Last month The Wall Street Journey's Hannah Karp published an interesting article entitled “Teaching Americans to Export*." It covers the recent success in Los Angeles, where export volume is growing at 31%/yr. vs. 10% for other US ports. Key to this is a regional focus on export, where their success is even more remarkable given that only 15% of California's manufacturers are exporting.
The opportunity is quite real, with cross-Atlantic trade now growing faster than both the US and the European economies. The article focuses on the importance of breaking down the business barriers to overseas trade, critical to this success. There is more to the story, focusing on growing leads and improving margin. Experience points to four areas:
- Plan the export launch carefully, establishing clear target markets and business goals. This is key to tight segmentation and customer persona focus, which in turn allows for a successful, staged effort.
- Develop a targeted campaign suitable to these segments and personas. This will include content that targets the steps of the buying cycle, from awareness to consideration to evaluation, in formats that are tailored to a combined on-the-ground and on-line strategy.
- Have the right information in the right places, just when your potential clients are looking for it. With the now pervasive presence of social media, your potential clients will be exploring the business, your competitors and your offerings before you can know they are interested. Your information needs to be where they are looking in the world of search and social media, presented in such a way that your clients will self-identify early in the cycle. This step is key, as it enables you to offer value early in their buying journey, while at the same time enabling you to nurture this interest into a qualified lead.
- A formal program of marketing automation is essential, to allow you to track the success of the outreach campaign and its content while identifying, qualifying and tracking the leads. In this way, you can gain control over what too often seems like the random world of social media.
These four steps bring other added benefits to your business. Beyond the qualified leads and improved conversion rate, this approach lowers the staffing and operational hurdles to ramping business, while expanding the scope of operations. You will be both growing leads and improving margin, key to success in the current volatile climate.
Is having a strong Internet and social media presence part of your European marketing plan? Are you taking all the right steps? Click on the button below to download our “15 Top Tips for Your European Online Presence.”
* Teaching Americans to Export, Hannah Karp, The Wall Street Journal, 29-October, 2012 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203937004578077133738500540.html