Going Big: Reaching an International Market

Is it time to take your brand to the next level and reach out beyond your own borders for new, international customers? When you start to get interest from overseas and have the capacity to provide more product than your national market demands, it is time to consider going big, really big. The idea of selling your product internationally can be both exhilarating and intimidating. If you want to succeed, it takes some planning, just like every other step your company has taken to reach this point. Here are a few tips on how to expand your market beyond your borders.

• Select countries to focus on first. Simply announcing that you will ship your product globally is great, but it isn’t enough. If you are aiming for more than the occasional overseas sale, you need to do some research and target specific markets. Where is there a need or interest that you can fill? What is the local competition? And where can your product be shipped with the least hassle and expense? You can roll out your international marketing slowly, one or two countries at a time. But that doesn’t mean you can only sell to those markets. Absolutely you can and should respond to customers wherever they are.  Marketing and selling are different steps.
• Adapt your e-commerce website to handle multiple currencies. People want to know what your product will cost them.  It’s an inconvenient extra step for them to check the exchange rates, and every step they have to take reduces the odds of them completing the sale.  So make it easy by enabling your website to automatically detect their location and offer prices in the appropriate currency.
• Tell site visitors how you will ship their order. All customers want to know this, but those overseas often need extra reassurance.  Give an estimate of how long the product will take to reach them, and explain how you will package it to keep it safe.  If customs or import laws might be a concern, then address that proactively with clear, simple language on your website.
• Google offers a lot of fantastic tools, but all online translators are unreliable. To provide quality content to readers who speak a different language, you need a skilled writer fluent in that language.  Beyond that, you will need someone with local marketing and cultural expertise to ensure that you craft content that really motivates your new market to convert. Simply avoiding obvious cultural blunders isn’t enough.

It’s a cliché that the world is shrinking, but it’s true. And what it means is that your market is growing. People are increasingly mobile and more confident shopping online.  That bodes well for everyone involved in international online sales.