How to Market Your Business to a Global Audience

Ready to go global? There are several compelling reasons to expand your business into new countries:

• Increase sales and decrease risk by expanding your sales territory
• Make your brand appear bigger, improving brand reputation and awareness 
• Boost your competitive advantage

The benefits are undeniable, but growing your business globally presents a unique set of challenges. Marketing to international customers requires meeting regulatory compliance in numerous regions, plus a strong understanding of foreign markets and customs. 

Here are seven digital marketing tips for US businesses that want to successfully reach a global audience (while staying compliant). 

1. Do Your Research

Before diving deep into any new marketing strategy, you’ll need to thoroughly research your market. 

Do you know what geographic areas are the best markets for your product or service based on available data? They may not be what you think they are. Conduct thorough market research to determine which markets are hungry and which are already saturated.

2. Understand Restrictions and Regulations

Every country has laws and restrictions you must abide by to do business there. Check on these guidelines for each country you’re attempting to market in before creating your strategic plan:

• Is it legal to sell your product there? 
• Do you face any restrictions selling there?
• Are there tax issues you need to manage? 
• Are there requirements for labeling or packaging?

For example, if you plan to market to customers in the European Union, you will need to comply with GDPR laws regarding consent and the use of personal data.

Check out our guide to mobile marketing compliance in the US.

3. Create a Marketing Plan

Base your marketing plan on these three global marketing strategies:

• Product: Is there sufficient demand for your product?
• Service: What service requirements will be necessary to fulfill customer needs?
• Pricing: Are your current price points transferable to new markets?

Remember, what works “here” may not work “there.” Once you’ve determined demand for your product, examined service requirements, and nailed down price points, it’s time to create your international marketing approach. 

4. Customize Your Approach

What are the best methods to reach your target markets? Do they shop primarily online or in retail stores? Do they prefer email or text? Understanding your global audience’s needs gets you one step closer to creating successful marketing approaches.

Creating smart customer segments allows you to craft marketing campaigns and communication strategies that speak to customers’ specific needs. Smart segmentation enables you to:

• Know what your customers want
• Create smart segments in real-time
• Design dynamic workflows

5. Choose Scalable Marketing Channels 

Some marketing channels that work great for a US audience may not scale well when you go global. For example, you need to consider language barriers, customs, and regulations that may block your message from reaching the right people.

As your influence increases, being able to communicate at scale is crucial to successful marketing campaigns.

A few channels sit above the rest when it comes to effective global marketing. SMS is one channel that allows you to quickly and easily send marketing and transactional messages to customers in bulk. Using an SMS API, you can connect to your existing systems, send mass texts, and enable two-way conversations with global customers. 

WhatsApp is another popular channel that allows you to chat with customers quickly and easily. It’s the most popular chat app in the world, delivering approximately 100 billion messages per day to two billion users. 

Businesses can use WhatsApp to engage with customers, market products and services, and provide customer support. 

6. Mind the (Language) Gap

Speaking of communications, what language barriers exist in your global marketing efforts? When moving into international markets, many companies make the mistake of not hiring native speakers or experienced linguists to create accurate translations for their marketing communications. 

While some language mishaps can be entertaining, many of them aren’t. Language gaffes most often reflect poorly on your brand and should be avoided.

7. Create Local Content

Demonstrate that you care about what’s important to your target audience by crafting quality, relevant content localized to their geographic area. In addition to creating new content, consider repurposing existing content optimized explicitly for them. 

Going “glocal” combines globalization and localization in your marketing strategy, enabling you to connect with local consumers meaningfully. Creating a robust local identity while staying consistent across different territories is the hallmark of a strong global brand.

Go Global With Mobile Marketing Cloud

While there’s no “one size fits all” approach to global marketing, being intentional about how to adapt your business to new audiences goes a long way.

Luckily, you don’t have to go at it alone. As a global leader in conversational commerce, CM.com has two decades of experience in marketing compliance, regulations, and requirements for every country and region. Our Mobile Marketing Cloud provides all the tools you need to scale your marketing efforts around the world, making customer communication easy and stress-free.

Ready to take the next step toward expanding your business and achieving your global success initiatives? Contact us for a free demo of Mobile Marketing Cloud!