Marketing is no longer about dumping money into a black hole and hoping that a customer or two...
The inbound methodology is widely used by smaller B2B businesses. But can larger enterprise businesses implement it into their global marketing strategy? In short, yes.
But in order for it to be effective around the world, there are various adjustments that you’ll need to make to get it off the ground. Here's how to develop a killer global marketing strategy with inbound in mind.
Optimise Your Website for Different Regions
Optimising your business’ website is the first strategy that you should address when globalising your inbound strategy. One good practice is to have different versions of your website for different regions - for example, a French website, a German website and so on. Just make sure these regions are the countries/areas who frequently interact with your brand.
Then, you'll need to translate your site into different languages of these areas.
By translating your content, you’re reaching such a wider audience and not restricting it to just the people who can fluently speak and understand your mother language. Imagine yourself landing on a website that’s published in a language that you don’t speak. You’re likely to quickly head for the back to results button as you don’t have a clue what to look for.
So, rather than excluding other languages and instantly putting off visitors because they can’t understand your content, we recommend that you translate your site into a variety of options.
Translator Over Google Translate Every Time
This is something to keep in mind when you're translating content. It’s one thing having untranslated content but poorly translated content is just as bad, if not worse for your business.
Badly written content gives off the impression that your business isn’t well-established, successful or even professional. You want to be remembered for the right reasons, not as the business who can’t string sentences together. Bad first impressions can have a horrendous impact on your business and can prove hard to budge in the future.
Then There's Also Currencies...
Optimisation doesn’t stop at translation either, we recommend that you start accepting payment from different currencies too.
This is purely for the convenience of the customer as they’ll think twice and potentially be put off if they have to make a payment that’s not in their own currency or have to manually convert a price. They won’t know exactly what they’re paying and this can be daunting for anybody.
Personas May Vary According to Cultures
As you explore the international market with your product, that obviously brings different cultures into play too. Not just different languages but also different job roles, needs, way of thinking and a change in shopper behaviour too.
For example, a business that sells protective safety shoes for the catering industry may sell predominantly to butchers in the UK. However, their best seller across the continent may be restaurant shoes. As a business, you need to recognise this and appeal to your market.
There are bound to be crossovers with your personas. After all, your product/service is still doing the same thing no matter which country it’s sold in. But it's important to keep in mind that there will be cultural differences that you’ll have to address.
SEO Can Vary From Country to Country
This is linked to the above point. Cultural changes can mean that people have different needs and ways of thinking and living. As a result, they may also search for different keywords or slightly different variations of your original keywords on search engines.
Your global marketing strategy needs to reflect this. Thoroughly researching your international personas will help.
Have a Consistent Content Distribution Strategy in Place
Basically, if you’re creating amazing content, then it needs to be distributed in an effective way for it to achieve its true potential. It’s no good uploading your content at inconsistent times as people will get fed up of the unpredictability of the delivery. Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly are all recommended distribution times that are proven to work well.
Just remember to keep the different time zones in mind.
Reaching out to an international market is no mean feat, so a careful strategy must be put in place in order to give yourself the best chance of success. You need to stick to your global marketing strategy and enforce it throughout each campaign you release. Stick to this and you’ll start to see the results that you’ve been longing for.
Learn More About Inbound Marketing for Enterprise Companies
So, once you’ve implemented the above factors into your inbound marketing strategy, you should be well on your way to nailing your global campaigns. However, there are various other factors you need to focus on too. Luckily for you, we’ve created a free guide that includes everything you need to know.
Download your free copy below.
