INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

The Internet has made it easier than ever to market products and services across the globe. Most companies today are so focused on their domestic market that they do not pay any attention to the overseas markets. Nevertheless, the international markets represent an immense potential.

Our main point here is that most everyone accesses the Internet in their own language. If they live in a non-English-speaking country, they are most likely not going to access the Internet in English. In order to market to them, you have to determine where they congregate (i.e., other language areas of the Internet) and beat the drums. No one overseas could possibly find your Web site unless you make efforts to make it visible in their linguistic community online.

Here are some basic points that need to be understood and followed in order to achieve success in international online marketing.

1. Whether to translate? Which languages?

2. Email marketing

3. Logistics

4. Promote and advertise your Web site abroad

5. Other techniques

Not all Web sites need to be translated. It depends on who your market is and what you are selling, and how much English your target market already understands. For technical products and services, English is commonly understood, and only a "jumper" page needs to be translated (with links to your English pages). A "jumper" page is a summary of your offer, translated so the Web page can be registered with the local indexes of the countries you are targeting. Typical translation costs are $50-$100 for a short page (200-300 words).

If you choose not to translate your site, but still want to draw visitors from Northern Europe (where English is widely understood), at least promote your Web site in these countries in their own language(s). They will find their way to your Web site and usually be able to understand it adequately in English.

At the opposite extreme are products and services that are marketed to everyone abroad: entertainment, household products, CDs, etc. Here you need to translate as much as you can afford, to have as much of your site as accessible as possible. You cannot create your Web site in English for the world market and assume it will be understood.

Most Web sites, however, fall between these two extremes, where it is good to translate part of the Web site. Not translating will always make a portion of your audience click elsewhere, if they cannot understand English or do not want to read it in English at that time.

The importance of language can never be overemphasized. Overall, only 15% of Europe’s population speaks English as a first language, and only 28% speaks English at all. A recent major research study of European Internet users found that English is cited as the first language by 55% of all European users (or, not counting the U.K./Ireland, English is used by only 32% of users, followed by German at 22% and French at 17%).

Hambrecht and Quist’s online e-zine, I-Word, emphasizes the need for American companies to seriously address international markets:

There is no reason for shrinking away from translating your Web site because of expense. Instead, you can translate part of your Web site at a time, so that you start with, say, two languages, and gradually develop more. Remember: "You can sell in any language you want, but you buy in only your own language."

So you’re convinced to translate part of your Web pages to attract visitors. But which languages? Make your decision based on which countries you already sell in, as well as the logical conclusions from the figures of how many people are online there. Certainly you need to provide translations of as many Web pages as you can afford into Japanese, German and French. And if you can, at least one page in Swedish, Finnish and Dutch (high concentration of online population in Northern Europe). Next in importance come Spanish, Chinese, then Portuguese.

Here are approximate figures for major language families online. They reflect the number of email accounts, not those with Web access (which generally represent one-third of these figures):

Japanese:    7.5-8 million

German, French, Swedish and Finnish:    3 million

Dutch and Chinese:    2 million

Spanish and Italian    1.5 million

Brazilian (Portuguese language):    1 million

Only some of these people can read English, ranging from only about 0.5% (Southern Europe) to 30% (Northern Europe). (The most recent figures are available on the Euro-Marketing Web page.)

The importance of marketing a Web site cannot be overemphasized. It is strongly recommended to budget just as much for promoting one’s Web site as for creating it.

The figures for language groups online represent how many people can receive email in each language. According to Netscape, the number of those with Web access is generally one-third of these figures (with certain exceptions). That means you can target overseas markets in other Internet environments with far more results than by using only the Web.

Two techniques for email marketing are newsgroups and online forums, both in the languages of your target group. Although both areas are just developing for the first time now, both are accessible for those people abroad who have access only to email.

Just because the Internet is global in scope does not mean that international business is easy. Your goal in overseas marketing is to motivate potential buyers for your product or service...to identify themselves. The rest is traditional international business practice, and is quite straightforward. If you are not used to selling abroad, you need to consider issues that have been part of international business for centuries.

If you are already doing business overseas, you have already encountered these issues, and should skip on to the next section. If not, however, you need to think clearly about each step in the sales cycle, and how your company will meet each challenge. Do you have people who speak languages in your company, who can translate and answer email from interested prospects and established customers? If not, the best and most economical solution is to use an automatic translator software.

Once the prospect is prepared to place an order, several mechanisms exist for payment. For all amounts over $10, it is necessary simply to take a credit card number—by email, by using a secure form on your Web site, by fax or by telephone. If you are not set up to accept credit cards, First Virtual can provide this service at a reasonable charge. Be sure to have your bank references handy if the amount is over, say, $500, in which case a wire transfer is more appropriate.

However, many overseas people online do not have credit cards (Germany and Switzerland in particular). Bank transfers are more in order in these countries. If you are serious about doing business in these countries long-term, you might consider opening up a branch office in Holland. This will give you the right to have a bank account in Europe and accept electronic transfers. Thomas Cook just opened Virtual Trading Desk, an online transfer procedure, and your customers who order frequently can save money by using their service.

International delivery is probably the most difficult problem to tackle for most products, as it needs to be reasonable in both price and delivery time. You need to research this area well for your city and analyze what options exist. These vary from city to city; there is no general solution.

After-sales service usually depends on a geographically local warehouse, where defective products can be exchanged. If you are targeting Europe, there are countless such warehouses in Holland which can stock replacement products in a duty-free zone and respond to your customers in their local languages.

Now that you have established the beginnings of your non-English Web pages, how do you attract visitors from other countries to them? The techniques are similar to the ways in which you would promote your Web site in English-speaking countries, except that you need to perform the actions in other languages now.

Index registration

Press releases

Working the local newsgroups and forums

Strategic links

Banner advertising

These techniques should be thoroughly understood if you are not familiar with these basics of Web site promotion. A solid marketing plan will include elements of all of these points. Some Webmasters register their Web site only in overseas indexes, expecting international visitors to flock to their sites. This is just as naive as putting one’s address in the phone directory and considering it enough marketing to attract lots of business. No wonder they are disappointed and then discredit the online market. In reality, the international market is quite vast and needs to be budgeted for accordingly. Actively marketing a Web site involves ongoing activity in press releases, strategic linking and banner advertising.

Europe is considerably underequipped in PCs in the home, and there are hundreds of cyber cafés that offer Internet connectivity in a social setting. What better environment for you to approach your prospects, as they are being introduced to the Internet in their early days online? You can put your URL on the mousepads or even on the screensavers at the cyber cafés. (When the PC is not in use, your URL will be one of those passing across the screen.)

If you have distributors abroad, involve them in promoting your Web site in their language at their local trade show: handouts, product literature, or anything that people can take home and use to find your Web site in their own language.

Self-explanatory.

Email and Web-based discussion groups are now common in English. They are still quite new abroad. If your product or service lends itself to this form of discussion, your company can become the online authority on the subject at hand. Of course, it will require native speakers to lead the discussion and give it life, but they can be found.

Marketing your Web site internationally is like marketing anything else. You need to keep at it. Make sure that you continue monitoring the international index sites where you list your URL to make sure that it is still listed. Send more press releases. Add more online promotion work in the countries that you are targeting. It is an excellent idea to establish a monthly budget for your international Web site promotion, as more visitors turn into sales.

The Internet as a marketing medium is still quite young. Even in the U.S., there was very little marketing done on the Internet before 1995, and in Europe and Asia the Internet is just starting to be known as a marketing medium in 1997! (So don’t think that you have missed the boat.) However, with the ever-rapid growth of the online population, you should not wait: online history has proven that early entrants "lock up" key positions in their market. The sooner you take your company marketing international, the sooner you will move up the learning curve and your online marketing will begin turning into sales. Start now...before your competition does.

Bill Dunlap is Managing Director of Euro-Marketing Associates.