Building brand awareness when expanding in a new market

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When planning your company’s international expansion, it may seem tempting to copy the exact same successful approach that you have already used in a different region.

However, that strategy is most likely to fail than to succeed because each market from different regions has completely unique features and insights. Breaking into a foreign market can be a daunting task as you can not simply expect customers to come to you as soon as you enter a new market. Your business needs to use some marketing tactics that create a customized experience for a certain market to build brand awareness and earn their loyalty.

Research the market

Formulating a strategy for expanding your business in a new market requires the same kind of planning and market analysis needed for success in domestic markets. There are some unique factors of the market such as logistics, currency conversion, competition, and customer behavior that you need to know before developing a game plan. Your market research should focus on price competitiveness, potential distribution channels, duties, taxes, and regulations that may affect your successful entry into a particular market.

Identify a compelling need

While conducting your market research, you have to identify a compelling need that your product can solve in that new market that you are planning to expand in. It is one of the most vital steps for your company to make in order to ensure that your new market entry efforts produce the desired results. Solving a compelling need is the best way to motivate customers that purchasing your products is the best solution they have. A compelling need should represent a problem that customers can no longer live with and which your company is going to solve.

If you are wondering how to spot compelling needs in a new market, consider identifying the buyer’s most pressing need. There are five ways a product can improve a buyer’s life including helping them save money, make them money, save them time or effort, reduce risk, and address one of their human desires. Once you identify their most pressing need or desire and make it crystal clear how your product will help, you will be one step closer in winning customer loyalty and brand awareness.

Choose your target segment

Your target segment is the precise demographic you will serve once you enter the new market. Marketing specialists suggest that the more precise the segmentation, the easier the rest of the market entry will be. The best market segment that you should select is the one from which you have identified a compelling need that you can address. It is often smarter to enter a new market by aiming at a relatively narrow target audience because if you do not know everything about your potential customers your business won’t be able to recruit and retain them. you need to gain knowledge of how that target segment thinks, feels, and behaves when it comes to making purchasing decisions. From there, you can develop new marketing strategies that are highly personalized for that certain audience your business is aiming to.

Assess your competition

Assessing your competition is the next vital step in making a successful entry in a new market. Each market has a unique set of competitors and competitive landscape which needs to be understood before trying to sell your products in a new market. You have to understand how your competitors are engaging their customers, what are the primary marketing channels they use, and the types of content they offer to their audience.

Up your digital marketing game

Digital marketing is essential in today’s business world. a digital marketing strategy is a vital part of the overall marketing strategy of a company. Online advertising is and continues to be the top way to generate leads and boost revenue. Since today it is all about the world wide web, the way you market your business online is going to ensure your successful entry in a new market. Apart from having a mobile-friendly website and a strong social media presence, more and more entrepreneurs are collaborating with and YouTube agency to promote their businesses as a very important weapon in their digital media armory. The number of people using YouTube today has soared into billions which means that the probability for your targeted audience to see your ads is extremely high. Compared with the traditional television ads, using YouTube ads as part of your digital marketing strategy ensures that you get to choose who sees your ads. Moreover, ad targeting doesn’t stop with demographics as you can target a specific radius of a city which means that you can easily promote your business in the new market that you are expanding to. Your digital marketing strategy will attract more attention to your brand, potentially boost your traffic substantially, boost your ranking on search engines, and eventually build brand awareness and help you earn customer loyalty.

Create a pricing strategy

No matter how powerful your marketing strategy might be, you have to keep in mind that customers also make their purchasing decisions depending on their budgets. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs that are expanding their businesses internationally do is the fact that they just convert the price of their products from the existing currency to that of the new target market. However, many other factors need to be considered when creating the pricing strategy including how potential competitors price their products and how much money customers are willing to spend.

New market entries are a viable way to grow a company but they should only be undertaken after adequate preparations for success. The best strategy for a successful entry is a mix of various approaches but the most important thing is to know exactly what will work best for your business and for your targeted audience in the new market.