International Business and Technology Blog

Canada's proximity to the US and overall eagerness to do business with America make it ideal for market entry, and you can start online today!

But careful – this does not mean that you should treat Canada as an extension of your US marketing efforts. You need dedicated resources to ensure you will be found and understood by customers across the northern border. A localized website is a perfect way to start, and it will make it easier for your target market to do business with you and buy your products.

By having a dedicated, optimally localized website you will see your local traffic explode, your engagement increase, and your sales will grow exponentially!

How, you ask? IBT Online specializes in building localized websites and this includes Canada! Over the years, we’ve learned how to maximize online visibility in Canada, and we are sharing some of our secrets here. Specifically, why Canada is a critical global market and the top tips on how to showcase your company online, growing your exports, sales, brand, and business.

Whether you have an in-house marketing department to help, or you’re planning on taking the challenge on yourself, website re-design can be a daunting project…

IBT Online Global Programs have been designed to do just that – provide you with optimally localized business development websites, whilst taking the heavy lifting and all the technical aspects off your desk.

You have a well-designed, SEO-optimized US website, but you struggle to reach your Canadian prospects – sound familiar?

Although many Canadians speak English, your current USA-based English-language website is practically invisible to them -- that's how the internet works. The average Google search session lasts just under a minute, and with over 40,000 Google search queries happening every second, you have to stand out.

So how do you stand out? Having a localized website with a localized URL and relevant content for the Canadian market is the most cost and time-effective way to have an immediate online presence and be found in Canada! This will allow your target customers to find you and interact easily with your brand. Your Canadian website will appear amongst the top Google searches in Canada, building trust with Canadian prospects.

You asked, we listened! Every day, at IBT Online we help US exporters navigate the online global environment, supporting them to grow their export, sales, brand, and business internationally.

What was once called the ‘New Online Normal’ is now called the ‘New Reality’! The impact of COVID-19 has compounded the rapid advancement of technologies and the take off-off the online, digitally connected world and this trend is here to stay! So today, companies are facing new challenges that come with this online landscape. So how do you make sure to thrive as a company in this online environment and what are the tools needed? 

To help you stay ahead of the curve, we created a short video that answers the top questions US exporters ask us about growing their business internationally and online today!

Selling and promoting your products around the world can be challenging! If you're part of a small or medium-sized business, you know that you need to employ the right strategy to achieve ROI as soon as possible. You don't have extra hours in the day or room in your budget to make mistakes.

The most efficient way to enter new international markets is by leveraging online business development tools. At IBT Online we specialize in building market-specific websites tailored to the local audience, helping US exporters being found, understood and become easy to do business with globally.

Of course, it takes an investment to launch a website - an investment of finances and your team’s precious time. The time spent on big projects like this can be very costly, which is all the more reason why AHB trusted IBT Online’s team of technical experts to become their perfect partner, providing all the technical expertise needed.

Vapor Pin Enterprises, Inc. patented the Vapor Pin®, which allows environmental professionals a means of collecting high-quality, low-cost soil gas samples within minutes. Vapor Pin was seeking to grow their brand internationally and identified as their first target market. Vapor Pin recognized that website localization can give your business a competitive advantage, helping your brand stand out in a crowded digital landscape. This task can also appear daunting to many companies as it requires market expertise and digital skills that might not be available in-house. For this reason, Vapor Pin called upon IBT Online to help them achieve their exporting objectives. IBT Online was proud to launch a best-practice, localized business development Brazilian ecommerce website as well as a targeted online marketing strategy to accompany it.

Localizing websites is more than translating a few pages – it involves deep local knowledge, wide technical experience and strong locally-based search engine optimization skills. Ecommerce plug-ins also need to be suited to the local market, taking into account local payment habits, safety and compliance regulations. For Brazilian ecommerce, according to Vice-President Laurie A. Chilcote, “We need to get online in this market”. It was the right time to call in IBT Online to ensure the Brazilian website was launched on-time and on-budget with a full ecommerce platform and online marketing strategy to power up sales.

Given the success of the localized website and strategic marketing efforts in Brazil, Vapor Pin endeavoured to further invest into launching ecommerce websites in other international target markets. As Laurie expresses: "If you want to grow your brand and expand into markets, IBT Online is the company to help you achieve those goals."

Having an optimally localized online presence is key, but don’t stop there! Understanding how your prospects, customers, and why not competitors behave on your website will give you the edge you need to continue growing your exports, sales, brand, and business globally.

Google Analytics is a free, yet fantastic analytics tool that gives you an extremely in-depth look into your Online Global websites' performance and how to leverage it.

Google Analytics is essential for your website as it will allow you to understand whom you are reaching, how they find you, and how they behave and navigate your pages. Having this information at hand will allow you to make strategic decisions for the future and therefore get better results from your website performance.

Having an optimally localized website for each target market helps you be found and be understood but having a clear understanding of the websites’ performance will give you the edge over your competitors.

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!

Traditional trade shows are off the table, and travel is still restricted… How can you find and support your international distributors and in-market partners to grow your exports?

The answer is simple: provide your distributors with a local website to lean on that is strategically optimized for their specific market. In short, localize your website and watch your traffic, engagement, and conversions explode. 

MSSC took advantage of IBT Online’s Global Program to strengthen their sites and then create three best-practice, localized websites in their three top export markets: Mexico, Brazil, and the UK.

“With the pandemic and lack of travelling, these localized websites are an essential tool for us to help our distributors sell our products.

HOW UNITED ELECTRIC CONTROLS INCREASED LEADS IN CHINA, LATIN AMERICA, AND BRAZIL 

If you want to sell more products and services online, you can't sit back and pray that buyers will stumble across your website, especially when it comes to international customers.

To attract more leads online, United Electric Controls worked with IBT Online to develop a proactive strategy for the Chinese, Latin American, and Brazilian markets. IBT Online delivered a customized solution, including three localized websites and search engine advertising. A year later, UEC is seeing more leads than ever before and achieving click-through rates on their websites that are consistently above the industry average.

"Working with IBT Online has been a fantastic experience, the quality of work has been high. The IBT team is very responsive with value-added inputs." - Julian Yeo, Strategic Marketing Manager.