Internet Marketing

Graphic SEO will keep the promise of providing valid information as it pertains to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) & SEM (Search Engine Marketing). I think a few people on our blogs have had enough on topics of security for a little while, so its now time to focus once again on providing information on what we do best, internet marketing. The focus here will be a few things a marketer should keep in mind when targeting an international marketing campaign.

International Internet Marketing

While a domestic company will often times focus on its local/regional market a company that wishes to move into a foreign market has a lot to comprehend. Some of these questions may deal with “How is my product being viewed through the eyes of the culture I’m attempting to reach”, “How will I handle logistical problems?”. Maybe, the latter isn’t something an internet based business necessarily has to answer, in so much UPS is delivering the product. Just to restate a main point in internet sales, it is often a major pain for the foreign consumer to reach a site they can not view in their local language. Overall though, with an internet portal to your business the question of “How am I going to break into the international market” is already answered thanks to translation services & SEM / SEO. The only major concern would be is calculating a return on investment. However, when dealing with foreign markets, its best to hire someone with a firm understanding of the language.

Cultural Concerns in internet advertising

Every company who wants that international client should examine what country they really want go after. This can only be achieved through analysis of that country’s culture. Its important to note that when examining another culture that we must not over simplify, ergo, generalize the culture as a whole. That sounds simple enough, don’t stereotype a group of people. Thats not to say that some generalizations are not true. For example its safe to say in places like Saudi Arabia you wouldn’t want to market dog cheddar pork rinds for “Mans best friend”, they would be off limits.(It is illegal to bring pork products into the country & the Muslim faith sees the dog as a dirty animal) its just possible Pet Smart doesn’t sell a lot of dog toys to Muslim nations. Then again are there foreigners that reside in the country, thus, some people may be interested in pet dog products & thats not to say some Muslims don’t own a dog.

However, its just as safe to say giving away free crabs to everyone in Maryland in a marketing campaign will get every single Marylander to come to your store to buy your prodcut. While, a good amount of people enjoy crabs in Maryland & this tactic will probably work well… It does not address the individual in a society people have allergies & some people just do not enjoy Maryland crabs, while some have religious views that prevent them for partaking.

Rather, what we should examine about other cultures is something along the lines of the following

• Learned: How the youth are educated in terms of culture. For example, in Western society we teach our children that is great to be competitive in other cultures this trait may discouraged.
• Shared: These are the traits that are shared by most if not all of the society making these traits truly unique to the culture itself.
• compulsory: These are aspects of culture that will give either negative or positive feedback in order for that particular social trait to hold some importance in the society.

These simple definitions should be good enough to learn a little bit more about generalizations & how they can benefit you to some degree of success. That is not to say a marketer shouldn’t be wary of over generalizing.

Other cultural observances

When looking at a culture one thing that should be noted is the following:

• Beliefs: What a geographical group of people hold dear to them. In America we often think hard work pays off than leads into success. In a more mico-culture like IT(information Technology) a lot of US workers believe its ‘who you know’ that pays off more often than not.
• Values: These are often traits that can be described like individualism, group cohesivness.
• Goals: What the culture is trying to achieve. Is the culture making laws & products that keep them in a more traditional roles or is the culture striving for progressive thinking & attitudes even only at a slower rate.
• Attitudes: these will change from society to society. These are the traits of beliefs, feelings & behavioral intentions. If your selling the luxury product to a lower rung of cultural ladder as the higher class, maybe you should examine if you should be doing that in that particular culture. Sure, money is money, but, these are things you may have to change when approaching an international client.

Those are the basics

I’m sure this material is some what of a redo of any marketing class, but, for those that don’t know now do. These are just basic things to consider before launching a international seo campaign. I for one am glad you choose Graphic SEO for your marketing news & research. Remember, we take all of these points into consideration before launching any targeted marketing campaign, so if you don’t want to have to sweat the details, let us.

Tags: international SEM, International SEO, international SEO marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.