In the last 10 years, buyers have become increasingly more comfortable shopping, negotiating, and closing deals online.
To stay in business, grow your exports, sales, brand, and business you need to capture your buyers' attention online and drive them to your website - in fact, you may already be losing business to your competition because your potential customers can't find you online!
But how can you stand out in a crowded, digital market?
Read how Western Industries Corporation (WIC) is working with IBT Online to leverage online technologies to take their Mexico physical presence online to be found, understood and grow their revenue - all of this thanks to best-practice, optimally localized websites!
GETTING FOUND ONLINE IS A MUST
Based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, WIC is a global manufacturer of packaging solutions made of wood, paper, foam, and plastics. To sell their products, they spend a lot of time educating potential buyers and have developed tons of digital content to showcase the value they offer. This strategy worked great for their domestic audience, but they were struggling to get traction in Mexico.
In sales, it's important to craft messaging geared towards your ideal client's persona. Brendon Quick, Chief Corporate Development Officer at WIC, shares, "if you're heading into a sales meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, you're going to wear cowboy boots and jeans." In the same way, you must tailor your website for each international audience.
WIC has had an operation in Mexico for 20 years. As they looked to expand their presence there, they realized there was a problem -- they had no marketing collateral tailored to this audience. Their lack of regional marketing and a Spanish-language website was holding them back significantly.
"Our clients weren't finding us online," says Quick, and the company was missing out on a lot of opportunities. WIC realized that they needed a strategy to get "in front of the eyeballs" of their customers.
Quick reached out to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce to explore solutions to this problem and was introduced to the Online Global Programs and grants thanks to Nicole Boyles, Director of Grants, and Jesse Garcia, International Trade Specialist at the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. With their support, WIC have also been able to take full advantage of STEP Grants to cover some of the cost of the program.
IBT ONLINE DELIVERED THE MISSING PIECES
IBT Online developed a new localized website for WIC's audience in Mexico. The entire site and all the digital content were optimized for their Spanish-speaking potential customers.
"IBT Online handled most of the heavy lifting for us", says Quick, whose marketing team consists of himself and one other content developer. After initial conversations about the project's vision and goal, the IBT Online team were able to leverage WIC's existing website and social media content developed for their domestic business and repurposed it in a way that resonated with the local market in Mexico. “There was no significant investment from our team in terms of time”.
By moving their business in Mexico to an optimized online platform, WIC opened themselves up to a whole new pool of untapped prospects. On top of this, WIC was also able to support their local distributors in Mexico and be perceived as a company that truly cares about customer experience, making sure that prospects in Mexico are delighted by a website that is tailored to their habits and go-to social media platforms. As Brendon Quick says "I'm sad we didn't do this sooner."
AN OPTIMIZED DIGITAL PRESENCE IS ESSENTIAL
It is becoming increasingly difficult to get in front of buyers. Online selling is where the opportunity lies. Most buyers are more comfortable with online research and digital communications. Having a website that drives buyers to the sales team is critical.
“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t turn to the internet to find a solution,” says Quick. Customers are doing initial research on search engines, LinkedIn, or other social networks.
In the next 20 years, it will become increasingly important to have an optimized digital presence. Quick goes so far as to say, "if you don't do it, you will not be in business in 5-10 years. If you're not there [search engines] and showing up on the first page, you're missing out on opportunities."