Branching out abroad can be an attractive proposition for a small company looking to reach new customers, or offering a niche service that might be more attractive to markets in foreign climes. The advent of the world wide web has made foreign markets more accessible to the little guy than ever before, but there are a few things to consider before taking the plunge.

1. Do the research

This is the single most important step. Check various markets to find the most receptive to your services or products and ensure that you understand the legal issues and common trading practices that will be involved. Attend trade shows and contact trade associations within the market. Your own country’s embassy or consulate will have trade commissioners who may be able to help and it’s always worth making polite inquiries.

2. Pay a visit

It’s entirely possible to do it all at a distance these days, but face to face meetings are still the best when it comes to making deals and cementing working relationships. Spending time in the market will also give you a better understanding of the nuts and bolts of business practice within that territory, and may give you a feel for patterns and market trends in your particular field.

3. Use the local talent

Small businesses are unlikely to have enough trusted employees to be able to simply send them off to manage operations abroad (not to mention the fact that they might not want to go). Even if trusted managers are both available and willing, using existing staff might not always be the best option. Local talent will already know their own market and will have business and language skills to match, making them an invaluable asset in any foreign venture.

4. Make use of online marketing

The world wide web is aptly named. It opens up virtually unlimited marketing opportunities and you should make full use of it to advertise and provide access to your services. It’s worth noting as well that, in most emerging markets, the web is predominantly accessed via mobile devices, so your search marketing strategy for these countries should revolve around mobile search.

5. Localize your website

It is, however, little use spending time and effort on online marketing if potential foreign customers never see or cannot read your site. Setting up a fully localized website for each target market on an ‘in-country’ Top Level Domain will make it more visible on local search engines, while thorough localization – addressing cultural as well as linguistic issues – will help ensure the site gets your message across.

About the author

Christian Arno is the founder of professional translation company Lingo24, experts in the foreign language internet. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 150 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over sixty million words for businesses in every industry sector. Follow Christian (@l24ca) and Lingo24 (@Lingo24) on Twitter.

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1. Where do your eyes first travel when you land on your website? Pretend that each of your visitors has a short attention span (because this is often the reality). Using this information, you need to make sure that your website draws in your readers with some sort of hook….immediately. Statistics show that it only takes a mere matter of seconds (sometimes less) for someone to land on a website and jump immediately to a different one. Things that factor in heavily at the outset? WEB DESIGN (including color scheme, white space, text font choice and use of images).
2. What is this website about? If it takes you longer than a couple of seconds to figure out what the website is about, then that is simply too long. Visitors should know right away what product/service you are trying to sell and the general point you are trying to make. If there is too much going on on the website or too many distractions, then the only thing you’re guaranteed at that point is NOT being able to garner an business prospects.
3. Is the important information “above the fold?” In print media, major information is usually put above where the newspaper folds over. In the web world, most people who visit a website want to know the general details without having to do a lot of “digging” in order to find it. The idea here is that you, the webmaster, provide the consumer with a couple of catchy headlines or basic information that will draw them in and make them interested in reading the rest of what you have to say.

What other sorts of questions can you think of that would help to create better, more functional websites and blogs for readers? We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments section!