Marketing your business is the best way to let customers know what you have to offer. Unfortunately, companies often make mistakes that can harm their business, especially when they are working in the international market.
Here are four of the most common marketing mistakes and how you can avoid making them:
#1: NOT MEASURING THE RESULTS OF YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGN
A lot of time and money go into creating and implementing a marketing campaign. It is important to know what does and does not work for your target audience, especially if you are dealing with a different audience that you are used to. Measuring the results of your marketing plan is so important. There are now many methods to measure content marketing i.e. website measure, bounce rates, geographic impact, social media impact, demographic trends and software using artificial intelligence to measure the overall impact of your marketing campaign.
Luckily, a lot of online marketing can be easily measured through analytics and many Google web tools, for instance, has lots of information available on how to measure marketing effectiveness. A good way to avoid making the mistake of not measuring your results is to be sure that any marketing platform you use has an analytics page that can show you how many people clicked on your website or saw your advertisement. Sometimes, you have to pay a little extra to be able to see your statistics. But, in the end, paying those extra dollars can really help you see if you’re headed in the right direction when marketing is concerned.
#2: NOT THINKING THROUGH POSSIBLE ISSUES WITH MARKETING MATERIALS
It is of the utmost importance to contemplate the pros and cons associated with your marketing materials before they are sent to print or out into the online world. This is especially important when you are in a new market, particularly an international one with cultures that differ from your own.
If you don’t take culture in mind when creating marketing materials for your target market, you could risk offending your potential customers so much so that they choose not to work with your company. This has been an issue that a number of companies have dealt with. It can also bring along with it negative press that can only further distaste in your company. An experience localization firm can help guide you through these type of marketing pitfalls.
If you have to, hire a specialist who can help identify some of the risks associated with your marketing materials. Fully think through what you have to offer before releasing it into the world. You could save your company from some major issues.
#3: NOT KEEPING AN EYE ON THE COMPETITION
You will have competition no matter where you have your business. A lot of companies adopt a “whatever” attitude when it comes to their competition. Rarely do companies look and see what is working for their competition so that they can adapt it to fit the needs of their own company. Others develop an obsession with beating out the competition. This can lead to companies dropping prices low to compete with competitors so much so that they lose profit.
Instead of one of these two extremes, just keep an eye on what your competition is doing and take a measured approach to your marketing campaign. Note what worked best for them and what didn’t. You can adapt their successes to help you and you can learn what to avoid from their failures.
#4: NOT USING A QUALITY TRANSLATOR OR USING DIRECT TRANSLATIONS IN MARKETING MATERIALS
If you choose to expand your business to a new target audience in a different country, you will need a translator to help you translate your marketing materials so your target audience can understand what your business has to offer. A lot of companies may use software that translates their information word for word. That, or the company may choose to use a poor-quality translation service that will leave them with confusing information that their customer can’t understand – or in the worst case an international marketing blunder .This can hurt businesses because statistics show that many customers will find a different company to work with if they find one company to have a confusing message in their material – sometimes a simple plan is the best way to start out.
Use a company that hires quality translators who have experience in translations. This can help you avoid translation mistakes that could be potentially offensive or insensitive to your target market. VEQTA, for example, hires high-quality translators who live and work in your target market.
VEQTA Translations are able to effectively communicate using the language you need to communicate with your customers. Get in touch today!