New Marketing Strategies for Tough Economic Times

When economic times get tough, it may be time to rethink your marketing strategies. Even when there are big job losses and large corporations go bankrupt, these challenges can be overcome and profit is still a possibility for businesses of all sizes.

You need to analyze your own business, market trends and seek out ways to tap into new markets. Companies must react to the new economic conditions by proactively seeking out new opportunities, both domestically and in the international arena.

Analyze Your Business

Markets are forever changing: some of your customers may take more interest in your wares, whilst others may not – that is the nature of business and often you may not know why sales are fluctuating from customer to customer.

Indeed, you can’t rely on your existing customers alone. So how can you change your marketing strategy to entice new clients on board?

Well, ask yourself the following questions and you will be heading in the right direction:

1. Which are your most popular services/products?
2. Where are your clients located?
3. How did they hear about you?
4. Why do they choose your services?
5. What advantages do you have over your competitors?
6. What advantages do your competitors have over you?

Analysis and customer feedback is essential in helping you come up with a viable marketing plan. But there are a number of other fast, effective strategies that companies can implement that ensures they can maximize their sales from new clients.

Lingo24, a successful global translation company based in the UK, entered new markets by setting up foreign language web sites in countries such as Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and France and sales increased significantly in these countries immediately.

The initial investment was minimal; the web sites were translated and localized and the services were adapted to suit the local markets, costing only a couple of hundred pounds for each language.

How to Go International

Even small business should consider developing new sales channels for their businesses on the international market. The internet is accessible to everyone across the globe and launching websites in other countries is a small initial outlay that can yield a big return on investment.

Having a website in English is practical; however the English language internet is highly competitive. Launching a website in a different language may open up new sales opportunities and the foreign language internet offers greater opportunities to rank highly on search engines for key search terms.

So where do you start?

1. First and foremost, try to get a full understanding of the market.
2. Talk to any customers you may have abroad and ask if your product/service may be interesting to other clients in their country.
3. Analyze foreign markets to see what you would be up against. Find out who would your major competitors be and what they are up to.
4. Use keyword research tools from Google and Yahoo to identify what terms potential customers use in other countries.
5. Write web copy in your own language and have someone translate it for you in the target language(s).
6. Last but not least, use professional website localization services to ensure you get your message across.

Lingo24 is the UK’s fastest-growing translation and website localization company with operations in four continents covering every industry sector.

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