Going Global: How to Expand Your Business Internationally
After you have spent some time impressing your local customers, it’s natural to envision your brand crossing the borders of your native country to find more opportunities. Being successful often means embracing new challenges, and when you look at some of the world’s most renowned brands, you’ll notice that they’ve also had their humble beginnings, but that they are now going global and going strong. To mimic that model, you first need to be certain that your brand has the potential, stability, financial capacity, and appeal that will find room for itself abroad.
Making sure that your brand has what it takes before you actually launch your global strategy will allow you to reduce risks and avoid long-term losses. While there are various steps you should consider, some are more vital than others, and you absolutely need to evaluate your brand to make sure that you’re on the right track. Here, we’ll delve a little deeper into what your brand should do before you take on the global market.
Is your product/service ready for the new markets?
The success you’ve experienced in your local market might have initially inspired you to take on new markets, too. This success might be a good indicator as to how well your product or service would be received in other places – but then again, it’s no guarantee.
To be certain that your brand’s offers stand a solid chance in new, international markets, you’ll need to conduct a thorough analysis of your business and its core product or service.
Is your product/service ready for the new markets?
The success you’ve experienced in your local market might have initially inspired you to take on new markets, too. This success might be a good indicator as to how well your product or service would be received in other places – but then again, it’s no guarantee.
To be certain that your brand’s offers stand a solid chance in new, international markets, you’ll need to conduct a thorough analysis of your business and its core product or service.
- Does your brand’s design and voice have the potential to appeal to new markets, or is it unique to your local culture? Perhaps you’ll need to adapt and make changes in order for your brand to make more sense to new markets.
- Are there cultural and societal restrictions you should have in mind when presenting your brand to new locations? This means adapting your website or building a new one from scratch, as well as your social media and all other outlets.
- Perhaps you’ll need to focus on promoting a different angle or aspect of your product or service when presenting it to new markets. What may be vital for one target audience might not be for another.
Hiring local talent to expand your teams
In order to successfully provide your product or service to new markets, you need local employees to provide timely support, create dedicated marketing strategies, handle sales, and the like. You also need to cut your expenses as much as possible, which is why many brands going global use comprehensive Global PEO services, to hire local talent without having to register a company abroad.
A professional employment organization, which is what PEO stands for, helps brands expand without any hassle, by ensuring compliance at every turn. This is a simple, but effective strategy that can put your business on the map internationally without putting too much strain on your budget.
Your global collaboration infrastructure
If you have settled on international PEO services that help with hiring local talent, you now need to build an infrastructure that will allow you to work with your global employees seamlessly. To a great extent, global companies leverage a variety of software solutions for project management, chat, cloud-based and real-time collaboration, and the like.
Add to that, you’ll need sensible ways to track performance, set up video calls, but also engage your remote employees with team-building activities that can be done online. Moreover, you should make sure that your infrastructure enables collaboration among teams and among departments, so that everyone can learn from each other and help push your business forward.
Find trustworthy local partners
Going global doesn’t mean going it alone in any way. In fact, for any business to succeed in new markets, it needs the help, support, and strategic assistance from local, well-established companies. If you’re selling physical goods and products, you need manufacturers and suppliers, as well as stores and local companies that will promote your offers. If you’re in the service industry, you need strategic marketing partners at the very least, and hiring experts to find qualified local talent.
Partnering with local businesses means that you also get a foot in the proverbial door before you even go to new markets. Their name associated with yours gives you local credibility. They will also be able to give you guidelines as to how you should adapt in terms of the local culture to avoid offending anyone, or simply to avoid failing to impress the local customers.
Consider working with local influencers, as well, in order to appeal to your target demographic through social media. Being a new and fairly unknown name in any new location means that earning the trust of the local audience should be your main goal, and influencers are one way to gain it.
Making sure that your brand has what it takes before you actually launch your global strategy will allow you to reduce risks and avoid long-term losses. Launching any business takes a lot of time and preparation. When you want to take your brand to the global playing field, all the more reason to be careful with how you tackle this challenge, no matter how successful you’ve been with your local demographic. Adapting to new cultures, evaluating local competitors, and adapting your offers to match the needs of your new audience will take time and effort. Use the listed suggestions to strengthen your strategy and make the most of your brand’s current success to take on new, international markets with greater ease.
Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.
