Category: Tips and Tools

Are you thinking of going global? Expanding your company internationally can be a very exciting prospect. It will open your company up to new clients and customers, and you will also be able to use new cultures and markets to help shape your company. But is can also be a challenging process, which takes a lot of careful planning. It will involve a steep learning curve for you and all your employees. However, don’t let this put you off. By moving out of your business’s comfort zone and into a foreign market, you can certainly reap big rewards. But that all depends on whether you make the transition well or not. Here are some points to consider when taking your business to the international stage.

Is There Definitely A Customer Base Outside Your Country?

Not all products or services will do well outside of their home country. That can be down to a variety of reasons. Maybe there is no room for another company in your industry in a particular foreign market. Or maybe a country simply doesn’t need or want what you are offering. So before you start moving into an international market, make sure you will be able to find customers in your target destination. Conduct plenty of market research and test out your product or service in the target country before you commit.

Think About Possible Language Barriers

Most of the time, English is the international language of business. However, that doesn’t mean you should completely neglect your new clients’ native language. That can come across as very ignorant. So try to embrace the new language whenever possible. If you ever go to a meeting at your client’s’ offices, be sure to know some basic phrases such as hello and thank you. The staff who you have the meeting with will probably speak English with you. However, you might have to interact with other people, such as receptionists, who do not know any English. You should also to send any important documents from your company in the foreign language. This is a common courtesy. If you don’t have anyone in your company who can translate, seek help from a translation service.

You Need Staff And Resources

One other important thing to consider is whether or not you have the required staff and resources to take on another market. Your company will be concerned with your established clients as well as trying to find new ones in a foreign country. That will create a lot of extra work for your staff. If you have the funds, think about hiring new employees. If you can find ones that speak the language of your target country, even better! Once you have enough staff, create a team who are solely focused on taking on the business of the international market.

Learn About The New Culture

Every country has their own quirks and habits. And office cultures can vary vastly from country to country. So before you head off for any meetings at foreign clients’ offices, be sure to brush up on local culture. You should also do this even if you aren’t planning on traveling to the destination. Some cultures and traditions will impact on how foreign companies run their businesses. As long as you do your homework and research the country and work culture well, you shouldn’t put a foot wrong.

Tax And Compliance

One of the major problems that companies face when dealing internationally is the tax barriers of various countries. You might also have to pay large fees for dealing with foreign banks. If possible, you could find it easier to set up a bank account in the country in which you will be trading. That will also save your clients a lot of money as they won’t be charged for dealing with a foreign bank account.

Get As Much Advice As Possible

You need to really do your homework before expanding internationally. And the best way to do that is to speak to people who have done it before. They will be able to tell you what you need to do, and any mistakes that they made during the transition. It is also a good idea to hire legal and financial professionals in your target country. They can inform you of all the documents you need to be able to trade in the country. There’s also another advantage of hiring foreign experts. And that is that they can make sure everything you do is in compliance with foreign laws and regulations.

Every exhibition you go to will be full of prospective clients and customers, so it’s vital that you grab their attention. If you stick with the standard table covering and backdrop no one is going to be drawn to your display – and that is going to result in lost opportunity.

You attend these exhibitions for one reason: to get noticed. So how do you grab the attention of prospective clients and customers? By creating an exhibition stand that no-one can simply pass by. It’s time to get creative- in order to get noticed.

Getting Noticed

Attending an exhibition is a big commitment in both your time and your company’s money. Make every minute count by offering a unique display that audiences can’t resist. Make sure it is eye-catching, lively and entertaining. This can all be accomplished by integrating these into your overall display:

• A unique shape or design to your display.  Set yourself (and your business) apart by creating a unique booth footprint.  This can be done by simply angling, or offsetting your displays so it appears different than the rest; offering bold signage and banners, or highlighting specialty models of your products.
• Give away great promotional items. A well-known trick to lure people over to your stand is to give them a freebie, and why not? Give them a small practical branded gift to take home and you will have not only attracted them over, but also made your brand memorable after the event.
• Play fun and exciting games that are relevant to your brand.  Break the boredom of an event by setting up interesting games to play. No matter what business service or products you are trying to sell, think of a fun and interactive game that will make people stop and check it out – especially if it’s part of a competition.
• Show off your products or service. There’s no better way of stopping your customers from walking right past you than a live demo. They give you a chance to show off your products while also engaging with your customers- win, win!

Try something a bit different

Leave the traditional boring approach to booth design to other vendors.  Create a theme that compliments your business or products to attract attention. Make sure your theme is branded but also intriguing to passers-by, ensuring they will want to stop and have a look. You could invite your visitors over by using lighting on your stand. According to industry experts lighting can increase awareness to your stand by 30-50%, so it’s definitely worth the investment.

Utilise a Variety of Display Stands and Graphics Boards

Banner stands and graphics boards come in all kinds of shapes, styles, sizes, and offerings these days. Printed graphics, shell scheme graphics and outdoor displays are just some ways to boost your booth presence and pull in prospects.  Don’t shy away from spending extra money on display equipment, online retailers such as Marler Haley offer a wide range of different products to fit your brand and budget.

Being able to attract an audience to your exhibition stand is the key part to any event, because without visitors – what was the point? Make your brand known, bring in custom and start making connections.

Think back to the summers you had as a kid – they went on forever and every day was filled with possibilities, fun, a bit of boredom too maybe, and lots and lots of sun.

Now, as an adult, you don’t have your mum calling you in from the park any more, which you always dreamed of, but you do have work the next morning, bills to pay, cars to be serviced, kids to take to the dentist…

Even your days off are filed with duties – defrosting the fridge, clearing out the garage – whatever happened to just throwing caution to the wind and getting up in the morning determined to enjoy the day?

Here’s some great ideas to help you recapture that summer feeling

Look at your hometown through tourist eyes

When you’ve lived somewhere for ages, you take it for granted, so try to see it anew. What are the attractions in your town or city? Museums, a waterpark, or a famous deli? Does it have a good network of bike trails, or even a pick-your-own farm? If so, what’s stopping you taking a day off, either during the week or at the weekend and filling your boots?

Plan your spontaneous fun

OK, this is a contradiction, but you’re an adult now, so you have to be a bit more realistic. Find a community calendar – there’s bound to be some fairs, or farmers’ markets, or nature walks – whatever floats your boat, pencil it in your diary and do it.

Alternatively, you could round up your best chums and have a cocktail night, or head to a pub with a nice friendly garden. Remember, though, while being an adult means you can play out for longer, you should drink responsibly so you don’t end up pencilling in an appointment with a drink drive solicitor company.

Get back to basics

What did summer mean to you? Playing catch in the park, climbing trees, chucking water bombs, or chalking pavements? Get back in touch with your old self, drag the kids away from the TV and have some good old fashioned fun.

You could get the neighbours round for an impromptu summer camp night – marshmallows, pup tents, bushcrafts…use your imagination.

Use your back garden

Many people’s backyards are neglected, but long summer nights mean you can rediscover it. Have a picnic among some jar lanterns, or even pitch a tent and build a barbecue from bricks. You can even give the kitchen a rest and make your breakfast over it!

Outdoor swimming

A good summer is all about the water! In the UK, cool or cold water has about a month every year when it’s not reviled, so make the most of it! Head to a lake, a river or just turn on the sprinkler in your garden and splash. Alternatively, go to a waterpark and dive in after the kids. Let yourself go!

If you have any great ideas for making the most of the summer, share them with us; we’ll save you a marshmallow

You can’t deny that visibility matters. Whether you’re a blogger, a company or you want to build a presence for yourself. Whatever it is you’re building towards, it’s not going to be very successful if people don’t know about it. That’s why you need to incorporate the ethos of visibility and quality into every aspect of your online marketing strategy. In the points below, we’re going to identify some of the most important parts of maintaining visibility and impact.

The website

It should be the first step for a lot of people’s’ online presence. Those who assume that social media is enough are sorely mistaken. You need your space, a quick URL you can print on a business card and hand to people. A site worked entirely to display and do what you want it to. Then you need to make sure it has the pulling power to keep people there.  SEO services can help you make sure that people who are looking for what you provide find you. Then you can use things like CRO to make your pages even more effective, particularly if you’re a business.

Social media

Of course, you need to take advantage of social media as well. The internet has enabled us to reach thousands, even potential millions, and social media has risen to be the top method of doing that. Social media is how you consistently build a community around yourself. Consistency is the keyword, too. Consistently delivering and curating content. Consistently following others and keeping a part of the conversation. Consistently ensuring that there’s never a moment of abandonment. Social media needs an approach that always includes it as part of your to-do list.

Content marketing

When we talk about creating content for your social media, what kind of content are we talking about? Content marketing is all about writing content for purposes of getting more people to visit your website. It works in conjunction with the two points above. It contributes to your SEO efforts, for one. It also gives you the kind of thing that is perfect for sharing on social media. To ace content marketing, you need to think about what your audience finds value in. Is it going to help them, interest or entertain them?

Brand

The three points above are three strategies of delivering communication that keeps you visible. The branding is what helps that visibility, that makes you stick out amongst the rest. Brand is the style, the logo and the visual design that you use for your website. It’s the voice, how you communicate and write in your social media and content. It not only informs the content you produce. It helps you find new ways to catch your audience’s attention. Find your brand by looking at the qualities you most want associated with your company. The value that your audience should see in you.

The four points above all need to work together. If you want to create a presence that’s both visible and has impact, keep that in mind.

It’s always important to make your company more customer-oriented. You’ve got to come up with some ideas that will help you to facilitate this. If you can base your company and business dealings around what your customers want you’re going to be successful.

Supply & Demand

The very essence of the business world lies in the idea of supply and demand. And this is something you can apply if you want to make your company more customer-oriented. You’ve got to think about what people need, and then work on making sure you supply it for them. The best way of achieving that is to make sure you do your research and really get to grips with what people want and need these days. If you can fulfill those needs, you’re going to be in a much better position to give clients what they want.

24/7 Customer Support

We all know the importance of great customer service and support. People need to know that you value them and that they are being given the best possible service. And that’s why you need to make sure you have 24/7 customer support. That way your clients can get in touch with you whenever they need to. They can ask questions, leave feedback, or lodge complaints. But, they will be happy about the fact they were able to contact you, and you can work on sorting out the problems faster.

Mobile-Friendly Devices

It’s essential that you make sure your business website, store, and blog are perfect no matter how they are viewed. The last thing you want is to develop the perfect site that then looks terrible viewed in a mobile format. Digital business is the future these days, and you have to come up with ways of giving customers the best experience. There is a lot to think about when it comes to the ideal technology solutions. You need to understand that there is a lot involved when it comes to this sort of thing. You have to consider what your customers want, and what gives them the best experience with their devices.

Use an App

Mobile technology has taken over the world now, and we all use smartphones in our lives. In fact, for a lot of people, their lives are run using their phones or tablets. And it’s not difficult to understand why this is the case. You have to make sure you tap into this and use it to make yourself more customer-oriented. So, something a lot of business owners are testing these days is a business app. The use of apps has become second nature to a lot of people these days. So, you need to understand the importance and benefits of having a business app. It’s a great way of allowing customers to interface with the company no matter where they are or what they’re doing.

Respond to Feedback

It’s important to show your customers that you value their opinions and take on board their suggestions. Now, the way you ensure this is by responding to the feedback they give you. These days it’s become a lot easier for customers to give feedback to businesses. They can do this via phone calls and email, but, also, through social media sites as well. And you need to make sure you take the time to respond to each piece of customer feedback. You have to make sure you satisfy your customers, and show them that they matter to you as a business. And that’s why responding to feedback can play such a big role in the business world these days.

Twitter

Now, these days you have to assume that the majority of your customers are going to be active on social media. That’s why you should sign up and get your business a Twitter account. This way you can Tweet about what the company is getting up to. You will be able to share information about developments, upcoming offers and industry news. And you will be talking directly to your customers as a result. It is a great way of helping to keep them apprised of what’s going on. You can also provide them with a platform to communicate with you and ask questions. This is something that clients will hold in high regard, so you need to make sure you do it.

Positive Image

You are going to be judged by the image and reputation you have as a company. This is something that you need to ensure you focus on. People are going to look at the image and reputation your business has. And they are much more likely to go with companies that have a positive image. So, you should focus on building your image and reputation and making it as great as possible. Make sure you do things that will benefit the brand in a healthy and positive manner. This means you will be well-placed to attract more people. You’ll be showing that you care about your customers’ opinions and what matters to them.

Family-Oriented

Many of your customers will either have families or be looking to start a family. And this is why you need to make sure you make the business more family-oriented. The way you can achieve this is by ensuring that you keep in mind what families want. You may want to try to gear some products and services more toward kids. This will encourage families to take an interest in the brand. It’s also important to make sure you have a positive approach to business and a good reputation. This is likely to encourage more families to take an interest, and to want to get involved with you as much as possible.

Making your business all about your customers is the best way to ensure you have a future. People will take kindly to this and be much more likely to continue to use your business. So many companies get this wrong, and they don’t bother making their companies consumer-friendly. People are always looking for the best possible ways of getting what they want. They want an easy and simple experience that can fit around their lives, and this is what you need to provide.