Marketing forms a crucial part of any export strategy and helps your business to multiply and diversify through an expanded customer base that results in increased profits.

A well thought-out and executed international marketing strategy will help de-risk your business and induce further levels of innovation, ultimately making your business 11% more likely to survive.

Your go-to-market strategy will cover many aspects, but it is important to remember that you need to understand exactly what you’re offering before you can start to sell your product overseas.

With an international marketing strategy, you are better placed to understand and to overcome the additional complexities of international trade.

When mapping out your international marketing strategy, you must consider, and account for, the following activities:

Research and Development

Areas to think about here include market research, analysis of local competitors, local rules and regulations, and labelling and packaging requirements.

Depending on where you’re planning to export your goods, there is likely to be an element of product development and/or adaptation required, or at the very least your packaging will need to be changed to meet compliance rules.

Pricing

How should you price your product? Who is your target demographic? Do you need to incorporate costs for logistics, intermediaries, certificates, etc?

Answering these questions early will help you to adapt your marketing strategy to appeal to the right consumer base. If you’re going to position your products as being either premium or affordable, then your marketing message and branding need to reflect this.

Branding

As previously mentioned, branding is incredibly important when it comes to entering new markets. You need to do your research and identify where your brand best fits in the landscape of your target market.

Culture is key here as you may have to make quite a few changes to your existing branding, marketing collateral, and messaging in order to succeed overseas. Think about colours, fonts, imagery, language, icons, etc. as these details have known to make or break brands in new territories.

Digital marketing

For most brands embarking on their export journey, they don’t have a physical presence outside of their domestic market. This means the growth of the brand relies on a strong position online.

A localised website is very attractive to your international customers, as well as a presence on social media, as this helps them to build trust in your brand.

Need help with your international digital marketing?

Check out our top ten tips for efficient marketing and communications.

You also need to consider the language and culture of your international markets, as well as overall the market structure.

Now ask yourself, what does international success look like for my business?

Having a clear objective for your export activities will really aid in solidifying your international marketing strategy, as well as establishing those key performance indicators that you’re going to track through your marketing efforts.

These are just a few areas that will help to shape your international marketing strategy, allowing your business to think global and act local. This will be the key to your success overseas.

Want to learn more? Check out Bolst Global’s on-demand tutorial that talks you through the process of developing your own international marketing strategy. You will gain important insight into the main dos and don’ts, plus access to a handy framework that you can take away in order to finalise your own strategy.

Need help identifying international opportunities for your brand? Then do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of the team and we’ll be happy to assist you on your export journey.