Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) is about procuring a favorable position on search engine results pages. SEM is done by building links and writing strong content for your site and submitting data to search sites. People trust search engines because of the perceived objectivity of the results. Studies have shown that online visitors are likely to click on an organic, or nonpaid, result vs. a paid result—all the more reason to get to that top rank organically.

Display Ads

Display ads are a type of graphical advertising that are positioned next to related content on a web page. They usually contain a company’s logo; a text description of what is being sold; images, illustrations, or photographs; contact information, such as the company’s web address, phone number, or e-mail address; and rich media (a video or animation link).

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a way to make money online whereby you as a site’s publisher are paid a commission for helping a business by promoting its product, service, or site on your platform. As the publisher, you earn a commission, referred to as a conversion rate, when someone follows a link on your blog to another site where he then buys something. Commissions are often a percentage of a sale but can also be a fixed amount per action (a click-through rate or pay-per-sale conversion rate, for example).

Conversions can be tracked when the publisher uses a link with a code (exclusive to that entity) embedded into it, enabling the advertiser to track where conversions come from. Other times an advertiser might give a ­publisher a coupon code for her readers to use that helps to track conversions.

Another variation on this is when you earn something for referring a visitor to another site through an online campaign who then takes some kind of action—for example, signing up for a newsletter, taking a survey, or providing an e-mail address. Affiliate marketing works best when there’s a ­relationship of trust among an advertiser, a publisher, and its readers; you advertise ­relevant products; and you have a huge following. It’s all about generating extra revenue, and that becomes easy when you know your customers’ needs.

E-Mail Marketing

An e-mail marketing campaign, such as a weekly newsletter, is about reaching consumers where they tend to go most: their e-mail inbox.

E-mail marketing—considered the ultimate marketing asset—involves directly marketing a commercial message to a target group of people that has given you permission to contact them via e-mail. It’s a cost-effective solution that allows you to keep in constant touch with your existing or soon-to-be ­customers. Using e-mail marketing, you can provide a free white paper, PDF file, e-book about your company, or anything else your customers might consider to be of value, when they visit your site. You should also put a sign-up form on your Web site (review Chapter 5) and a link to sign up in your e-mail signature. You can also invite people to sign up via your social media circles. Remember to use the same logos, colors, and slogans in your newsletter as you do everywhere else.

Inbound Marketing

Rather than conducting outbound marketing to the masses of people—many of whom are trying to block you out—inbound marketing can be used to help people who are already interested in your industry find you. In order to do this, you need to set your Web site and blog up like a watering hole for your industry and attract visitors naturally through search engines, the blogosphere, and social media. Most global marketers spend about 90 percent of their efforts on outbound marketing and 10 percent on inbound marketing. Once marketers understand the power of inbound marketing, you’ll see those percentages shift dramatically.

Referral Marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing (also known as referral marketing) leverages your existing customers to advocate for your business. It costs little to implement and can be as simple as asking people to refer business to you with an incentive tied to it. Testimonials further help validate your work as long as they are given by well-known and respected individuals in your industry.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing (SMM) can help break barriers and is designed to foster attention and traffic through conversations you have on social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube. Keep messages consistent (in your slogans, pictures, colors, contact information, for example) to ensure that branding on all platforms work together.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is communicating with people in a way that makes them feel like you are not directly selling them. Instead of pitching, you’re storytelling, educating, or entertaining people through blogs, Web sites, web casts, podcasts, videos, articles, and e-books.

Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is marketing that is conducted through a mobile device such as a smart phone or tablet. The only difference in strategy between mobile marketing and other forms of marketing is that you should keep it short, sweet, and to the point. Convenience is crucial. A key advantage to marketing to smart phones over tablets is the ability to send and receive text messages.

Now that you thoroughly understand the importance of online marketing and the major tactics used, you are ready to draft an international marketing plan.

Organic Berry Company

San Francisco–based Organic Berry Company (OBC) grows, packages, and sells certified organic blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries throughout the United States. Established in 2010, OBC has $2 million in annual revenue, fifteen employees, and has established that each customer spends an average of $50 a year. The company’s marketing plan might look like this:

1. What do we want to accomplish with our business online?

   “OBC wants to create an international marketing plan that will enable it to increase its online visibility—and sales—to Southeast Asia, specifically Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.”

2. How much money do we have to spend?

   “OBC has set aside $50,000 for the first year of online marketing. Once it generates enough new business to offset that initial expenditure, the company will allocate 7 percent of after-tax profits to future marketing efforts on a worldwide basis.”

3. Who will work on the marketing procedure?

   “The company will ask one employee, who is excellent with communications, to work on the online marketing activities. The company will make sure to get her buy-in first and confirm that she is passionate about taking on this new initiative.”

4. How much time will we devote?

   “The one key employee will devote herself full-time to online marketing activities until such time that the company needs more people to come on board to assist her.”

5. How will we make it happen (which tools will work best)?

   “That gets us to the plan! The first step of creating that plan is to figure out where our customers are most likely to look for us.

   “OBC will devote time and energy to all online platforms, with heavy emphasis on search engine optimization, since that is where consumers worldwide search and find information. OBC will support the SEM efforts with quality blog posts, podcasts, Tweet chats, Skypecasts, webinars, published articles, and e-books that will help to further promote our business to the world as well as transact business in every corner of the planet.”

Building Brand Recognition through the International Marketing Plan

The international marketing plan should be strategic in nature and executed in a consistent manner. The goal is to get more customers from around the world to export to and to increase your business’s profits. (I am assuming at this juncture that you have already read Chapter 6 and set the world stage for becoming a digital export rock star; if not, go back and read it.) Here’s how a plan might look. Keep in mind how the four Cs of social media (content, conversation, community, and connections) might play into each point:

1. Define a keyword strategy (set objectives). As we discussed in Chapter 5, you need to come up with a string of keywords that best describes your business. Think of it this way: If you were to call a bunch of folks together at an online water cooler every week to talk about something related to your keywords, what would they be? Mine is, for example, “Global small business.”
2. Optimize your Web site to get found. In Chapter 5, we discussed how to optimize your Web site. That effort is critical for getting found by the billions of consumers you are interested in selling to. While keywords are not the only search engine ranking factor, they do support the relevancy of your page and they’re within your control when creating new page content. Consider controlling keywords by optimizing content across all of your pages, including those in different languages. Feature your blog on your homepage and provide clear ways that people can connect with you on their favorite social media platforms. All of these efforts in combination will determine how well you rank in a Google, Bing, or Yahoo! search result.

    Tip  There’s a lot of talk that you don’t need a Web site. That’s bunk. A Web site serves as your single-biggest business calling card on the Internet and a lead nurturer of sales. It’s where you post your best content and carefully craft what you are about and how you serve customers. More important, you own this online real estate by way of a great domain name hosted by a company you pay to take care of that real estate. If customers get lost about what you do when looking at Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Google+, they can always go to your Web site for reassurance of your capabilities. Keep it current, vibrant, and inviting.

3. Create a blog and other related marketing content. Your online success is directly proportional to the quality of your web design and the information you provide. Consider creating podcasts, Tweet chats, Skypecasts, YouTube videos, and webinars to further promote your business to the world as well as to transact ­business around the world. Write articles, white papers, and e-books in your area of expertise. Internet consumers visit and return to those sites that consistently provide a high-quality and informative online experience.
4. Promote content and participate in social media. Set up a schedule, start promoting, and stick to it on a regular basis. Here’s what you might be dealing with: a Web site, blog, and Facebook page; LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram accounts; and an app and mobile site. Whether you start with a daily blog post, an affiliate marketing program, display ad, or e-mail campaign, keep the conversation going until you generate new business.
5. Convert site traffic into leads. Getting lots of visitors to your Web site and social media channels is terrific, but how do you turn those visitors into leads and then into customers? Here’s a simple four-step solution that I encourage you to implement:
   • • Step 1: Decide on your offer (give ’em something they can’t refuse!).
   • • Step 2: Create a call-to-action (can be an image, text question, or survey, for example).
   • • Step 3: Create landing pages (these are where your visitors end up after they click on your call-to-action).
   • • Step 4: Test what worked best—in the form of a text question, poll, or survey, for instance—in terms of converting visitors to quality leads and to new customers.
6. Nurture leads with targeted messages. One of the best ways to build a relationship with your leads and convert them into sales is to find out more about the people who are visiting your site. They might e-mail questions, view newsletters, comment at the end of blog posts, fill out opt-in forms, or take a brief poll. It’s a courting ­process. You want to reach engagement (serious interest) and then marriage (a purchase). The objective is to start the ­conversation, be sensitive to moods and needs, and respect privacy by not pushing too deeply, instead inquiring about things such as what your visitors want to see more or less of on social platforms as it relates to your business and their interest. Stay in the picture—keep the conversation going—until the lead is ready to buy. It’s that simple.

   Whether you’re dealing with positive conversations or complaints over social media, avoid negativity at all costs. Be polite and appropriate. In other words, don’t ridicule or defame, be unresponsive, or waver during complaints or adversity. It’s the test of your strength and resolve during the courting process. Take the high road and have the attitude that the customer is king and can do no wrong. Serve everyone politely and with respect and you will encourage a great fan base and returning customers.

7. Optimize your marketing for mobile. Mobile users want quick, actionable access to relevant and useful information on the move, wherever they might be, and at any given time. So put the users in control. Test out your social platforms to make sure they are mobile ready (see Chapter 9). Enabling consumers to have an active hand in choosing how, when, where, and why they wish to be marketed to results in a highly targeted, highly engaged audience. It gets back to the basics of starting a conversation with customers, listening to them, and understanding what they want. Then you need to deliver on it.
8. Develop a mobile campaign that leverages your existing, highly visible marketing assets. These might include apps and blogs and social media channels (i.e., Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+), and allow users to engage with your business in the unique ways that mobile devices allow.

    Tip  Keep the messages in your mobile marketing efforts short, sweet, and easy to understand. Stick only to helpful tips. That’s what consumers on the go can handle. Always keep the line of communication open with consumers.

9. Evaluate, refine, and improve strategies. Now that you’ve had a chance to test and power up your marketing efforts via your international marketing plan, evaluate how it’s working for you. Do you have more followers and fans, especially from overseas? Have you converted any of them into customers? If not, how could you improve on what you are doing? Your return-on-investment can be calculated by dividing the excesses in benefits (new ­customers) within a year by the costs of the Internet marketing investment. In the case of OBC mentioned earlier, the fictional company determined that its average customer spent $50 a year, so it would take one thousand customers to bring in sales of $50,000. In other words, to cover the additional marketing investment, it would need to gain one thousand new customers based on its Internet strategy.

    Tip  Are you noticing that many of the communications you receive online are in a language other than your own? Is there an abundance of messages coming from one country? You are on to something that should be addressed. Perhaps that’s a market you should consider entering. Consider hiring a translator so you can turn those conversations into legitimate export business.

10. Recommend action. Based on your activities, ask yourself what you should continue doing because it is working and what you can do differently to generate more revenue and profits for your business. Take time to recommend a new course of action that will benefit the company, key stakeholders, and consumers.

Public-Speaking Events

A good way for potential clients to find out about you and your company is through a seminar series, conference, convention, festival, or any other public-speaking events that they can attend. These can be done through community organizations, professional groups, and trade associations whose events take place in overseas markets, provided they have an international membership in markets you want to enter. It is a chance for individuals to hear information directly from you and oftentimes before formally connecting online. Speaking to groups is nothing more than having a big conversation with a lot of people. Make sure you leave sufficient time to take questions from the audience at the end. Since you are the best spokesperson for your business, holding seminars and speaking engagements offers a powerful and efficient marketing tool that can quickly establish your credibility and expertise with an audience. Speaking to a group is marketing, not selling. With that in mind, always focus on providing value. This will bring customers later.

Networking

Nothing tops good old-fashioned networking, provided you target like-minded folks in your sphere of influence. Networking can take place at peer-to-peer organizations, professional affiliations, international conferences, industry trade shows, and so forth. For example, I recently received an invitation from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs to hear Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, speak. Although you may not be able to secure new business at the event, you can collect important business cards, have critical discussions on international business, and envision ways to someday speak at the same event to share my expertise and sell my products and services. Make a list of fifty people you know who are at the top of their industry. Ask if you can speak at their next event. And don’t forget to add them all as contacts in your social media circles.

E-Mail Blasts to Purchased Lists

Some companies allow you to buy an e-mail blast list of targeted ­customers. This is a carryover from sending snail-mail postcards and hard-copy ­letters, and is still practiced by some today (mostly B-to-B). I don’t have any ­experience with this marketing tactic, especially as it relates to prospecting internationally. You will have to be careful that your audience, if they have never heard from you before, doesn’t consider your e-mail to be spam. That said, you might be better off developing your own opt-in means for international customer acquisition. Once you connect, you will still have to develop a trusting relationship, and that will take time. What you don’t want to do is alienate customers who could have become very profitable had you taken the time to cultivate a genuine relationship but were turned off by your e-mail blast tactic.

Opt-In Lists

Whether in person or over the phone, cold calling is an icebreaker and can be an effective way to snag customers—and not necessarily overseas ones. Many people still believe in the old ways of training salespeople and cold calling. They figure if someone makes one hundred cold calls, one will develop into a sale. However, if you want the biggest bang for your marketing buck, go the e-mail route! When you have an opt-in list, people have already given you permission to communicate with them. Those hundred calls leading to one sale could instead be done as a hundred e-mails leading to twenty sales in a shorter period of time and with less human effort. And you can always send someone in person to service those twenty customers.

Outsourced Telemarketing

Some businesses do well by outsourcing telemarketers (refer to Chapter 4) to help pitch their business capabilities to potential customers. Don’t rule out the use of the telephone. It works for businesses that need a personal, local touch. Hire individuals whose speech you can clearly understand and who know something about the product or service you are selling. If you want to open doors in the United Kingdom, for example, hire someone in that market who knows the key players you are trying to reach and speaks in a similar manner as the people in those regions. Nothing is worse than the sound of a robotic voice or a voice that has such a strong accent that it is impossible to understand.

Advertising/PR

This should be one of the last parts of a marketing strategy, not the first. If your marketing efforts don’t pan out, that’s when it’s time to turn to advertising or public relations efforts. But be careful here because you don’t want to overspend. If you do go this route, make sure you have a clear call to action where you can track results. If your campaign doesn’t generate new leads or business, get rid of it.

Personal Selling

Sometimes, what is required is to get out there and sell something face to face. Or you might hire a whole force of people who sell on your behalf. Or maybe it’s just providing information . . . whatever the tactic, the goal is to convince customers to purchase a product. It’s more expensive to do it in this fashion, but the contacts you will generate make it worth the effort.

Referral Marketing

This method involves promoting products or services to new customers through referrals, usually word-of-mouth, with an incentive tied to it. It’s considered a networking technique and one that if done well, can bring you new business. The silver lining in referral marketing is that typically every referral you receive has either an intro or story tied to it by the individual making the referral—making your job of selling that much easier.

Media Outreach Campaign

Media coverage, the amount and quality of attention you get from other influential people, can play a huge role in getting consumers and businesses alike to visit your Web site or other related online platforms. Create a media list and reach out to those on it. Bloggers are well known in the industry for getting information out to the masses (my company, for example, personally gets pitched daily on the Global Small Business Blog by companies who want to reach our audience). Craft several different ways you might present your company and its offerings so that it will appeal to a variety of media outlets. But you don’t want to appear that you are pitching per se, so focus on providing superior and exclusive content instead of pushing to get coverage. Plus, you don’t want to give the same pitch twice to the same person—you’ll lose that key person forever, so be sure to diversify your audience. Keep track of your outreach efforts in an organized fashion because later you will want to measure results. (Side note: I wish more people would adhere to the don’t-pitch-twice model! It would make my inbox a lot less cluttered.)

Exhibiting at Trade Shows: A Powerful, Hands-on Approach

Exhibiting at or attending a trade show in your industry is a uniquely effective way to contact cross-border customers, especially if you have a difficult product to sell or if it is a type that a customer needs to actually see. The Department of Commerce’s Foreign Buyer Program certifies a specific number of US trade shows each year. As of this writing, the DOC supported about eighty international fairs and exhibitions held in markets worldwide.

Exhibiting is an especially powerful form of marketing because it allows you to get your company name out there and have potential buyers come to you. The only drawbacks to exhibiting are the cost and future commitment involved. It’s expensive, especially for a new exporter. It can cost anywhere from $5,000 on up for a ten- by ten-foot booth. Even if the government subsidizes your exhibit, it can still cost you at least half of that. And once you exhibit, others in your industry will expect to see you there every year as long as you’re in business. If you exhibit once and then disappear, they’ll think you gave up on the market or went out of business.

But if you can find a way to manage the cost, the following advantages of exhibiting should convince you to keep it up:

• It will provide high visibility for your company and products.
• It will provide instant industry credibility.
• You can do your own preshow promotion. High-booth traffic is no accident!
• It will give you a chance to meet potential buyers face-to-face. Whether customers visit your booth intentionally or discover you accidentally, it’s good prospecting. Even if you don’t end up doing business, these visitors can give you trouble-saving “insider” recommendations for capable and reliable distribution channels.
• It will allow you to meet important intermediaries, such as sales agents, brokers, importing wholesalers, trading companies, distributors, independent sales reps, and international business consultants.
• You will be provided a listing in the show directory. These directories are given to both participants and visitors, who usually then take them back home for a more-leisurely look. Some copies will be passed on to friends and business associates. Your exposure can triple by the time the directory has made its rounds.

Don’t forget that when you’re participating in an international road show, you still need to manage your booth as if you were operating out of your office. Be prepared. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• The staff managing the booth should be polite, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable about your company, or the company or companies that you are representing, and the products on display. At least one person with the authority to make final decisions should be present in case an opportunity to do business on the spot should arise.
• A person with the potential to interpret other languages should be brought in, if possible, to ease potential communication problems.
• The booth itself should be attractive and comfortable. Have a table and several comfortable chairs at hand for on-the-spot meetings and to accommodate weary guests. Also, offer nonalcoholic beverages and snacks to make your booth a more inviting place to stop by.
• Business cards are your passport to trade networks, and you should bring an ample supply, written in your own language on one side and in the language of the host country on the other. Don’t forget to have a personal cardholder for when potential customers give you their cards.
• Your sales literature must be attractive and easy to read and should be written in a multilingual format to meet the needs of local audiences.
• You should have plenty of product samples on hand for display, demonstration, and handout purposes.
• You should have special export-pricing schedules prepared. Show free on board (FOB) factory prices and cost, insurance and freight (CIF) prices (refer to Chapter 19), referencing the host country’s international port of entry. (See Chapter 19 for other important data that should be included on your export price schedule.) If you do not have time to prepare special export pricing, you can just use your domestic schedules and offer enough of a discount (about 25 percent) to serve as an incentive for your international customers.
• You should have an extra camera available at your booth in addition to a digital device that has a built-in camera, to add an enjoyable personal touch to the proceedings. When you return home and write follow-up notes to the contacts you made, this will allow you to include photos of them standing at your booth.
• There are a variety of little supplies and amenities you need to remember to bring to the show: writing utensils, notepads, electrical converter, technology adaptors and power devices, a bilingual dictionary, a garbage bin, a staple gun, tape, aspirin, and even a small sewing kit from your hotel! Look out for useful shops like a pharmacy, an office supplier, and a variety or convenience store near the exhibition center for emergencies. Keep a list of things to remember for next time.

Government Programs, Trade Missions, and Industry-Sponsored Programs

Government- and trade industry-sponsored programs are designed to match you up with the various types of trading intermediaries that are looking to buy exactly what you are looking to sell. These programs, in some instances, cost money, but the potential returns are great. You will be making contact with the people most likely to become long-term business associates or, better yet, customers. Here are a few such programs and listings along with the organizations that sponsor them:

1. International Partner Search: (http://export.gov/salesandmarketing/eg_main_018197.asp): Run by the US Commercial Service, this organization finds qualified buyers, partners, or agents without traveling overseas. US Commercial Service specialists will deliver detailed company information on up to five international companies that have expressed an interest in your company’s products and services.
2. Gold Key Matching Service: (http://export.gov/salesandmarketing/eg_main_018195.asp). Run by the US Commercial Service, the Gold Key Matching Service is great for a small company with a bigger budget. It is one of the most efficient ways for a small business operator to meet with prescreened potential cross-border business associates, whether you are seeking an agent, a distributor, or a joint-venture partner. Individual meetings are arranged in advance, most taking place at the US embassy of the host country. Many companies testify that this method is a wise investment because you pay only for the usual airfare, lodgings, and entertainment, and have a series of productive meetings already arranged. The Gold Key program will also help you to participate in trade shows sponsored by state and federal agencies.
3. Organized Trade Missions: (http://export.gov/trademissions/). Run by the Department of Commerce, these missions are designed to assist beginner exporters establish sales and set up representation abroad at a low cost. The organizer of the mission typically sets up the agenda (itinerary), which covers travel arrangements, accommodations, appointments with prospective customers, and opportunities to sound out the market to learn about other appropriate trade intermediaries for your products.
4. Featured US Exporters Service: (https://emenuapps.ita.doc.gov/ePublic/finance/participation-agreements/edit-fuse-reg.do). FUSE is a directory of US products featured on the Web sites of the US Commercial Services around the world. Being listed on this directory gives your company an opportunity to target specific markets in the local language of business. Listings are available to qualified US exporters seeking trade leads or representation in more than fifty markets worldwide.
5. Various programs through the Department of Commerce: (http://www.commerce.gov/about-commerce/grants-contracting-trade-opportunities). Your local department of commerce (DOC), which houses the US Export Assistance Center, the International Trade Administration (ITA), and the US Commercial Service, runs a number of programs to put exporters and their customers in touch. Some are free and others require a fee. Check in advance.
6. Various matchmaking services: (http://www.trade.gov/cs/services.asp). Both the International Trade Admin­istration and the DOC offer matchmaking services that introduce beginner export companies to agents, distributors, or large retailers with specific interest in the exporters’ products.
7. Export USA: (http://www.thinkglobal.us/). Being listed in this product catalog will promote your products and services to more than four hundred thousand international buyers in 145 countries. It is distributed by US embassies and consulates worldwide and has a track record of high response rates and solid sales results.
8. Search engine for trade events: (http://export.gov/eac/trade_events.asp). This search engine, run by export.gov, offers participants a one-time-only company promotions, seminars, webinars, trade shows, and missions.
9. Catalog exhibitions: (http://export.gov/salesandmarketing/eg_main_018199.asp). Run by the US Commercial Service, the organization offers US companies trade specialists who will display your sales literature at US embassies throughout the world as well as at appropriate trade shows. There are three types of exhibitions offered: Multi-state Catalog, American Product Literature, and U.S. Embassy/Consulate-sponsored exhibits. Your marketing material will be seen by prospective distributors, agents, and other interested buyers.
10. Various contact-list services: (for Singapore: http://export.gov/singapore/servicesforu.s.companies/contactlist/index.asp). Managed by the U.S. Depart­ment of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, these are services that generate a mailing list of poten­tial importers for your product from the organization’s automated global network of overseas firms. The list includes company names, addresses, fax numbers, key contacts, Web sites, e-mail addresses, and specific products or service interests.
11. Trade Leads Database: (http://export.gov/tradeleads/index.asp). Run by the US government, the TLD contains prescreened, time-sensitive leads and government tenders gathered through US Commercial Service offices around the world. You can search leads and receive notification when new leads are posted.
12. World  Trade Centers Association: (https://www.wtca.org). WTCs are maintained by some cities to house all the services associated with promoting and facilitating international trade under one roof. These services include trade information and communication services; trade education programs; and exhibition, conference, and office facilities. These agencies will permit you to advertise your product or service on an electronic bulletin board that is transmitted worldwide. Each local world trade center property (refer to the centers, https://www.wtca.org/locations) is supported by 15,000 WTC professionals located in more than ninety ­countries, so contacting any one of them provides a valuable link to global opportunities.