Your Online Global websites will soon be launched so now is the perfect moment to plan and prepare for how best to use these optimally localized business development tools. Read on!
Your localized website acts as a springboard to reach new prospects, connect with existing clients and showcase your products and services to your target audience. But are your websites working as hard as they could for you? They are optimized for the local search engine, but the internet is a competitive place and in today’s world, websites need a helping hand: online marketing.
You have four choices:
- your in-house digital marketing team, who are SEM, SMM experts with target market expertise, and have the capability and capacity to plan, manage, report, analyse, test, optimize your online marketing strategy month after month.
- the IBT Online International Online Marketing Program.
- your in-house team collaborating and working closely with the IBT Online international online marketing team to make this work for you seamlessly across your target markets and ensuring the return on your website investments.
- do nothing. But we know you'll be disappointed with results as without the support of online marketing, your websites will only slowly creep up the rankings: you won't have any influence over your website's progress, nor the key performance indicators (KPIs) to inform and guide you, that your online presence deserves.
As Laurent Leduc, Director for International Business at AMSOIL, says: "If you develop a website you really need to have a social media aspect linked to the site: build it and they will come just does't work!"
Start your online global journey
Search engines favor active, dynamic websites that gather traffic and interest from a variety of sources. Here is where your international marketing strategy and efforts can really make a difference for the immediate and long-term success of your localized websites.
We invite you to read the article below on the main elements of a marketing campaign, how to get started and what to keep in mind when launching your new international websites. With SEM, SMM, Reporting and Analytics, learn how you can increase traffic, engagement and conversions that will grow your exports, sales, brand and business in your target markets, either on your own or with our expertise and international online experience.
Plan your International Marketing Strategy
Making sure that you have the right strategy is key, especially when you are concentrating your efforts across multiple international markets. Most marketing campaigns share the following three elements:
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Advertising (or Google Search and Display) go hand-in-hand in making sure your website can be found by your target audience. Especially at the beginning, it’s important to have a good balance of organic and paid activities to build momentum and optimize traffic for conversions.
Providing localized user experience – which is reflected in the language, the single keywords used, imagery etc - your localized websites play a vital role in both SEO and SEA strategies as the pages you are trying to rank for, or are actively promoting, will be seen as relevant, user-friendly and will therefore allow you to be more competitive in a crowded marketplace.
Social Media Marketing
With over 3.8 billion active social media users across the globe, Social Media Marketing - or SMM as I love a good acronym! – is another key part of a marketing strategy in today’s hyperconnected and social marketplace.
With an average of 45% of active profiles using social media to research and communicate for business, these are rapidly becoming more and more important for both B2C and B2B businesses.
Reporting and analytics
Reporting and analytics play a key role in the development and optimization of marketing campaigns, regardless of whether you are running 10 ecommerce websites, or you are just starting out.
At IBT Online, our process is highly be data-driven, ensuring our strategic recommendations and campaign optimization are always based on relevant and accurate metrics.
By having clear, measurable and attainable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you’ll be able to measure not only the overall success of your website and marketing campaigns, but also to drill down into which of your strategies is working well – or not so well! – allowing you to make the required changes in a timely manner.
Measuring ROI
One of the biggest mistakes we see companies make is not measuring their success. But if you want to measure your outcomes then it means that you must set clear objectives and think about realistic goals, both for the short and the long term.
So, before you start designing your marketing strategy, you need to think about your goals. This will then inform what metrics are important to you, and how you’ll be measuring them.
Once everything is set up, don’t forget to keep an eye on them, analyse results and if needed, make changes!
To summarize, your localized website is the perfect springboard to attract, engage and delight your prospects, but this is just the starting point. Having a well-structured multi-channel marketing strategy and clearly defined, attainable goals will be your foundations to growing your brand, sales, exports and business internationally.
Sources:
Hootsuite
Google Data Studio