Launching your work at home business in other countries

The Internet has made it easier than ever to market products and services across the globe. Most companies today are so focused on their domestic market that they do not pay any attention to the overseas markets. Nevertheless, the international markets represent an immense potential. (A North American company can triple its turnover by properly addressing the world market). Of course, one must budget sufficiently for marketing to achieve this goal.

Things become more complicated when dealing with other countries where English is not the official language. Our main point here is that most everyone accesses the Internet in their own language. If they live in a non-English country, they are most likely not going to access the Internet in English. In order to market to them, you have to determine where they congregate (i.e. other language areas of the Internet) and market to them there. A Web site needs to be able to attract visitors from many countries without them having to wonder whether they will understand the message once they arrive at your Web site. This idea is equally true for translated Web sites. No one overseas could possibly find your it (even if translated) unless you make an effort to make it visible in the language(s) concerned.

The importance of marketing a Web site cannot be overemphasized. Recent statistics show that large American corporations are actually cutting their budget for Internet business, since they did not achieve the results they expected a year or so after they launched their Web site. The real reason for lack of online business goes back to lack of marketing the Web site, not lack of interest from those online. Even in English-speaking countries, there has not been enough marketing and promotion of the existing Websites. It is strongly recommended to budget just as much for promoting one's Web site as for creating it.

Here are some basic points that need to be understood and followed to achieve success in international online marketing.



1. Decide if you should translate? If so, which languages?

2. Don't forget email marketing.

3. Make sure you have established your logistics in advance.

4. Promote and advertise your Web site abroad.

5. Other techniques.

As you start using the Web to present your company's products or services to the international market, your analysis needs to keep in mind two factors:



·which countries you already sell to?

·which countries are sufficiently online to attract clients?

To translate or not to translate

Not all Web sites have to be translated. It depends on who your market is and what you are selling, and how much English your target market already understands. For technical products and services, English is commonly understood, and only a "jumper" page needs to be translated (with links to your English pages). A "jumper" page is a summary of your offer, translated, so that the Web page can be registered with the local indexes of the countries you are targeting. Typical translation costs are $50-$100 for a short page (200-300 words).

If you choose not to translate your site, but still want to draw visitors from Northern Europe (where English is widely understood), at least promote your Website in these countries, in their own language(s). They will find their way to your Web site and usually be able to understand it adequately in English.

At the opposite extreme are products and services that are marketed to everyone abroad: entertainment, household products, CDs, other. Here you need to translate as much as you can afford, to have as much of your site as accessible as possible. You cannot just create your Web site in English for the world market and just assume it will be understood. (The attitude that "visitors will have to read English or nothing".)

Most Websites, however, fall between these two extremes, where it is good to translate part of the Web site. Not translating will always make a portion of your audience click elsewhere, since they cannot understand English or do not want to read it in English at that time.

The importance of language can never be overemphasized. Overall, only 15% of Europe's population speaks English as a first language, and only 28% speaks English at all. A recent major research study of almost 38,000 European Internet users found that English is cited as the first language by 55% of all European users (or, not counting the U.K./Ireland, English is used by only 32% of users, followed by German at 22% and French at 17%).

There is no reason for shrinking away from translating your Web site because of expense. Instead, translate part of it at a time, and increase the marketing efforts on the language sections where you feel most confident, and see the results in your sales. You can translate part of your Web site at a time, so that you start with, say, two languages, and gradually develop more. Remember: "You can sell in any language you want, but you only buy in your own language.



Which languages?

So you're convinced to translate part of your Web pages to attract visitors. But which languages? Make your decision based on which countries you already sell in, as well as the logical conclusions from the figures of how many people are online there. If you already sell in most of these countries, then let the online language figures guide you. Certainly you need to provide translations of as many Web pages as you can afford into Japanese, German and French, and if you can, at least one page in Swedish, Finnish and Dutch (because of the high concentration of online population in these three countries). Next in importance come Spanish, Dutch and Chinese.

There is a growing interest in bringing Web sites not only into European languages, but into Asian ones as well -- especially Japanese. And don't think that these native language Web sites are aimed at Asia. There are more Chinese online in the U.S. than in China (one-third of the 2 million Chinese-Americans), and there are many Japanese, Koreans and Filipinos living in the U.S. and Europe--all of whom prefer to access various media in their own native language.

Marketing your website is like marketing anything else. You need to keep at it. Make sure that you continue monitoring the international index sites where you list your URL to make sure that it is still listed. Send more press releases. Add more online promotion work in the countries that you are targeting. It is an excellent idea to establish a monthly budget for your international Web site promotion, as more visitors turn into sales.

The Internet as a marketing medium is still quite young. Even in the U.S., there was very little marketing done on the Internet before 1995, and in Europe and Asia the Internet got started to be known as a marketing medium in 1997. The sooner you take your company marketing international, the sooner you will move up the learning curve and your online marketing will begin turning into sales.

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