The Ultimate Guide to International Digital Success

T H E U LT I M AT E G U I D E T O

Upgrading Your International Ecommerce

to Business Class

+44(0) 191 406 1200 • www.silverbean.com • [email protected] • twitter.com/silverbean

The Ultimate Guide to Upgrading Your International Ecommerce to Business Class 2

Contents:

Global Expansion, The Who, What, Why and Where 3

6 Steps to Determining Localisation Before Take Off 5

Your International Digital Toolbox 7

How to Add Miles to Your Social Media Strategy 7

Gaining Global Visibility with SEO 11

Going Overseas with PPC 13

How to Make Sure Your Affiliate Marketing Passes with Flying Colours 14

Your International Expansion Plan Checklist 17

About 18

Global

Expansion

U P G R A D I N G YO U R I N T E R NAT I O NA L E C O M M E R C E T O B U S I N E S S C L A S S


The Who, What, Why and Where Over the last few 2-3 years, most UK online businesses have been toying with the idea of expanding their business into new territories, and we’re guessing that as one smart cookie, you’ve been one of them.

WHO IS DOING IT WELL?

It goes without saying that global expansion is a great way of growing your business by entering new markets outside of the UK, and already some pure play ecommerce stores have been leading the way when testing international waters.

The top 10 international e-retailers:

Source Infographic: Google Search Data, OC&C analysis, January 2014

Not to be out done by rival economic giants, America and Germany, UK businesses are holding their own in the top 10 list of international pure play e-retailers, among them, two fashion retailers ASOS and Net-A-Porter and Book Depository, a book reseller. Whilst the businesses mentioned above are all online retailers, global expansion is a hot topic for all sectors.

Pureplay top 10 international e-retailers *OC&C INDEX SCORE (OUT OF 100)

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WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING?

When talking to our clients, mostly retail brands, they all have plans to expand their business and enter new markets, but few really have a plan in place. Whilst the internet has made the world increasingly more connected, and expansion seem so easy, bear in mind that you should get it right from the beginning, otherwise you may lose valuable resource investing in the wrong market.

WHY SHOULD I EXPAND INTERNATIONALLY?

International expansion of ecommerce businesses is a trend set to continue; according to OC&C’s International Ecommerce report, UK ecommerce exports for content, leisure, travel and retail are predicted to rise from £13 billion in 2013 to an expected £45 billion in 2020. Not only that, cross border trade is expected to cover 20% of e-commerce by 2017. So don’t miss the boat.

WHERE SHOULD I BE EXPANDING?

According to the International Festival for Business, the “US is the most desirable country for expansion, followed by the UK (30%), China (29%), Hong Kong (27%) and Germany (26%).” The good news is that the tools a business needs to identify the best markets to invest in, and to market their products, are at everyone’s fingertips. You will discover more insight on where to target in our section on localisation.

With a sole focus on ecommerce, we want to give you a better understanding of what you need to consider before investing, where to start, and how best to use your digital toolbox available at your disposal to successfully expand internationally.

So without further ado, it’s time to upgrade your international ecommerce efforts to business class...

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6 Steps to Determining

Localisation Before

Take Off



6 Steps to Determining Localisation Before Take Off

At some point or another, you may consider expanding your customer base internationally, a strategy, which like any other marketing strategy, requires a great deal of forethought, planning and consideration.

In the quest of marketing their products/services globally, many companies have attempted to enter foreign markets with a standardised approach without understanding the cultural factors or user behaviours.

It can be very tempting indeed to approach it with the old ‘one size fits all’ attitude ‘let’s throw some budget at it and it’s got to work’.

Before determining whether digital expansion should take one step further, considering the following-

Identifying Countries for Expansion

OK, you have decided that international expansion is the best way to grow your business. Which countries do I begin with?

It wouldn’t be cost or time effective to just translate your campaigns, landing pages, checkout pages, and the rest into every language spoken under the sun, nor would it be at all cost effective, or a basis to judge success of a market just to brandish your English campaigns blindly around the world.

So, to strategize properly, it would be advisable, to begin with English speaking countries and identify countries where the level of English is of a high enough standard for the locals to be confident converters, e.g. The Netherlands, Scandinavia and alike.

Then, when these campaigns have begun to prove justifiable, it’s time to look at some of the more commonly spoken languages in the world- languages which would allow you to target multiple countries with just one translation.

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Determine Your Unique Selling Point

Once you’ve done your background research and settled on a country/market to target, it’s a good idea to rethink your own USP – what’s unique in the UK may be common elsewhere, or even irrelevant. An obvious example comes in the form of the food business – if you’ve made a killing in the UK selling ethically-reared pork, don’t even think of trying to sell it in a country that doesn’t eat piggies.

Look into the culture of your chosen country and see what they do require that’s relevant to your business. It may mean sourcing new products specific to their market, but that’s preferable to trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Knowledge of seasonality is similarly essential – Christmas is a boom-time in the UK and for much of Europe, but it won’t be in countries that don’t celebrate it.

Test the waters

Take part in an overseas trade fair before you launch your product, and treat it as a small holiday as well as a scouting mission. That way you can research the culture first-hand, and when conversing with the locals keep your business firmly in mind. As for the fair, this can serve as a blueprint for properly launching your business, or it might put you off entirely, but it’s far better to find this out prior to making a huge investment.

The digital route

Can you get away with just the digital route, as opposed to having a physical presence in another country? Being able to service a whole other nation from the security of your own office can keep down costs and keeps quality control firmly in your own hands, but it largely depends on product and levels of consumer demand. In addition, one website may not please everyone. There are not only cultural taboos to consider, but layout and colours used can have a dramatic effect on the user experience across the globe, and what works in one country may well displease another.

Form a new business plan

Compose a brand new business plan for each country you expand into, and treat expansion as seriously as you did when starting off in the UK.

Make sure the entire experience is in the native language.

Online marketing is a psychological game played between yourself and your target demographic, and trust plays a huge part in any psychological process, we, by nature, only open ourselves to people we trust, and the exact same principle applies to opening our wallets.

The entire experience should be in the language you’re targeting so that the user is not jolted from the conversion funnel by a page full of language they don’t understand or pricing that isn’t applicable to their needs. This would seriously influence trust levels between yourself and potential customer.

Online sales require a higher level of trust than an in store visit, it’s like the difference between direct face-to-face sales and telesales, you’re asking people to part with hard earned cash for a product that they cannot hold in their hands until days or weeks after the transaction is complete, so they need to trust every stage of the process, and that begins dealing in their native language.

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Your International

Digital Toolbox



How to Add Miles to Your Social Media Strategy Is it time to take your social presence overseas? First thing’s first, if you thought there was little more to international social media than Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, then it’s time to think again before setting sail for international waters.

Targeting a global audience, especially in a two way conversation which social media enables, gets decisively more difficult as cultural differences, connotations, and usage preferences for social networks (in some cases niche and country specific) become apparent.

But anything worthwhile is never easy, right?

The Benefits

Naturally when wishing to expand your business globally, your main objective of extending your social media strategy further than your native country will be to reach new audiences and markets where you might already have experienced pockets of activity, i.e. your future pools of brand advocates and customers! Secondary objectives will follow closely to your overall social KPIs, and may include:

Providing an avenue for addressing customer service issues.

Generating more traffic and potential leads back to your website.

Finding, attracting the attention of and interacting with key influencers within a country of interest.

Increase engagement with extended reach.

Helping your brand position itself as a global company.

The Drawbacks

Some markets may be difficult to break into, and require a native agency’s expertise to make a start.

An in-house country native or expert may be required to overcome language barriers.

Resource required to test the water on country specific waters such as VKontakte.

Extra management and monitoring time required for additional networks where localisation can’t occur.


WHERE TO START?

It is all about planning and defining before dabbling your toes internationally, so consider the following 4Cs to determine a clear social media execution plan.

Location

Data available from your social channels is ideal to help you make informed decisions when taking the first steps with your international expansion plans, by using the location, demographics and analytics information from key networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Your monitoring software can also identify areas of interest where brand conversation is already occurring, so map out your line of attack from here, combined with existing sales information.

China and Russia are the obvious regions worth exploring, both having rapidly expanding internet user growth and social media penetration and high levels of disposable income.

Although two of your most lucrative markets, they are two of the most difficult to make a mark in socially. Always remember the outside influence of Government over internet and social media in countries such as Russia and China.

A Closer Look at China

It’s reported that 91% of Chinese internet users have a social media account, compared to 67 per cent of the online population of the United States, but you are entering a world of social media without Facebook, without Twitter and without YouTube.

Despite the landscape looking unfamiliar, social media users still take the same decision making journey, and are likely to listen to social recommendations from their peers.

But it’s not only China’s infamous Great Wall you need to get accustomed with. As an online marketer, their “Great Firewall” cannot be avoided, the government controlled monitoring known as the ‘The Golden Shield Project’. This involves the firewall manually monitoring every piece of content being uploaded to ensure it complies with Chinese internet regulations.


To put into practice of how The Golden Shield Project could influence you; any of your YouTube content will not be able to be viewed unless a user has access to a proxy server outside China’s firewall. Videos must be posted on local China video sharing sites to be widely viewed and embedded by bloggers, media, and your target audience.

Once you’ve got to grips with restrictions, next on the list are cultural competences and preferences. Research by Oban Digital Report, Understanding Your New Global Customer, has brought to light distinct cultural differences between European and Chinese markets; in mainland Europe or the US a luxury brand will approach its target audience online with bespoke, glossy, aspirational communications – more akin to a brochure than a transactional site. However, in China such an approach would fall flat. Even for expensive purchases, Chinese consumers prefer a no-nonsense approach – they want to know how to buy and what the options are, with all the information at their fingertips.

LANGUAGE

Should you have unlimited budgets and resource at your disposal, then writing content to be shared via social media should be written for each country which you want to expand in, however, more often than not, resources are tighter than free flowing.

As English is the most widely used language, it is recommended that you start with this as your universal language before moving forward to Spanish and German speaking markets.

Do take time to tailor nuances to a specific country even if there is a common language, e.g. the difference between American and UK markets. The Oban Digital Report on “Understanding Your New Global Customer”, has identified that American Dream-style messages that appeal to the direct and hyperbolic US culture don’t work well in the UK, which is a more pessimistic and understated market.

Blog content designed for social sharing naturally should be text intensive to also receive search benefits, but when sharing content to be hosted natively on a specific network, try a more universally friendly approach of imagery and video. In any language, both the network and user will prefer images and simple videos which don’t require a translation, so time to introduce yourself to your new best friend, Canva.

A local agency or native speaker are recommended for understanding both language and cultural differences for our two giants China and Russia, but you can start by using local contributors, especially those with a significant influence and following.

DO NOT be tempted by the convenience of Google translate. You’ll do more damage to your brand’s reputation than good.


LAUNCH PAD

According to We Are Social, Facebook continues to dominate the global social media landscape, claiming 1,366 billion active users in January 2015. 1,133 billion of the platform’s global users – 83% of the total – now access the service through mobile devices. A Facebook presence is still vitally important, but remember that the ongoing changes to its algorithm mean that you’ll have to increase budgets in order for your brand posts (especially those which are promotional based) are seen.

As well as your standard big players (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Vine), you’ll need to start thinking country specific with the networks you are focusing your attention to.

As a result of its “Great Wall”, the networks you need to be aware of in China include Tencent’s, Qzone’s which has 629 million active accounts, leading the pack. Qzone is primarily a blogging platform, it also has similarities to Facebook, as brands can promote their products via fan pages. In terms of brand behaviour in China, they continue to be highly active on Sina Weibo (often hailed as China’s answer to Twitter), helping the network’s profits grow through heavy investment in advertising on the network. Other networks to be aware of include QQ, We Char and RenRen to name a few.

Over in Russia, VKontakte will be the account that you have heard of, and the one you need to become further acquainted with. The latest data suggest the platform has around 100 million monthly active users, of which roughly two-thirds are in Russia. (We Are Social)

LOCALISATION

A main priority for social media gatekeepers is whether to create additional country specific accounts, each of which to be entirely targeted to a specific country and their preferences, and another is brand monitoring- should this be set up across multiple languages?

Start by putting your efforts into one page or profile per network, as you’ll be able to grow at a faster rate rather than segmenting, and as a consequence diluting your efforts.

Facebook: With a global audience in mind, Facebook has localisation features that makes it possible for you to target fans specifically by language and location, which can be as specific as country and city when you are sharing updates. This means you should only need one page!

Twitter: Targeting is on a much more limited scale, however, it is possible through Twitter advertising. Creating separate pages will also help with managing customer service issues internally.

LinkedIn: Make the most of their localisation features and have a central page in English and use language targeting.


Gaining Global Visibility with SEO

International SEO can’t be avoided for any e-commerce business looking to expand to new markets on a global scale, as no matter where you are in the world, and what platform they are using, typically any users’ first step when looking for product or service information will be the search engine.

Consider these tips to keep pleasing the search engine wizards regardless of which market you want to target in the world.

THINK LOCAL

If you’ve decided on a different digital platform for overseas, all the usual SEO-friendly tactics apply, but definitely think local. Ensure your overseas site has a local IP address, and put as much effort in your SEO campaign as you would back home. Keep abreast of local events and build up a link profile to match.

Should you wish to set up country specific domain structure, you’ll need a separate domain targeted at each country you operate in, depending of course on domain availability; an effective expansion strategy that allows you to move at your pace and expand one country at a time.

For example,

www.silverbean.co.uk — for all UK sales and serviceswww.silverbean.com — for all USA sales and serviceswww.myawesomedomain.com.hk — for all Hong Kong sales and services


It is worth remembering that in some instances you may be required to have a psychical presence in a specific country to purchase a domain.

If translating your website it’s best to go for a UK-based translation agency at first, rather than risk one in a country you know little or nothing about – it’s essential to get this right as a poorly-worded web page won’t impress anybody and keeping users on your site is everything. Ensure the content is aimed at the local audience, which is not only a winner for the user but will be noticed by Google too.

SEARCH ENGINES

Research the search engine scene in your chosen country. Find out which tool is most used and adopt it yourself – there’s no point in doing key phrase research through Google if the majority of users go elsewhere. Competitor research is essential also – any knowledge you’ve gained through UK trading could well be irrelevant, so start again. SimilarWeb is a good online tool that can provide you with this vital information.

As for monitoring your results, ensure you set up an individual profile in Analytics for monitoring traffic and data through your overseas site.

HREFLANG TAGS

Incorporating hreflang tags onto your site is a must, as they ensure users are served up the page in their preferred language. Hreflang can be placed on the sitemap and looks like this:

<link rel=”alternate” href=”yourwebaddress” hreflang=”fr” />

The crucial part is found at the end of the code, as it tells Google the language you are using – in this case, French (“fr”). French users are then sent to the French version of that page, rather than having to find it through a drop-down language selector.

This may not have direct impact on traffic or conversions, but it will ensure your users are getting the version of your site that’s right for them, drastically reducing bounce rates and giving you the best chance to keep your users where you want them.


Going Overseas with PPC

In case you hadn’t guessed global search engine marketing is arguably more challenging, complex and more than just translating the keywords/ad copy into the local language.

Rather than caving into the temptation of believing that an English language PPC campaign will work all around the world, let’s face facts. In most countries where they do learn and speak English, they don’t use it to an extent to be confident in spending money on English eCommerce sites, and will trust a site in their native language above an English one, regardless of price comparison.

Consider this as the basis of your overseas PPC efforts, combined with the following to get yourself off to a good start.

1. Research your competition like you would for an English campaign.

It’s important to lay the groundwork, get to know the level of competition, who your competition is and then construct or adjust your campaign accordingly. Traffic levels, variations of keywords and average CPC are not the same in Germany as they would be in the UK.

Also, different cultures have different styles of writing, different ways of wording things, for example, they will not search for the same term in Canada as they would in the UK. The top converting keywords in your English campaigns may not always translate to winning keywords in your international one.

2. Traffic may be different, therefore bids might be different.

If you did a straight copy of your English campaign and then translated into the other language, take a second look at your Max CPCs and budgets. It’s important to remember that traffic will be different in the other country and your CPCs will be correspondingly different. Different markets have different levels of competition as do different countries.

3. So, Google is Dominant?

Although Google has an all-round global dominant market share in the search engine world (some 90%) this is not the case for each individual country, for example, if you’re looking to expand into the massive Russian market, then Google should be your last choice, as Yandex enjoys a 98% market share as search engine of choice, in China it’s Baidu, so it can be the case in whatever country you’re looking to advertise, then Google may not be the answer. It is of paramount importance that you fully research this factor before you look to invest time and budget in expansion.

International PPC targeting is not as simple as changing options on your existing campaigns, and can appear to be a rather daunting amount of work and time investment when given proper consideration, however, it has undoubted benefits.

Like any process, it can be broken down into more manageable, bite size efforts. For example, begin your international venture with countries that speak English as a native language, then when translation needs to begin, look at the more common languages in the world first, such as Spanish, French, etc. Then, step by step, your international portfolio will evolve, giving your investment the opportunity to provide a justifiable return.


How to Make Sure Your Affiliate Marketing Passes with Flying Colours

Affiliate marketing is a wide reaching and cost effective marketing channel, when used at the right time in the expansion process; a method to generate revenue quickly and effectively.

AWARENESS IS KEY

The first step in achieving success in international affiliate marketing is knowing the levels of awareness which your brand has with your target market. Simply put, the greater brand awareness you have, the more return you will see from affiliate marketing. This is as a result of a high proportion of revenue coming from voucher code and cashback sites, meaning that customers late in the customer journey are actively looking for a discount with affiliates.

New on the scene? Make sure you invest some budget into campaigns to increase brand awareness first. In the case of fashion retailers, we recommend working with local bloggers and influencers. For all sectors, look for content sites which will introduce your brand to potential customers with the hope to convert them to loyal, long-term customers.

As with any affiliate marketing campaign, when you work with content affiliates and bloggers - it is a slow burner. Sales will not be made in bulk like they would be via voucher code sites, but when done correctly you will gain loyal customers and a high level of brand awareness. So have patience - it’s worth the effort.

Always put a great deal of consideration into your discounts and promotions, as customer expectations differ greatly from country to country. Should you enter straight into affiliate marketing without creating awareness in your target country, you will find a few clicks and sporadic sales.


6 CONSIDERATIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONAL AFFILIATE CAMPAIGNS

1. Find local content sites that work as ambassadors for your brand, such as bloggers, to build up brand awareness. Be ready to invest some budget! Depending on how developed the blogging scene is in the country, costs may arise when bloggers will only consider gifting or paid placement.

2. Build up your knowledge of the local market in terms of opinion leaders. Use tools such as Followerwonk.

3. Know the intensity and frequency of promotions run by companies. Do users expect a discount? In Japan for example, barely any promotions are run via affiliate programs, whereas the US is extremely promotion heavy, even more so than UK markets.

4. Get integrated on local voucher code and cashback sites with high reach. Be aware that these partnerships work best when your brand is already known to users.

5. Use local networks or international networks who have local offices. They can support you in terms of affiliate recruitment and market insights.

6. It is crucial for brands to only start the affiliate program in a chosen country when their website is ready to convert international traffic. A shop in the bespoke language is mandatory, except for a few countries and payment methods should be in order so the customer can pay in their local currency.


CASE STUDY- MATCHESFASHION.COM

For some retailers such as Matchesfashion.com, international affiliate marketing is already a tried and tested method, with 70% of their overall revenue coming from outside of UK, present in 190 international markets. The future is looking even brighter for the brand’s international expansion plan, forecasting that international sales will increase to a significant 90% in two years’ time.

In terms of their key markets, currently it’s the English speaking countries they are dominating with US being the second biggest market in terms of revenue generating, making up 20% of their business, followed by Australia.

Their Strategy

Before opening up their business to other markets, the brand changed their name from Matches to Matchesfashion.com, in order to be more appropriate and accessible for the global market, part of their journey dubbed, “Evolution of the Mindset.” Matchesfashion.com repositioned themselves as a technology company that “happens to sell high-end fashion”.

With the repositioning in place, Matchesfashion.com tested the waters with help of Google as a starting point then extended their marketing activity to further channels, such as affiliate marketing. Google Product Listing Ads helped the business give users the luxury experience they find at Matchesfashion. Tailored Adwords campaigns to countries and even cities were also a big step in introducing the users to the UK brand.

Considering the expansive geographic area covered by America, Matchesfashion.com took the state by state and even city by city approach when gaining awareness.

A real plus point when winning international favour was Matchesfashion.com’s website offering flexible language and payment settings where users can choose not only the country they are based in, but separate the country, the language and currency of the shop.

Matchesfashion.com also run affiliate programs in several countries, where they were able to use the local knowledge of Rakuten Linkshare. Getting introduced to local affiliates who knew the market and the customers was crucial for building up a successful affiliate program.


Your International Expansion Plan Checklist

Which countries do I begin targeting first? How do I identify them? Who is my competition? What about foreign cultures, languages, style of writing etc.? What is the online population? Which search engine is dominant? Which social networks are widely used? Do I need a local agency/ insight from native speaker?

Have I considered my international domain options? Do I need to invest in PR for brand awareness? Have I considered Hreflang tags? What is my discounting approach?


ABOUT AT SILVERBEAN, WE SPECIALISE IN OPTIMISING DIGITAL PERFORMANCE.

Since 2002, we’ve honed our service offering to provide innovative and advanced multi-channel digital marketing strategies for our clients. We work with ambitious businesses that want to grow and maximise the digital opportunities available to them, and propose insightful strategies that quite simply, increase your bottom line.

We work with an array of clients from a wide range of sectors, sometimes internationally, so we understand diverse markets and create unique solutions to suit the needs and goals of each individual client. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach from us, and there never will be.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

N A M E

Eva FlammensbeckJ O B T I T L E

Affiliate Marketing Manager

S B < D E < S I LV E R B E A N < E VA < F L A M M E N S B E C K < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < <

S B < G B R < S I LV E R B E A N < M I C H A E L < B R O W N < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < <

S B < G B R < S I LV E R B E A N < L I S A < K E L LY < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < <

S B < G B R < S I LV E R B E A N < S T E P H E N < TAT U M < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < <

N A M E

Michael BrownJ O B T I T L E

Search Marketing Executive

N A M E

Lisa KellyJ O B T I T L E

Social Media and Content Marketing Manager

N A M E

Stephen TatumJ O B T I T L E

Paid Marketing Consultant

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The Ultimate Guide to International Digital Success

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