Global marketing: The pathway to global expansion
Expanding your business globally requires the most effective setup for a global marketing operation – and the right agency to support you.
Expanding your business globally requires the most effective setup for a global marketing operation – and the right agency to support you.
The key to success: Thorough market & competitor analysis
Choosing the most effective marketing channels for reaching the campaign goals
Precise targeting and emphasizing the unique value proposition (UVP)
Advanced use of analytical tools promoting real time conclusions
Constantly improving the campaign based on the lead quality
When devising your global marketing, you need to consider –
Picking the right B2B agency for global growth is your first step. You should also reconsider your approach to B2B lead generation and B2B inbound marketing.
In the B2B marketing world, marketing activities must be tailored not only to each target audience, but also to every stage in the buying cycle. This makes the process of B2B marketing highly complex. Adding to this level of complexity the international marketing variable, and you are treading in deep waters. This is not your backyard – where you have intimate knowledge of the market, the culture, and the language. Expanding globally means you have to be very careful. You, as well as your agency, need to understand exactly the right channels that will work for your B2B global marketing strategy.
In addition, you need to consider localization variables. Duplicating one successful marketing campaign to a different market will not always work, and you need to be aware of the differences between regions and countries, and even areas and states within countries: Different channels; different users behaviors; different colors to use; languages and dialects; time zones, hours, holidays and special dates on which the campaigns are active, and more.
Online marketing has made global marketing strategy attainable, affordable, and results-driven. In the old days, you needed to engage face-to-face to generate leads and bring new business. Today, instead of flying a whole crew to a tradeshow, you can engage with your target audience in different online channels.
Why is online a perfect fit for global marketing?
Some specific channels that are ideal for B2Bs expanding to the global market: Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Linkedin are major channels for B2B awareness and B2B lead generation, as well as online advertising channels.
Understanding your market is the first step towards devising the right marketing strategy. When you’re going global, you should know that you are actually creating many different mini-marketing plans tailored to specific markets. What worked in the US, will not necessarily work in the UK or in Asia. The first thing to take into account when localizing a marketing campaign is the language. Another one is holidays, work hours, and vacation times. Picking the right channels is also highly affected by localization. Some channels are completely local – for example, Xing is more popular in Germany than Linkedin. Twitter is not that popular in Israel, but a highly effective B2B tool across the US.
Part of a successful global marketing strategy is realizing when there’s so much difference, you need to be careful when duplicating a marketing campaign between countries or regions. The right way is to test case one aspect of the campaign before fully deploying it – while taking into considerations the local market’s demands and limitations.
Yes, there are many channels that may work for your global marketing expansion, but before all the rest, there is Linkedin, the “Mecca” of B2B marketing, which is the most robust, accurate and quality-based traffic generator for businesses all around the world.
Consider the following Linkedin methods as core components of any B2B marketing efforts on a global scale:
Google Adwords can be highly beneficial as part of your international marketing efforts, but considering the difference between B2B and B2C, as well as the differences between markets and geographies, you should take into account the following before establishing your Adwords campaign:
There are other online channels that you can consider for your global marketing. Read more about social media marketing, YouTube marketing, Twitter advertising, and inbound marketing.