If your business has established a mobile, social and content-driven presence in the U.S., you are positioned to grow your sales in other countries, says Joshua Halpern, director of the eCommerce Innovation Lab at the U.S. Department of Commerce. And, thanks to the growing number of online resources available to small and mid-size companies, you may not even have to leave your office to do it.
Halpern and other business leaders, trade experts and export officials showcased some of these resources, many of them free or low-cost, at an American Express Grow GlobalSM event recently in Long Beach, California.
"The idea of the eCommerce Innovation Lab is to exponentially increase the exports of small businesses through the e-commerce channel," Halpern says. "There's a lot of opportunity now to build a global online presence from the comfort of your own office. The tools are out there." Here's a roundup to help you get started:
Showcase Products and Services Through Video Marketing
Video that showcases your company’s product or service can help transcend language barriers easily and inexpensively, and according to Halpern, videos can help your customers be more confident about making a purchase. He points to a U.S. cosmetics company that sought to break into the Chinese market but lacked brand recognition. As they were strategizing about expansion, company officials revealed they had a year's worth of two-minute makeup tutorials on camera. “They had the content to create a whole channel on how to apply makeup, and it was an afterthought," Halpern says. "If you are making furniture in North Carolina that started with your grandfather, show the story behind it." A craftsman hand-planing a plank of hardwood can be a powerful visual and doesn't require expensive translation services.
Reach Out to Government Resources
Launched as part of the U.S. Commerce Department's International Trade Administration, the U.S. Commercial Service has trade specialists in 100 U.S. cities and 75 countries. Its programs include trade missions and Gold Key, a matching service that, for a nominal fee, sets U.S. businesses up with prospective trade partners and arranges travel and interpretation services ahead of the meetings. "We sit down with you and guide you to places, set you up with offices, connect you with other partners," says Eric Olsen, principal commercial officer at the U.S. Commercial Service. "We'll guide you through this entire global process. We let you know what we have [on prospective markets], and you make the final decision." The division also offers a Virtual Product Pitch program, which gives U.S. companies the opportunity to measure local interest in their products in distant markets like Brazil or Taiwan before committing significant time and resources. "You submit [information about your product] and work with our trade specialists to determine if it's the right fit, then they turn around to their distributors and buyers in another country and see if there's any interest in the product," Halpern says.
—Joshua Halpern, director of the eCommerce Innovation Lab, U.S. Department of Commerce
Another conduit is FUSE (Featured U.S. Exporters), a subscription-based program that promotes U.S. companies in local languages through directories targeting country-specific buyers, distributors, and agents.
Utilize Self-Service Tools
Small businesses now have access to websites that help them calculate import duties and taxes, join cross-border retailing networks, and uncover useful global market intelligence. SimilarWeb, for instance, is a U.K.-based web measurement firm that analyzes traffic and online marketing strategies of companies around the world. "If you're a small company, chances are you might not be showing up here, but you can look up bigger companies that are selling similar products and gain insights into your targeted global market," Halpern says. "Search their site and see where their traffic's coming from."
Gain Global Consumers Through Creative Internet Outreach
Translation services and major website redos can be pricey for small companies looking to make their websites more accessible to global consumers. "If you're a brand-driven company, no one overseas is finding your brand on a U.S.-based site unless you're paying a lot of money for marketing," Halpern says. "Sometimes an easy solution to that is using an established online marketplace. A lot of companies are resistant to that or don't realize it's that easy."
Experts also urge small businesses to reach global consumers by tapping into Facebook's huge presence across the globe.
"More people use it in emerging markets where costs are a concern" and data plans are not always affordable, notes Bill Edwards, CEO of Edwards Global Services, a consulting firm that advises U.S. franchises on global expansion. "Facebook is big in the U.S., but across the globe it's huge."