Expanding your business internationally: Tips & Strategies To Sell Worldwide
If your goal is to establish a brand with an international impact, now is the time to start thinking internationally.
Now that you've achieved success with a local audience and you've created a name for yourself and you're making money from your venture. What's next?
In order to reach out to a wider market, it's no longer enough to just stay where you're comfortable and familiar. You need to start expanding your business internationally to reach new audiences, create fresh opportunities, and develop new income streams.
For more information on what to do, we spoke to Afua Osei during our Think In Color 2021 conference. Afua Osei works as a strategy consultant, and the co-founder with Motherland Mobile Media, a business that organizes events and entertainment for over 700,000 women in thirty countries. In her role, Afua works with global brands in helping them connect with the millennial generation of women around the globe. She's partnered to Facebook, L'Oreal, Google and many more.
An expert at expanding businesses globally, Afua has worked in more than 10 countries over the course of her career. She's witnessed how international connections and international partnerships in transforming a concept to something that can be a global force.
The following step-by-step instructions from Afua will help you in international expansion of your business and key factors to consider before taking that leap. You can skip ahead to:
- The top benefits of expanding business internationally
- The four steps you need to take to increase the size of your company internationally
Advantages for expanding your business internationally
Expanding your business internationally can seem like a scary prospect - but with big steps come big benefits. These are the 3 most significant benefits of growing your business abroad.
Create an impact
What inspired you to create your brand in the first place? What was your vision of the coming years?
If you've set off with the intention of changing the world and even becoming an international celebrity, it is time to begin expanding your audience.
"If you're looking to be influential The best way to make an impact is globally as a large number of people will profit from what you're doing," Says Afua.
This was a decision she made right at the start of her career - she was aware that she could back to Baltimore in the following years and build an amazing career, but along this path, she wouldn't be able to change the world. She made the decision to expand her business internationally.
If you want to do more, be more successful and meet many more people, then you need to take your idea into the world of an international audience.
The world could take advantage of what you have to provide.
"Black culture is world-wide. The way we dress, our music and food manner of dressing, even the way that we talk are copied and replicated around the globe. The most popular superstars around the globe are our singers and actresses. They are our makers. Why shouldn't we?" says Afua.
"As an authority on thought and as a digital creator, as social media influencer Why can't you tap into the culture that you have already and make use of it to promote an encouraging and positive, and supportive idea and movement across the globe?"
If you'd like to make an impact with your brand, the only method to achieve that is to expand internationally.
Diversify your company
In addition to the emotional and personal positives of expanding your business globally, it is also great business sense.
When you're an entrepreneur or course designer, consultant, or even a small-business proprietor, you must be making money from the work you're doing. The most effective way to guarantee your income long-term and make sure you're earning cash is to keep multiple sources of income.
As Afua explains: "The number one rule to make money and be an entrepreneur is to not put everything in the same basket. What we are hearing today is diversification."
To secure your business long-term you must diversify. This way, you can be sure that, if one of the markets is in crisis or has a shrinking market, you have customers in other markets. You have access to a different market and audience that can help maintain your company's success.
Don't rely solely on one customer in one area for all your company and earnings. For your company to be secure whatever happens politically and economically, it's time to start expanding your company internationally.
As Afua says: "Don't limit yourself before you even get started. I'll guarantee whatever you've got to offer. There's somebody else out there who wants to get to know you better and want to make connections with you"
Expand your revenue streams
Part of expanding your business internationally also involves increasing your income streams.
If you're currently a course creator - what about being a public speaker? Are there any opportunities to establish branding partnerships with internationally-known brands? What about collaborating with other artists?
Being creative about what you're able to provide is one way to open new opportunities on international markets. If you increase the number of people who are interested in your product by expanding your reach, you also create a an opportunity to collaborate with other organisations, creators, and brands to generate income in the process.
Looking for an instance? Afua highlights Kelly Rowland, the singer, songwriter and the former member of Destiny's Child. Kelly Rowland expanded her brand globally, by releasing her music across Europe as well as becoming a television persona in Australia. As an instructor on The Voice Australia, Kelly has the chance to generate revenue that isn't available in the US market, and ensure that she is earning money whatever happens at home.
As Afua says, "Don't limit yourself just on what is around your. The whole world can be your oyster and can become your playground. Be like Kelly, be like me and let's go reach those international audiences."
So now you know the advantages of expanding your business globally, we'll examine exactly how to do it.
4 steps to expand your business globally
Due to her experiences in expanding her business globally - and helping other brands to do the same Afua offers a step-by-step guide that will help you transform your brand into a global force.
These are the four actions you must take to grow your company internationally.
Understand your audience
The first step in order in expanding your target audience is to learn about them. You must know whom you're talking with and what they want from you wherever they are.
As Afua says, if you're an entrepreneur in the field of beauty and you're targeting black women from the US be aware that there are more than 600, 700, or even 800 million women of African descent in the world outside of North America.
"While as black women, we share a lot of similarities. We have a lot of things that we face from hair's texture, searching for makeup and trying to get edges control... But there are also local variations that differentiate our experience which you need to know and appreciate."
If you know your target audience, that's when you can create content that connects to the people they are. You'll learn solve problems for them by using your own unique talents, your expertise and your experience.
What exactly is the best way to accomplish this?
Afua suggests two ways to do this for research on the audience and interviews.
Auditor research
To determine who your intended potential audience is, first you need to do thorough audience research. It is about finding out what your target audience is doing, reading as well as the sources they are getting their information.
Below are some of the subjects to study for the new global audience you will be targeting:
- Most popular platforms for media.
- The top influencers
- Best-selling authors and books
- Other businesses that are that are in your industry
Internet is your best friend for this site. Find out everything that you could about markets that you'd like to enter to better understand your potential customers.
Customer interviews
If you're an artist who's already got fans on social media or an established brand community it's likely that your target audience are located in the areas where you're looking to expand your business international.
Utilize your network of contacts to learn more about those new markets by reaching out to request customer interviews.
Afua suggests starting with 10 participants. Select 10 individuals from your target audience. Request to have a one-on-one interview with them. You can also ask for them to complete an online survey.
If you don't have anyone within your circle from the markets you want to target, ask for recommendations instead. Post a post in your social media account or community area and tell those you're interested in speaking with people in Brazil, France, Australia or whatever your preferred market is about your industry. Referrals will come.
Discover all you can about your new customers through studies, interviews as well as customer surveys, to help set you on the path to growing your business globally.
Translate your content
When you've taken the time to get to know your audience, you can then work on how you're going adapt your content to different markets.
Let's take a look at how you can make your content localized for marketing, as well as the content you offer in your courses.
Marketing of content
If you want to expand your business globally, it requires localizing your content marketing in order to be appropriate to the target market in a specific area.
The content you create for your marketing should tackle the issues your readers are facing and the issues that matter most to them.
If you're in Toronto and are trying to connect with a different market within New York, you ideally must be creating three or four pieces of content each week, which clearly conveys the brand's message to the new market.
Afua provides this illustration:
Within West Africa, there's a time period known as the rainy seasons. This typically corresponds to summertime for the US. For entrepreneurs who are expanding your business internationally and looking at new markets in West Africa, you need be aware of this.
If you're a business owner in the fashion industry and you teach a course on style, you should think about what the seasonal differences will affect your content marketing. Instead of writing, "Here's what you can wear when it's scorching hot" then you'll be required to write about "Here's what you do in the rain every day".
With the help of tweaking your content, and being cognizant of issues that are happening for individuals in the places which you're focused on, you'll plug into what's crucial to them, and grab their focus.
In everything from the language you're speaking to the subject matter you're talking about In the event that you're looking to expand your company internationally, you'll need to think about how to create content that is suitable to different types of audiences, not the local market.
Content of the course
Are your courses' contents accessible and interesting for students from all over the world?
If the answer is no then here are some tips to help:
- Include subtitles in all of your videos.
- Translate your sources
- Write notes in the language spoken by your group.
- Your mailing list should be divided according to language
If your company is expanding international, you must consider how you can tailor your course content to the new audience. The process of translating your content and adding subtitles are one of the most effective ways to translate an existing piece of content and transform it into new content that is suitable for a completely new audience.
If you don't have the language skills to translate your content yourself you can hire a translator help. If you're looking to expand your business internationally This investment is well worthwhile.
Tips for the web: To speak to an international audience, make sure you update the references you use to your culture. Check that you're referencing the international market and instances. It's also an excellent option to alter your photos to reflect the demographics of your new audience.
Establish connections
If you're keen on expanding your operations internationally, then you'll need to invest in creating relationships with companies or content creators as well as media publications within that sector.
While your audience can get your content anywhere across the world, the thing that will make them select your brand in preference to others' is trust and confidence.
The way to get that credibility is with a stamp of approval from an established brand in that international market. If you have an author from your local area or a local media publication which is happy to publish your work, you're on the easy way to attract your public to pay attention to you.
Here are some tips from Afua that will help you build those connections that you require:
Explore Local creators
Look for people who are similar to you, but are operating in the international markets you're trying to reach. Contact them via Facebook or via email to introduce yourself and inquire about whether they'd like to collaborate with you.
Here are some ideas to help you get started:
- Blog as a guest blogger
- Join an Instagram Live
- Do a social media takeover
- Make sure to share your book or other resource
- Be a podcast guest
If you can build an enduring, mutually beneficial relationship with other content creators and content creators, you could get your content seen by new audiences and start expanding your business internationally by releasing one content piece at an time.
Get in touch with media platforms
As a content creator, you're well-positioned to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry - as well as in international markets.
It's where the localization of your content can be crucial - make sure that what you're offering is relevant to your publication's target audiences and include that hook in your pitch.
Try to find unique angles in a subject that will appeal to different media platforms and make your pitch stand out.
Tips for success:To truly make an impact on a market that is new it is essential to engage in more than just a one-off collaborative piece of content and guest post. If you're trying to build relationships, concentrate on the long-term initiatives, like making a commitment to guest posts each month, or even a set of guidebooks. The more content the better!
Have your name and work featured regularly on respected publications and media to build up your reputation in your target market.
Grow your audience and convert
The last and most important stage to grow your company internationally is to expand your customer base and turn them into customers.
It's been a while since you've spent the time to get to know your target market, localize your content and establish relationships with trusted creators and publications - now you need to begin seeing results.
In order to increase your reach to a different market, Afua recommends using the lead generation and digital marketing methods that have proven successful to your advantage in the past like:
- Paid advertisingwhich includes ads that appear on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook or any other platform that you feel is the most relevant to your target audience.
- Marketing via email - such as collaboration with platforms that are in your market of choice and running an email campaign to raise awareness about the brand.
- Marketing with Influencers - capitalizing on the current audience of influencers within your market of choice to make your brand known and advertise your product or services globally.
The most efficient strategy to expansion of your business abroad will depend on your business as well as your intended audience. Review what performed well for you previously and use this to help to reach your next group of customers.
For example, Afua's Festival in South Africa
To gain entry into the South African market for her company, Afua and her team hosted a large-scale festival in Johannesburg which attracted more than 5000 attendees. The original target was to make at most a thousand women buy tickets.
Here's the way Afua succeeded in expanding her business into South Africa and exceeding their original goals:
- Time: To organize the event, Afua and her team committed to at least six months to develop and expand their audience within South Africa. She recommends 3-6 months minimum for breaking into a new market.
- Research on the audience: They created a think tank made up of their targeted female audience - women living in South Africa - to find more information about the people they should be talking to, the best media platforms and the top influencers in the region and everything else they could figure out.
- Paid advertisements: Afua utilized advertisements for lead generation to reach women in South Africa, taking care of localizing the contents to include photos that depict South African women and locally-relevant reference and language.
- Social mediaThey have adapted their social media strategy to include more South African women in their content, including cases studies, interviews and guest blogs from South African women.
- PR:The team invested in an agency for local PR to help them reach the right media platforms in South Africa for the most reach, and resulted in appearances in major publications within the region.
- Analysis of dataThe team looked at the data of each social media post to find out the most effective strategies to reach their audience, as well as what content was garnering the most involvement.
With this strategy, Afua was able to establish a large audience in a completely new international market by conducting audience research as well as localizing content. It also helped in building connections and making investments in lead generation.
These methods together allowed Afua and her group to organize a sell-out event, which was featured on all the major media platforms throughout South Africa.
As Afua explains, "We know that when the time comes to return into that market, we'll be in an advantage because we came into the market."
So far, Afua has spent six years building and expanding her company internationally. She can now see her hard work pay off:
"We're in a position to travel in New York, Toronto, London, Johannesburg, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Nairobi, Lagos and so many locations and also have an audience and a network of women willing to make connections. And of course they pay for the services we provide."
Where will you take your company?
Are you ready to expand your business internationally?
Expansion of your business globally takes some time and effort, however it's easily accessible to any instructor, course creator or business owner. By following these steps of Afua, you can look beyond your present market to create a brand that has an impact that is global.
For more helpful topics for course creators, reserve your place at Think in Color 2022 - the two-day event on virtual reality designed to help entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs from marginalized communities navigate through the evolving digital landscape.
Meet us as well as the panel of women of Color to share their personal stories, insights and tips for entrepreneurs looking to gain satisfaction from their digital marketing initiatives.