Vikas Kalwani September 20, 2021 Many multinationals suffer from the same limitations that plague many small businesses. They are disadvantaged because they have little or no local presence, so internet marketing techniques need to be explicitly fine-tuned to establish a competitive edge over their competitors. If you’re running an international company, it’s worth considering why and how this strategy works before choosing advertising tactics on these particular types of platforms.
Some strategies are tried and true no matter what – you may get a few more leads by making your website available in a few more languages, for example. But there are also plenty of other measures that are successful based on specific cultures.
Online Marketing Tactics
This article will take you through some of the online marketing tactics worth considering while running an international business. You’ll look at what it takes to succeed with a company in the area you’re trying to market. This blog will discuss 9 strategies that work well for international and local audiences.
Search engine optimization
With local SEO strategies, you optimize your website for searches of local & international businesses in the area. This isn’t as easy as it might sound because it requires a thorough understanding of local & international business trends and needs to optimize a site properly. For example, if you want to target searches for major corporate chains like Walgreens or Starbucks, you need to be sure that you’re using the right keywords and using ads on relevant sites. It should also be noted that these are likely going to be big players in the search space already, so you’re already facing some stiff competition.
While SEO might work for specific targeted audiences, it’s not a good strategy for companies with a local & International presence in any particular place. If you’re not physically located in the area, then your stickiness factor is likely not going to be very high. It’s a good idea to stick with more universal means of marketing, or you might miss out on many potential customers.
Many people go online to look for local businesses, and you must be playing well on the various search engines. This will not only help you get more traffic, but since people are likely to stay on your website longer, it can also provide an opportunity for increased conversions. There are a few basic steps that you can take to guarantee that your website will be listed at the top of the page whenever somebody does a local search.
You’ll want to research the terms that people use when they search for your type of business and make sure that you’ve optimized your site for these. Avoid repeating the exact phrase repeatedly or stuffing keywords into placeholders that can get you penalized. Adding inbound links and making sure that everything on a page is relevant is an important part of inbound marketing strategy.
– You’ll also want to make sure that your site is mobile compatible, but this is also important to place at the top of the list. Be sure that you’re mobile-optimized as much as you can, but it’s a good idea to focus on the desktop version as well.
Follow trends on social media
More than any other type of online marketing, social media is all about time and place. A truly successful campaign isn’t necessarily about growing followers or getting the most ‘Likes’, but it’s about making an impression with the audience you have. You might be surprised at how local social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have evolved to be the most effective in many cases. Effective local & International marketing requires you to consider exactly how these platforms were designed and understood.
It’s possible that one of your target audiences could be a subset of one or more of these platforms, so it can be worth investigating which ones they use before jumping into your campaign.
Clutter and chaos
One of the best online marketing tactics for local & International businesses is to create a website that is as simple as possible and run ads to get leads. The kinds of companies that benefit most from this are ones without a lot of clutter or overwhelming information. One of the primary reasons people enjoy surfing the web is that it’s an easy way to find relevant information. Reduce this aspect of your site or keep it simple to create something that will be friendlier for your audience.
Keeping your website clutter-free is especially important since you’re generally going to have a smaller audience. This means that the message you’re sending needs to be as impactful as can be. If your site isn’t able to do this, it’s going to fail right out of the gate for lack of interest.
Attention-grabbing headlines
When any local & International business tries to get more people in the door, they must have a catchy headline. Many people spend a bit more time on the internet when they’re searching for things related to their hobbies or interests, so headline writing is often the first thing that catches their attention. It would help if you were sure that you could come up with something memorable and catchy but also short enough to fit on a single page.
The key here is striking a balance between catchiness and message length. If you can’t make it fit within 100 characters, then you might need to break it into two messages, including one of your most essential points. There are resources online that help you develop a catchy and meaningful headline, so take advantage of them.
Word-to-mouth
When it comes to local & international marketing, it’s not just about having a bigger audience, so the message needs to be as impactful as possible. Some of the best local & International marketing strategies involve word-of-mouth advertising that is effective at getting potential customers excited. People love to talk about what they like, and some of these viral marketing tactics are bound to work in your favor.
Contests
One of the most common forms of viral marketing for local & International businesses is a contest. The elements here include giving away prizes, creating buzz on social media, and competition between companies. These contests often take place on a near-daily basis, so they can mainly attract attention and create content that is likely to be shared many times over.
Be sure that you’re offering precious prizes for the contests that you’re hosting. This can be in the form of cash, discount coupons, sale popups, or other gift cards. If one of your competitors wins a prize, it’s more likely to get shared than something like a T-shirt. Also, be sure to have a clear structure for your contest with rules and parameters based on local & international laws and regulations. While they can be fun to participate in, they can also be an administrative nightmare if they’re not handled properly.
Company podcast
For local & International businesses with an in-person presence, a podcast can help get new ideas to your customers and create social buzz. One of the best things about a podcast is that it’s relatively easy to produce, and you can get started for free on a top podcast host like Podcasts.com. The key to making a local & International podcast successful is simply consistent messaging and a regular schedule to deliver content.
While there’s no way to be sure of how popular your podcast will be, you can give yourself a much better chance by delivering content every week. If you’re consistent with the release schedule, it’s also more likely that your audience will come back when they expect new content. This will help you create an expectation in the audience’s minds that they’ll have something interesting to listen to when they visit your website, which increases stickiness in a big way.
Smartphone app
When people are in a location that is accessible only via a smartphone, they’re more likely to use this form of technology to search for things they need. It can be helpful for businesses to have quick access to information about their location and whether or not there are other local & International options available nearby. Apps have become the norm with smartphones these days, so you must develop a unique version of your own that doesn’t look like Google made it.
The first step in this process is simply doing some research to see if there’s an existing app that you can use. If not, then you’ll need to develop your own. Since this is typically done after you’ve already started your marketing campaign, you might have an advantage in getting started sooner since you’ll have a better idea of what people are looking for and how they might want it structured.
Hosting a Local Event
Making sure that you’re active on the local level can be a little challenging, but one of the best ways to do this is to host a local event. This is one of the reasons why it’s a good idea to start by hosting meetings to get a feel for what people want. Not only will people be able to get the value of your products or services in person, but you’ll also have an opportunity to connect with them on a more personal level and learn more about what they need from your business.
One of the great things about hosting events is that you can create a relationship with your customers if you’re in an area with many people coming and going. The more often you run into them, the more likely they will have a better experience with your business and be more inclined to share their opinions with others. Be sure to add these events to your marketing calendar so that you do not forget about them.
Wrapping Up
To conclude, it can be firmly said that by following the tips and tricks that are outlined in this article, you can create a viral marketing campaign that will be highly effective for the people that you’re targeting. Marketing should always be strong and targeted, but sometimes it’s worthwhile to not just post whatever you want on social media but to do so with some purpose. Viral marketing can be powerful, but it needs to happen organically to be effective.
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