Cindy King's International Business Blog » relationships

Business Blogs To Get International Clients

Cindy King — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:00:56 +0000

How To Create An International Business Blog

Earlier this week we looked at how business blogging is a sales conversion tool and for international readers they are strongest at building relationships and making the connection across distance. The question is, can you expect to get international clients out of a business blog? Is an international business blog just as good at sales conversion as a business blog can be in it’s local environment?

Well it depends on several things:

Whether you already have international clients, or not
Where you are located and where your international clients are located
What you sell and what you can sell to your international clients

How International Blogs Bring You Sales

First here are the reasons why an international blog can bring you international clients. An international business blog can:

Provide a platform to give more lifetime value to any international customers you may already have
Make it easier to evaluate specific countries to explore further
Create authority & relationships for an initial step into a foreign country
Give your business visibility to bring in opportunities to create joint ventures or foreign partnerships

In order to get beyond the connection or communication platform you need something else.

The Secret Ingredient

An international business blog can only help you make sales if you find the way to develop relationships with your international blog readers. And this will depend on who you want to reach.

To make a business blog successful in international markets requires a bit more effort. You really need to dig and sift through your online options to find the right one or ones to use to create the authentic connection with your international audience. Then you need to examine your communication strategy carefully to see how this fits in with the culture you are trying to connect with.

It is no secret. Culture-customized content gets more sales. This also means foreign language content gets more sales.

Although your end goal is to create culture-customized communication plan, you can decide to start off with one broad international communication plan. This can give you the time you need to come up with a good strategy and find the right foreign content providers. You will need to transition through to fully customized content if you are serious about developing a foreign market.

One Possible Strategy

Here is an easy first step that works for many cases:

One international business blog, targeting a broad audience
Culture targeted social media marketing to promote your blog

This can create an online synergy and give you feedback on specific markets that can be of interest to you. This process can help you make the business decision to choose which foreign markets to develop first.

Your next action would be to conduct further country-specific campaigns outside of your blog. Your blog could then become a platform for your sales conversion process. However, the distance your blog can take you along the path of sales conversion would depend on a variety of factors relative to your business.

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.

Business Blogs To Open Foreign Markets

Cindy King — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:01:26 +0000

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.

Why International Marketing Needs To Do More

Cindy King — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:00:05 +0000

Cross-Cultural Marketing

There is one big difference between your ordinary marketing and your international marketing. And this difference is enormous.

Your international marketing has to actively build relationships.

International marketing has a bigger task to complete compared to your domestic marketing.

And this is the reason why.

Cultural Differences Change Your Marketing Scope

Your domestic marketing, or the marketing you use at home, works well within a culture that you understand.

You probably do not realize the depth of your natural understanding of your market… that is, until you start cross-cultural marketing.

This is the key.

International marketing is cross-cultural marketing.

Marketing to a foreign culture.

Cultural differences effect a great many aspects of your international marketing. In fact, cultural differences can effect any given slice of your entire international business.

To get sales out of your marketing tactics, you must have an intimate understanding of your market. This is always the foundation of good marketing skills.

And this is why you need to give more thought to your international communication. Especially if you want to get marketing results similar to what you are used to. You actually need to review:

…All aspects of your communication.
…Even down to the most basic level of communication.

International marketing means preparing the path to sell to people from different cultures. People you need to learn how to understand at their most basic levels.

International Marketing Creates Relationships

But let’s look deeper at what communication is.

At its basic level, communication is about creating relationships.

And this is why your international marketing has to do a bigger job at creating international relationships.

You need to review your international marketing through a slightly different lens.

Your international marketing becomes even more customer centric. Simply to get to know these people who are different. People who will surprise you even when you think you know them.

This is why you need to make a constant effort to find the right connection with a culture that is not yours.

International Marketing Creates Conversations

Your international marketing often becomes so focused on finding the right communication that you naturally go one step further:

You strive to create a conversation.

When your marketing connects with your international audience your conversation begins.

And your business needs this conversation to get international clients. This conversation tells you:

What you foreign market needs.
What your foreign market wants.
If you have the right positioning for your product in this market.
How you should be communicating with your new foreign market to get more sales.
What your foreign market thinks about your product and how they use it.

Review Your Basics

Many business executives make the mistake of thinking that cross-cultural marketing or multicultural marketing or ethnic marketing is simply marketing.

Yes, in theory this is true.

In practice, however, you need to review many more basic business elements. There is a lot more involved.

International marketing also needs to do more than ordinary “marketing”

Cross-cultural communication often means getting down to the basics.

What do you need to get out of this communication at its more basic level?

When you first start marketing to your international clients you need to verify your basics. And you will find that your marketing needs to do more for your international clients than for you clients at home.

5 Actions To Start Developing Your International Markets

Cindy King — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:00:29 +0000

International Business Development Strategy

Developing your business when you are in one country and the market you are targeting is in another country can be challenging. Especially if this is your first time… and you don’t like picking up the phone.

Here are a few tips to help you through the initial phase:

Set A Goal And Be Ready To Be Flexible

You can only research one business avenue at a time.

If you decide to develop your international markets and expect someone else to tell you what you should sell and how you should sell, you will waste your time.

In order to get to know your international markets you need to start someplace. Look at what you sell. Take an educated guess as best you can. Decide on selling one thing to one country. It does not really matter if you get it wrong at this stage.

This will give you one place to start.

Flexibility will help you find the right product to sell to your international markets. But you need feedback and market knowledge beforehand. Maintain one objective and stay ready to be flexible.

Consistent International Market Research

You must consistently touch base with the international market you are targeting. A half hour here, and a half hour there throughout the week, every week, is much better than one session where you expect all the answers.

You need time to adapt to your foreign markets.

Take it one step at a time. Remember that flexibility.

Focus on Finding Solutions

Cultural barriers pop up in the most unexpected places sometimes. Do not focus on them, or you will lose your international mind-set and never develop your business abroad.

If you encounter any barrier, immediately switch on your curiosity button.

Ask questions.
Try to understand why people do things differently.
Keep that curiosity alive

There is no universal right way to do business. Curiosity will often show you the solutions fairly quickly.

Focus On Creating Relationships

Business is about relationships, and international business is the same. If you focus your efforts on building relationships with your foreign markets you will get over any cross-cultural barriers you encounter.

Remember to initiate creating the relationship. Keep at it with small touches, regularly. If you also look for feedback from your international markets, you will learn how to build the relationships you need to develop your international business.

Often, the relationships you create with people in other cultures are stronger than many of the relationships you create at home. When effort is required, it strengthens the friendship in the long run.

Look For Opportunities

Constantly look for opportunities. In fact, this should be part of your international mind-set, together with constant market research.

When you notice how others do things differently, look for opportunities.
If you notice other people do not use or do something you do, look for opportunities.

The sweet spot in international business is the extra business opportunities.

The opportunities you would not have thought of or found if you did not make the effort to sell to foreign markets.