International digital marketing for SMEs

If we could provide you with only one tip for international success, knowing your audience would be it. Do not assume your international and domestic audiences are the same. Properly localising content is key to the long-term success globally. When researching your audience, you need to know:

• Standard demographic information
• Characteristics, interests, and opinions
• How people buy products and services
• Local nuances 
• Local languages remembering that many countries are multilingual 
  
  

Exact statistics are going to vary around the world but research in the US found 63% of B2B businesses did not have a written content marketing strategy. Creating a written global marketing plan helps your business:

• Identify what you stand for
• Co-ordinate business goals 
• Focus your efforts
• Provide rationale behind marketing spend
• Establish ROI 
  
  

All businesses are trying to keep costs to a minimum during this period of global inflation. When working out your global marketing strategy it is worth evaluating what marketing skills you have inhouse and focusing on making the most of those first.

International marketing can be overwhelming. There is always some pressure to be on every new platform or social media. It is best to focus on doing a few things well rather than spreading finance and resources too thinly. When expanding globally, digital marketing should be a focus because of its low barriers to entry. It is cost effective and easier to measure results.

If you find a particular channel works well, it may be worth reassessing your strategy and diverting funds and resources to enable your business to double down on it. Don’t be afraid to be agile and optimize your plan as you go. 

Privacy legislation around the world is changing how businesses can market to potential customers. It has never been more important to encourage users to voluntarily provide their details and grant your business permission to contact them. Do this with simple and compliant sign up forms on your website and blog pages. It is also essential to make it easy for users to unsubscribe and follow any other legal requirements at a local level. 

There is a famous quote from John Wanamaker more than a century ago that half his advertising was wasted - but he didn’t know which half. Thankfully the trackable nature of digital marketing makes this less of an issue. Work with your IT and development team to ensure the correct tags and pixels are placed on your website. Use analytics platforms to understand which channels are working best. 

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is often a great leveller when it comes to global marketing. Unlike paid channels you don’t need huge budgets to see success. It is not free, by any means. You will need to invest time, money and possibly development time to ensure your website is set up correctly to rank for relevant keywords in other markets. International SEO requires a strong emphasis on:

• Technical SEO: 

The correct technical set up of your website so search engines understand what pages should be shown in which country. This includes having best practice site structure, implementing hreflang and developing search friendly site architecture.

• International Keyword Research

Use SEO tools to understand how users search for the products or services you offer. It may be different to your own country. Even if the language is the same, how it is used is likely to be different. For example, someone in the UK searching for a rental car may search for ‘car hire’ whereas in the US this term is may be ‘car rental’. 

• Consider other Search Engines:

Although Google is viewed as the ubiquitous standard when it comes to search in the West. If you are targeting other markets, users may use different search engines and you may have to modify your SEO strategy to suit local requirements. 

• Content localisation:

Content localisation is different to translation. Translation involves changing text into a local language. Localisation is more far reaching and is the process of considering the visual, technical, and cultural aspects of changing your marketing communications for an international audience. 

Pay per click advertising is a great way to obtain visibility on search engine results pages while you wait for your SEO to take effect in a new market or in tandem with SEO efforts in competitive industries. When taking PPC efforts global you need to consider:

• Which markets you want to target
• Create localised ads using language that appeals to local culture
• Optimise budgets by country
• Carefully organise and manage campaigns 

Once you build up a list of subscriber’s email marketing can be an effective way to encourage and keep customers purchasing. There are a few key elements when it comes to emailing people in different countries:

• Segment subscribers so you are sending relevant emails 
• Create different emails for different countries 
• Keep subject lines short and engaging
• Create a schedule for emails and stick to it
• Measure your results and learn

Social media marketing is often the first port of call for every business. However as the number of social media platforms and the budgets required to reach a wider audience grow it can be a challenging channel for SMEs. When it comes to marketing internationally through social media it is essential to know:

• What platforms are your audience using?
• Focus on developing strategies for these platforms
• Be authentic 
• Show your businesses USPs