5 Tips to Build a Successful Global Marketing Strategy

Source: Pixabay

The technological revolution has transformed many an entrepreneurial dream into a reality. One of these dreams is, of course, to have an efficient and effective way to expand into foreign markets and become a global brand while minimizing risk and maximizing the long-term ROI potential. While this doesn’t mean that you can simply expand your operation overseas without batting an eye, it does mean that technology has made it possible for many small businesses to become global ventures in a short timeframe, provided that they invest in proper marketing and logistics depending on their niche.

Whether you’re in the process of expanding into international markets as a small digital business or a big national player that provides physical products to retailers, there is no denying that you need a strong global marketing strategy to get your foot in the proverbial door, win over the minds of the local audience, and solidify your position. Here are the five marketing tips that will get you there.

Discover markets with a high ROI potential

Every comprehensive marketing strategy needs to be fueled by extensive and meticulous research, and a global marketing strategy is no different. In fact, there’s much more at stake here, so there can be almost no room for mistake. Keep in mind that a foreign market can be quite unforgiving to brands coming from other countries, so you have a very limited number of mistakes you can make before your chances of success are forever gone. This is why you need to analyze numerous markets, and develop a detailed SWOT analysis for each.

The SWOT analysis will be the first pillar of your global marketing strategy, and it will allow you to prioritize markets, discover the most lucrative opportunities, and most importantly, weed out the contenders with a negative ROI potential. Once you have your SWOT chart in place, it’s time to delve deeper into the unique socio-economic factors that drive the supply and demand of a market.

Source: Pixabay

Sense the demand and act accordingly

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to market a product or service that the local demographic doesn’t want, or worse, doesn’t need. After all, you can sway them to start liking your products, but if the demand isn’t there, there’s not much you can do. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t enter a market altogether, but it does mean that you need to prioritize your product offering, and optimize the marketing approach to appeal to the local communities.

But before you start addressing the subtle nuances of a market (more on that in a minute), you have to know which products have the highest chance of selling, and what drives the demand for these products in particular. This will help you obtain those industry insights that are not only indicative of the prevailing socio-economic trends, but it will also help you make accurate forecasts that will tell you the direction the market is going to take.

Address the nuances of every market

The most important aspect of successfully marketing a brand and its products to a foreign market, one that many business leaders fail to consider, is optimizing the marketing messages and visuals to appeal to the unique culture of the local market. You see, you can’t simply take an advertisement that worked amazingly well in your home country and push it into a foreign market hoping that it will produce the same effect. Because it most likely won’t.

Instead, you need to do the smart thing and leverage expert transcreation to optimize your entire marketing approach according to the unique idiosyncrasies of the local community. Certain images might carry a completely different message in a foreign market, and the same goes for linguistic differences, and those small cultural contrasts that aren’t visible on the surface. It is therefore imperative that you bridge this gap with advertisements that are completely optimized for the local culture.

Source: Pixabay

Solidify your position in a niche

You might have a whole host of amazing products to offer to the new demographic, but sometimes you need to prioritize your investments and start small in order to strengthen your position in the long term. You can’t hope to make a big impact while established local competitors are still dominating the market, but what you can do is discover those niches that you can enter with a strong marketing strategy – niches where your brand identity will get noticed easily. Once you have established yourself in a niche, you can broaden your marketing reach and start penetrating other niches as well.

Optimize your digital strategy

Lastly, be sure to research your marketing options before you invest in every digital channel out there. The truth is that digital marketing can be quite expensive, so the last thing you want to do is to waste precious financial resources on the tactics that don’t resonate with the local demographic. Instead, be sure to find out which marketing tactics the local consumers respond to best, and invest in those from the get-go in order to save money and spread the word about your brand efficiently and effectively.

Wrapping up

Expanding globally and reaching foreign markets has never been more a feasibility for businesses of all sizes than it is today, but to do so effectively, you need a strong marketing approach. Be sure to use these tips to create a comprehensive marketing strategy, one that is backed by hard data and driven by the unique cultural trends that make a foreign market tick.