Marketing isn’t what it used to be. In today’s world, more and more companies are doing business in countries around the world, and that means a greater number of challenges for professional marketers. If you’re planning on expanding your business into the global marketplace, it’s important to stay informed on current trends in international marketing so you can pick and choose which would be most effective for your company. Here then, are some of those trends and some basic information about each one.
Social media
One of the most effective tools for today’s professional marketers can be summed up in two words: social media. No longer just a tool for sharing pictures of family and cute pet videos, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more are now an undeniably common way to market and advertise your products and services worldwide. The power of social media as a marketing tool is evidenced by the major league companies that now utilize it with impressive results: companies like Nike, Starbucks, Pampers, NASA, Denny’s and many more can attest to the fact that social media is still a remarkably effective avenue for marketing products and services around the globe.
Video advertising
Live video streaming is a feature that has become increasingly popular among social networks. Using live video streaming for international marketing and advertising efforts is particularly effective for its ability to give consumers and potential customers the opportunity to experience a “real-time” event no matter where they are on the planet. Several companies have found live streaming to be a particularly useful way to conduct question and answer sessions with viewers. This kind of active participation creates a unique connectedness between the business and its customers, greatly enhancing loyalty to the brand on the part of the participants and allowing the viewers to provide live testimonials about the product or service.
AI (Artificial Intelligence)
International companies are currently exploring the power of AI to more effectively track and analyze consumer shopping behaviors in countries around the world. This type of information was, until just recently, an extremely time-consuming and challenging set of statistics that was typically only reserved for the largest, most profitable companies which had the manpower required to collect and analyze the results. But thanks to AI, this type of information will soon be within the grasp of marketers working for virtually any size organization.
Cross-sector marketing
Put very simply, cross-sector marketing refers to the practice of utilizing the popularity of other brands to increase the reputation and success of your own. The fast-food industry provides a good example of cross-sector marketing at its most basic level. Studies have shown that fast-food restaurants that are clustered together within a short distance of one another report markedly higher sales than those in more isolated locations. This may sound counterintuitive, but the fact is that several different fast-food restaurants located within the same few blocks provide the consumer with a great variety of choices and increase the likelihood that shoppers will stop to eat. Professional marketers project that cross-sector international marketing will become more commonplace in this coming year, including an increase in strategic partnerships to gain a greater level of success for all those involved. Marketing is, without a doubt, not what it used to be. The fact is that our digital age provides marketing professionals with more opportunities than ever before. Although all these trends are important to keep in mind, remember that the most important aspect of any international marketing campaign is something much more basic: you must be able to effectively communicate with consumers and customers in other countries. And that will mean employing the services of an experienced, professional translator. The first step in your international marketing efforts can take place today by contacting a reputable translation company and finding the translator that best suits your company’s needs.
