International Marketing Communications

Your export operations must be accompanied by a clear international marketing communications strategy. Below are various media you can use in your strategy. Keep in mind that the use of each of these media must be consistent with your overall business strategy.

Website and web marketing

Your Website

Your Internet website is an indispensable communication tool for your business. It allows you to present your products and services to the entire world and have them be found by potential clients with just a few clicks of the mouse. Moreover, it also serves as a visiting card for those who wish to know a little more about your company.

In order to decide about the content of your website, you first of all have to think about how to distinguish yourself from your competitors. The worldwide web consists of billions of pages. It is therefore necessary to know a few tricks that will help you break out of anonymity and stand out from your competitors.

Your website must provide sufficient information but always in concise, brief and, if possible, something very "lucid": give preference to photos, drawings and very clear and attractive presentations. Text of 200 lines on a website has very little chance of being read unless you present interesting and specific content for a particular category of user.

Your website also should have at least an English language version (in addition to the version in your national language).

Search Engine Optimisation

A website is meant to be found (and, if possible, read). Below are a few web marketing tips on how to optimise your ranking on the search engines and directories. This is called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

The search engines' objective is to provide the best possible information as requested by an Internet surfer. To convince their algorithm that your website meets that objective you should use headings and text that are relevant to your business and that stand out from the others.

One should also think about making light pages (less than 120 K, including attached photos and documents) as very heavy pages are not easy to download. On the other hand, one also needs to be careful not to create pages that are too light because the search engines may find that these pages provide too little information due to their light weight and thus consider them not so interesting. Also think about keywords for each of your pages and optimise each page by using those words in the text. Define your keywords by looking at your competitors' websites and try to differentiate yourself from them.

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to the practise of buying traffic to your website through paid search listings offered by the principal search engines (Yahoo!, Google, Bing). Paid links are the advertisements that appear on the right side or the top of your screen when you carry out a search on any of the three main search engines. SEM can be a good way of generating qualified traffic to your website.

SEM links are sold in an auction model. In order to obtain the best position (i.e. to have your advertisement appear on top of the results page of a search), the advertiser must place a high bid for a specific keyword. Charges are based on Pay Per Click (PPC), which means that each time a user clicks on your advertisement your bidding amount gets charged to your account. You have the option to limit your daily budget, to decide about the timing of appearance of your advertisements and to limit the number of clicks on your advertisement.

There are numerous other tricks to optimise traffic to your website. And you may find it advantageous to hire a web marketing professional who can streamline the process.

Blogs and Social Media

Blogs and social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) can be useful compliments to a website. They allow you to provide several interfaces for direct communication with your customers and prospects and promote the feeling of belonging to your brand. They are valuable because they provide a platform for public communication between multiple users and an enterprise (C2B).

Social media: Use Facebook and Twitter to promote your brand. Publish visuals, videos, ask questions, anything that can encourage active participation of your followers on these platforms. Use LinkedIn as a B2B channel, a showcase of your company interfacing with the professional world. This will allow you to know you about your prospects and partners as well your employees. Make sure you update your social media accounts regularly and respond quickly to both positive and negative posts from the public.

Blogs: Many companies have discovered that blogs can be useful marketing tools as well as excellent ways to learn about their customers and potential customers. Like social media, blogs allow direct communication with individuals and can create a stronger relationship with them. Make sure you update your blog regularly and respond quickly to both positive and negative posts from the public.

Company brochure

The company brochure serves as your company's visiting card. It is the first point of contact with future clients. Design it precisely, especially since it will be produced and distributed in large quantities.

Content

Carefully select the information to feature in your company brochure. Highlight the strengths of your business while standing out as much as possible from the competition. The information should be presented succinctly but as complete as possible given the space constraints . It can also be used to as a resource that offers general information about your industry.

Form

The company publicity folder must attract the client's attention. It must inspire confidence in your company and products and should compel your prospects or clients to read it and keep it because of the valuable information contained in it. Create "bounces" that encourage your customer to visit your website (or any other communication medium) or directly call your sales team. And create versions in the local language and English.

As for physical layout, the most common layout is the trifold brochure (One normal piece of paper folded into three sections with print on both sides).

The brochure is an essential sales and marketing tool and is especially important for trade events.

Product catalogue

The product catalogue is a sales tool that presents detailed technical and commercial features of your products and/or services.

Content

Develop it closely with your sales team as it should be fully integrated into your business strategy. The catalogue must answer queries raised by any client and create special interest in the products/services of your company. When translating into other languages, make sure you hire translation professionals who can translate technical terms.

Form

The design of the catalogue can affect whether clients will read it. Photographs must be high quality and diagrams must be clear and precise. And the colour scheme must be carefully studied, taking into consideration colour perceptions of different countries.

In any case, the graphic design of the catalogue should have the look and feel of the company brochure. For greater flexibility, prices should not be included in the catalogue, but rather in an accompanying document.

Promotional videos

Promotional videos are among the best tools for international marketing communications. Using video aids is very effective and can dramatically demonstrate the strengths of a company. Professional producers and editors must be engaged to create the best quality video.

Content

The aim of a promotional video is to dramatically showcase information about the company and the firm's products and/or services. It may be necessary to adapt videos according to your target markets, including language and some modifications to the content.

Form

An ideal video should be 5 to 10 minutes. The best media for delivering videos are websites such as YouTube or Vimeo. In some cases you should also produce a thumb drive version or a DVD in the video standard for your target market.

Press

Getting coverage in the press requires a combination of skill and investment. You can buy advertising in the trade press of your target market. And you can create press releases that are distributed to the market's press.

Content

The text must be brief, clear and extremely precise. Advertisements must be designed and translated by a local advertising agency that understands how to approach the market. And a local public relations firm should be engaged to produce press releases that make sense to the local press.

Form

As a general rule, the cost of an advertisement in the foreign press can be high. The price is calculated based on the cost of advertising space and the cost of producing the ad, which is set according to services requested. This type of marketing communication can reach a large number of readers. But make sure the publication is targeted to your market.

Public relations

There are specialised public relations agencies in every country and for most sectors. In addition to writing and sending press releases, they organise trade events (seminars, launching of new products, receptions, etc.) that attract new business prospects and press. In choosing a public relations firm make sure they understand your sector and have deep contacts in the local business and press communities.