6 Tips For How to Find and Sell in New Markets
On paper, business tips and suggestions always come quite easily. Create business, market business, sell product, profit, retire to southern Spain. Just to remind you of your goal, you keep a picture of those white-sand beaches hanging in front of your desk. While creating a business is tough, growing a business can be even more difficult. One of those ways to grow your business is by expanding into new markets, but how do you do so? In this article, we’ll examine tips about how to find and sell in new markets.
Research Potential Markets
The first step into finding new markets is doing your due diligence when it comes to research. It would be nice if every man, woman, and child in the world loved your products, but unless you’re selling winning lottery tickets, you’re not bound to have much luck.
You need to find out if new markets will actually want your products or services to see if it’s worth investing in that market. One great place to start is by using a free tool from Google called Google Trends.
Use some keywords relevant to your business and see how they compare to other places around the world. Even though Irish flag shirts may be a hit in Ireland, they might not be as much of a hit somewhere else.
Adjust Marketing Techniques
Marketing should never be a one-size-fits-all approach. Through customer data gathering and other tools, you should be thinking about how you can adjust your campaigns while also giving customers personalised ads, coupons, or promotions.
When entering into a new market, you’re going to want to examine how your market and promote your business. You might also find that people are purchasing products differently, adjusting how much time and effort you should put into various channels or mediums.
One easy thing to think about is how you might be changing your branding from local to more internationally. For example, your past business and subsequent domain name might have been using local keywords or even the local city name. A rebranding might be possible and you might have to look at new domain names.
Don’t come in thinking that what you did in the past is automatically going to work again.
Research the Competition
If it’s not broke, don’t fix it! There’s nothing wrong with checking out what your competition is doing to make them successful.
They have been in this new market longer than you have, meaning they currently reside as the “experts” of the product and market. Study their ads, their branding, and the keywords they have used to make them successful.
You should be prying through their website, social media pages, and even sign up for a newsletter to see what is working and what’s not. You shouldn’t be copying them, but you can look for a bit of inspiration.
Research the Environment as Well
No two countries are alike, no matter how often people lingually confuse Austria and Australia. When looking into a new market, you need to be stepping back and looking at the broader picture of the new market as a whole.
Are there any outstanding political factors? Any economic red flags? Is the market too competitive?
You’re going to be entering in entirely new territory, so it’s vital to have an overarching picture and viewpoint of certain developments. Even if a market looks open and a like a great opportunity, external factors may discourage you from pursuing such an endeavor.
Start Small
When looking for new markets, it might be tempting to jump at 5-6 countries all at the same time. If you’re going international, you want to go big right?
Well, everyone has to crawl before they walk and walk before they run. Moving into international markets brings plenty of risks and you don’t want to go through your entire budget or work efforts to only have it fall apart.
Test out different strategies as well in the smaller markets, such as tracking international shipping. See which companies work best with your goals and develop keen ways to move forward.
Research Payment Plans
While you might be accustomed to paying one way in your home market, foreign markets may have completely different and unique payment options.
Remember, entering someone else’s market means you have to try and make the process as easy, streamlined, and comfortable as possible. That means setting up payment plans that the consumer is familiar with.
Not everyone uses a credit card and consumers in places like China have their preferred way of online transactions, using Alipay. Familiarize yourself with these and implement them into your new markets. Providing top-notch customer experience will go a long way into building and growing your business.
Source: business-achievers.com
