At this point in human history, you probably already know that your business should be online. Whether you are a micro SME, or a multinational corporation, an online presence is no longer optional. But just in case you aren’t quite sure, allow me to convince you.

In 2011, the United Nations declared access to the Internet as a basic human right. More than half of the people on Earth (59%) are active Internet users and 600,000 more are getting online every day.

The global penetration rate of social media is about 51%. There are approximately 5.15 billion mobile device users worldwide. In fact, back in 2014 the number of mobile device users worldwide overtook the number of desktop users.

Ok, so we’ve safely established why you should be online – it’s where your customers are. Now, there are many options available for online promotional tools, so to select the best promotional tools for the situation, organizations need to first consider what is available and appropriate to the brand, market entry strategy and target market.

Want to learn more about planning and implementing marketing strategies? Check out the FITTskills Marketing Products and Services online workshop!

Online tools at your fingertips

With virtually unlimited access to a global market, the Internet—and the many online platforms that have emerged—has revolutionized the advertising industry. Using social media, pop-up ads on search engine websites, mass marketing email campaigns and vertically integrated multimedia powerhouses, organizations have a new arsenal of advertising tools at their disposal.

Marketers do not have to spend a lot of money on advertising and public relations campaigns. Less expensive options are available. For example, market segments can be reached by email. Online marketing with its referrals and networking opportunities is a powerful yet inexpensive way of reaching target markets.

Content is everything, everything is content

Content is the cornerstone of online marketing. It involves creating and sharing relevant and engaging information with the target audience through articles, blog posts, videos, podcasts, webinars, and other formats. The goal is to support business and marketing objectives by influencing the customer’s opinions before they are faced with a buying decision. It is important that content is offered in places where customers and potential customers spend their time, such as social media or search engines. A balance between content that is educational and content that generates leads is ideal.

With a daily onslaught of information, people often scan it quickly to find the good content and weed out the bad.

Content must provide something of value to consumers in order to keep their attention. People are no longer passive recipients of information.

They seek, consume and respond to content and promotions online and expect rapid responses to their enquiries and feedback.

For international initiatives, an organization must consider how content will be created and adapted to suit the needs and interests of the local target markets. There are various ways to approach this. For instance, corporate headquarters could create the content and share it with the local offices for adaptation, or the staff from headquarters and the local offices could collaborate on content.

SAP Content Audit Results in New Content Development

As part of their content evaluation activities, the application software company SAP conducted an audit of their content. The audit revealed that the majority of SAP’s content was tailored to late-stage buyers. Data gathered about online audience behaviour indicated that only half the content was being used—the other

50 % prompted no downloads, no page views and no digital feedback. They also found that local teams only used about 20 percent of the content that was provided by headquarters, even when it was translated into local languages.

Based on these results, SAP decided to stop creating content at the corporate office. Instead, they would help the local teams create their own content.

Your audience won’t find your content without good SEO

To achieve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), content must include keywords and phrases that the target market uses. Marketers can check Google AdWords to see the number of people using specific phrases related to their brand.

Successful marketers connect with international markets on the customer’s terms. That means using their preferred digital channels and communicating in their preferred language.

That also means translating content or creating entirely new content for a particular market. These efforts encourage market driven distribution of the organization’s content.

It may be the case that little or no budget is specifically allocated to content creation. When this occurs, organizations can use less expensive approaches, such as co-creating content with a partner organization and using the skills of existing team members. There are other creative options such as repurposing existing content or using content generated by customers—perhaps a testimonial video about their positive experience with a product or service—and posting it on the organization’s website or blog.

Pam Didner, author of Global Content Marketing, recommends creating content based on personas.

Persona development is about understanding the perspectives of buyers and describing their needs, concerns and interests to help with product and service design and marketing.

A well-crafted persona provides insights into appropriate wording, images and concepts for a particular market segment. The types of details that could be included in a persona are:

• Demographics
• Behaviours
• Attributes
• Budget range
• Device usage
• Communication preferences
• Job description
• Recommended key words
• Pain points and challenges
• Needs and desires

Personas tend to be based on market segments. For example, Intel, a multinational corporation and technology company based in the United States, has six global personas for its consumer promotions and two for business promotions. The key goal is to identify the interests and challenges that a particular segment shares. On their website, Intel provides a sample persona for a consumer they call. The profile has a photo of John and describes him as being a 28-year-old programmer who loves tropical fish, works long hours, eats out five times per week and uses technology to simplify his life.

Content created for sales training—sometimes referred to as sales enablement content—is particularly important for business-to-business relationships as knowledge about products and services needs to be transferred to sales partners. 

Websites, Blogs and Newsletters

One of the most effective and critical online promotional tools is the organization’s own website. Many marketing experts recommend an online marketing strategy that begins with optimizing the organization’s site, including search engine results. A spider, or bot, is a program which analyzes website content and then indexes it so the website can be easily found by a search engine. The higher a site is ranked by the search engine, the more likely it is to appear on the first page of search results and therefore, more likely to be visited by the person performing the search.

Organizations are encouraged to launch a newsletter, email distribution and a blog from their website and encourage viewers to sign up for them in order to gain lead information.

Newsletters, emails and blogs are inexpensive ways to keep in touch with customers and are effective as a way of maintaining their loyalty and interest in an organization’s products and services.

More about Search Engine Optimization

Search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo are the primary method of navigation for Internet users. The purpose of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to make it easier for an organization’s target audience to find its website. This is achieved by making it clear to search engines where to send users to find the information they are seeking. Website masters can achieve SEO by following best practices such as those described here:

• Create unique titles for each page on website.
• Summarize each page’s content.
• Create Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) that contain short, relevant words that users recognize.
• Use a simple directory structure that helps visitors track their location on the site and go from general content to more specific content.
• Have a 404, or Not Found, error message that provides users with links back to the site’s home page and other most popular pages.

Use key words and phrases that both new and experienced visitors will use in search queries to find the organization’s site or its products and services. Longer keyword phrases often convert better, because they catch people later in the buying cycle. A person searching for “shoes” is probably browsing, and not ready to buy. On the other hand, someone searching for “best price on Air Jordan size 12” knows what they want and is ready to make a purchase.

• Create quality content that is unique and easy to read.
• Construct site so mobile users are sent to mobile version rather than the desktop version.
• Use webmaster tools to identify site performance issues

The post How to use content marketing to promote your brand in export markets appeared first on Trade Ready.

As members of this constantly growing international trade community, you’ve probably seen a lot of things happening at FITT over this past year.

We’re so grateful for your crucial role in making all of those things happen, because without you, none of it would have been possible.

It’s been exciting to see your passion and expertise shine through in so many ways, including our monthly #TradeElite Twitter chats, discussions of important trade issues on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and TradeEliteClub, and as contributors on our TradeReady.ca blog.

In the spirit of reflection and celebration that the holiday season and New Year bring, we’d like to take this opportunity to give thanks for everything we’ve been able to achieve together in 2015, and give you a sneak peek of what we’re most excited about for the year ahead.

Jessica Thornhill – Coordinator, Products and Services:

One of the things I’m proudest of from the past year was the team effort that culminated with the successful launch of our new online course platform.

There are many new features and resources that will be helpful to those taking FITTskills online courses, and we’re excited to hear how our current students are enjoying the experience so far.

In the coming year I’m looking forward to working with the growing number of educational partners in countries all over the world.

We already have partners delivering our courses in Colombia, Malaysia, Romania and the UK, and recently offered a two-week training session in Indonesia.

I can’t wait to keep adding to that list in the future.

Ewan Roy – Content Marketing Specialist:

One of my favourite things from the past year has been our #TradeElite Twitter chats. It’s been a pleasure to help organize the chats and work with so many talented participants who are experts in their field.

It’s been amazing to see everything they have had to say on the various topics we’ve covered, from IP protection and freight forwarding, to market entry strategies and the TPP.

Next year, I’m looking forward to continuing to connect with our various CITP®|FIBP® designation holders to write Spotlight features of their careers and accomplishments for TradeReady.ca.

Seeing the many different ways import export professionals got started in the industry, and hearing the amazing things they’ve done during their careers, is always fun and a great way to help professionals celebrate earning their elite designation.

Caroline Tompkins – President and CEO:

We were thrilled that Global Affairs Canada (GAC) officially adopted FITTskills training as part of the career path for all Trade Commissioners in 2015, and then extended this to locally engaged staff.

This, combined with our continued long-standing strategic partnership with Export Development Canada (EDC) and our research project with Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), is representative of the importance the Canadian government places on building the capacity of international trade practitioners.

On a more personal note, I’ve also been very pleased with the excellent work of the entire FITT team, from our staff to our Board of Directors.

2016 will be a big year of planning for us, as we’re currently putting together plans to celebrate FITT’s 25th anniversary in 2017, and developing everything related to our strategic plan from 2017-2020.

We’ll also be focused on enhancing the awareness of the value that FITT’s CITP®|FIBP® designation holders bring to the international business community, and the importance of the designation for anyone working in import export as a whole.

Silvia Baptista – Manager, Products and Services:

Working with an increasing number of international clients has been one of the high points of 2015 for me.

The number of professionals with their elite CITP®|FIBP® designation in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world continues to rise, and we now have educational partners in four different continents.

Next year, launching our International Trade Competency Framework will be gratifying, as we feel it’s going to provide international business practitioners with a practical, relevant model to define all of the skills they need to succeed globally.

The implications for the project in education, hiring, business development, professional growth and a number of other areas are far reaching, and I’m looking forward to seeing how those develop.

Pamela Hyatt – Content Marketing Specialist:

Launching our new website, FITTforTrade.com, was a true highlight for all of us at FITT. It allowed us to bring the website into the future with a dynamic new design, easier navigation and new resources.

We hope you’ve all had the chance to discover the new look and features, and we’re always happy to hear feedback and suggestions.

In 2016, I’m looking forward to bringing even more exciting new people and content into FITT’s community through our blog, TradeReady.ca, as well as on social media at tradeeliteclub.com, and the monthly #TradeElite Twitter chats.

We’re working on some fun new ideas right now, and we’re always thrilled to collaborate with talented international trade professionals like yourselves.

If you’re interested in contributing an article or collaborating with us in any way, we want to hear from you!

Joan Desautels – Finance Manager:

I’m very pleased with the progress we’ve made on our technical integration project over the past year, with our new website and CRM, CMS and LMS systems, and with the energy and enthusiasm that our FITT team brings to the table.

In 2016, I am looking forward to all of the new opportunities and challenges that come with the continued growth and innovation of the FITT organization.

Connie Brigham – Coordinator, Products and Services:

It was wonderful to play an important role in organizing our International Competency Standards focus groups and validation sessions, as well as to personally attend the focus group in Vancouver, and validation session in Ottawa.

I got to meet several of our CITP®|FIBP®s, and many of those relationships are ongoing as we continue to collaborate with the Content Advisory Panel.

Being out in the field and understanding the details of what our international trade experts do, and how proud they are to contribute to the project was a great experience, as was witnessing the discussion and seeing the ideas unfold.

We’re very excited about the progress being made on the 7th edition of FITTskills over the next year.

Along with our new course platform, I think it’s going to create a fantastic client experience that’s very user-friendly and helpful for achieving career goals.

Alex Barankevych – Digital Marketing Specialist:

I’m a brand new member of the FITT team, taking on the role of Digital Marketing Specialist on December 7. I’m proud to have joined this company and am enjoying getting started in my new position.

I’ve got a lot of new ideas for FITT that I’m working on right now, and 2016 will give me the opportunity to start putting those into place and measure their success.

Creating more content geared towards answering the specific questions and needs for professionals in the import export industry is a major goal for the upcoming year. I’m looking forward to working together with the FITT team to provide content that will be helpful and practical in your everyday work.

Thank you for being an important member of the FITT community, and we wish you all the very best for a Happy Holiday and a prosperous New Year.

Cheers from all of us at FITT!

The post FITT’s launching into an exciting 2016, but first, let’s celebrate you! appeared first on Trade Ready.

If I’m selling to you, I speak your language. If I’m buying, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen!

– Willy Brandt, former German Chancellor

Content marketing, in a nutshell, is the process of creating and freely sharing relevant material that your target audience will find valuable in some way. It could be educational, entertaining or inspirational.

The idea of content marketing is nothing new, of course. At its best, content marketing is simply good storytelling and avoids being “salesy”. As human beings, we all love a good story – no matter where in the world we live or which language we speak.

If you’re expanding your business into foreign markets, however, your approach to content marketing can be the difference between success and failure.

Never forget the first rule of marketing

What works in your domestic market may not be the right fit for your target markets abroad. So how can you adapt your content strategy for a more international context?

No matter where you’re planning to do business, the first rule of marketing still applies: know your target customer.

If you’re looking to enter foreign markets, you need to do your research ahead of time.

Enlist the help of local experts who have first-hand knowledge of the particular markets you’re targeting. Make sure you understand the cultural values, preferences and communication styles of the local people.

Invest in relevant content

Be prepared to connect with them on their terms: use their preferred digital channels and communicate in their native language. Yes, this means investing in the translation and localization of your content.

You may even consider transcreation, which is the creation of entirely new content for a particular region.

Chances are, your business is already producing content of some sort.

Whether it’s blog posts, a podcast, YouTube videos or image galleries, ideally, the format you’ve chosen reflects your audience’s content preferences.

From that main platform, you can then share your content strategically via digital channels: email, social networks, messaging apps, etc.

Done well, content marketing can be the most effective way for your business to find, convert and retain customers. In turn, global content marketing can grow your business to the next level – as long as you understand the importance of adapting your content for each regional market.

Your audience is online – meet them there

Did you know that in 2011, the United Nations declared access to the Internet to be a basic human right? We live in an increasingly connected world.

According to Internet World Stats, nearly half of all the people on the planet are now active Internet users. 600,000 more users are joining those ranks every day – many of them via mobile devices.

In fact, there are now 3.734 billion mobile users worldwide, which is actually more than half of the global population.

With this growing Internet community comes a steady increase in the usage of social networks and messenger apps. We Are Social has reported that as of August 2015, the average global penetration rate for social media usage was 30%, an increase of 8.7% over the previous year.

What does this mean for your business?

Ready or not, we’re all living in a new age of digital, mobile and social marketing

There’s no going back.

Both at home and abroad, businesses need to take a more transparent, interactive approach than they did in the age of traditional mass media.

People consume information from a much wider variety of sources than ever before, and they are no longer passive recipients. They communicate with each other online, and they expect brands to respond to their feedback, good or bad.

Even if you have a small business, your competition is now global. Fortunately, so is your potential customer base.

But a 2014 report by Common Sense Advisory makes it very clear that investing in translation and localization is more than just good business sense. It’s essential for building an international brand.

“55% of the 3,002 respondents buy only at websites where information is presented in their language. For those with limited English, the preference for mother-tongue purchases increases to 80% or more.”

Furthermore, “87% of consumers who can’t read English don’t buy products or services at English-language websites.”

Don’t get left behind in language limbo

In multilingual Europe, marketers have always understood the benefits of translation and localization. In Canada, where both English and French have official language status, bilingual marketing is standard practice – besides being legally required for certain types of content, such as food labels.

Meanwhile, U.S. marketers have some serious catching up to do when it comes to adopting a multilingual strategy. In a recent poll by Smartling, most of the U.S. companies surveyed were not translating their content at all, or, if they were, it was only into one other language.

Given that nine out of ten Internet users are now based outside of North America, this means a lot of companies are missing out on global growth opportunities.

International marketers should be the first out of the gate

The challenge for today’s international marketers, then, is to offer engaging content to regional audiences in their preferred language. Currently, about 54% of all published web content out there is still in English (according to W3Techs).

This can be a seen as an advantage for international marketers. While it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out in the overly saturated realm of English-language content, there is still a lot of room to make an impression in other languages.

And international marketers have much better tools at their disposal than ever before, which can be used in a very targeted way.

Email, social media, mobile messaging – these are all digital channels which allow your business to share tailored content with highly segmented, regional audiences.

So ask yourself:

What kind of content do your foreign audiences want?
In which languages?
What are customers’ questions, frustrations, or aspirations?
How can you help them?

Your goal should be to establish credibility, create good will and build a relationship of trust. This takes time, consistency and a commitment to quality.

It also takes a willingness to be human. Some things haven’t changed since the days of the market square: people want to do business with people they know, like and trust – not with logos or corporate brands.

In this age of mobile social technology, brands have no choice but to be more transparent with their customers. The reality is: you don’t control your brand anymore. Your brand is what other people say about it, especially when you’re not around.

In the case of international audiences, they’re probably not having those conversations in English. So make sure you speak their language, and participate in the conversation.

Have you found success with international content marketing? What types of content work best for your audience?

The post Have Content, Will Travel: Marketing to Today’s Global Customers appeared first on Trade Ready.

Mark was recently in Montreal for a content marketing workshop, and Daniella and I were glad to be there to gain additional value for our international trade training marketing efforts at FITT.

Mark and the digital panel that followed his talk were full of helpful, practical information. Here are some of the highlights from the workshop that can improve just about any digital marketing effort.

• People nowadays are overwhelmed with so much information that they’re unwilling to spend much time with advertising. They will however spend time with stories and people; content they can actually connect with.
• Creating content that is shareable in this era of abundant content requires it to be Relevant, Interesting, Timely, and Entertaining. You can read more about RITE on Mark’s insightful business marketing blog www.businessesgrow.com.

@julien’s content strategy: get very drunk, come up with craziest idea you can, make an infographic. Go to the edge. This works #contentMTL

— Mark Schaefer (@markwschaefer)

July 4, 2013

• Mark convincingly explained how new ways of marketing on digital media are not new at all. It’s how business was done until about a 100 years ago. Businesses that have figured out how to market successfully on digital media are not B2B or B2C but P2P—Person to Person.

Successful companies aren’t B2B, B2C; They’re P2P: person to person. Like it used to be. Connect in a human way and you win. #contentMTL

— Craig Silverman (@CraigSilverman)

July 4, 2013

This is one of the basic points I always emphasize. At this point I’ll let Daniella provide her freshly minted perspective on what that actually means.

—

Person to Person Marketing

Humanity is the trait that is starting to separate the winners from the losers in business. This was my main take-away from Mr. Schaefer’s content marketing workshop.

And while I like to think I am already working on the winning side, I had never really stopped to think about just how important this simple concept is becoming to modern-day sales and marketing. With so few companies actually letting their humanness shine, it’s becoming the best way to stand out from the crowd.

No matter how large your company gets, don’t forget to treat your customers as people. Because if you start treating them as just dollars in your pocket and forget that they are thinking, feeling, hardworking people, you start to lose your humanity.

I do a lot of my grocery shopping at a small store a few blocks away from my house. It’s more expensive than regular grocery stores, it doesn’t have the same range of products, and it doesn’t offer any points or rewards for my purchases. So why do I keep going back? It’s because they know me as an individual. They know my name, they know I like their fresh squeezed orange juice, and the man who works behind the deli counter once bought me a coffee at the café down the street because the café’s debit machine was out of order and I had no cash. That’s just plain old genuine thoughtfulness.

But we live in the same neighbourhood so it’s different, you say. But does it have to be? Even with your customers that live half way around the world, there’s no reason not to reach out and touch their lives when the moment presents itself. There’s no reason not to be thoughtful and human.

Stop selling. Start helping. Authenticity and helpfulness beget real relationships and eventually good business @markwschaefer #ContentMTL

— Jeff Taylor (@moetaylor)

July 4, 2013

Maybe one of your customers is online right now and just tweeted about how they’re having trouble finding your product in the new city they moved to. Respond. Tell them where they can get it! No one sells your product in that city? Send them a free sample as a house-warming gift. Now they know you’re listening and that you actually care. And they’ll be so absurdly pleased that they may even tell all their friends about it, not to mention their 3,000 Twitter followers.

A little extra time and effort and a little bit of thoughtfulness for your fellow man (or woman) and you can gain customers for life and pique the interest of tons of people just like them. And you might even feel good about it.

~Daniella D’Alimonte

P2P is humanizing your brand – “Own the personal connection with your customer” via @markwschaefer #contentmtl

— Beth Thouin (@BethThouin)

July 4, 2013

 

—

In a nutshell, content marketing is about providing your customers with information they need, when they need it. As Mark put it so well, Google is the new 1-800 number today. You want to make sure you are answering the phone, not your competitors.

Google is the 800 number today. Who’s picking up on the other end? @markwschaefer #contentMTL

— Ray Hiltz (@newraycom)

July 4, 2013

Are any of you in import-export and international trade using one or more of the above principles of content marketing? Would you have anything else to add about the person to person marketing approach?

We’d love to hear from you, so please do share your links and comments below.

The post How to create effective marketing content for your international trade business appeared first on Trade Ready.