Being in business means you require effective marketing to be the best in the industry. You must be aware of the fact that marketing is about Strategising and communicating with the prospects to establish trust, which can lead to the success of the business. If done right, it can make a difference in the industry and make a prominent place in the market.

However, taking the brand to international destinations, you need to strategize your marketing plan in a way through which you can connect with people whose social behavior, customs, language, and experiences are completely different from those you were previously acquainted with.

Taking the brand to international levels can be exciting. However, it is the most challenging aspect of the business as you are going to face many hurdles different from the ones you have already experienced in your journey.

One of the basic challenges that you might face is being consistent in the global market as your brand is spreading in different cultures and regions with different customs. Being stable in doing business doesn’t mean ignoring the difference between the customers but catering to their needs while keeping your brand consistent.

Maintaining a strong brand may sound easy, but here are six tips to strategies your marketing plan when going international.

1. Strategize your marketing plan to suit the market environment

Marketing at an international level requires commitment, resources, market research, and a set of effective marketing strategies to be successful. The first thing that you must consider is your approach to reach the global market and what it means for your overall marketing strategy.

Your marketing plan must be able to deliver your brand’s values, objectives, and vision statements, including the key message and brand personality. You must be able to accomplish international market goals. Along with that, you must develop an appreciation of the following:

• The difference in the industrial, economic and technological level of the country.
• Their standards, expectations, skills, and capabilities.
• The difference in cultures, language, and norms of the region.
• Aesthetic sense and political differences between the prospective regions.
• Business practices and the level of the competitive industry.

These are some points that should be considered as a part of your marketing strategy.

2. Create a perfect first impression

Research shows that the trustworthiness of a brand is established in the first ten seconds of a meeting. Like a person trying to impress the interviewer during an interview, your content—be it in the form of a 3D animation telling your story or in the form of written text—it can make a perfect first impression on your international audience.

In the time as limited as ten seconds of a minute, the potential clients make a subconscious judgment of your brand, and that judgment will be the foundation of their future relationship with the brand. Moreover, if you are unable to attract the attention of the audience, the chances are that your audience may not stick around for long.

You need to appeal to the emotions of the audience and engage them with your content. Think of it as an introduction to your brand and services. Make it simple yet intriguing to entice your customers. You can’t sell to an audience until you persuade them to make a purchase, and you can’t persuade anyone until you have an effective content marketing strategy.

3. Accommodate to lingual and cultural diversity

Before you expand to the global market, you must understand the difference in languages and culture and how it can affect the perception of your brand. Most importantly, a business must conduct a legal assessment to avoid breaking any rule while branding at international levels.

If your company is seeking partnership overseas, it is also important that you understand the country’s business cultures. This is important to maintain a mutually beneficial partnership between the companies.

Similarly, you need to be careful when translating your brand into another language. Miscommunications are easily possible, especially when you have to translate your content into another language that can easily damage the brand.

A great example of miscommunication can be taken from the past when KFC expanded to China back in the 80s. The company’s slogan “finger lickin’ good” was translated to “eat your fingers off” in Chinese, which did not send the right message. KFC eventually recovered from this mistake, but it was still one of the possibilities that can affect your brand message.

4. Content is the king

Make use of various digital channels and speak volumes in their native language. It is possible that your business is already producing content for marketing. Whether it is a blog post, a podcast, YouTube videos, or more, your chosen format reflects the preferences of the audience. You can translate the content or reproduce original content for a particular region.

There are many sites present on the internet, which you can use for content creation. Different sites deal with a different genre of graphic designing. For instance, there are sites that offer businesses, marketing, education, and more.

If done well, content marketing can be one of the most effective ways that can find, convert, and retain customers, and taking it international, means better growth of your business.

5. Know your target

While you need to maintain the consistency of the brand, you also need to ensure that you communicate your values in a way that can resonate with your customers in the international market. So before you start with your marketing plan, you need to research the market and understand the needs of the target audience.

Take the example of KFC again—but this time in a positive way. The time when KFC expanded to Japan in the 70s, it created a campaign called “Kentucky for Christmas,” which encouraged the people to go to KFC in the holidays. The campaign was a big hit because it established a Christmas tradition in the country.

Knowing and understanding what your customers require can establish your brand and become a reason leading to its success.

6. Market scalability

In order to succeed in the international market, your marketing strategy must be sustainable—as in a program which your future resources can maintain, and it should be scalable, as in it should be able to work as your company expand to a new market. Without a proper framework, your marketing plan is likely to crumble along with your brand.

You need to make sure that your company has a framework that can work as a foundation for international marketing.

Final thoughts

Expanding a brand on a global level is not a small task. You need to face many challenges based on the location of the market, the language, and the culture of the business. Despite these challenges, your brand must be consistent throughout the market. You need to establish effective communication with the customers and provide information and meaning in an effective way across the globe.

Author Bio: Colors and designs were the first passion that I had. It took me years to become a master of this art. With 4 years of experience in the industry of animation and serving as a senior creative artist at Animation Dok, I am also playing my part in promoting the field through my posts and blogs.