International Business and Technology Blog

Googling away on my iPad mini, while stuck at yet another airport somewhere, I found reference to a book called “Think Outside the Country”. The subject matter looked interesting, promising to be “A Guide to Going Global and succeeding in the Translation Economy”. I wanted to know more, clicked to my Amazon account and for $29.00, two days later in yet another hotel somewhere, the hard copy was mine to hold and read.

IBT Online provides website localization and international online marketing services to help companies grow their sales, brands and businesses online globally, and that since 2002. So at IBT Online we all think outside the country, and perhaps more importantly, we all do Online Global outside the country, as we have delivered more than 1,000 localized country specific corporate websites through our succesful Online Global program. 

When I read about the author, it stated that John Yunker is “the world’s leading expert on web content globalization”. Now that is an ambitious claim that sets expectations. So this blog turns out to be something of a book review.

Satamazone know that their target clients are tech-savvy and that they will search for Satamazone products on the web. Getting great websites for key export markets is therefore essential for the company to grow and realize its international ambitions. In addition, the company does not always have local distributors in export markets but relies on its website to generate leads and uses its home US-based website as a secure ecommerce platform.

Mexico is arguably Latin America’s most dynamic market for ecommerce for both the B2C and B2B worlds. Retail and ecommerce giants Amazon and Wal-Mart clearly think so and are backing their ambitions with huge investments. Amazon launched in Mexico in June 2015 and according to Juan Carlos Garcia, CEO of Amazon Mexico, the company sees “a big opportunity in the Mexican market. It’s a market which right now is at $12 billion and growth has been in the double digits.”

Peterson Spring management were so pleased with their first 2 international websites that they decided to add another two and IBT Online is proud to have helped them! Within just 6 months, the company has extended its online presence to Germany, Poland, France and Spain: all now boast fully localized websites generating leads and building the global reputation of the largest privately held spring manufacturer in North America.

Peterson Spring, founded in Michigan over 100 years ago, manufactures springs to serve the automobile, industrial, defence and manufacturing industries. The company started exporting early in its history and opened international subsidiaries – in Canada, Mexico and the UK. But they were cautious about setting up localized websites for their export markets. They had worked hard on their US core website and knew the time, effort and skills required to get good traction with a local website.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s (MEDC) offer to help companies get international websites through the Online Global Program prompted the company to spring into action. 

Google's perpetual drive for innovation means more disruption is coming our way. An example is Google’s new translation system that has delivered measurable improvements in the fluency of Google Translate. Google has begun rolling out the service across all its languages, chat boxes, web pages, articles, blogs, emails, social media, message forums…First updated were the most commonly used primary languages (English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, French, Korean and Turkish), as well as Google’s >192 country specific search engines, the Google Translate website and the Website Translator plugin. Our research shows that Google Translate is now better than ever for personal use, but remains bad for business!

Online global social media business development is here. Jump on board! Social media presents a host of new opportunities for online savvy businesses to grow their sales, brand and business. That growth is not confined in any geographic or national sense; the only limitation is access to the internet.

Social media is proving to be the ultimate route for business globalization. This is the paradigm shift that has been understood, harnessed and embraced by the accolade-winning unicorns that operate globally (think Uber, Airbnb…) currently numbering some >200 companies with a combined market valuation of >$650billion. Their record breaking business growth (speed, size, scope…) and leadership demonstrate that social media platforms represent the greatest rising tide upon which successful businesses can float their respective international boats.

Building global brands

Roll-Rite sell their innovative tarping systems to trucking companies, haulage groups and specialty transporters from a range of different industries. Their clients are all looking for quality, reliability and strong service support. Brand recognition is therefore key to building that trust and in today’s world, websites and social media play a vital role for brand development, especially for global markets. 

Localized websites as platforms to grow

IBT Online first built Roll-Rite websites for the UK, Germany and France. The return on investment was clear and management decided to extend their online presence, adding websites for their businesses in Canada, Australia/New Zealand, the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden. In total, Roll-Rite now boasts 8 international websites that are each localized, optimized and dedicated for their export market.

Optimized for each local market

Hague Quality Water’s export success has been built over time with different solutions found for different markets. HQW’s routes to market vary from exclusive distributor in one market to tied agents and even subsidiaries in other markets. Nowhere is this mosaic more evident than across Europe and Latin America. Management was searching for a way to support and organize all their partners and looked to online tools for a solution. IBT Online was delighted to work with HQW management to build localized websites and deliver international online marketing.

HQW management prioritized some of their most important export markets such as the UK, France and Spain for starters. Thereafter, it was up to IBT Online to build and deliver the websites, with correct urls for each market, keyword research for all the HQW terms in different markets and fully optimized for the local search engines. The rapid return on investment for the websites encouraged HQW management to extend their online footprint to Latin America. IBT Online got started right away!

Enterprise Florida Online Global Program – Go Global with Website Localization

Management at Miami-based Avionics Support Group, Inc (ASG) were quick to take advantage of Enterprise Florida’s Online Global Program. Hugo Fortes, ASG’s Senior Vice-President, noted that they had been looking for some time for an online solution to build and support their global business so the Online Global Program was an obvious choice.

The social media online phenomenon now has  unparalleled scale, in which billions of netizens communicate and much, much mullah (dollars, euros, renminbi, yen, pounds, …) is transacted. And know this: those numbers are only going one way and that is up.

Social media, that is websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking, is at the least an oversized noisy teenager that you can't ignore, or more probably a robust mid-twenties adult to engage with fully. Either way, every business must now know that you ignore social media at your peril.

Successful companies are using social media channels to engage with their target business and consumer audiences and collecting serious money. Just look at the top 100 companies in the Fortune Global ranking: 93% have Facebook pages (updated weekly), 79% have a YouTube channel (average 2 million views of their corporate content) and a Twitter profile. How is your business doing?