it and sharing it.

Different Cultures React Differently

Of course many other countries are active in combating racism, but how they go about doing this largely depends on their own cultural environment.  And what about the cultures where “combating racism” isn’t really perceived in the same way as other countries?

Different cultures approach this difficult issue from a variety of different angles.  So there is a variety of different cultural environments to deal with.

American Political Correctness

This makes me think about the wave of being politically correct in North America and how this has meant that I’ve had to change the way I refer to black people several times.  I grew up in a country which was 75% black when I was born and this percentage is now higher.

When it first became “politically incorrect” to use the word “coloured” which was what was used when I was young, well OK, I changed my vocabulary.

But the debate about what was considered the right word to use continued over the years, and I had to change my vocabulary yet again.  The acceptable word to use when referring to black people has changed too many times in my life time for me to follow any more.

And this got me to think about the meaning people associate with words.

Personal Emotional Baggage

Even though I may be considered “white”, my skin quickly tans to a very respectable deep shade of brown. Yes, brown.  Not beige or tan.  Brown.  And my skin is never “white”.

After following all of the changes in what is considered the right word to refer to black people, I looked at the colour of my skin and wondered if I should get upset about being called “white” because it’s not a very accurate word to describe my skin colour.  Of course I didn’t.  It’s just a word used in communication.  It would only become an issue if I were to take on some emotional baggage and assume that “white” isn’t appropriate, or if someone added their emotional baggage to the word when they used it.

Collective Cultural Baggage

The topic of ethnicity stirs up all sorts of baggage.  In addition to the personal emotional baggage, there’s  the baggage we acquire through the cultural environment we live in.  This is why anything related to ethnicity gets complicated.

It’s very easy to lose control… because you can never control the baggage other people have.

And to complicate things, most people aren’t even aware of the baggage they are carrying around. They don’t realize that they have cultural baggage acquired through the cultural environment they live in. They just assume the world they live in is the “real world”, the one that’s “right” and the one that should exist everywhere else.

So, it takes great wisdom to limit the risk of things getting out of control due to cultural baggage.

Ethnicity In Social Media

Even if there have already been social media platforms where people share information on their ethnic origins, the online social environment is different today.  Social media platforms simply have greater international reach than before.

Facebook has over 500 million people today across the globe, even if it is not used in the same way across all of the different countries.

And as social media develops further, will everyone across the globe be present on the same social media platform with the same mindset?  It’s highly unlikely.

Should Social Sites Ask Their Users To Share Their Ethnic Origins?

As a cross-cultural marketer I would love to have the information. But on a more personal level I believe this is not easy to do on social media sites with such a wide international reach… assuming the social media sites want to continue growing their international markets.

Although I do think it’s possible to incorporate some ethnic information on certain platforms, the challenges are great when looking at this from an international perspective. You must not under-evaluate the risk of things getting out of hand or being used wrongfully at some point down the line.

Now it’s your turn…

• Do you know of any other problems when asking for ethnic information on social media sites?
• What is the top benefit of social media sites asking for information on ethnic origins?
• Do you think social media sites should ask for your ethnic origins?

Please leave your comments below.

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Ethnic Origins On Social Media

This is the first international link review since the beginning of summer, so there are quite a few really good links here. Be sure to watch the Validation video below.

As usual, please let me know which links you like the most in the comments below.

Cross-Cultural Topics

• Does Language Influence Culture? – In case you missed this: here’s a very good read on how our language impacts how we perceive the world.
• A British Response to an American Disaster – To what extent do you think this is cultural miscommunication?
• Non-verbal skills: essential but ignored aspects of foreign language communication – Great advice on Fluent in 3 months: Focus more on how locals are acting, rather than only on what they are saying.
• China’s Plagiarism Problem – Only time will tell how this outlook on plagiarism will impact China’s evolution, but this article by provides some great insights into how cultural differences can impact outcomes and how things can be more complicated than they seem.

Join the Cross-Cultural Communication Business Page on Facebook

International Business

• Yahoo Turns To IBM For Middle East Customer Support – After Yahoo acquired the Arabic web-based portal Maktoob they decided not to tackle customer service alone. This partnership is interesting to note. The learning curve to pick up the cross-cultural skills needed in-house can be a challenge in International Business.
• Why businesses benefit from employing third culture kids – A good reminder of the value of hiring Third Culture Kids for International Business via Cross Cultural Kids Everywhere
• 3 Reasons Why I Can’t Help Your International Business – This is in response to a few requests for export/import services. Please drop by and share your thoughts.
• Global Sophistication: Selling in China is All the Rage – Another great article on International Business by Laurel Delaney. By watching what the big businesses are doing in China, the small businesses can pick up a few good pointers. Are you interested in expanding into the Chinese market?
• How Companies Break Into Emerging Markets – Tarun Khanna, Harvard Business School professor, explains how multinationals can thrive in emerging markets. He is the coauthor of Winning in Emerging Markets: A Road Map for Strategy and Execution.
• The Best Countries To Do Business In – It was fun to see that I’ve live in 3 of these countries, visted 3 more and I’ve had regional business responsabilities at some point for all except New Zealand and Iceland. I don’t have a favorite though, although lots of great memories of Switzerland. What about you? Where do you like doing business?
• Management in Chinese cultures – Podcast series by the Open University
• International And Cross-Cultural Career Advice
• 7 Steps To An Open Mindset For More International Business

Join the International Business Page on Facebook

International Marketing

• The New Asian Shoppers – An interesting look into how Asian shoppers have changed their habits and why marketers need to be aware of this.
• Dialects, Diversity and Keyword Research – A good look at how variations in languages can impact search marketing.
• Europeans Embrace Mobile Music More Than Americans – Cultural differences in how people use their mobile phones for music. What other differences are there?
• Disruptive Demographics: Global Aging, Technology & Innovation: China’s Gray Revolution – China always fascinates me. Here’s a look at the changing demographics there and what this will mean for them.
• Mapping global mobile telephone subscriptions: the world’s biggest markets – Developing markets still have room to expand their mobile markets. And world mobile phone subscriptions will reach near universal levels in 2015-2020. Some interesting stats here.
• 5 Tips For Great International Search Marketing – Have you got any others to share?

Join the International Marketing Business Page on Facebook

International Social Media

• Why China’s Web Copycats Succeed – After watching a French music show on TV last night, this reminds me of the number of French artists that “copied” popular tunes from the other side of the Atlantic. What examples does this remind you of?
• Race Is On To Be The Groupon And Foursquare Of China – A start of another localized copycat. Does anyone have a list of all of the regional social media platforms that are copycats?
• Global Social Media Cultures call for Global Guidelines – Very interesting insights into the challenge of creating social media guidelines for global business.
• The ups and downs of social networks – Here’s an infographic by the BBC which shows how several social media platforms have changed over the last year.
• Mapping The Social Internet – Here’s another infographic which highlights differences in social media in other countries. It also gives insights into how different countries use social media differently.
• Understanding Chinese Social Media – Some good insights into using social media to reach Chinese markets by Don Crowther. Has anyone tried this?
• Social Media Tendencies Around The World: South Africa and World Cup Fever – This is the first World Cup to occur during the age of social media. Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook brought together soccer fans across the globe to celebrate and
  debate referee decisions online. What role do you think this event has played on social media?
• Report: India, Mexico, Spain Have the Most Businesses Profiting Through Social Media – Here’s an interesting study with some unexpected results. I’m actually surprised to see France so high on this list.
• Consumers in Brazil, Mexico Use Internet Differently – “Online Brazilians and Mexicans are just starting to familiarize themselves with the web. While online consumers fully embrace certain activities like email and search, a large majority of other online activities that are common in other markets have yet to reach mass consumption.”
• Facebook Around the World – Brian Solis has a great review of how Facebook is doing around the world and says, “Facebook is far from reaching its potential and as its new “Like” architecture hits the WWW with over 50,000 publishers already in place, its 400 million strong army of social curators will only increase its relevance around the world.”
• Coke boasts “phenomenal” engagement from Twitter ads – Here’s a look at Coke’s “phenomenal” results from Twitter ads. 86Million impressions in 24/hours – CTR: 6%!!
• Twittering in Tongues: How companies are going global with Twitter – Great insights on how businesses are using Twitter in international markets by John Yunker
• Growing Around the World – Twitter looks at it’s international growth.
• Twitter’s Surprising Impact on the South Korean Election – “There are still only about 400,000 users of Twitter in South Korea, and most of them tend to be young, but many Twitter users urged their friends and family to “Go and Vote!”  Given that the younger voters leaned toward the more liberal party, it gave the opposition camp a decided advantage.”

Join the International Social Media Business Page on Facebook

Validation

If you haven’t seen this movie, it’s worth taking the 16 minutes to watch all of it. It provides such great insights to help businesses get their social media right today.

Now It’s Your Turn

• What do these international and cross-cultural links inspire for you?
• Which of these reads did you most enjoy?
• What interesting links on cross-cultural topics did you find over the summer?

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

International Links: Week 34 2010

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?

More On International Web Marketing

• Define International Marketing
• How Too Many Contributions Spoil International Communications
• International Article Marketing
• International Email Marketing
• International SEO For Quick Results
• Marketing Segmentation
• Mindset Differences Between Offline Marketers And Online Marketers
• More Segmentation = More International Sales
• My Own Case Study – Small Business Flexibility In An Online World
• The Difference Between An eMarketer And A Geek Marketer
• Ways To Enter International Marketing
• What Is Marketing?
• What Is Your Definition Of International Web Marketing
• Your International Marketing Choice

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

5 Tips For Great International Search Marketing

International Links

This week I came across a number of interesting links on cross-cultural topics, international business and international social media. Please let me know what you found recently. And be sure to share your comments either here or on the Facebook… the links are below.

Cross-Cultural Topics

• China’s Gray Revolution – China always fascinates me. Here’s a look at the changing demographics there and what this will mean for them.
• Google, Bing and Babelfish – What’s the best translation engine?
• Country Codes of the World Cup – There are 32 countries participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup — which means 32 ccTLDs! You can download the free poster.
• The difference between race and culture; what is a microculture? – From abroad, it’s fairly easy to see some of the consequences of the confusion Americans have with Race & Culture. This article gives some insights.
• The New Americans: Bilingual, Bicultural, Global – Joe Kutchera provides some great insights on into globalization and how the US demographics are changing.

Join the Cross-Cultural Communication Business Page on Facebook

International Business

• The Best Countries To Do Business In – It was fun to see that I’ve live in 3 of these countries, visted 3 more and I’ve had regional business responsabilities at some point for all except New Zealand and Iceland. I don’t have a favorite though, although lots of great memories of Switzerland. What about you? Where do you like doing business?
• Leveraging Baidu to Reach the Chinese Audience – some great tips here for businesses who want to open ecommerce opportunities in China.
• The Most Important Leadership Quality for CEOs? Creativity – This study was done across a wide range of countries and talks about the differences in what people think is important to a successful business. Of course, creativity is important in international business too, sometimes it’s the only way of getting beyond difficult cultural barriers. But do you agree it’s the most important quality for success?
• Cross-cultural M&A Communications in China – A look at the cross-cultural challenges in mergers and acquisitions. It’s always interesting to see just how deep these differences can go.
• Case Study: Attempting a Global Merger – A great story of making an idea work through strategic collaboration.
• 6 Ways to Be Innovatively Global – In the words of Pulitzer prize-winning author Thomas Friedman, sometimes “Just doing it” works in the world of global business.
• Special Report BRIICS economies facing different challenges amid a global economic recovery – Here’s a look at the business opportunities and challenges faced by Brazil, Russian, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa. The overall share in world trade in these countries is expected to continue to rise. Are you monitoring your business opportunities here?

Join the International Business Page on Facebook

International Marketing

• Targeting by Language or Country: What You Need to Know – This is a great read for anyone interested in web marketing to different countries.
• Can This Bicycle Save Lives In Africa? – A good story on how one company adapted it’s business to serve new international markets

Join the International Marketing Business Page on Facebook

International Sales

• Global e-tailers pinch local fashion dollars – are you worried about losing local sales to e-commerce sites abroad? Do you think European e-commerce sites will sell more to the US as the Euro remains low?

Join the International Sales Business Page on Facebook

International Social Media

• Facebook Around the World – Brian Solis has a great review of how Facebook is doing around the world and says, “Facebook is far from reaching its potential and as its new “Like” architecture hits the WWW with over 50,000 publishers already in place, its 400 million strong army of social curators will only increase its relevance around the world.”
• Mapping global mobile telephone subscriptions: the world’s biggest markets – Developing markets still have room to expand their mobile markets. And world mobile phone subscriptions will reach near universal levels in 2015-2020. Some interesting stats here.
• Tweet In Local Language To Ensure Worldwide Twitter Success – Is this your experience too?
• Beware English Keywords That Aren’t Really English – Search Engine Land shares why you need to get your keywords right before investing in an international marketing campaign. What other examples of English words used differently in other countries?
• World Economic Forum – Global Information Technology Report – There’s a lot of data by country here for those interested in comparing the “networked readiness” of other countries. Thanks to Amadou M. Sall for sharing this report.
• Groupon Europe! – Great news for European businesses that want more options in their social media strategy. Groupon is now in Europe.
• Internet-inspired drinks parties spread panic among authorities – A look from Scotland at the dark side of the new trend in Twitter meetups in France. Are there other trends highlighting cultural differences in Twitter meetups?
• A Five Step Guide to Cross-cultural Web Design « Web-kreation – Of course these tips also apply to blogs and many of them should be applied to social media marketing. Do you try to integrate cross-cultural design in your social media profiles?

Join the International Social Media Business Page on Facebook

Now It’s Your Turn

• What do these international and cross-cultural links inspire for you?
• Which of these reads did you most enjoy?
• What interesting links on cross-cultural topics did you find recently?

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

International Links: Week 20 2010